Messalina 14-16

• Amid these things, the silence of Claudius was strange:

  he was obeying his freedmen in everything;

  he arranged an assembly of the soldiers in the camp.

  Among them, while Narcissus forewarned them,

  the Emperor said a few words:

  from then on there was a continuous shouting

  of the soldiers demanding the names of the guilty individuals

  and the punishments.

  Silius, having been led to a platform,

  attempted no defence, no delaying tactics,

  but prayed that his death be hastened.
• Meanwhile, Messalina was prolonging

  her life in the gardens of Lucullus,

  she was composing appeals,

  with some hope and anger:

  even then she was displaying

  such great arrogance.

  And if Narcissus had not hastened her execution,

  she would have turned

  the ruin against her accuser.
• For Claudius, having returned home,

  where he grew warm with dinner and wine,

  ordered that the wretched woman

  (for they say that Claudius used this word)

  be present to plead her case

  on the next day.