he was in
Greece, he durst not attend the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries,
at the initiation of which, impious and wicked persons are warned by the
voice of the herald from approaching the rites [604]. Besides the murder
of his mother, he had been guilty of that of his aunt; for, being obliged
to keep her bed in consequence of a complaint in her bowels, he paid her
a visit, and she, being then advanced in years, stroking his downy chin,
in the tenderness of affection, said to him: "May I but live to see the
day when this is shaved for the first time [605], and I shall then die
contented." He turned, however, to those about him, made a jest of it,
saying, that he would have his beard immediately taken off, and ordered
the physicians to give her more violent purgatives. He seized upon her
estate before she had expired; suppressing her will, that he might enjoy
the whole himself.

XXXV. He had, besides Octavia, two other wives: Poppaea Sabina, whose
father had borne the office of quaestor, and who had been married
before to a Roman knight: and, after her, Statilia Messalina,
great-grand-daughter of Taurus [606] who was twice consul, and received
the honour of a triumph. To obtain possession of her, he put to death her
husband, Atticus Vestinus, who was then consul. He soon became disgusted
with Octavia, and ceased from having any intercourse with her; and being
censured by his friends for it, he replied, "She ought to be satisfied
with having the rank and appendages of his wife." Soon afterwards, he
made several attempts, but in vain, to strangle her, and then divorced her
for barrenness. But the people, disapproving of the divorce, and making
severe comments upon it, he also banished her [607]. At last he (365) put
her to death, upon a charge of adultery, so impudent and false, that, when
all those who were put to the torture positively denied their knowledge of
it, he suborned his pedagogue, Anicetus, to affirm, that he had secretly
intrigued with and debauched her. He married Poppaea twelve days after
the divorce of Octavia [608], and entertained a great affection for her;
but, nevertheless, killed her with a kick which he gave her when she was
big with child, and in bad health, only because she found fault with him
for returning late from driving his chariot. He had by her a daughter,
Claudia Augusta, who died an infant. There was no person at all connected
with him who escaped his deadly and unjust