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Wednesday, July 28, 2010 - 2:14 PM
Agrippina in stubborn rage, with the grasp of disease yet on her,
when the emperor came to see her, wept long and
silently, and then began
to mingle reproach and supplication. She begged him
"to relieve her loneliness
and provide her with a husband; her youth still
fitted her for marriage,
which was a virtuous woman's only solace, and there
were citizens in Rome
who would not disdain to receive the wife of
Germanicus and his children."
But the emperor, who perceived the political aims of
her request, but did
not wish to show displeasure or apprehension, left
her, notwithstanding
her urgency, without an answer. This incident, not
mentioned by any historian,
I have found in the memoirs of the younger Agrippina,
the mother of the
emperor Nero, who handed down to posterity the story
of her life and of
the misfortunes of her family.
Sejanus meanwhile yet more deeply alarmed the
sorrowing and unsuspecting
woman by sending his agents, under the guise of
friendship, with warnings
that poison was prepared for her, and that she ought
to avoid her father-in-law's
table. Knowing not how to dissemble, she relaxed
neither her features nor
tone of voice as she sat by him at dinner, nor did
she touch a single dish,
till at last Tiberius noticed her conduct, either
casually or because he
was told of it. To test her more closely, he praised
some fruit as it was
set on the table and passed it with his own hand to
his daughter-in-law.
This increased the suspicions of Agrippina, and
without putting the fruit
to her lips she gave it to the slaves. Still no
remark fell from Tiberius
before the company, but he turned to his mother and
whispered that it was
not surprising if he had decided on harsh treatment
against one who implied
that he was a poisoner. Then there was a rumour that a
plan was laid for
her destruction, that the emperor did not dare to
attempt it openly, and
was seeking to veil the deed in secrecy.
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire, to divert people's talk,
continually attended the Senate,
and gave an audience of several days to embassies
from Asia on a disputed
question as to the city in which the temple before
mentioned should be
erected. Eleven cities were rivals for the honour, of
which they were all
equally ambitious, though they differed widely in
resources. With little
variation they dwelt on antiquity of race and loyalty
to Rome throughout
her wars with Perseus, Aristonicus, and other kings.
But the people of
Hypaepa, Tralles, Laodicaea, and Magnesia were passed
over as too insignificant;
even Ilium, though it boasted that Troy was the
cradle of Rome, was strong
only in the glory of its antiquity. There was a
little hesitation about
Halicarnassus, as its inhabitants affirmed that for
twelve hundred years
their homes had not been shaken by an earthquake and
that the foundations
of their temple were on the living rock. Pergamos, it
was thought, had
been sufficiently honoured by having a temple of
Augustus in the city,
on which very fact they relied. The Ephesians and
Milesians had, it seemed,
wholly devoted their respective towns to the worships
of Apollo and Diana.
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