144 THE WIVES OF THE 



nion, that his incestuous commerce with his sisters was a fact of 

 vulgar notoriety in Rome; which, far from striving to conceal, he 

 vaunted in convivial moments to his dissolute associates. In the 

 prosecution of his objects, he had openly defied the magistracy and 

 the laws ; he was lavish of remuneration to his creatures, and a pro- 

 digal corrupter of authority, where money could prevail above the 

 sense of duty, equity, and honour. A disposition of such outrageous 

 profligacy, sustained by the appliances of rank and ample fortune, 

 was cherished and confirmed by the examples of surrounding vice ; 

 and the natural audacity of Clodius, who never shrunk from the in- 

 dulgence of such appetites as gold or daring criminality could gra- 

 tify, impelled him to the enterprise on Caesar's wife, Pompeia ; who, 

 apparently, was favourable to his passion, and shared the infamy and 

 peril of its satisfaction. 



The character and person of the sanguine Clodius were calculated 

 to prevail upon the temper of Pompeia. He urged his suit, accord- 

 ingly, with gradual success ; and his eventual triumph was but delayed 

 by the vigilant suspicions of Aurelia, Caesar's mother. The increasing 

 inclination of Pompeia had not eluded the perception of that austere 

 and virtuous matron ; who continued, upon all occasions, to accom- 

 pany Pompeia, as a safeguard, to the uniform frustration of the suc- 

 cessive schemes of Clodius. Aurelia was, however, ultimately over- 

 reached by the devices of Pompeia, and by the participation of her 

 lover, in a plan, involving such unprecedented rashness and impiety, 

 that no suspicion of a mind acquainted with the merely common pas- 

 sages of guilt could have been directed to a stratagem so doubtful of 

 success, so daring and improbable. 



On the annual sacrifice to Fauna, the Bona Dea of the Romans, for 

 the safety of the people, the mysteries of the divinity were held in the 

 mansion of a consul, if in Rome; and, in the absence of that dignitary, 

 in the dwelling of a praetor. The chastity of the goddess was so tena- 

 ciously respected, that not only all men whatever were excluded 

 from the scene of worship, but the male ancestral statues of the house 

 were veiled from the inspection of her devotees. Whatever was 

 expressive of the sexual intercourse was rigidly prohibited in these 

 nocturnal adorations ; the women who were present at the sacred 

 ceremony were clothed in garments of the purest white, and the 

 ornament of myrtle even was expressly interdicted, from its being 

 sacred to the deity of love and beauty. The wife or mother of the 

 consul or the praetor, assisted by the vestal virgins, presided over these 

 solemnities. On this occasion the mysteries of Fauna were performed 

 in Caesar's house ; and the peril of the enterprise augmented, rather 

 than decreased, the desperate temerity of Clodius. Pompeia would 

 appear in the religious company in all the splendour of her beauty ; 

 Aurelia's vigilance would be defeated, and, in defiance of the sacred 

 mysteries, an opportunity so favourable to the hopes of Clodius "in- 

 spired the ungovernable lover with the resolution to profane them. 



The arrangement for their meeting was concluded through the 

 medium of Abra,* a confidential female servant of Pompeia, whom 



* She is called Abra by Plutarch, in his life of Caesar and Cicero. Cicero, on 

 the other hand, calls her Seprulla. " P. Clodium, Appi F. credo te audisse, cum 



