第157章 A.D.47, 48(9)

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.

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.

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.

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.