glory memorable; you could not have been
victorious, and I had been forgotten. If now, therefore, you spare my
life, I shall continue a perpetual example of your clemency."
Clau'dius generously pardoned him, and Osto'rius was decreed a
triumph.

20. In the beginning of his reign Clau'dius gave the highest hopes of
a happy continuance; but he soon began to lessen his care for the
public, and to commit to his favourites all the concerns of the
empire. This prince, weak from his infancy, was little able, when
called to govern, to act but under the direction of others. 21. One of
his chief instructors was his wife Messa'lina: whose name is become a
common appellation for women of abandoned character. By her was
Clau'dius urged on to commit cruelties, which he considered only as
wholesome severities; while her crimes became every day more
notorious, and exceeded what had ever been in Rome. For her crimes and
enormities, however, she, together with her accomplice Cai'us Sil'ius,
suffered that death they both had so justly deserved.

22. Clau'dius afterwards married Agrippi'na, the daughter of his
brother German'icus, a woman of a cruel and ambitious spirit, whose
only aim being to procure the succession of Nero, her son by a former
marriage, she treated Claudius with such haughtiness, that he was
heard to declare, when heated with wine, that it was his fate to smart
under the disorders of his wives, and to be their executioner. 23.
This expression sunk deep in her mind, and engaged all her faculties
to prevent the blow; she therefore resolved not to defer a deed which
she had meditated long before, which was to poison him. She for some
time debated within herself in what quantity the poison should be
administered, as she feared that too strong a dose would discover the
treachery, while one too weak would fail of its effect. 24. At length
she determined upon a poison of singular efficacy to destroy his
intellects, and yet not suddenly to terminate his life; it was given
among mushrooms, a dish the emperor was particularly fond of. 25.
Shortly after he had eaten, he dropped down insensible; but this
caused no alarm, as it was usual with him to eat till he had stupified
his facilities, and been obliged to be carried from the table to his
bed. 26. His constitution, however, seemed to overcome the
effects of the potion; but Agrippi'na resolving to make sure of him,
directed a wretch of a physician, her creature, to introduce a