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Notes Display Latin text | Translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb Book XI Chapter 3: The fall of Valerius Asiaticus (cont.)[AD 47] | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
| When Claudius began to deliberate about the Asiaticus, Vitellius, with tears in his eyes, spoke of his old friendship with the accused, and of their joint homage to the emperor's mother Antonia. He then briefly reviewed the services of Asiaticus to the State, his recent campaign in the invasion of Britain and everything else which seemed likely to win compassion, and suggested that he should be free to choose his death. Claudius's reply was in the same tone of mercy. Some friends urged on Asiaticus the quiet death of self-starvation, but he declined it with thanks. He took his usual exercise, then bathed and dined cheerfully, and saying that he had better have fallen by the craft of Tiberius or the fury of Gaius Caesar than by the treachery of a woman and the shameless mouth of Vitellius, he opened his veins, but not till he had inspected his funeral pyre and directed its removal to another spot, lest the smoke should hurt the thick foliage of the trees. So complete was his calmness even to the last. |