son of Domitius Ahenobarbus, and Agrippina, the daughter of Germanicus, and was born at Antium, in Latium, the 13th December, A.D.37, nine months after the death of Tiberius. After the death of Domitius, and of a second husband, Crispus Passienus, Agrippina married her uncle, the emperor Claudius, who gave his daughter Octavia in marriage to her son Lucius Domitius, and subsequently adopted him with the formal sanction of a Lex Curiata. On that occasion he received the names of Nero Claudius Cæsar. In the following year he assumed the virile robe, was designated consul, and declared prince of the Roman youth. He was carefully in structed by Seneca, and is said to have made great progress in the Greek language. In A.D. 54 Claudius was poisoned by his abandoned wife, whose intrigues procured the elevation of her son to the imperial throne, to the prejudice of the young Britannicus, the deceased emperor's son. It was her own ambition which she sought to gratify by this measure, for she had trained her son in perfect submission to her will. His own principles of government, as prompted by Seneca and his governor Burrhus, appeared to be highly liberal and laudable; and the first five years of his reign were marked by justice and clemency. One of his earliest irregularities was an attachment to Acte, a freedwoman of a debauched character, who obtained a great ascendency over him, while he displayed nothing but aversion to his wife Octavia. His mother, who was at first violently exasperated by this misconduct, finding that her angry reproaches were likely only to render herself odious to her son, was obliged to connive at it. As a stroke of refined policy to keep her son in dependence, she affected to countenance the claims of Britannicus to the sovereignty; but this had no other effect than to precipitate the fate of that innocent prince, whom, with the aid of the infamous Locusta, he caused to be poisoned, as he sat at table with the emperor, his wife, and mother. Nero, then only eighteen, was so well practised in dissimulation, that, without any change of countenance, he affected to consider it as only one of the epileptic fits to which the prince had been subject, and continued the repast. The levity and turbulence of Nero's disposition were displayed in an amusement which about this time he followed, to the great annoyance of the capital. This was rambling disguised in the streets by night, with a band of disorderly companions, robbing and abusing all who had the mis

fortune to fall in his way, and carrying off all the pillage he could lay hands upon, which he sold by public auction in his palace on the next day. The affairs of the empire were, however, well managed during the first years of Nero's reign, and many salutary regulations took place both at home and abroad. The senate was permitted to act freely on several occasions, and the political counsellors of the emperor were able and experienced. The Roman arms were successful in the East under the command of Corbulo, who entirely subdued Armenia, the crown of which was conferred upon Tigranes. In the fifth year of Nero's reign his attachment for Poppæa began, the consequences of which plunged him into an abyss of crime. His first deed of atrocity, committed at the instigation of his new mistress, was the murder of his own mother. Every step of his after life was marked by folly, vice, or cruelty. Chariot-racing, theatrical or musical performances, and the public recitation of wretched poetry, were amongst the least reprehensible of his occupations. The death of Burrhus, and the declining influence of Seneca, prepared the way for the tyranny and cruelty which has characterised the reign of this imperial monster. The long meditated step of repudiating the virtuous Octavia took place in A.D. 62. At the instigation of Poppaa an infamous accusation of adultery was brought against her, and she was relegated into Campania. The lively interest taken in her fate by the Roman people caused her to be further banished to the isle of Pandataria, where she was soon after put to death. Pallas, the allpowerful freedman of Claudius, was poisoned about the same time. The terrible conflagration of Rome, A.D. 64, is by Suetonius and Dio positively charged upon the emperor. Tacitus, however, expresses a doubt concerning its origin; and, indeed, the probability seems to be that it was accidental. This fire, which was not extinguished till the sixth day, laid the greater part of the city in ashes. The suspicion of Nero's being its author still maintained its ground in the minds of the people. One method which he took to divert it has perhaps excited greater detestation of his memory than all his other enormities. He caused the Christians, who at that time began to be known as a new religious sect in Rome, to be accused as the incendiaries; and taking their guilt for granted, be apprehended all of them whom he could discover in the city, and put them to death with the most

horrible torments. Some were clad in the skins of wild beasts and baited by dogs, others were enveloped in combustibles, and set on fire to serve as torches in Nero's gardens, whilst he entertained the populace with a horse-race. In A.D. 65 there was a conspiracy against the life of Nero, which embraced many of the noblest persons in Rome. The plan was to kill the tyrant by surprise in the Circus, and to elevate to the throne C. Piso, a man of illustrious descent. Senators, knights, and even officers of the Prætorian guard, and one of the præfects, were concerned in the plot, and several females were made privy to it. The secret was kept with great fidelity, and it was only by accident that it was discovered the day before the intended execution. Several persons were immediately apprehended, whose confessions, under torture, aug. mented the number of culprits. The poet Lucan's want of constancy has been mentioned in his life, but he atoned for it by an heroic death. Another distinguished victim was Seneca, though his knowledge of the conspiracy was very doubtful. In the same year Poppea died, in consequence of a kick received, in a state of pregnancy, from her brutal husband in a fit of passion. He is thought to have loved her to the last, as well as he was capable of loving anything. He caused her body to be embalmed in the eastern manner, pronounced her funeral oration in person, and burnt more perfumes at her obsequies than the annual produce of Arabia. A bloody list of executions, in which the victims were the best and greatest men of Rome, distinguishes the annals of the subsequent years. The accusation and death of Thrasea Pætus, a Roman of the true republican stamp, whose free sentiments had long rendered him obnoxious, is particularly described by the pen of Tacitus. Resolving to make a tour of Greece, Nero embarked for that country in A.D. 67, and successively exhibited himself in all the celebrated games, contending for the different prizes, and obtaining everywhere easy victories over his complaisant rivals. It is said that the crowns awarded to him amounted to eighteen hundred. On his return to Italy he made triumphal entries into several of the towns, and especially into Naples and Rome, where he displayed the most absurd and childish vanity. Whilst he continued plunged in infamous pleasures and trifling amusements, he was roused by two pieces of intelligence, which must have convinced

him that the time was come when his detestable tyranny could no longer be endured; these were the revolt of Vindex in Gaul, and of Galba in Spain. The latter particularly alarmed him. The revolt of Vindex was quelled by Virginius Rufus, with the death of that chief; but Galba openly declared his purpose of freeing the Roman empire from a tyrant, and was joined by many of the commanders of provinces. At length even the Prætorian cohorts were detached from their allegiance by the persuasions of their præfect, and proclaimed Galba emperor. Nero, who from the first had shown the most cowardly irresolution, now fled from Rome, and was declared a public enemy by the senate, and condemned to death. On hearing, in his place of concealment, the approach of the horsemen sent to apprehend him, he pierced his throat with a poniard. While his hand was tremblingly performing its office, it was aided by Epaphroditus, his secretary; and soon after the entry of the centurion, he expired, the 9th or 11th June, A.D. 68, in the thirty-first year of his age, and fourteenth of his reign. Nero was a lover of the fine arts, and appears to have possessed more taste than many of the emperors, who only resembled him in their profuse expenditure. The Apollo Belvedere is supposed by Thiersch (Epochen der bildenden Kunst unter den Griechen, p. 312,) and some other writers, to have been made for this emperor.

NERVA, (Marcus Cocceius,) the thirteenth Roman emperor, was born A.D. 27, at Narnia, in Umbria. He was designated prætor, when Nero, on what account does not appear, conferred upon him triumphal honours. He was consul for the first time in A.D. 71 with the emperor Vespasian, and afterwards in A.D. 90 with Domitian. The latter, however, is said by Philostratus to have relegated Nerva to Tarentum, on account of a suspicious correspondence which he held with the famous philosopher Apollonius Tyaneus. On the assassination of Domitian on the 18th of September, A.D. 96, Nerva succeeded to the sovereign power. His mild and equitable administration is acknowledged by all ancient writers, and formed a striking contrast to the sanguinary rule of his predecessor. He evinced, however, a want of firmness, in giving up, to the mutinous Prætorians, the authors of the death of Domitian, Petronius Secundus and Parthenius, who had been, in fact, the instruments of his own eleva

tion. This mortifying incident, however, was the cause of a great public benefit, for it produced the adoption of Trajan. Made sensible of the necessity of a firm support to his throne, Nerva passed by his own kindred, and selected for his son and successor the man in all the empire best qualified for a trust of such infinite importance. He soon after sunk under the infirmities of age, in January 98, after a reign of something more than sixteen months. His public virtues have deservedly placed him in the series of those good princes who gave a golden age to the empire; and he has merited the expressive encomium of Tacitus, of being the first who allied "two things before incompatible, monarchy and liberty." (Vita Agric.)

NESBIT, or NISBET, (Alexander,) a Scotch antiquary, born at Edinburgh in 1672. His work on Heraldry was published in 1722-42, 2 vols, fol. Edinb. He also wrote, Heraldic Essay on additional figures and marks of Cadency; and, An Essay on the ancient and modern Use of Armories. He left in MS. A Vindication of Scottish Antiquities, now in the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh. He died in 1725.

NESSE, (Christopher,) a learned nonconformist divine, was born at North Cowes, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, in 1621, and educated at St. John's college, Cambridge. In 1650 he was presented to the living of Cottingham, near Hull. He appears also to have been for some years a lecturer at Leeds. In 1662 he was ejected for nonconformity, and after preaching occasionally in Yorkshire, for which he incurred the penalties of the law, he removed to London in 1675, and there preached privately for thirty years, to a congregation in Salisbury-court, Fleet-street. He died in 1705, and was interred in the Dissenters' burying-ground, Bunhill-fields. He wrote, The Christian's Walk and Work on Earth; The Christian's Crown and Glory; Church History, from Adam; Antidote against Popery; and, A Divine Legacy. But the work for which he is best known, is his History and Mystery of the Old and New Testament, logically discussed, and theologically improved, 1690, 4 vols, folio. To this Matthew Henry, in compiling his Exposition, is thought to owe considerable obligations.

NESTOR, a monk of the Subterranean Monastery at Kieff, and justly surnamed "the father of Russian history," was born in 1056. The place of his birth is

not known, although it is pretty certain that he was a native of Russia. It is most probable that his death took place in 1111. He has left a valuable memorial of his diligence of research in the Russian Lätopisse, or Chronicle; many copies of which have descended to our own time, illustrated with chronological notes from the year 852, and extending from the oldest times to the period of his death. The best manuscripts of this chronicle, according to Karamsin, were the Paper-Codices of the 14th and 15th centuries. They were both burnt at Moscow in 1812. The MS. of the Susdalishian Monk Lawrentj (Laurentius) upon parchment, dating from the 14th century, is in the Imperial Public Library. The earliest printed copies were-1. That of Radziwill, or Königsberg, Petersburg, 1767, which, however, is extremely incorrect. From this copy a French translation was published, under the title, La Chronique de Nestor, traduite en Français, d'après l'Edition Imperiale de St. Petersburg, MS. de Königsberg, 2 vols, 8vo, Paris. 2. That of Nikon, in 8 vols, St. Petersburg, 1767, 1792. And 3. That of the Sophia Library, Petersburg, 1796. But the most valuable edition of Nestor's Chronicle is that of Schlözer, the labour of forty years. In it he has thrown light upon the obscure passages, corrected the faults, and recovered parts of it which had been lost in the lapse of time, by carefully comparing the different MSS. with each other, and by referring constantly to the Byzantine annalists, who were used by Nestor as a fountain-head. Schlözer's labours, which concluded with the reign of Jaropolk, appeared in the German language at Göttingen, 1802-1809, in 5 vols. Jasükoff translated this work into Russian, and published it under the title of Nestor, or the Russian Lätopisse, in the old Sclavonic Dialect, collated, translated, and illustrated, by A. L. Schlözer, 3 vols, 1809-1819, Petersburg. Müller published a German translation of the Chronicle in 1732. Nestor understood perfectly the Greek language, and read the Byzantine historians, from whom he translated many passages, and inserted them in his Chronicle. The Lätopisse of Nestor was continued after his death by various hands.

NESTOR, (Dionysius,) one of the contributors to the restoration of classical learning, was a native of Novara, of the Minorite order, and flourished in the fifteenth century. He dedicated his vocabulary of the Latin tongue in a copy

of verses addressed to the duke Ludovico Sforza, which are printed by Mr. Roscoe in the Appendix, Ño. XX. to his Life of Leo X. This work was first printed under the title of Onomasticon, at Milan, in 1483, fol., an edition of great rarity; but such was its importance to the study of the Latin language in that age, that it was reprinted four times within a short period-in 1488, 1496, 1502, and 1507. It was speedily superseded by the Dictionary of Calepinus.

NESTORIUS, the founder of an early sect of Christians, was born in the fifth century at Germanica, in Syria, and became patriarch of Constantinople in 428, under the reign of Theodosius II. He showed himself very zealous against the Arians and other sectarians; but when Anastasius began to preach that there were two persons in Jesus Christ, and that the Word, or Divinity, had not be cone man, but had descended upon the man Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary, and that the two natures became morally united as it were, but not hypostatically joined into one person; and that when Jesus died it was the human person and not the divinity that suffered; Nestorius supported the doctrine, and thus was the origin of the Nestorian schism. He refused to allow to the Virgin Mary the title of Theotokos, or mother of God, but allowed her that of Christotokos, or mother of Christ. The controversy occasioned great disturbances in Constantinople. Cyril, bishop of Alexandria, anathematized Nestorius, who in his turn anathematized Cyril, whom he accused of degrading the Divine nature, and making it subject to the infirmities of the human nature. The emperor Theodosius convoked a general council at Ephesus to decide upon the question, A.D. 431, which condemned the doctrine of Nestorius, and deposed him. Theodosius banished him to the deserts of Thebais in Egypt, where he died about 439. His partisans, however, spread over the East, and have continued to this day to form a separate church, which is rather numerous, especially in Mesopotamia, where their patriarch resides at Diarbekr. Eutyches, in his zeal to oppose the Nestorians, fell into the opposite extreme of saying that there was only one nature in Christ, namely, the divine nature, by which the human nature had become absorbed.

NETSCHER, (Gaspar,) one of the best Dutch painters of pictures on a small scale, was born, according to D'Argenville, at Prague, in 1636; but Descamps,

on the authority of Houbraken, states his native place to have been Heidelberg, and that he was born in 1639. His father dying during the war, his mother was left in deplorable circumstances, with three children, and obliged to quit Heidelberg, when she retired to a fortified town, to avoid, if possible, the calamities of war; but seeing two of her children die of hunger in her arms, she determined to exert all her strength to escape with her only son Gaspar, then about two years of age. She at length arrived at Arnheim, where a wealthy physician, named Tullekens, conceiving a fondness for Gaspar, adopted him as his son, and had him educated, with a view of establishing him in his own profession. Being, however, at last convinced that the genius of the lad was more strongly inclined to painting, he placed him with one Köter, a painter of fowls and dead game; and afterwards had him instructed by Gerard Terburgh, at Deventer. Disheartened by the smallness of his gains, Netscher resolved to visit Italy; and with this intention he embarked at Amsterdam; but the vessel having put into Bourdeaux, he married there, laid aside all thoughts of proceeding further, and established himself at the Hague. Notwithstanding his inclination to paint history, he resolved to apply himself to portraits, which required less labour, and were more lucrative. His manner of designing was correct, but he always retained his national taste; though frequently the heads of his portraits have a graceful air and expression, more especially those of his female figures. His colouring is the genuine tint of nature, his localities are true, and he had a peculiar power in representing white satin, silks, linen, and Turkey carpets, so as to give them an uncommon beauty and lustre. He perfectly understood the principles of chiaro-scuro; his outline is generally correct, his draperies are thrown into large and elegant folds, and his touch is so inexpressibly delicate as to be scarce perceptible. Sir William Temple invited him to England, and introduced him to Charles II., with the intention of advancing his fortune; but the artist's love of liberty was stronger than his ambition, and he returned to the Hague. In the royal collection at Paris there are two pictures by Netscher, charmingly painted one is a musician instructing a lady to play on the bass viol; the other is a lute-player performing on that instrument. He also painted the portraits of

lord Berkeley and his lady, which bear the date 1663. He died in 1684.

NETSCHER, (Theodore,) eldest son and pupil of the preceding, was born at Bourdeaux in 1661, and at the age of eighteen he commenced painter. Being induced by count d'Avaux to accompany him to Paris, his merit procured him many friends in that city. and considerable encouragement. He took agreeable likenesses, and on that account was appointed to paint the portraits of the principal persons about the court, particularly the ladies. He continued in that city for twenty years. In 1715 he visited London, as paymaster to the Dutch forces, and was introduced at court by Sir Matthew Dekker. He had the honour of being graciously received, and acquired incredible sums of money by his paintings while he continued in England, a period of six years. On his return to the Hague, having lost a considerable sum on account of his employment, he retired in disgust to Hulst, and died there in 1732.

NETSCHER, (Constantine,) a painter, younger brother of the preceding, was born at the Hague in 1670, and was instructed by his father, whom he had the misfortune to lose when he was only fourteen years of age. He improved himself, however, by copying several of the portraits painted by his father, which he found to be the finest models of neatness of touch and delicacy of colouring. The exactness of the copies he made so effectually formed his hand, and his knowledge was so much improved by an attentive study after nature, that he very soon distinguished himself as an artist. Constantine painted portraits of the same size as Gaspar's, and gave them a striking resemblance. The duke of Portland, whose portrait he painted, earnestly solicited him to accompany him to England; but every tempt ing offer proved ineffectual, as he was very infirm, and often interrupted in his work by attacks of the gravel, which at last carried him off, in 1722, in the fiftysecond year of his age. He certainly did not arrive at the excellence of his father, though he is deservedly esteemed as a fine painter of portraits. One of his most capital performances is a family picture of the baron Suesso, consisting of seven or eight figures, in which a dog is introduced that was painted by Vander Does. In 1699 he became a member of the Society of Painters at the Hague, of which he was subsequently named director. NETTELBLADT, (Christian, baron

von,) a learned lawyer, born at Stockholm in 1696. He studied in the German universities, and obtained the professorship of law in the Academy of Gripswald. In 1743 he was nominated assessor in the imperial court of Wetzlar, which office he filled with great reputation till his death, in 1776. He published, Die Schwedische Bibliothec; Memoria Virorum in Suecia eruditissimorum rediviva; and, Themis Romano-Suecica.

NETTELBLADT, (Daniel,) a learned lawyer, was born at Rostock in 1719, and educated at the university there, and at Marburg, and at Halle, under Christian Wolff. In 1746 he was made professor of the law of nature at Halle, whither his lectures attracted pupils from all parts of Germany. He was nominated a member of the privy council in 1765, and ten years after director of the university. He died in 1791. His principal works are, Systema elementare universæ Jurispru dentiæ naturalis, 8vo; and, Initia Historiæ litterariæ juridicæ universalis, 8vo. -HENRY NETTELBLADT, his brother, who was a counsellor, published some historical treatises relating to the duchy of Mecklenburg, &c. He died in 1761.

NETTER, (Thomas,) a learned Eng lish Carmelite monk in the fourteenth century, was surnamed Waldensis, most probably from the place of his birth, which was probably Saffron-Walden, in Essex. He embraced the religious life in a monastery at London, and was afterwards sent to the university of Oxford, where he became professor of philosophy and divinity. In the faculty last mentioned he was admitted to the degree of doctor. He zealously opposed the opinions of Wickliff, both in the schools and in the pulpit; was elected provincial of his order; and by the command of Henry IV. attended the council of Pisa in 1409. By Henry V. he was appointed privy counsellor, and confessor, and sent to the council of Constance, where he distinguished himself by his speeches against the Wickliffites and Hussites. He likewise possessed the favour of Henry VI. and went to France with the intention of being present at his coronation at Paris; but he died on his journey at Rouen in 1430. He was the author of, Commentaries on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans, and the first Epistle of St. Peter; Doctrinale Antiquitatum Fidei Ecclesiæ Catholicæ, published, after his death, in 1571, in 3 vols, fol.; In Aristotelis Libros de Cœlo