Among other things men have marvelled at his absent-mindedness and blindness, or to use the Greek terms, his perewpia and a&BdreWia. When he had put Messalina to death, he asked shortly after taking his place at the table why the empress did not come. He caused many of those whom he had condemmed to death to be summoned the very next day to consult with him or game with him, and sent a messenger to upbraid them for sleepy-heads when they delayed to appear. When he was planning his unlawful marriage with Agrippina, in every speech that he made he constantly called her his daughter and nursling, born and brought up in his arms. Just before his adoption of Nero, as if it were not bad enough to adopt a stepson when he hada grownup son of his own, he publicly declared more than once that no one had ever been taken into the Claudian family by adoption.