hter of Claudius and Messalina,
was a little younger.

Messalina, the wife of Claudius, hated Agrippina, considering her,
as she did, her rival and enemy. The favor which Claudius showed to
Agrippina, in recalling her from her banishment, and treating her
with consideration and favor at Rome, only inflamed still more
Messalina's hatred. She could not, however, succeed in inducing
Claudius to withdraw his protection from his niece; for Claudius,
though almost entirely subject to the influence and control of his
wife in most things, seemed fully determined not to yield to her
wishes in this. Agrippina continued, therefore, to live at Rome, in
high favor with the court, for several years,--her little son
advancing all the time in age and in maturity, until at length he
became twelve years old. At this time, another great change took
place in his own and his mother's condition. Messalina became
herself, by her wickedness and infatuation, the means of raising her
rival into her own place as wife of the emperor. The result was
accomplished in the following manner.

Messalina had long been a very dissolute and wicked woman, having
been accustomed to give herself up to criminal indulgences and
pleasures of every kind, in company with favorites whom she selected
from time to time among the courtiers around her. For a time she
managed these intrigues with some degree of caution and secrecy, in
order to conceal her conduct from her husband. She gradually,
however, became more and more open and bold. She possessed a great
ascendency over the mind of her husband, and could easily deceive
him, or induce him to do whatever she pleased. She persuaded him to
confer honors and rewards in a very liberal manner upon those whom
she favored, and to degrade, and sometimes even to destroy, those
who displeased her. She would occasionally resort to very cunning
artifices to accomplish her ends. For example, she conceived at one
time a violent hatred against the husband of her mother. His name
was Silanus. He was not the father of Messalina, but a second
husband of Messalina's mother; and, being young and attractive in
person, Messalina at first loved him, and intended to make him one
of her favorites and companions. Silanus, however, would not accede
to her wishes, and her love for him was then changed into hatred and
thirst for revenge. She accordingly determined on his destruction;
but as she knew that it would be difficult to induce Claud