Messalina lines 70-79: "Narcissus orders a tribune to murder Messalina"

For my own revision - OCR GCSE 2025

nam Claudius domum regressus, ubi cena vinoque incaluit, imperavit ut femina misera (hoc enim verbo Claudium usum esse ferunt) ad causam dicendam postridie adesset.

For when Claudius, having returned home, was heated with the meal and wine, he ordered that the wretched woman (for they say this is the word Claudius used) should be present the next day to plead her case.

quod ubi Narcissus audivit et languescere iram redire amorem vidit, timebat, si moraretur, propinquam noctem et uxorii cubiculi memoriam;

When Narcissus heard this and saw that (Claudius’) anger was abating and that his love was returning, he began to fear the approaching night, if he delayed, and the memory of his wife’s bedroom;

igitur prompit denuntiatque centurionibus et tribuno, qui aderat, exsequi caedem: ita imperatorem iubere.

therefore, he burst forth and ordered the centurions and a tribune, who was present, to carry out the slaughter: (he said that) this is what the emperor was ordering.

missus quoque unus e libertis: raptim in hortos praegressus repperit Messalinam, humi fusam;

One of the freedmen was also sent; he having gone swiftly to the gardens before (the rest), found Messalina prostrate on the ground.