99 



was uot offended and afraid to offend. It appears that Sejanus was 

 afterwards betrothed to a daughter of the man he had murdered and of 

 the woman he had debauched. The consummation of this revolting 

 union, however, was prevented hj the awful catastrophe, in which 

 Sejanus perished. 



We are compelled, very much against our inclination, to follow the 

 infamous Sejanus in his atrocious progress of hypocrisy and murder. 

 The principal obstacle in his way to the throne was removed by the 

 assassination of Drusus. He was the only prince of the imperial house 

 in the full vigour of manhood, but the three sous of Gerraauicus mio-ht 

 become formidable rivals in a short time. Their ruin therefore was 

 Sejanus" next task, and it was facilitated by the imprudence of two of 

 the young men, and by the overbearing spirit of their mother, Agrip- 

 pina. In most respects Agrippina was the model of a true Eoman 

 matrona ; her chastity was unimpugned in a period of the most dis<Tust- 

 ing profligacy, from wliich even imperial princesses were not exempt ; 

 her high and noble spirit, her courage and energy were conspicuous in 

 the camps and armies to which she accompanied her consort ; but her 

 pride was fully equal to her vigour. She looked upon herself and her 

 children as the only true descendents of Augustus, and upon Tiberius 

 as an intruder. In vain did Germanicus on his death-bed implore her 

 to moderate her pride, and not, by her rivalry, to irritate those more 

 powerful than hei'self. In sullen pomp she returned to Rome, keej^ino 

 aloof from the imperial house and nursing especially her ancient hos- 

 tility to Livia, upon whom she looked as the first and chief source of all 

 the misfortun-es that had befallen the house of Augustus. She had her 

 own friends and her own party, a kind of opposition to Tiberius and 

 Livia, powerless it is true for good or evil, but still galling to the Em- 

 peror as an indication of her disposition, and in case of sudden compli- 

 cations dangerous in the extreme. It is no matter of surprise that Se- 

 janus, who had the emperor's confidence, easily succeeded in widening 

 this breach. His whispered insinuations, his stratagems, his lies, blew 

 the spark of aversion and difference into a flame of rancour and open hos- 

 tility which could be quenched only in blood. His tactics were diaboli- 

 cally skilful. He singled out for his first attacks the intimate friends 

 of xVgrippina, against whom he brought charges of high treason or other 

 political offences, which were sure to draw upon them the unmitigated 

 hostility of Tiberius, and could not fail to implicate Agrippina more or 

 less. Unfortunately for her, the moral purity of her friends stood not 

 higher than the general low level common to the age. Among them 

 was Claudia I'nlchra, Agrippina's cousin and intimate friend, who was 

 Hcused of immoral conduct, adultery, and the attemj)t of poisoning 



