By her was Clau'dius urged on to commit cruelties, which he considered only as wholesome severities; while her crimes became every day more notorious, and exceeded what had ever been in Rome.

For her crimes and enormities, however, she, together with her accomplice Cai'us Sil'ius, suffered that death they both had so justly deserved.
22.

Clau'dius afterwards married Agrippi'na, the daughter of his brother German'icus, a woman of a cruel and ambitious spirit, whose only aim being to procure the succession of Nero, her son by a former marriage, she treated Claudius with such haughtiness, that he was heard to declare, when heated with wine, that it was his fate to smart under the disorders of his wives, and to be their executioner.

23.
This expression sunk deep in her mind, and engaged all her faculties to prevent the blow; she therefore resolved not to defer a deed which she had meditated long before, which was to poison him.

She for some time debated within herself in what quantity the poison should be administered, as she feared that too strong a dose would discover the treachery, while one too weak would fail of its effect.24.At length she determined upon a poison of singular efficacy to destroy his intellects, and yet not suddenly to terminate his life; it was given among mushrooms, a dish the emperor was particularly fond of.