Agrippina the Younger outraged by Claudius' adoption of Nero and his choice of Nero as successor, instead of choosing his own son Britannicus. Nero and Octavia were married on June 9, 53. Claudius later repented of marrying Agrippina and adopting Nero, began to favor Britannicus, and started preparing him for the throne. His actions allegedly gave Agrippina a motive to eliminate Claudius. The ancient sources say she poisoned Claudius on October 13, 54 with a plate of deadly mushrooms at a banquet, thus enabling Nero to quickly take the throne as emperor. Accounts vary wildly with regard to this private incident and according
Agrippina the Elder the emperor, which would have made him a member of the imperial family. While this did make his ambitions clear, his request was denied. The loss may have been huge for Sejanus had the dissensions in the imperial household not been deteriorating. Relations were so bad that Agrippina refused to eat at Tiberius' dinner parties for fear of being poisoned. She also asked Tiberius if she could be allowed to remarry, which he also refused. If either of them were allowed to remarry it would have threatened the line of succession that Tiberius was comfortable with. By refusing Sejanus' request,