Thus, for the first time, a woman was placed at the head of a really vast political conspiracy destined to wrest the supreme power from the family of Augustus; and this woman proved her sagacity by knowing how to organize this great plot so well and so opportunely that the most intelligent and influential among the freedmen of Claudius debated for a long time whether they would join her or throw in their lot with the emperor.  So doubtful seemed the issue of this struggle between the weak husband and the energetic, audacious, and unscrupulous wife!  They allowed Messalina and Silius to enlist friends and partisans in every part of Roman society, to come to an understanding with the prefect of the guards, to obtain the divorce from Claudius, even to celebrate their marriage, without opening the eyes of the emperor.  Claudius would probably have been destroyed if at the last moment Narcissus had not decided to rush to the emperor, who was at Ostia, and, by terrifying him in some unspeakable way, had not induced him to stamp out the conspiracy with a bold and unexpected stroke.  There followed one of those periods of judicial murder which for more than thirty years had been costing much Roman blood, and in this slaughter Messalina, too, was overthrown.

After the discovery of the conspiracy, Claudius made a harangue to the soldiers, in which he told them that as he had not been very successful in his marriages he did not intend to take another wife.  The proposal was wise, but difficult of execution, for there were many reasons why the emperor needed to have a woman at his side.  We very soon find Claudius consulting his freedmen on the choice of a new wife.  There was much discussion and uncertainty, but the choice finally fell upon Agrippina.  That choice was significant.  Agrippina was the niece of Claudius, and marriages between uncle and niece, if not exactly prohibited, were looked upon by the Romans with a profound revulsion of feeling.  Claudius and his freedmen could not have decided to face this repugnance except for serious and important reasons.  Among these the most serious was probably that after the experience with Messalina, it seemed best not to go outside the family.  An empress belonging to the family would not be so likely to plot against the descendants of Augustus as had been this strange woman, who belonged to one of those aristocratic families who deeply hated the imperial house.  Agrippina, furthermore, was the daughter of Germanicus.  This was a powerful recommendation with the people, the pretorian cohorts, and the legions.  In addition, she was intelligent, cultured, simple, and economical; she had grown up in the midst of political affairs, she knew how the empire was governed, and up to this point she had lived a life above reproach.  She seemed to be the woman above all others destined to make the people forget Messalina and to reestablish among the masses respect for the family of Augustus, now seriously compromised by many scandals and dissensions.  Furthermore, she did not seem to suffer too much by comparison with Livia.