MESSALINA believed that Valerius Asiaticus, who had been twice consul, was
one of Poppa's old lovers. At the same time she was looking greedily
at the gardens which Lucullus had begun and which Asiaticus was now adorning
with singular magnificence, and so she suborned Suilius to accuse both him
and Poppa. With Suilius was associated Sosibius, tutor to
Britannicus, who was to give Claudius an apparently friendly warning to
beware of a power and wealth which threatened the throne. Asiaticus, he
said, had been the ringleader in the murder of a Csar, and then had
not feared to face an assembly of the Roman people, to own the deed, and
challenge its glory for his own. Thus grown famous in the capital, and with
a renown widely spread through the provinces, he was planning a journey to
the armies of Germany. Born at Vienna, and supported by numerous and powerful
connections, he would find it easy to rouse nations allied to his house.
Claudius made no further inquiry, but sent Crispinus, commander of the
Prtorians, with troops in hot haste, as though to put down a revolt.
Crispinus found him at Bai, loaded him with chains, and hurried him
to Rome.
