commanded the freedman to be seized and put in chains, under pretence of
his having been employed by his mother to assassinate him; at the same
time ordering her to be put to death, and giving out, that, to avoid
punishment for her intended crime, she had laid violent hands upon
herself. Other circumstances, still more horrible, are related on good
authority; as that he went to view her corpse, and handling her limbs,
pointed out some blemishes, and commended other points; and that, growing
thirsty during the survey, he called for drink. Yet he was never
afterwards able to bear the stings of his own conscience for this
atrocious act, although encouraged by the congratulatory addresses of the
army, the senate, and people. He frequently affirmed that he was haunted
by his mother's ghost, and persecuted with the whips (364) and burning
torches of the Furies. Nay, he attempted by magical rites to bring up
her ghost from below, and soften her rage against him. When he was in
Greece, he durst not attend the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries,
at the initiation of which, impious and wicked persons are warned by the
voice of the herald from approaching the rites [604]. Besides the murder
of his mother, he had been guilty of that of his aunt; for, being obliged
to keep her bed in consequence of a complaint in her bowels, he paid her
a visit, and she, being then advanced in years, stroking his downy chin,
in the tenderness of affection, said to him: "May I but live to see the
day when this is shaved for the first time [605], and I shall then die
contented." He turned, however, to those about him, made a jest of it,
saying, that he would have his beard immediately taken off, and ordered
the physicians to give her more violent purgatives. He seized upon her
estate before she had expired; suppressing her will, that he might enjoy
the whole himself.

XXXV. He had, besides Octavia, two other wives: Poppaea Sabina, whose
father had borne the office of quaestor, and who had been married