to Cn.
Domitius Ahenobardus, grandson of Octavia, and whose issue was the future
emperor Nero. The niece of Claudius occupied the second place in the
imperial household, and it became her aim to poison the mind of her uncle
against the woman she detested, and who returned her hatred. She now
leagued with the freedmen of the palace to destroy her rival. An
opportunity to gratify her vengeance soon occurred. Messalina, according
to Tacitus, was guilty of the inconceivable madness of marrying Silanus,
one of her paramours, while her husband lived, and that husband an
emperor, which story can not be believed without also supposing that
Claudius was a perfect idiot. Such a defiance of law, of religion, and of
the feelings of mankind, to say nothing of its folly, is not to be
supposed. Yet such was the scandal, and it filled the imperial household
with consternation. Callistus, Pallas, and Narcissus--the favorites who
ruled Claudius--united with Agrippina to secure her ruin. The emperor, then
absent in Ostia, was informed of the shamelessness of his wife. It was
difficult for him to believe such a fact, but it was attested by the
trusted members of his household. His fears were excited, as well as his
indignation, and he hastened to Rome for vengeance and punishment.
Messalina had retired to her magnificent gardens on the Pineian, which had
once belonged to Lucullus, the price of the blood of the murdered
Asiaticus; but, on the approach of the emperor, of which she was informed,
she advanced boldly to confront him, with every appearance of misery and
distress, with her children Britannicus and Octavia. Claudius vacillated,
and Messalina retired to her gardens, hoping to convince her husband of
her innocence on the interview which he promised the following day. But
Narcissus, knowing her influence, caused her to be assassinated, and the
emperor drowned his grief, or affection, or anger, in wine and music, and
seemingly forgot her. That Messalina was a wicked and abandoned woman is
most probable; that she was as bad as history represents her, may be
doubted, especially when we remember she was calumniated by a rival, who
succeeded in taking her place as wife. It is easier to believe she was the
victim of Agrippina and the freedmen, who feared as well as hated her,
than to accept the authority of Tacitus and Juvenal. On the death of
Messalina, Agrippina married her uncle, and the Senate sanctioned the
union, which was incest by t