§26Sponsas admodum adulescens duas habuit: Aemiliam Lepidam Augusti proneptem, item Liuiam Medullinam, cui et cognomen Camillae erat, e genere antiquo dictatoris Camilli.
He had two betrotheds when he was quite young: Aemilia Lepida, the great-granddaughter of Augustus, and also Livia Medullina, who also had the cognomen Camilla, from the ancient family of the dictator Camillus.
priorem, quod parentes eius Augustum offenderant, uirginem adhuc repudiauit, posteriorem ipso die, qui erat nuptiis destinatus, ex ualitudine amisit.
The former he divorced while she was still a virgin because her parents had offended Augustus; the latter he lost through illness on the very day that had been set for the wedding.
uxores deinde duxit Plautiam Vrgulanillam triumphali et mox Aeliam Paetinam consulari patre.
Next he married Plautia Urgulanilla, whose father had won triumphal honors, and soon after Aelia Paetina, whose father was of consular rank.
cum utraque diuortium fecit, sed cum Paetina ex leuibus offensis, cum Vrgulanilla ob libidinum probra et homicidii suspicionem.
He divorced both of them, but Paetina for slight offenses, and Urgulanilla because of her scandalous lusts and suspicion of murder.
post has Valeriam Messalinam, Barbati Messalae consobrini sui filiam, in matrimonium accepit.
After these, he took in marriage Valeria Messalina, the daughter of his cousin Barbatus Messala.
quam cum comperisset super cetera flagitia atque dedecora C. Silio etiam nupsisse dote inter auspices consignata, supplicio adfecit confirmauitque pro contione apud praetorianos, quatenus sibi matrimonia male cederent, permansurum se in caelibatu, ac nisi permansisset, non recusaturum confodi manibus ipsorum.
When he discovered that she, besides her other shameful acts and disgraces, had even married Gaius Silius, with a dowry contract signed in the presence of witnesses, he put her to death and declared in a speech before the praetorians that, since marriages turned out badly for him, he would remain celibate, and that if he did not, he would not refuse to be stabbed by their own hands.
nec durare ualuit quin de condicionibus continuo tractaret, etiam de Paetinae, quam olim exegerat, deque Lolliae Paulinae, quae C. Caesari nupta fuerat.
Yet he could not hold out against negotiating immediately for another match, even with Paetina, whom he had formerly divorced, and with Lollia Paulina, who had been married to Gaius Caesar.
uerum inlecebris Agrippinae, Germanici fratris sui filiae, per ius osculi et blanditiarum occasiones pellectus in amorem, subornauit proximo senatu qui censerent, cogendum se ad ducendum eam uxorem, quasi rei p. maxime interesset, dandamque ceteris ueniam talium coniugiorum, quae ad id tempus incesta habebantur.
But having been enticed into love by the allurements of Agrippina, the daughter of his brother Germanicus, through the right of a kiss and opportunities for familiarity, he suborned people at the next meeting of the senate to propose that he should be compelled to marry her, as if it were of the greatest interest to the state, and that permission for such marriages, which up to that time had been considered incestuous, should be granted to others as well.
ac uix uno interposito die confecit nuptias, non repertis qui sequerentur exemplum, excepto libertino quodam et altero primipilari, cuius nuptiarum officium et ipse cum Agrippina celebrauit.
And with barely a single day intervening, he completed the wedding, though no one was found to follow his example, except for a certain freedman and another chief centurion, at whose wedding ceremony he himself, along with Agrippina, attended.
§27liberos ex tribus uxoribus tulit: ex Vrgulanilla Drusum et Claudiam, ex Paetina Antoniam, ex Messalina Octauiam et quem primo Germanicum, mox Britannicum cognominauit.
He had children by three of his wives: Drusus and Claudia by Urgulanilla, Antonia by Paetina, and Octavia and one whom he first named Germanicus and soon after Britannicus by Messalina.
Drusum †pompeium puberem amisit piro per lusum in sublime iactato et hiatu oris excepto strangulatum, cum ei ante paucos dies filiam Seiani despondisset.
Drusus he lost before he reached adulthood, choked by a pear thrown high in play and caught in his open mouth, having betrothed him to the daughter of Sejanus only a few days before.
quo magis miror fuisse qui traderent fraude a Seiano necatum.
For this reason, I wonder all the more that there were some who reported that he was killed by the treachery of Sejanus.
Claudiam ex liberto suo Botere conceptam, quamuis ante quintum mensem diuortii natam alique coeptam, exponi tamen ad matris ianuam et nudam iussit abici.
As for Claudia, who was conceived by his freedman Boter, although she was born less than five months after the divorce and had begun to be reared, he nevertheless ordered her to be exposed at her mother's door and thrown away naked.
Antoniam Cn. Pompeio Magno, deinde Fausto Sullae, nobilissimis iuuenibus, Octauiam Neroni priuigno suo collocauit, Silano ante desponsam.
He married Antonia to Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, and later to Faustus Sulla, young men of the highest nobility, and Octavia to his stepson Nero, though she had been betrothed before to Silanus.
Britannicum uicesimo imperii die inque secundo consulatu, natum sibi paruulum etiam tum, et militi pro contione manibus suis gestans et plebi per spectacula gremio aut ante se retinens assidue commendabat faustisque ominibus cum adclamantium turba prosequebatur.
Britannicus, who was born to him on the twentieth day of his reign and in his second consulship, while he was still a tiny infant, he would constantly commend to the soldiers by carrying him in his own hands at their assembly, and to the common people during the spectacles by holding him in his lap or before him, and he would follow him with favorable wishes along with the shouting crowd.
e generis Neronem adoptauit, Pompeium atque Silanum non recusauit modo, sed et interemit.
From among his sons-in-law he adopted Nero, and not only rejected Pompeius and Silanus, but even put them to death.
§28Libertorum praecipue suspexit Posiden spadonem, quem etiam Britannico triumpho inter militares uiros hasta pura donauit; nec minus Felicem, quem cohortibus et alis prouinciaeque Iudaeae praeposuit, trium reginarum maritum; et Harpocran, cui lectica per urbem uehendi spectaculaque publice edendi ius tribuit; ac super hos Polybium ab studiis, qui saepe inter duos consules ambulabat; sed ante omnis Narcissum ab epistulis et Pallantem a rationibus, quos decreto quoque senatus non praemiis modo ingentibus, sed et quaestoriis praetoriisque ornamentis honorari libens passus est; tantum praeterea adquirere et rapere, ut querente eo quondam de fisci exiguitate non absurde dictum sit, abundaturum, si a duobus libertis in consortium reciperetur.
Of his freedmen, he especially favored Posides the eunuch, whom he even presented with a spear of honor among the military men at his British triumph; no less Felix, whom he put in command of cohorts and cavalry wings and of the province of Judea, the husband of three queens; and Harpocras, to whom he granted the right of being carried in a litter through the city and of giving public spectacles; and besides these, Polybius, his literary adviser, who often walked between the two consuls; but before all, Narcissus, his secretary, and Pallas, his treasurer, whom he willingly permitted to be honored, also by a decree of the senate, not only with immense rewards but even with the insignia of quaestors and praetors; and they acquired and plundered so much besides, that when he was once complaining of the poverty of his privy purse, it was remarked, not without wit, that he would have plenty if he were received into partnership by his two freedmen.