Italy . No vow is taken ; charity is the only bond of Connection.The general continues only three years in office, and his ordersare not despotic. The founder died at Rome on the 26th May,1595, aged 80.
NE1UCIA, or NERIKE, a province of Sweden , about 60miles long, and.48 broad; bounded on the S. by East and WestGothland . The soil is fertile in corn and pasture. The hillsabound with wood, iron, alum, lime-stone, sulphur, &c. Armsand hardware are the chief manufactures. There are 23 lakes, andseveral rivers. Orebro is the capital .
NER1G.LISSAK, the fourth king of Babylonia , was son-in-lawof Nebuchadnezzar, and succeeded Evil-Merodach .
NERll'A, a genus of the vermes testacea class and order.Animal a limax; shell univalve, spiral, gibbous, flatfish at bottom;aperture semi-orbicular or semi-lunar; pillar-lip transversely trun-cate, flattish. About eighty species are enumerated.
NERIIOS, a mountain of Ithaca; whence the island is alsooften called Ncritos; and Ulysses Nerilius dux. "Virg. din.iti. 271.
N ERITUM, an ancient town of Italy, in Calabria , now calledNardo.
of his meanest catamites; and on this occasion a Roman wit ob-served, that the world would have been happy if Nero ’s fatherhad lvad such a wife. His cruelty was now displayed in a stillhigher degree, for he sacriticcd his wife Octavia Poppcra, and thecelebrated waters, Seneca, 1 mean, Petronius , &c, lie had heardof the burning of Troy; to represent that dismal scene, lie causedRome to be set on fire in different places. The conflagration be-came soon universal, and during nine successive days the fire con-tinued. All was desolation: nothing was heard but the lamenta-tions of mothers whose children had perished in the flames, thegroans of the dying, and the continual fall of palaces and buildings.Nero was the only one who enjoyed the general consternation.He placed himself on the top of a high tower, and played on hislyre, while lie sung the destruction of Troy, a dreadful scenewhich his barbarity had realised before his eyes. He attemptedto avert the public odium from his head, by a pretended commi-seration of the miseries of his subjects, and by throwing the blame'of the fire on the Christians; which gave rise to the first dreadtulpersecution wherein St. Peter and Paul suffered. Nero began torepair the streets and the public buildings at his own expence. He' ’ -• 1 .in, railed his rrolden house.
N ERIU M , O ue an der., or Rose Bw ; in botany, a genus dthe monogynia order, and pentandria class of plants , ' " | v
Contort*. Contorted; corolla wit), the tube terminated by a Ucerated crown; follicles two, erect. There arc P 2
beautiful evergreen shrubs or trees, upright and branc. ip.called ni-rium, from vnjof, humid, because the plants gros
Pl I cOixasoer, South Sea Rose, a beautiful shrub, culti-vated in gardens on account of its flowers, which ave ® ‘
pie, and in clusters. The whole plant is poisonous, t 'Jo , v
the bark of the roots. Oleanders are generally pi 1‘?‘ SUDerl J_layers in this country. The plant has a force whu _ ^
ble; lor its juice excites so great and violent 311 Vereived
immediately to put a stop to deglutition; and it i 1 , . -
into the stomach, that part is rendered incapable of t g ‘ |
thing; the pernicious drug exerting its force, and pr g o .upwards and downwards. Antidotes said to be gooc gpoison are vinegar and all acids. , . ,, „r
NERO , Claudios Domitius Cjesar, the sixth 1 ,
Rome , and the last of the family of the Caesars, ' vas . , '
Caius Domitius Ah.enoharbus and Agrippina , the i s bGermanicus . He was adopted by the emperor CUuc tus, x - •
50, and four years after succeeded him. In the ’beginn i b ,reign he assumed the appearance of the. greatest k uu ’?. e p s ’, ■ . 0 p
scension, affability, complaisance, and humanity. i •. ' ,his administration seemed to be the good of his P e ®P ® ’ ‘ .
he was desired to sign his name to a list ol maleiactoi ■ . . .
be executed, he exclaimed, “ Vould to heaven 1 men fl e fl \heed to write!” When the senate had liberally co ^
wisdom of his government, he desired them to keep ^ P ‘ ,
till he deserved them. These apparent virtues, howev : , 1to be. artificial; Nero soon displayed the ieal propensinature. He delivered himself from the sway of ' us ™,. '
at last ordered her to be murdered. Many ot his cour ” ° ‘ .,her unhappy fate; and Nero sacrificed to bis fury or p ‘who obstructed his pleasure or inclination. In the mg 3 ,rally went from his palace to visit the meanest taverns, j
scenes of debauchery which Rome contained, G -.tu-mots toriots he insulted the people in the streets; an< V*'. 1 *’ ‘ t him hisoffer violence to the wife of a Roman senator ne< i j ■ -^ omanlife. Lie also turned actor, and appeared P" b 1 ,, y ( anta „ es 0 f astage. To excel in music, and to conquer the disadvantageshoarse
_... music, and to conquer the disadvantages of a
- disagreeable voice, he moderated his meals, and o ten
passed the day without eating. He next went mto Greece , andpresented himself a candidate at the Olympic Games, tie wasdefeated in wrestling; but the flattery of the spectators adjuugechim the victory, and he returned to Rome with all tne pomp anasplendor of an eastern conqueror, drawn in the chariot ot Augustus ,and attended by a band of musicians, actors, and stage-dancers.These amusements, however, were comparatively innocent; buthis conduct soon became abominable; he disguised himselt in thehabit of a woman, and was publicly married to one ot hts eunuchs.This violence to nature and decency was soon exchanged tor ano-ther; .Nero resumed his sex, and celebrated his nuptials with one
.exquisite, it comumew -,
iicia) lakes, woods, gardens, orchards, and whatever exhibited abeautiful scene, 'l'he entrance of this edifice admitted a large co-lossus of the emperor 120 feet high ; which Pliny says was after-wards destroyed by lightning; the galleries were each a mile long,and the whole was covered with gold. The roofs of the dining-halls represented the firmament, in motion as well as in figure ;and continually turned round night and day, showering down allsorts of perfumes and sweet waters. This grand edifice, accordingto Pliny , extended all round the city. When he went a-fishing,his nets were of gold-and silk. He never appeared twice in thesame garment; and when he took a voyage, there were thousandsof servants to take care of his wardrobe. This continuation of de-bauchery-, extravagance, and cruelty, at last roused the people.Many conspiracies were formed against him ; but they were gene-rally discovered, and the conspirators suffered the severest punish-ments. 'l'he most dangerous one was that of Piso, from which hewas saved by the confession of a slave. .The conspiracy of Gitlbuproved more successful, who, when he learned that his plot wasknown to Nero , declared himself emperor. The unpopularity otNero favoured his cause ; he was acknowledged by all the Romanempire, and the senate condemned the tyrant to be dragged nakedthrough the streets of Rome , whipped to death, and afterwards tobe thrown down from the Tarpeiau rock like the meanest male-factor. This, however, Nero prevented by killing himself, A. D.j 68, in the 32d year of his age, after a reign of 13 years and 8months. Rome was filled with acclamations at it; and the citizens,more strongly to indicate their joy-, wore caps, such as were gene-rally used by slaves who had received their freedom. The nameof Nero has been ever since used emphatically to express a bar-barous ami bloody tyrant.
Nero , in geography, an island in the East Indian Ocean, thesecond of the Banda islands. Lon. 129. 45. E. Lat. 4. 40. N.
NERTCHINSK, an extensive province of Russia, in Irkutsk ,bordering on China . It is mountainous, but abounds with finepasture, and rich mines of gold, silver, and lead.
N EB.TCHIXSK, the capital of the above province, on the borders-
N ERTERIA, a genus of the class and order tetraudria digynia. ■Corolla funnel-shaped, four-cleft, superior; berry two-celled ;seeds solitary. There is one species, an annual of New-Zealand .
NERVA , Cocci-.ius, aiv excellent Roman emperor, who suc-ceeded Domitian, the last of the Twelve Caesars. He was a native of Narnia in Umbria; but his family was originally of Crete. DionCassius says be was born on the 17th of March, in the 18th yearof Tiberius, A.D. 32. Nero in the 12th year of his reign madehim prsetor, and erected a statue for him in the palace on accountof his poems (for lie was one of the best poets of his age), some ofwhich were inscribed to him. He was consul in 71 with Vespa-sian, and in 90 with Domitian . Authors uniformly celebrate himas a prince of a most mild and humane temper, or great modera-tion and generosity, who looked on his office as emperor, not as if
it was for his own advantage, but for that of his people; and whilst
he