Episode 13 Evidence Chart

Claudius' 4th marriage

Annales 12.1-12.9 Tacitus

 
[12.1] THE destruction of Messalina shook the imperial house; for a strife arose among the
freedmen, who should choose a wife for Claudius, impatient as he was of a single life and
submissive to the rule of wives. The ladies were fired with no less jealousy. Each insisted on
her rank, beauty, and fortune, and pointed to her claims to such a marriage. But the keenest
competition was between Lollia Paulina, the daughter of Marcus Lollius, an ex-consul, and
Julia Agrippina, the daughter of Germanicus. Callistus favoured the first, Pallas the second.
Aelia Paetina however, of the family of the Tuberones, had the support of Narcissus. The
emperor, who inclined now one way, now another, as he listened to this or that adviser,
summoned the disputants to a conference and bade them express their opinions and give their
reasons.
 
[12.2] Narcissus dwelt on the marriage of years gone by, on the tie of offspring, for Paetina
was the mother of Antonia, and on the advantage of excluding a new element from his
household, by the return of a wife to whom he was accustomed, and who would assuredly not
look with a stepmother's animosity on Britannicus and Octavia, who were next in her affections
to her own children. Callistus argued that she was compromised by her long separation, and
that were she to be taken back, she would be supercilious on the strength of it. It would be far
better to introduce Lollia, for, as she had no children of her own, she would be free from
jealousy, and would take the place of a mother towards her stepchildren. Pallas again selected
Agrippina for special commendation because she would bring with her Germanicus's grandson,
who was thoroughly worthy of imperial rank, the scion of a noble house and a link to unite the
descendants of the Claudian family. He hoped that a woman who was the mother of many
children and still in the freshness of youth, would not carry off the grandeur of the Caesars to
some other house.
 
[12.3] This advice prevailed, backed up as it was by Agrippina's charms. On the pretext of her
relationship, she paid frequent visits to her uncle, and so won his heart, that she was preferred
to the others, and, though not yet his wife, already possessed a wife's power. For as soon as
she was sure of her marriage, she began to aim at greater things, and planned an alliance
between Domitius, her son by Cneius Aenobarbus, and Octavia, the emperor's daughter. This
could not be accomplished without a crime, for the emperor had betrothed Octavia to Lucius
Silanus, a young man otherwise famous, whom he had brought forward as a candidate for
popular favour by the honour of triumphal distinctions and by a magnificent gladiatorial show.
But no difficulty seemed to be presented by the temper of a sovereign who had neither
partialities nor dislikes, but such as were suggested and dictated to him.
 
[12.4] Vitellius accordingly, who used the name of censor to screen a slave's trickeries, and
looked forward to new despotisms, already impending, associated himself in Agrippina's plans,
with a view to her favour, and began to bring charges against Silanus, whose sister, Junia
Calvina, a handsome and lively girl, had shortly before become his daughter-in-law. Here was a
starting point for an accuser. Vitellius put an infamous construction on the somewhat incautious
though not criminal love between the brother and sister. The emperor listened, for his affection
for his daughter inclined him the more to admit suspicions against his son-in-law. Silanus
meanwhile, who knew nothing of the plot, and happened that year to be praetor, was suddenly
expelled from the Senate by an edict of Vitellius, though the roll of Senators had been recently
reviewed and the lustrum closed. Claudius at the same time broke off the connection; Silanus
was forced to resign his office, and the one remaining day of his praetorship was conferred on
Eprius Marcellus.
 
[12.5] In the year of the consulship of Caius Pompeius and Quintus Veranius, the marriage
arranged between Claudius and Agrippina was confirmed both by popular rumour and by their
own illicit love. Still, they did not yet dare to celebrate the nuptials in due form, for there was no
precedent for the introduction of a niece into an uncle's house. It was positively incest, and if
disregarded, it would, people feared, issue in calamity to the State. These scruples ceased not
till Vitellius undertook the management of the matter in his own way. He asked the emperor
whether he would yield to the recommendations of the people and to the authority of the Senate.
When Claudius replied that he was one among the citizens and could not resist their unanimous
voice, Vitellius requested him to wait in the palace, while he himself went to the Senate.
Protesting that the supreme interest of the commonwealth was at stake, he begged to be allowed
to speak first, and then began to urge that the very burdensome labours of the emperor in a
world-wide administration, required assistance, so that, free from domestic cares, he might
consult the public welfare. How again could there be a more virtuous relief for the mind of an
imperial censor than the taking of a wife to share his prosperity and his troubles, to whom he
might intrust his inmost thoughts and the care of his young children, unused as he was to
luxury and pleasure, and wont from his earliest youth to obey the laws.
 
[12.6] Vitellius, having first put forward these arguments in a conciliatory speech, and met with
decided acquiescence from the Senate, began afresh to point out, that, as they all recommended
the emperor's marriage, they ought to select a lady conspicuous for noble rank and purity,
herself too the mother of children. "It cannot," he said, "be long a question that Agrippina
stands first in nobility of birth. She has given proof too that she is not barren, and she has
suitable moral qualities. It is, again, a singular advantage to us, due to divine providence, for a
widow to be united to an emperor who has limited himself to his own lawful wives. We have
heard from our fathers, we have ourselves seen that married women were seized at the caprice
of the Caesars. This is quite alien to the propriety of our day. Rather let a precedent be now set
for the taking of a wife by an emperor. But, it will be said, marriage with a brother's daughter is
with us a novelty. True; but it is common in other countries, and there is no law to forbid it.
Marriages of cousins were long unknown, but after a time they became frequent. Custom adapts
itself to expediency, and this novelty will hereafter take its place among recognized usages."
 
[12.7] There were some who rushed out of the Senate passionately protesting that if the
emperor hesitated, they would use violence. A promiscuous throng assembled, and kept
exclaiming that the same too was the prayer of the Roman people. Claudius without further
delay presented himself in the forum to their congratulations; then entering the Senate, he asked
from them a decree which should decide that for the future marriages between uncles and
brothers' daughters should be legal. There was, however, found only one person who desired
such a marriage, Alledius Severus, a Roman knight, who, as many said, was swayed by the
influence of Agrippina. Then came a revolution in the State, and everything was under the
control of a woman, who did not, like Messalina, insult Rome by loose manners. It was a
stringent, and, so to say, masculine despotism; there was sternness and generally arrogance in
public, no sort of immodesty at home, unless it conduced to power. A boundless greed of
wealth was veiled under the pretext that riches were being accumulated as a prop to the throne.
 
[12.8] On the day of the marriage Silanus committed suicide, having up to that time prolonged
his hope of life, or else choosing that day to heighten the popular indignation. His sister,
Calvina, was banished from Italy. Claudius further added that sacrifices after the ordinances of
King Tullius, and atonements were to be offered by the pontiffs in the grove of Diana, amid
general ridicule at the idea devising penalties and propitiations for incest at such a time.
Agrippina, that she might not be conspicuous only by her evil deeds, procured for Annaeus
Seneca a remission of his exile, and with it the praetorship. She thought this would be
universally welcome, from the celebrity of his attainments, and it was her wish too for the
boyhood of Domitius to be trained under so excellent an instructor, and for them to have the
benefit of his counsels in their designs on the throne. For Seneca, it was believed, was devoted
to Agrippina from a remembrance of her kindness, and an enemy to Claudius from a bitter sense
of wrong.
 
[12.9] It was then resolved to delay no longer. Memmius Pollio, the consul-elect, was induced
by great promises to deliver a speech, praying Claudius to betroth Octavia to Domitius. The
match was not unsuitable to the age of either, and was likely to develop still more important
results. Pollio introduced the motion in much the same language as Vitellius had lately used. So
Octavia was betrothed, and Domitius, besides his previous relationship, became now the
emperor's affianced son-in-law, and an equal of Britannicus, through the exertions of his
mother and the cunning of those who had been the accusers of Messalina, and feared the
vengeance of her son.

 

What about Britannicus?

Annales 12 Tacitus

[12.25] In the consulship of Caius Antistius and Marcus Suilius, the adoption of Domitius was
hastened on by the influence of Pallas. Bound to Agrippina, first as the promoter of her
marriage, then as her paramour, he still urged Claudius to think of the interests of the State, and
to provide some support for the tender years of Britannicus. "So," he said, "it had been with the
Divine Augustus, whose stepsons, though he had grandsons to be his stay, had been promoted;
Tiberius too, though he had offspring of his own, had adopted Germanicus. Claudius also
would do well to strengthen himself with a young prince who could share his cares with him."
Overcome by these arguments, the emperor preferred Domitius to his own son, though he was
but two years older, and made a speech in the senate, the same in substance as the
representations of his freedman. It was noted by learned men, that no previous example of
adoption into the patrician family of the Claudii was to be found; and that from Attus Clausus
there had been one unbroken line.
 
[12.26] However, the emperor received formal thanks, and still more elaborate flattery was paid
to Domitius. A law was passed, adopting him into the Claudian family with the name of Nero.
Agrippina too was honoured with the title of Augusta. When this had been done, there was not
a person so void of pity as not to feel keen sorrow at the position of Britannicus. Gradually
forsaken by the very slaves who waited on him, he turned into ridicule the ill-timed attentions of
his stepmother, perceiving their insincerity. For he is said to have had by no means a dull
understanding; and this is either a fact, or perhaps his perils won him sympathy, and so he
possessed the credit of it, without actual evidence.
 
[12.27] Agrippina, to show her power even to the allied nations, procured the despatch of a
colony of veterans to the chief town of the Ubii, where she was born. The place was named
after her. Agrippa, her grandfather, had, as it happened, received this tribe, when they crossed
the Rhine, under our protection. During the same time, there was a panic in Upper Germany
through an irruption of plundering bands of Chatti. Thereupon Lucius Pomponius, who was in
command, directed the Vangiones and Nemetes, with the allied cavalry, to anticipate the raid,
and suddenly to fall upon them from every quarter while they were dispersed. The general's
plan was backed up by the energy of the troops. These were divided into two columns; and
those who marched to the left cut off the plunderers, just on their return, after a riotous
enjoyment of their spoil, when they were heavy with sleep. It added to the men's joy that they
had rescued from slavery after forty years some survivors of the defeat of Varus.

 

Death of Claudius

Claudius 44 Suetonius

44. Soon afterwards he made his will, and had it signed by all the magistrates as witnesses. But he was prevented from proceeding further by Agrippina, accused by her own guilty conscience, as well as by informers, of a variety of crimes. It is agreed that he was taken off by poison; but where, and by whom administered, remains in uncertainty. Some authors say that it was given him as he was feasting with the priests in the Capitol, by the eunuch Halotus, his taster. Others say by Agrippina, at his own table, in mushrooms, a dish of which he was very fond. The accounts of what followed likewise differ. Some relate that he instantly became speechless, was racked with pain through the night, and died about daybreak; others, that at first he fell into a sound sleep, &emdash;and afterwards, his food rising, he threw up the whole; but had another dose given him; whether in water-gruel, under presence of refreshment after his exhaustion, or in a clyster, as if designed to relieve his bowels, is likewise uncertain.