Omens and Agrippina's Fears

Translation

In the consulship of Marcus Asinius and Manius Acilius, it was recognised by frequent prodigies that a change of affairs for the worse was being portended. Military standards and tents were burned by fire from heaven; a swarm of bees settled on the pediment of the Capitol; it was reported that two-formed human offspring had been born and a pig's litter produced in which there were hawk's talons. Among the omens was counted the diminished number of all the magistrates, since a quaestor, aedile, tribune, praetor, and consul had died within a few months. But Agrippina was in particular dread, fearing an utterance of Claudius, which he had let fall when drunk, that it was his fate to endure the disgraceful conduct of his wives and then to punish them, and she decided to act and to act quickly, having first destroyed Domitia Lepida for womanly reasons, because Lepida, born from the younger Antonia, with Augustus as her great-uncle, a first cousin once removed of Agrippina and sister of her husband Gnaeus, believed herself equal in distinction to Agrippina. Nor were they very different in beauty, age, or wealth; and both shameless, infamous, and violent, they competed no less in their vices than in whatever advantages they had received from fortune. Indeed the fiercest contest was whether aunt or mother should prevail with Nero: for Lepida was binding the young man's mind by flatteries and gifts, while Agrippina on the contrary was harsh and threatening, who could give empire to her son but could not tolerate him as emperor.