For, Drusus impatient of a rival, and in his temper
inflammable, had upon some occasional contest, shaken his fist at Sejanus,
and, as he prepared to resist, given him a blow on the face. As he
therefore cast about for every expedient of revenge, the readiest seemed
to apply to Livia his wife: she was the sister of Germanicus, and from an
uncomely person in her childhood, grew afterwards to excel in loveliness.
As his passion for this lady was vehement, he tempted her to adultery, and
having fulfilled the first iniquity (nor will a woman, who has sacrificed
her chastity, stick at any other) he carried her greater lengths, to the
views of marriage, a partnership in the Empire, and even the murder of her
husband. Thus she, the niece of Augustus, the daughter-in-law of Tiberius,
the mother of children by Drusus, defiled herself, her ancestors, and her
posterity, with a municipal adulterer; and all to exchange an honourable
condition possessed, for pursuits flagitious and uncertain. Into a
fellowship in the guilt was assumed Eudemus, physician to Livia; and,
under colour of his profession, frequently with her in private.
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