Later Claudius fell sick, and Nero entered the senate to promise a horse-race in case Claudius should regain his health.  Agrippina was leaving no stone unturned to make him popular with the masses and to cause him to be regarded as the only natural successor to the imperial throne.  Hence it was that she selected the equestrian contest, on which they doted especially, for Nero to promise in the event of Claudius’s recovery (an outcome against which she sincerely prayed).—­Again, after instigating a riot over the sale of bread she persuaded Claudius to make known to the populace by public bulletin and to write to the senate that, if he should die, Nero was fully capable of administering public interests.  In consequence of this he became a power and his name was on everybody’s lips, whereas in regard to Britannicus numbers did not know of his existence and all others regarded him as idiotic and epileptic; for this was the declaration that Agrippina gave out.—­Well, Claudius became convalescent and Nero conducted the horse-race in a sumptuous manner; now, too, he married Octavia, a new circumstance to cause him a feeling of manly dignity.

  [A.D. 53-54]

Nothing seemed to satisfy Agrippina, though all rights which Livia had possessed were bestowed upon her also and a number of additional honors had been decreed.  She, wielding equal power with Claudius, desired to have his title outright; and once, when a blaze had spread over the city to a considerable distance, she accompanied him in the work of rescue.

  [A.D. 54 (a. u. 807)]

[-34-] Claudius was irritated by Agrippina’s actions, of which he now began to become aware, and sought to find his son Britannicus.  The boy, however, was purposely kept out of his sight by the empress most of the time, for she was doing everything conceivable to secure the right of succession for Nero, since he was her own son by her former husband Domitius.  Claudius, who displayed his affection whenever he met Britannicus, was not disposed to endure her behavior and made preparations to put an end to her power, to register his son among the iuvenes, and appoint him as heir to the empire.

This news alarmed Agrippina, who decided to anticipate the emperor’s project by poisoning him.  Since, however, by reason of the great quantity of wine he was forever drinking and his general habits of life, which all emperors adopt for their protection, he could not easily be harmed, she sent for a drug-woman named Lucusta, a recent captive renowned for the desired skill, and obtaining from her a poison whose effect was sure she put it in one of the vegetables called[16] mushrooms.  Then she herself ate of the others in the dish but made her husband eat the one which had the poison; for it was the largest and finest of them.  The victim of this plot was carried out of the banquet apparently quite overcome by strong drink, but that had happened many times before.