He would deal more candidly with him: and first as
to the enmity of Agrippina; it would flame out with fresh fury, if by the
marriage of Livia, the family of the Caesars were rent as it were into two
contending parties: that even as things stood, the emulation of these
ladies broke into frequent sallies, and, by their animosities, his
grandsons were instigated different ways. What would be the consequence,
if, by such a marriage, the strife were inflamed? For you are deceived,
Sejanus, if you think to continue then in the same rank as now; or that
Livia, she who was first the wife of the young Caius Caesar, and
afterwards the wife of Drusus, will be of a temper to grow old with a
husband no higher than a Roman knight: nay, allowing that I suffered you
afterwards to remain what you are; do you believe that they who saw her
father, they who saw her brother, and the ancestors of our house, covered
with the supreme dignities, will ever suffer it? You in truth propose,
yourself, to stand still in the same station: but the great magistrates
and grandees of the state, those very magistrates and grandees who, in
spite of yourself, break in upon you, and in all affairs court you as
their oracle, make no secret of maintaining that you have long since
exceeded the bounds of the Equestrian Order, and far outgone in power all
the confidants of my father; and from their hatred to you, they also
censure me.
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