“ She was notorious for her profligacy, avarice and ambition, and exercised a complete ascendancy over her weak-minded husband, with the help of his all-powerful freedmen. During the absence of Claudius from the city, Messallina forced a handsome youth named Gaius Silius to divorce his wife and go through a regular form of marriage with her. The freedman Narcissus, warned by the fate of another freedman Polybius, who had been put to death by Messallina, informed Claudius of what had taken place, and persuaded him to consent to the removal of his wife. ”