at had been made against him.

Thus Messalina succeeded by artifice and cunning in accomplishing
her ends, in cases where she could not rely on her direct influence
upon the mind of the emperor. In one way or the other she almost
always effected whatever she undertook, and gradually came to
exercise almost supreme control. Whom she would she raised up, and
whom she would she put down. In the mean time she lived herself, a
life of the most guilty indulgence and pleasure. For a long time she
concealed her wickedness from the emperor. He was very easily
deceived, and though Messalina's character was perfectly well known
to others, he himself continued blind to her guilt. At length,
however, she began to grow more and more bold. She became satiated,
as one of her historians says of her, with the common and ordinary
forms of vice, and wished for something new and unusual to give
piquancy and life to her sensations. At length, however, she went
one step too far, and brought upon herself in consequence of it a
terrible destruction.

It was about seven years after the accession of Claudius that the
event occurred. The favorite of Messalina at this time was a young
Roman senator named Caius Silius. Silius was a very distinguished
young nobleman, and a man of handsome person and of very graceful
and accomplished manners and address. He was in fact a very general
favorite, and Messalina, when she first saw him, conceived a very
strong affection for him. He was, however, already married to a
beautiful Roman lady named Junia Silana. Silana had been, and was
still at this time, an intimate friend of Agrippina, Nero's mother;
though in subsequent times they became bitter enemies. Messalina
made no secret of her love for Silius. She visited him freely at his
house, and received his visits in return; she accompanied him to
public places, evincing everywhere her strong regard for him in the
most undisguised and open manner. At length she proposed to him to
divorce his wife, in order that she herself might enjoy his society
without any limitation or restraint. Silius hesitated for a time
about complying with these proposals. He was well aware that he must
necessarily incur great danger, either by complying or by refusing
to comply with them. To accede to the empress's proposals, would be
of course to place himself in a position of extreme peril; and the
fate of Silanus was a warning to him of what he had to fear from her
wrath, in case