Page "Quinquatria" Paragraph 4

At the Quinquatria in 59, Nero invited his mother, Agrippina the Younger, to his villa near Baiae, in an attempt to assassinate her.

His old tutor, Anicetus, whom he had raised to be captain of the fleet of Misenum, had undertaken to construct a vessel which could be sunk, without exciting suspicion.

Agrippina landed at Bauli, between Baiae and Cape Misenum, and completed her journey in a litter.

After the banquet, when night had fallen, she was induced to return to Bauli in the vessel which had been prepared for her destruction.

But the mechanism did not work as planned, and Agrippina succeeded in swimming to shore, from which she proceeded to her villa on the Lucrine lake.

Nero soon after succeeded in his goal, however, with further help from Anicetus.