inclined to assent to it. Her historian
says that she was not influenced in this decision by any remaining
sentiments of conjugal affection, or by conscientious principle of
any kind, but by her distrust of Silius, and her unwillingness to
commit herself so entirely into his power. She preferred to keep him
dependent upon her, rather than to make herself dependent upon him.
She liked the plan, however, of being married to him, she said, and
would consent to that, even while the emperor remained alive. And so
if Silius would agree to it, she was ready, she added, the next time
that the emperor went to Ostia, to have the ceremony performed.

That a wife and a mother, however unprincipled and corrupt, should
make, under such circumstances, a proposal like this of
Messalina's, is certainly very extraordinary; and to those who do
not know to what extremes of recklessness and infatuation, the
irresponsible despots that have arisen from time to time to rule
mankind, have often pushed their wickedness and crime, it must seem
wholly incredible. The Roman historian who has recorded this
narrative, assures us, that it was the very audacity of this guilt
that constituted its charm in Messalina's eyes. She had become weary
of, and satiated with, all the ordinary forms of criminal indulgence
and pleasure. The work of deceiving and imposing upon her husband,
in order to secure for herself the gratifications which she sought,
was for a time sufficient to give zest and piquancy to her
pleasures. But he was so easily deceived, and she had been
accustomed to deceive him so long, that it now no longer afforded to
her mind any stimulus or excitement to do it in any common way. But
the idea of being actually married to another man while he was
absent at a short distance from the city, would be something
striking and new, which would vary, she thought, the dull monotony
of the common course of sin.

The proposed marriage was finally determined upon, and the mock
ceremony, for such a ceremony could, of course, have no legal force,
was duly performed at a time when Claudius was absent at Ostia,
inspecting the works which were in progress there. How far the
pretended marriage was open and public in the actual celebration of
it, is not very certain; but the historians say that it was
conducted with all the usual ceremonies, and was attended by the
usual witnesses. The service was performed by the _augur_, a sort of
sacerdotal officer, on whom