(Domitianus) emperor, son of Caius Domitianus Anobarbus, and of Agrippina, who married Claudius, whom Nero succeeded, A.D. 54, aged 18. He protested he would follow the example of Augustus, and at first he did; and as they once presented him the sentence of a person condemned to death, "I wish," said he, "that I could not write." But after five years reign he fell into the most extravagant crimes that ever entered the imagination of man. He would appear upon the stage in woman's dress. He committed sodomy with the greatest debauchees, and particularly Sporus, whom he kept in quality of his wife, and caused to be dressed like a woman; which gave occasion to that pleasant saying, "That the world had been happy if his father Domitianus had had such a wife." He caused his mother to be murdered, his wife to be put to death, and his master Seneca to lose his life, &c. and wished that mankind had but one head, that he might have the pleasure of cutting it off. To have the glory of rebuilding Rome, he set it on fire, laid the blame upon the Christians, and began the first persecution against them. them. Being exhausted by his immense profusion, and become the common detestation of mankind, his armies in Gaul declared against him, and Galba revolted in Spain. This cast him into despair, and in a rage he cried out, "Have I neither friend nor enemy?" So he was forced to turn his own executioner, A.D. 68, in the 32nd year of his age and 14th of his reign.