nice, not because he was guilty, nor yet because the possibility
of the thing shocked her, but because he was betrothed to Octavia,
Claud's daughter, who, Agrippina determined, should be Nero's
wife. Presently Caligula's widow, an old rival of her own, a lady
who had thought she would like to be empress twice, and whom Claud
had eyed grotesquely, was disencumbered of three million worth of
emeralds, with which she heightened her beauty, and told very
civilly that it was time to die. So, too, disappeared a Calpurina,
a Lepida; women young, rich, handsome, impure, and as such
dangerous to Agrippina's peace of mind. The legality of her crimes
was so absolute that the mere ownership of an enviable object was
a cause for death. A senator had a villa which pleased her; he was
invited to die. Another had a pair of those odorous murrhine
vases, which Pompey had found in Armenia, and which on their first
appearance set Rome wild; he, too, was invited to die.

But, though Agrippina dealt in death, she dealt in seductions too.
Rome, that had adored Caligula, promptly fell under his sister's
sway. There was a splendor in her eyes, which so many crimes had
lit; in her carriage there was such majesty, the pomp with which
she surrounded herself was so magnificent, that Rome, enthralled,
applauded. Beyond, on the Rhine, a city which is today Cologne,
rose in honor of her sovereignty. To her wishes the senate was
subservient, to her indiscretions blind. Claud, who meanwhile had
been wholly sightless, suddenly showed signs of discernment. A
woman, charged with illicit commerce, was brought to his tribunal.
He condemned her, of course. "In my case," he explained,
"matrimony has not been successful, but the fate that destined me
to marry impure women destined me also to punish them." It was
then that Agrippina ordered of Locusta that famous stew of poison