After the
death of Claudia, whom I have mentioned to have been espoused to the young
Prince, he constrained Ennia his own wife to stimulate the affections of
Caligula and to secure him by a promise of marriage. The truth is, he was
one that denied nothing that opened his way to sovereignty; for although
of a tempestuous genius, he had yet in the school of his grandfather, well
acquired all the hollow guises of dissimulation.
His spirit was known to the Emperor; hence he was puzzled about
bequeathing the Empire: and first as to his grandsons; the son of Drusus
was nearer in blood, and dearer in point of affection, but as yet a child;
the son of Germanicus had arrived at the vigour of youth, and the zeal of
the people followed him, a motive this to his grandfather, only to hate
him. He had even debates with himself concerning Claudius, because of
solid age and naturally inclined to honest pursuits; but the defect of his
faculties withstood the choice. In case he sought a successor apart from
his own family, he dreaded lest the memory of Augustus, lest the name of
the Caesars should come to be scorned and insulted.
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