The Works of Tacitus

tr. by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb

[1864-1877]


Tacitus: Annals Book 11 [30]

30. On this, Calpurnia (that was the woman’s name), as soon as she was allowed
a private interview, threw herself at the emperor’s knees, crying out that Messalina
was married to Silius. At the same time she asked Cleopatra, who was standing
near and waiting for the question, whether she knew it. Cleopatra nodding assent,
she begged that Narcissus might be summoned. Narcissus entreated pardon for
the past, for having concealed the scandal while confined to a Vettius or a
Plautius. Even now, he said, he would not make charges of adultery, and seem
to be asking back the palace, the slaves, and the other belongings of imperial
rank. These Silius might enjoy; only, he must give back the wife and annul the
act of marriage. “Do you know,” he said “of your divorce? The people, the army,
the Senate saw the marriage of Silius. Act at once, or the new husband is master
of Rome.”

31. Claudius then summoned all his most powerful friends. First he questioned
Turranius, superintendent of the corn market; next, Lusius Geta, who commanded
the praetorians. When they confessed the truth, the whole company clamoured
in concert that he must go to the camp, must assure himself of the praetorian
cohorts, must think of safety before he thought of vengeance. It is quite certain
that Claudius was so overwhelmed by terror that he repeatedly asked whether
he was indeed in possession of the empire, whether Silius was still a subject.
Messalina meanwhile, more wildly profligate than ever, was celebrating in mid-autumn
a representation of the vintage in her new home. The presses were being trodden;
the vats were overflowing; women girt with skins were dancing, as Bacchanals
dance in their worship or their frenzy. Messalina with flowing hair shook the
thyrsus, and Silius at her side, crowned with ivy and wearing the buskin, moved
his head to some lascivious chorus. It is said that one Vettius Valens climbed
a very lofty tree in sport, and when they asked him what he saw, replied, “A
terrible storm from Ostia.” Possibly such appearance had begun; perhaps, a word
dropped by chance became a prophecy.

32. Meanwhile no mere rumour but messengers from all parts brought the news
that everything was known to Claudius, and that he was coming, bent on vengeance.
Messalina upon this went to the gardens of Lucullus; Silius, to conceal his
fear, to his business in the forum. The other guests were flying in all directions
when the centurions appeared and put every one in irons where they found them,
either in the public streets or in hiding. Messalina, though her peril took
away all power of thought, promptly resolved to meet and face her husband, a
course in which she had often found safety; while she bade Britannicus and Octavia
hasten to embrace their father. She besought Vibidia, the eldest of the Vestal
Virgins, to demand audience of the supreme pontiff and to beg for mercy. Meanwhile,
with only three companions, so lonely did she find herself in a moment, she
traversed the whole length of the city, and, mounting on a cart used to remove
garden refuse, proceeded along the road to Ostia; not pitied, so overpoweringly
hideous were her crimes, by a single person.

33. There was equal alarm on the emperor’s side. They put but little trust
in Geta, who commanded the praetorians, a man swayed with good case to good
or evil. Narcissus in concert with others who dreaded the same fate, declared
that the only hope of safety for the emperor lay in his transferring for that
one day the command of the soldiers to one of the freedmen, and he offered to
undertake it himself. And that Claudius might not be induced by Lucius Vitellius
and Largus Caecina to repent, while he was riding into Rome, he asked and took
a seat in the emperor’s carriage.

34. It was currently reported in after times that while the emperor broke
into contradictory exclamations, now inveighing against the infamies of his
wife, and now, returning in thought to the remembrance of his love and of his
infant children, Vitellius said nothing but, “What audacity! what wickedness!”
Narcissus indeed kept pressing him to clear up his ambiguities and let the truth
be known, but still he could not prevail upon him to utter anything that was
not vague and susceptible of any meaning which might be put on it, or upon Largus
Caecina, to do anything but follow his example. And now Messalina had presented
herself, and was insisting that the emperor should listen to the mother of Octavia
and Britannicus, when the accuser roared out at her the story of Silius and
her marriage. At the same moment, to draw Caesar’s eyes away from her, he handed
him some papers which detailed her debaucheries. Soon afterwards, as he was
entering Rome, his children by Messalina were to have shown themselves, had
not Narcissus ordered their removal. Vibidia he could not repel, when, with
a vehemently indignant appeal, she demanded that a wife should not be given
up to death without a hearing. So Narcissus replied that the emperor would hear
her, and that she should have an opportunity of disproving the charge. Meanwhile
the holy virgin was to go and discharge her sacred duties.

35. All throughout, Claudius preserved a strange silence; Vitellius seemed
unconscious. Everything was under the freedman’s control. By his order, the
paramour’s house was thrown open and the emperor conducted thither. First, on
the threshold, he pointed out the statue of Silius’s father, which a decree
of the Senate had directed to be destroyed; next, how the heirlooms of the Neros
and the Drusi had been degraded into the price of infamy. Then he led the emperor,
furious and bursting out in menace, into the camp, where the soldiers were purposely
assembled. Claudius spoke to them a few words at the dictation of Narcissus.
Shame indeed checked the utterance even of a righteous anger. Instantly there
came a shout from the cohorts, demanding the names of the culprits and their
punishment. Brought before the tribunal, Silius sought neither defence nor delay,
but begged that his death might be hastened. A like courage made several Roman
knights of the first rank desirous of a speedy doom. Titius Proculus, who had
been appointed to watch Messalina and was now offering his evidence, Vettius
Valens, who confessed his guilt, together with Pompeius Urbicus and Saufellus
Trogus from among her accomplices, were ordered to execution. Decius Calpurnianus
too, commander of the watch, Sulpicius Rufus, who had the charge of the Games,
and Juncus Virgilianus, a senator, were similarly punished.

36. Mnester alone occasioned a pause. Rending off his clothes, he insisted
on Claudius looking at the scars of his stripes and remembering his words when
he surrendered himself, without reserve, to Messalina’s bidding. The guilt of
others had been the result of presents or of large promises; his, of necessity.
He must have been the first victim had Silius obtained empire. Caesar was touched
by his appeal and inclined to mercy, but his freedmen prevailed on him not to
let any indulgence be shown to a player when so many illustrious citizens had
fallen. “It mattered not whether he had sinned so greatly from choice or compulsion.”
Even the defence of Traulus Montanus, a Roman knight, was not admitted. A young
man of pure life, yet of singular beauty, he had been summoned and dismissed
within the space of one night by Messalina, who was equally capricious in her
passions and dislikes. In the cases of Suilius Caesoninus and Plautius Lateranus,
the extreme penalty was remitted. The latter was saved by the distinguished
services of his uncle; the former by his very vices, having amid that abominable
throng submitted to the worst degradation.

37. Messalina meanwhile, in the gardens of Lucullus, was struggling for life,
and writing letters of entreaty, as she alternated between hope arid fury. In
her extremity, it was her pride alone which forsook her. Had not Narcissus hurried
on her death, ruin would have recoiled on her accuser. Claudius had returned
home to an early banquet; then, in softened mood, when the wine had warmed him,
he bade some one go and tell the “poor creature” (this is the word which they
say he used) to come the morrow and plead her cause. Hearing this, seeing too
that his wrath was subsiding and his passion returning, and fearing, in the
event of delay, the effect of approaching night and conjugal recollections,
Narcissus rushed out, and ordered the centurions and the tribunes, who were
on guard, to accomplish the deed of blood. Such, he said, was the emperor’s
bidding. Evodus, one of the freedmen, was appointed to watch and complete the
affair. Hurrying on before with all speed to the gardens, he found Messalina
stretched upon the ground, while by her side sat Lepida, her mother, who, though
estranged from her daughter in prosperity, was now melted to pity by her inevitable
doom, and urged her not to wait for the executioner. “Life,” she said, “was
over; all that could be looked for was honour in death.” But in that heart,
utterly corrupted by profligacy, nothing noble remained. She still prolonged
her tears and idle complaints, till the gates were forced open by the rush of
the new comers, and there stood at her side the tribune, sternly silent, and
the freedman, overwhelming her with the copious insults of a servile tongue.

38. Then for the first time she understood her fate and put her hand to a
dagger. In her terror she was applying it ineffectually to her throat and breast,
when a blow from the tribune drove it through her. Her body was given up to
her mother. Claudius was still at the banquet when they told him that Messalina
was dead, without mentioning whether it was by her own or another’s hand. Nor
did he ask the question, but called for the cup and finished his repast as usual.
During the days which followed he showed no sign of hatred or joy or anger or
sadness, in a word, of any human emotion, either when he looked on her triumphant
accusers or on her weeping children. The Senate assisted his forgetfulness by
decreeing that her name and her statues should be removed from all places, public
or private. To Narcissus were voted the decorations of the quaestorship, a mere
trifle to the pride of one who rose in the height of his power above Pallas
and Callistus.


Next: Book 12 [1]