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Sunday, August 08, 2010 - 3:33 PM
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire 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.
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