sister Livilla despised him and took advantage of every 
chance to humiliate him. This chain of misfortune with 
women continued throughout his life: his first fiancée, 
Aemilia Lepida, was repudiated by him before marriage. 
The second, Livia Medullina, died of an illness on the 
very day of the marriage. He was divorced from his first 
wife, Plautia Urgulanilla, because of her immoral way 
of life, and because she was suspected of being involved 
in murder. He was divorced from his second wife, Aelia 
Paetina, because of constant quarrels. Messalina, his 
third wife, deceived him—among others—with Silius 
and was executed. Agrippina finally cuckolded him a 
second time with Pallas. 
These facts remained by no means secret but were 
generally known. Claudius himself, on several occasions, 
commented on his miserable married life. With regard 
to Messalina, Suetonius reports: 
‘‘Quam cum comperisset super cetera flagitia atque dedecora C, 
Silio etiam nupsisse dote inter auspices consignata, supplicio adfecit 
confirmavitque pro contione apud praetorianos, quatenus sibi matri- 
monia male cederent, permansurum se in caelibatu, ac nisi perman- 
sisset, non recusaturum confodi manibus ipsorum.’’ (Suetonius, Divus 
Claudius, XXVI, in C. L. Roth) 
**But when he learned that besides other shameful and wicked 
deeds she had actually married Gaius Silius, and that a formal con- 
tract had been signed in the presence of witnesses, he put her to 
death and declared before the assembled praetorian guard that inas- 
much as his marriages did not turn out well, he would remain a 
widower, and if he did not keep his word, he would not refuse death 
at their hands.’’ (Suetonius, J. Gavorse ed., p. 227) 
and with regard to Agrippina: 
‘“Sub exitu vitae signa quaedam, nec obscura, paenitentis de matri- 
monio Agrippinae deque Neronis adoptione dederat. Siquidem, com- 
memorantibus libertis ac laudantibus cognitionem, qua pridie quandam 
adulterii ream condemnarat, sibi quoque in fatis esse iactavit omnia 
impudica, sed non impunita matrimonia.’’ (Suetonius, Divis Claudius, 
XLIII, in C. L. Roth) 
[238 ] 
