Gaius Silius (d. AD 48)

Tacitus describes Gaius Silius as consul-designate and the handsomest young man in Rome. He is said to have urged Messalina to act openly and to have promised to marry her and adopt Britannicus (Annals 11.26). After Claudius’s return to Rome he sought no defense and asked for a swift death (11.35).

Suetonius says that Claudius even signed the marriage contract, believing the wedding was a sham (Claudius 29). Whether it was a wedding or part of a plot, scholars do not know (Prusac 2025).