nephews called in the Lygians, who, hearing of the riches of Vannius,
and enticed by the hope of booty, came in such numbers that Cæsar
himself, Claudius, began to fear for the safety of the boundary.
Claudius did not wish to interfere in a war among barbarians, but he
wrote to Atelius Hister, who commanded the legions of the Danube, to
turn a watchful eye on the course of the war, and not permit them to
disturb our peace. Hister required, then, of the Lygians a promise not
to cross the boundary; to this they not only agreed, but gave hostages,
among whom were the wife and daughter of their leader. It is known to
thee that barbarians take their wives and children to war with them. My
Lygia is the daughter of that leader."

"Whence dost thou know all this?"

"Aulus Plautius told it himself. The Lygians did not cross the
boundary, indeed; but barbarians come and go like a tempest. So did the
Lygians vanish with their wild-ox horns on their heads. They killed
Vannius's Suevi and Yazygi; but their own king fell. They disappeared
with their booty then, and the hostages remained in Hister's hands. The
mother died soon after, and Hister, not knowing what to do with the
daughter, sent her to Pomponius, the governor of all Germany. He, at
the close of the war with the Catti, returned to Rome, where Claudius,
as is known to thee, permitted him to have a triumph. The maiden on
that occasion walked after the car of the conqueror; but, at the end of
the solemnity,--since hostages cannot be considered captives, and since
Pomponius did not know what to do with her definitely--he gave her to
his sister Pomponia Græcina, the wife of Plautius. In that house where
all--beginning with the masters and ending with the poultry in the
hen-house--are virtuous, that maiden grew up as virtuous, alas! as Græcina
herself, and so beautiful that even Poppæa, if near her, would seem like