It's a familiar sort of rumor -- the sort often spread about a man whose only sin was loving other men, and not being politic or subtle enough to disguise it. Claudius can imagine the murmuring gossips with fans before their mouths, saying, not only that, his own half-brother …

"And yet the philandering of their father, which produced two bastards, was easily forgiven," he remarks, with a wry roll of eyes. "What a difference power can make. What happened to Mo Xuanyu?"