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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/6390.txt b/6390.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..21fd2c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/6390.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2112 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tiberius Claudius Drusus Caesar (Claudius) +by C. Suetonius Tranquillus + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Tiberius Claudius Drusus Caesar (Claudius) + The Lives Of The Twelve Caesars, Volume 5. + +Author: C. Suetonius Tranquillus + +Release Date: December 13, 2004 [EBook #6390] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS DRUSUS CAESAR *** + + + + +Produced by Tapio Riikonen and David Widger + + + + + + THE LIVES + OF + THE TWELVE CAESARS + + By + C. Suetonius Tranquillus; + + To which are added, + + HIS LIVES OF THE GRAMMARIANS, RHETORICIANS, AND POETS. + + + The Translation of + Alexander Thomson, M.D. + + revised and corrected by + T.Forester, Esq., A.M. + + + + +TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS DRUSUS CAESAR. [465] + +(295) + +I. Livia, having married Augustus when she was pregnant, was within +three months afterwards delivered of Drusus, the father of Claudius +Caesar, who had at first the praenomen of Decimus, but afterwards that of +Nero; and it was suspected that he was begotten in adultery by his +father-in-law. The following verse, however, was immediately in every +one's mouth: + + Tois eutychousi kai primaena paidia. + + Nine months for common births the fates decree; + But, for the great, reduce the term to three. + +This Drusus, during the time of his being quaestor and praetor, commanded +in the Rhaetian and German wars, and was the first of all the Roman +generals who navigated the Northern Ocean [466]. He made likewise some +prodigious trenches beyond the Rhine [467], which to this day are called +by his name. He overthrew the enemy in several battles, and drove them +far back into the depths of the desert. Nor did he desist from pursuing +them, until an apparition, in the form of a barbarian woman, of more than +human size, appeared to him, and, in the Latin tongue, forbad him to +proceed any farther. For these achievements he had the honour of an +ovation, and the triumphal ornaments. After his praetorship, he +immediately entered on the office of consul, and returning again to +Germany, died of disease, in the summer encampment, which thence obtained +the name of "The Unlucky Camp." His corpse was carried to Rome by the +principal persons of the several municipalities and colonies upon the +road, being met and received by the recorders of each place, and buried +in the Campus Martius. In honour of his (296) memory, the army erected a +monument, round which the soldiers used, annually, upon a certain day, to +march in solemn procession, and persons deputed from the several cities +of Gaul performed religious rites. The senate likewise, among various +other honours, decreed for him a triumphal arch of marble, with trophies, +in the Appian Way, and gave the cognomen of Germanicus to him and his +posterity. In him the civil and military virtues were equally displayed; +for, besides his victories, he gained from the enemy the Spolia Opima +[468], and frequently marked out the German chiefs in the midst of their +army, and encountered them in single combat, at the utmost hazard of his +life. He likewise often declared that he would, some time or other, if +possible, restore the ancient government. In this account, I suppose, +some have ventured to affirm that Augustus was jealous of him, and +recalled him; and because he made no haste to comply with the order, took +him off by poison. This I mention, that I may not be guilty of any +omission, more than because I think it either true or probable; since +Augustus loved him so much when living, that he always, in his wills, +made him joint-heir with his sons, as he once declared in the senate; and +upon his decease, extolled him in a speech to the people, to that degree, +that he prayed the gods "to make his Caesars like him, and to grant +himself as honourable an exit out of this world as they had given him." +And not satisfied with inscribing upon his tomb an epitaph in verse +composed by himself, he wrote likewise the history of his life in prose. +He had by the younger Antonia several children, but left behind him only +three, namely, Germanicus, Livilla, and Claudius. + +II. Claudius was born at Lyons, in the consulship of Julius Antonius, +and Fabius Africanus, upon the first of August [469], the very day upon +which an altar was first dedicated there to Augustus. He was named +Tiberius Claudius Drusus, but soon afterwards, (297) upon the adoption of +his elder brother into the Julian family, he assumed the cognomen of +Germanicus. He was left an infant by his father, and during almost the +whole of his minority, and for some time after he attained the age of +manhood, was afflicted with a variety of obstinate disorders, insomuch +that his mind and body being greatly impaired, he was, even after his +arrival at years of maturity, never thought sufficiently qualified for +any public or private employment. He was, therefore, during a long time, +and even after the expiration of his minority, under the direction of a +pedagogue, who, he complains in a certain memoir, "was a barbarous +wretch, and formerly superintendent of the mule-drivers, who was selected +for his governor, on purpose to correct him severely on every trifling +occasion." On account of this crazy constitution of body and mind, at +the spectacle of gladiators, which he gave the people, jointly with his +brother, in honour of his father's memory, he presided, muffled up in a +pallium--a new fashion. When he assumed the manly habit, he was carried +in a litter, at midnight, to the Capitol, without the usual ceremony. + +III. He applied himself, however, from an early age, with great +assiduity to the study of the liberal sciences, and frequently published +specimens of his skill in each of them. But never, with all his +endeavours, could he attain to any public post in the government, or +afford any hope of arriving at distinction thereafter. His mother, +Antonia, frequently called him "an abortion of a man, that had been only +begun, but never finished, by nature." And when she would upbraid any +one with dulness, she said, "He was a greater fool than her son, +Claudius." His grandmother, Augusta, always treated him with the utmost +contempt, very rarely spoke to him, and when she did admonish him upon +any occasion, it was in writing, very briefly and severely, or by +messengers. His sister, Livilla, upon hearing that he was about to be +created emperor, openly and loudly expressed her indignation that the +Roman people should experience a fate so severe and so much below their +grandeur. To exhibit the opinion, both favourable and otherwise, +entertained concerning him by Augustus, his great-uncle, I have here +subjoined some extracts from the letters of that emperor. + +IV. "I have had some conversation with Tiberius, according (298) to your +desire, my dear Livia, as to what must be done with your grandson, +Tiberius, at the games of Mars. We are both agreed in this, that, once +for all, we ought to determine what course to take with him. For if he +be really sound and, so to speak, quite right in his intellects [470], +why should we hesitate to promote him by the same steps and degrees we +did his brother? But if we find him below par, and deficient both in +body and mind, we must beware of giving occasion for him and ourselves to +be laughed at by the world, which is ready enough to make such things the +subject of mirth and derision. For we never shall be easy, if we are +always to be debating upon every occasion of this kind, without settling, +in the first instance, whether he be really capable of public offices or +not. With regard to what you consult me about at the present moment, I +am not against his superintending the feast of the priests, in the games +of Mars, if he will suffer himself to be governed by his kinsman, +Silanus's son, that he may do nothing to make the people stare and laugh +at him. But I do not approve of his witnessing the Circensian games from +the Pulvinar. He will be there exposed to view in the very front of the +theatre. Nor do I like that he should go to the Alban Mount [471], or be +at Rome during the Latin festivals. For if he be capable of attending +his brother to the mount, why is he not made prefect of the city? Thus, +my dear Livia, you have my thoughts upon the matter. In my opinion, we +ought to (299) settle this affair once for all, that we may not be always +in suspense between hope and fear. You may, if you think proper, give +your kinsman Antonia this part of my letter to read." In another letter, +he writes as follows: "I shall invite: the youth, Tiberius, every day +during your absence, to supper, that he may not sup alone with his +friends Sulpicius and Athenodorus. I wish the poor creature was more +cautious and attentive in the choice of some one, whose manners, air, and +gait might be proper for his imitation: + + Atuchei panu en tois spoudaiois lian. + In things of consequence he sadly fails. + +Where his mind does not run astray, he discovers a noble disposition." +In a third letter, he says, "Let me die, my dear Livia, if I am not +astonished, that the declamation of your grandson, Tiberius, should +please me; for how he who talks so ill, should be able to declaim so +clearly and properly, I cannot imagine." There is no doubt but Augustus, +after this, came to a resolution upon the subject, and, accordingly, left +him invested with no other honour than that of the Augural priesthood; +naming him amongst the heirs of the third degree, who were but distantly +allied to his family, for a sixth part of his estate only, with a legacy +of no more than eight hundred thousand sesterces. + +V. Upon his requesting some office in the state, Tiberius granted him +the honorary appendages of the consulship, and when he pressed for a +legitimate appointment, the emperor wrote word back, that "he sent him +forty gold pieces for his expenses, during the festivals of the +Saturnalia and Sigillaria." Upon this, laying aside all hope of +advancement, he resigned himself entirely to an indolent life; living in +great privacy, one while in his gardens, or a villa which he had near the +city; another while in Campania, where he passed his time in the lowest +society; by which means, besides his former character of a dull, heavy +fellow, he acquired that of a drunkard and gamester. + +VI. Notwithstanding this sort of life, much respect was shown him both +in public and private. The equestrian (300) order twice made choice of +him to intercede on their behalf; once to obtain from the consuls the +favour of bearing on their shoulders the corpse of Augustus to Rome, and +a second time to congratulate him upon the death of Sejanus. When he +entered the theatre, they used to rise, and put off their cloaks. The +senate likewise decreed, that he should be added to the number of the +Augustal college of priests, who were chosen by lot; and soon afterwards, +when his house was burnt down, that it should be rebuilt at the public +charge; and that he should have the privilege of giving his vote amongst +the men of consular rank. This decree was, however, repealed; Tiberius +insisting to have him excused on account of his imbecility, and promising +to make good his loss at his own expense. But at his death, he named him +in his will, amongst his third heirs, for a third part of his estate; +leaving him besides a legacy of two millions of sesterces, and expressly +recommending him to the armies, the senate and people of Rome, amongst +his other relations. + +VII. At last, Caius [473], his brother's son, upon his advancement to +the empire, endeavouring to gain the affections of the public by all the +arts of popularity, Claudius also was admitted to public offices, and +held the consulship jointly with his nephew for two months. As he was +entering the Forum for the first time with the fasces, an eagle which was +flying that way; alighted upon his right shoulder. A second consulship +was also allotted him, to commence at the expiration of the fourth year. +He sometimes presided at the public spectacles, as the representative of +Caius; being always, on those occasions, complimented with the +acclamations of the people, wishing him all happiness, sometimes under +the title of the emperor's uncle, and sometimes under that of +Germanicus's brother. + +VIII. Still he was subjected to many slights. If at any time he came in +late to supper, he was obliged to walk round the room some time before he +could get a place at table. When he indulged himself with sleep after +eating, which was a common practice with him, the company used to throw +olive-stones and dates at him. And the buffoons who attended would wake +him, as if it were only in jest, with a cane or a whip. Sometimes they +would put slippers upon his hands; as he lay snoring, that he might, upon +awaking, rub his face with them. + +IX. He was not only exposed to contempt, but sometimes likewise to +considerable danger: first, in his consulship; for, having been too +remiss in providing and erecting the statues of Caius's brothers, Nero +and Drusus, he was very near being deprived of his office; and afterwards +he was continually harassed with informations against him by one or +other, sometimes even by his own domestics. When the conspiracy of +Lepidus and Gaetulicus was discovered, being sent with some other +deputies into Germany [474], to congratulate the emperor upon the +occasion, he was in danger of his life; Caius being greatly enraged, and +loudly complaining, that his uncle was sent to him, as if he was a boy +who wanted a governor. Some even say, that he was thrown into a river, +in his travelling dress. From this period, he voted in the senate always +the last of the members of consular rank; being called upon after the +rest, on purpose to disgrace him. A charge for the forgery of a will was +also allowed to be prosecuted, though he had only signed it as a witness. +At last, being obliged to pay eight millions of sesterces on entering +upon a new office of priesthood, he was reduced to such straits in his +private affairs, that in order to discharge his bond to the treasury, he +was under the necessity of exposing to sale his whole estate, by an order +of the prefects. + +X. Having spent the greater part of his life under these and the like +circumstances, he came at last to the empire in the fiftieth year of his +age [475], by a very surprising turn of fortune. Being, as well as the +rest, prevented from approaching Caius by the conspirators, who dispersed +the crowd, under the pretext of his desiring to be private, he retired +into an apartment called the Hermaeum [476]; and soon afterwards, +terrified by the report of Caius being slain, he crept into an adjoining +balcony, where he hid himself behind the hangings of (302) the door. A +common soldier, who happened to pass that way, spying his feet, and +desirous to discover who he was, pulled him out; when immediately +recognizing him, he threw himself in a great fright at his feet, and +saluted him by the title of emperor. He then conducted him to his +fellow-soldiers, who were all in a great rage, and irresolute what they +should do. They put him into a litter, and as the slaves of the palace +had all fled, took their turns in carrying him on their shoulders, and +brought him into the camp, sad and trembling; the people who met him +lamenting his situation, as if the poor innocent was being carried to +execution. Being received within the ramparts [477], he continued all +night with the sentries on guard, recovered somewhat from his fright, but +in no great hopes of the succession. For the consuls, with the senate +and civic troops, had possessed themselves of the Forum and Capitol, with +the determination to assert the public liberty; and he being sent for +likewise, by a tribune of the people, to the senate-house, to give his +advice upon the present juncture of affairs, returned answer, "I am under +constraint, and cannot possibly come." The day afterwards, the senate +being dilatory in their proceedings, and worn out by divisions amongst +themselves, while the people who surrounded the senate-house shouted that +they would have one master, naming Claudius, he suffered the soldiers +assembled under arms to swear allegiance to him, promising them fifteen +thousand sesterces a man; he being the first of the Caesars who purchased +the submission of the soldiers with money. [478] + +XI. Having thus established himself in power, his first object was to +abolish all remembrance of the two preceding days, in which a revolution +in the state had been canvassed. Accordingly, he passed an act of +perpetual oblivion and pardon for every thing said or done during that +time; and this he faithfully observed, with the exception only of putting +to death a few tribunes and centurions concerned in the conspiracy +against Caius, both as an example, and because he understood that they +had also planned his own death. He now turned (303) his thoughts towards +paying respect to the memory of his relations. His most solemn and usual +oath was, "By Augustus." He prevailed upon the senate to decree divine +honours to his grandmother Livia, with a chariot in the Circensian +procession drawn by elephants, as had been appointed for Augustus [479]; +and public offerings to the shades of his parents. Besides which, he +instituted Circensian games for his father, to be celebrated every year, +upon his birth-day, and, for his mother, a chariot to be drawn through +the circus; with the title of Augusta, which had been refused by his +grandmother [480]. To the memory of his brother [481], to which, upon +all occasions, he showed a great regard, he gave a Greek comedy, to be +exhibited in the public diversions at Naples [482], and awarded the crown +for it, according to the sentence of the judges in that solemnity. Nor +did he omit to make honourable and grateful mention of Mark Antony; +declaring by a proclamation, "That he the more earnestly insisted upon +the observation of his father Drusus's birth-day, because it was likewise +that of his grandfather Antony." He completed the marble arch near +Pompey's theatre, which had formerly been decreed by the senate in honour +of Tiberius, but which had been neglected [483]. And though he cancelled +all the acts of Caius, yet he forbad the day of his assassination, +notwithstanding it was that of his own accession to the empire, to be +reckoned amongst the festivals. + +XII. But with regard to his own aggrandisement, he was sparing and +modest, declining the title of emperor, and refusing all excessive +honours. He celebrated the marriage of his daughter and the birth-day of +a grandson with great privacy, at home. He recalled none of those who +had been banished, without a decree of the senate: and requested of them +permission for the prefect of the military tribunes and pretorian guards +to attend him in the senate-house [484]; and (304) also that they would +be pleased to bestow upon his procurators judicial authority in the +provinces [485]. He asked of the consuls likewise the privilege of +holding fairs upon his private estate. He frequently assisted the +magistrates in the trial of causes, as one of their assessors. And when +they gave public spectacles, he would rise up with the rest of the +spectators, and salute them both by words and gestures. When the +tribunes of the people came to him while he was on the tribunal, he +excused himself, because, on account of the crowd, he could not hear them +unless they stood. In a short time, by this conduct, he wrought himself +so much into the favour and affection of the public, that when, upon his +going to Ostia, a report was spread in the city that he had been way-laid +and slain, the people never ceased cursing the soldiers for traitors, and +the senate as parricides, until one or two persons, and presently after +several others, were brought by the magistrates upon the rostra, who +assured them that he was alive, and not far from the city, on his way +home. + +XIII. Conspiracies, however, were formed against him, not only by +individuals separately, but by a faction; and at last his government was +disturbed with a civil war. A low fellow was found with a poniard about +him, near his chamber, at midnight. Two men of the equestrian order were +discovered waiting for him in the streets, armed with a tuck and a +huntsman's dagger; one of them intending to attack him as he came out of +the theatre, and the other as he was sacrificing in the temple of Mars. +Gallus Asinius and Statilius Corvinus, grandsons of the two orators, +Pollio and Messala [486], formed a conspiracy against him, in which they +engaged many of his freedmen and slaves. Furius Camillus Scribonianus, +his lieutenant in Dalmatia, broke into rebellion, but was reduced in +(305) the space of five days; the legions which he had seduced from their +oath of fidelity relinquishing their purpose, upon an alarm occasioned by +ill omens. For when orders were given them to march, to meet their new +emperor, the eagles could not be decorated, nor the standards pulled out +of the ground, whether it was by accident, or a divine interposition. + +XIV. Besides his former consulship, he held the office afterwards four +times; the first two successively [487], but the following, after an +interval of four years each [488]; the last for six months, the others +for two; and the third, upon his being chosen in the room of a consul who +died; which had never been done by any of the emperors before him. +Whether he was consul or out of office, he constantly attended the courts +for the administration of justice, even upon such days as were solemnly +observed as days of rejoicing in his family, or by his friends; and +sometimes upon the public festivals of ancient institution. Nor did he +always adhere strictly to the letter of the laws, but overruled the +rigour or lenity of many of their enactments, according to his sentiments +of justice and equity. For where persons lost their suits by insisting +upon more than appeared to be their due, before the judges of private +causes, he granted them the indulgence of a second trial. And with +regard to such as were convicted of any great delinquency, he even +exceeded the punishment appointed by law, and condemned them to be +exposed to wild beasts. [489] + +XV. But in hearing and determining causes, he exhibited a strange +inconsistency of temper, being at one time circumspect and sagacious, at +another inconsiderate and rash, and sometimes frivolous, and like one out +of his mind. In correcting the roll of judges, he struck off the name of +one who, concealing the privilege his children gave him to be excused +from serving, had answered to his name, as too eager for the office. +Another who was summoned before him in a cause of his own, but alleged +that the affair did not properly come under the (306) emperor's +cognizance, but that of the ordinary judges, he ordered to plead the +cause himself immediately before him, and show in a case of his own, how +equitable a judge he would prove in that of other persons. A woman +refusing to acknowledge her own son, and there being no clear proof on +either side, he obliged her to confess the truth, by ordering her to +marry the young man [490]. He was much inclined to determine causes in +favour of the parties who appeared, against those who did not, without +inquiring whether their absence was occasioned by their own fault, or by +real necessity. On proclamation of a man's being convicted of forgery, +and that he ought to have his hand cut off, he insisted that an +executioner should be immediately sent for, with a Spanish sword and a +block. A person being prosecuted for falsely assuming the freedom of +Rome, and a frivolous dispute arising between the advocates in the cause, +whether he ought to make his appearance in the Roman or Grecian dress, to +show his impartiality, he commanded him to change his clothes several +times according to the character he assumed in the accusation or defence. +An anecdote is related of him, and believed to be true, that, in a +particular cause, he delivered his sentence in writing thus: "I am in +favour of those who have spoken the truth." [491] By this he so much +forfeited the good opinion of the world, that he was everywhere and +openly despised. A person making an excuse for the non-appearance of a +witness whom he had sent for from the provinces, declared it was +impossible for him to appear, concealing the reason for some time: at +last, after several interrogatories were put to him on the subject, he +answered, "The man is dead;" to which Claudius replied, "I think that is +a sufficient excuse." Another thanking him for suffering a person who +was prosecuted to make his defence by counsel, added, "And yet it is no +more than what is usual." I have likewise heard some old men say [492], +that the advocates used to abuse his patience so grossly, that they would +not only (307) call him back, as he was quitting the tribunal, but would +seize him by the lap of his coat, and sometimes catch him by the heels, +to make him stay. That such behaviour, however strange, is not +incredible, will appear from this anecdote. Some obscure Greek, who was +a litigant, had an altercation with him, in which he called out, "You are +an old fool." [493] It is certain that a Roman knight, who was +prosecuted by an impotent device of his enemies on a false charge of +abominable obscenity with women, observing that common strumpets were +summoned against him and allowed to give evidence, upbraided Claudius in +very harsh and severe terms with his folly and cruelty, and threw his +style, and some books which he had in his hands, in his face, with such +violence as to wound him severely in the cheek. + +XVI. He likewise assumed the censorship [494], which had been +discontinued since the time that Paulus and Plancus had jointly held it. +But this also he administered very unequally, and with a strange variety +of humour and conduct. In his review of the knights, he passed over, +without any mark of disgrace, a profligate young man, only because his +father spoke of him in the highest terms; "for," said he, "his father is +his proper censor." Another, who was infamous for debauching youths and +for adultery, he only admonished "to indulge his youthful inclinations +more sparingly, or at least more cautiously;" [495] adding, "why must I +know what mistress you keep?" When, at the request of his friends, he +had taken off a mark of infamy which he had set upon one knight's name, +he said, "Let the blot, however, remain." He not only struck out of the +list of judges, but likewise deprived of the freedom of Rome, an +illustrious man of the highest provincial rank in Greece, only because he +was ignorant of the Latin language. Nor in this review did he suffer any +one to give an account of his conduct by an advocate, but obliged each +man to speak for himself in the best way he could. He disgraced many, +and some that little expected it, and for a reason entirely new, namely, +for going out of Italy without his license; (308) and one likewise, for +having in his province been the familiar companion of a king; observing, +that, in former times, Rabirius Posthumus had been prosecuted for +treason, although he only went after Ptolemy to Alexandria for the +purpose of securing payment of a debt [496]. Having tried to brand with +disgrace several others, he, to his own greater shame, found them +generally innocent, through the negligence of the persons employed to +inquire into their characters; those whom he charged with living in +celibacy, with want of children, or estate, proving themselves to be +husbands, parents, and in affluent circumstances. One of the knights who +was charged with stabbing himself, laid his bosom bare, to show that +there was not the least mark of violence upon his body. The following +incidents were remarkable in his censorship. He ordered a car, plated +with silver, and of very sumptuous workmanship, which was exposed for +sale in the Sigillaria [497], to be purchased, and broken in pieces +before his eyes. He published twenty proclamations in one day, in one of +which he advised the people, "Since the vintage was very plentiful, to +have their casks well secured at the bung with pitch:" and in another, he +told them, "that nothing would sooner cure the bite of a viper, than the +sap of the yew-tree." + +XVII. He undertook only one expedition, and that was of short duration. +The triumphal ornaments decreed him by the senate, he considered as +beneath the imperial dignity, and was therefore resolved to have the +honour of a real triumph. For this purpose, he selected Britain, which +had never been attempted by any one since Julius Caesar [498], and was +then chafing (309) with rage, because the Romans would not give up some +deserters. Accordingly, he set sail from Ostia, but was twice very near +being wrecked by the boisterous wind called Circius [499], upon the coast +of Liguria, and near the islands called Stoechades [500]. Having marched +by land from Marseilles to Gessoriacum [501], he thence passed over to +Britain, and part of the island submitting to him, within a few days +after his arrival, without battle or bloodshed, he returned to Rome in +less than six months from the time of his departure, and triumphed in the +most solemn manner [502]; to witness which, he not only (310) gave leave +to governors of provinces to come to Rome, but even to some of the +exiles. Among the spoils taken from the enemy, he fixed upon the +pediment of his house in the Palatium, a naval crown, in token of his +having passed, and, as it were, conquered the Ocean, and had it suspended +near the civic crown which was there before. Messalina, his wife, +followed his chariot in a covered litter [503]. Those who had attained +the honour of triumphal ornaments in the same war, rode behind; the rest +followed on foot, wearing the robe with the broad stripes. Crassus Frugi +was mounted upon a horse richly caparisoned, in a robe embroidered with +palm leaves, because this was the second time of his obtaining that +honour. + +XVIII. He paid particular attention to the care of the city, and to have +it well supplied with provisions. A dreadful fire happening in the +Aemiliana [504], which lasted some time, he passed two nights in the +Diribitorium [505], and the soldiers and gladiators not being in +sufficient numbers to extinguish it, he caused the magistrates to summon +the people out of all the streets in the city, to their assistance. +Placing bags of money before him, he encouraged them to do their utmost, +declaring, that he would reward every one on the spot, according to their +exertions. + +XIX. During a scarcity of provisions, occasioned by bad crops for +several successive years, he was stopped in the middle of the Forum by +the mob, who so abused him, at the same time pelting him with fragments +of bread, that he had some (311) difficulty in escaping into the palace +by a back door. He therefore used all possible means to bring provisions +to the city, even in the winter. He proposed to the merchants a sure +profit, by indemnifying them against any loss that might befall them by +storms at sea; and granted great privileges to those who built ships for +that traffic. To a citizen of Rome he gave an exemption from the penalty +of the Papia-Poppaean law [506]; to one who had only the privilege of +Latium, the freedom of the city; and to women the rights which by law +belonged to those who had four children: which enactments are in force to +this day. + +XX. He completed some important public works, which, though not +numerous, were very useful. The principal were an aqueduct, which had +been begun by Caius; an emissary for the discharge of the waters of the +Fucine lake [507], and the harbour of Ostia; although he knew that +Augustus had refused to comply with the repeated application of the +Marsians for one of these; and that the other had been several times +intended by Julius Caesar, but as often abandoned on account of the +difficulty of its execution. He brought to the city the cool and +plentiful springs of the Claudian water, one of which is called +Caeruleus, and the other Curtius and Albudinus, as likewise the river of +the New Anio, in a stone canal; and distributed them into many +magnificent reservoirs. The canal from the Fucine lake was undertaken as +much for the sake of profit, as for the honour of the enterprise; for +there were parties who offered to drain it at their own expense, on +condition of their having a grant of the land laid dry. With great +difficulty he completed a canal three miles in length, partly by cutting +through, and partly by tunnelling, a mountain; thirty thousand men being +constantly employed in the work for eleven years [508]. He formed the +harbour at Ostia, by carrying out circular piers on the right and on the +left, with (312) a mole protecting, in deep water, the entrance of the +port [509]. To secure the foundation of this mole, he sunk the vessel in +which the great obelisk [510] had been brought from Egypt [511]; and +built upon piles a very lofty tower, in imitation of the Pharos at +Alexandria, on which lights were burnt to direct mariners in the night. + +XXI. He often distributed largesses of corn and money among the people, +and entertained them with a great variety of public magnificent +spectacles, not only such as were usual, and in the accustomed places, +but some of new invention, and others revived from ancient models, and +exhibited in places where nothing of the kind had been ever before +attempted. In the games which he presented at the dedication of Pompey's +theatre [512], which had been burnt down, and was rebuilt by him, he +presided upon a tribunal erected for him in the orchestra; having first +paid his devotions, in the temple above, and then coming down through the +centre of the circle, while all the people kept their seats in profound +silence [513]. He likewise (313) exhibited the secular games [514], +giving out that Augustus had anticipated the regular period; though he +himself says in his history, "That they had been omitted before the age +of Augustus, who had calculated the years with great exactness, and again +brought them to their regular period." [515] The crier was therefore +ridiculed, when he invited people in the usual form, "to games which no +person had ever before seen, nor ever would again;" when many were still +living who had already seen them; and some of the performers who had +formerly acted in them, were now again brought upon the stage. He +likewise frequently celebrated the Circensian games in the Vatican [516], +sometimes exhibiting a hunt of wild beasts, after every five courses. He +embellished the Circus Maximus with marble barriers, and gilded goals, +which before were of common stone [517] and wood, and assigned proper +places for the senators, who were used to sit promiscuously with the +other spectators. Besides the chariot-races, he exhibited there the +Trojan game, and wild beasts from Africa, which were encountered by a +troop of pretorian knights, with their tribunes, and even the prefect at +the head of them; besides Thessalian horse, who drive fierce bulls round +the circus, leap upon their backs when they have exhausted their fury, +and drag them by the horns to the ground. He gave exhibitions of +gladiators in several places, and of various kinds; one yearly on the +anniversary of his accession in the pretorian camp [518], but without any +hunting, or the usual apparatus; another in the Septa as usual; and in +the same place, another out of the common way, and of a few days' +continuance only, which he called Sportula; because when he was going to +present it, he informed the people by proclamation, "that he invited them +to a late supper, got up in haste, and without ceremony." Nor did he +lend himself to any kind of public diversion with more freedom and +hilarity; insomuch that he would hold out his left hand, and (314) joined +by the common people, count upon his fingers aloud the gold pieces +presented to those who came off conquerors. He would earnestly invite +the company to be merry; sometimes calling them his "masters," with a +mixture of insipid, far-fetched jests. Thus, when the people called for +Palumbus [519], he said, "He would give them one when he could catch it." +The following was well-intended, and well-timed; having, amidst great +applause, spared a gladiator, on the intercession of his four sons, he +sent a billet immediately round the theatre, to remind the people, "how +much it behoved them to get children, since they had before them an +example how useful they had been in procuring favour and security for a +gladiator." He likewise represented in the Campus Martius, the assault +and sacking of a town, and the surrender of the British kings [520], +presiding in his general's cloak. Immediately before he drew off the +waters from the Fucine lake, he exhibited upon it a naval fight. But the +combatants on board the fleets crying out, "Health attend you, noble +emperor! We, who are about to peril our lives, salute you;" and he +replying, "Health attend you too," they all refused to fight, as if by +that response he had meant to excuse them. Upon this, he hesitated for a +time, whether he should not destroy them all with fire and sword. At +last, leaping from his seat, and running along the shore of the lake with +tottering steps, the result of his foul excesses, he, partly by fair +words, and partly by threats, persuaded them to engage. This spectacle +represented an engagement between the fleets of Sicily and Rhodes; +consisting each of twelve ships of war, of three banks of oars. The +signal for the encounter was given by a silver Triton, raised by +machinery from the middle of the lake. + +XXII. With regard to religious ceremonies, the administration of affairs +both civil and military, and the condition of all orders of the people at +home and abroad, some practices he corrected, others which had been laid +aside he revived; and some regulations he introduced which were entirely +new. In appointing new priests for the several colleges, he made no +appointments without being sworn. When an earthquake (315) happened in +the city, he never failed to summon the people together by the praetor, +and appoint holidays for sacred rites. And upon the sight of any ominous +bird in the City or Capitol, he issued an order for a supplication, the +words of which, by virtue of his office of high priest, after an +exhortation from the rostra, he recited in the presence of the people, +who repeated them after him; all workmen and slaves being first ordered +to withdraw. + +XXIII. The courts of judicature, whose sittings had been formerly +divided between the summer and winter months, he ordered, for the +dispatch of business, to sit the whole year round. The jurisdiction in +matters of trust, which used to be granted annually by special commission +to certain magistrates, and in the city only, he made permanent, and +extended to the provincial judges likewise. He altered a clause added by +Tiberius to the Papia-Poppaean law [521], which inferred that men of +sixty years of age were incapable of begetting children. He ordered +that, out of the ordinary course of proceeding, orphans might have +guardians appointed them by the consuls; and that those who were banished +from any province by the chief magistrate, should be debarred from coming +into the City, or any part of Italy. He inflicted on certain persons a +new sort of banishment, by forbidding them to depart further than three +miles from Rome. When any affair of importance came before the senate, +he used to sit between the two consuls upon the seats of the tribunes. +He reserved to himself the power of granting license to travel out of +Italy, which before had belonged to the senate. + +XXIV. He likewise granted the consular ornaments to his Ducenarian +procurators. From those who declined the senatorian dignity, he took +away the equestrian. Although he had in the beginning of his reign +declared, that he would admit no man into the senate who was not the +great-grandson of a Roman citizen, yet he gave the "broad hem" to the son +of a freedman, on condition that he should be adopted by a Roman knight. +Being afraid, however, of incurring censure by such an act, he informed +the public, that his ancestor Appius Caecus, the censor, had elected the +sons of freedmen into (316) the senate; for he was ignorant, it seems, +that in the times of Appius, and a long while afterwards, persons +manumitted were not called freedmen, but only their sons who were +free-born. Instead of the expense which the college of quaestors was +obliged to incur in paving the high-ways, he ordered them to give the +people an exhibition of gladiators; and relieving them of the provinces of +Ostia and [Cisalpine] Gaul, he reinstated them in the charge of the +treasury, which, since it was taken from them, had been managed by the +praetors, or those who had formerly filled that office. He gave the +triumphal ornaments to Silanus, who was betrothed to his daughter, though +he was under age; and in other cases, he bestowed them on so many, and +with so little reserve, that there is extant a letter unanimously +addressed to him by all the legions, begging him "to grant his consular +lieutenants the triumphal ornaments at the time of their appointment to +commands, in order to prevent their seeking occasion to engage in +unnecessary wars." He decreed to Aulus Plautius the honour of an ovation +[522], going to meet him at his entering the city, and walking with him in +the procession to the Capitol, and back, in which he took the left side, +giving him the post of honour. He allowed Gabinius Secundus, upon his +conquest of the Chauci, a German tribe, to assume the cognomen of +Chaucius. [523] + +XXV. His military organization of the equestrian order was this. After +having the command of a cohort, they were promoted to a wing of auxiliary +horse, and subsequently received the commission of tribune of a legion. +He raised a body of militia, who were called Supernumeraries, who, though +they were a sort of soldiers, and kept in reserve, yet received pay. He +procured an act of the senate to prohibit all soldiers from attending +senators at their houses, in the way of respect and compliment. He +confiscated the estates of all freedmen who presumed to take upon +themselves the equestrian rank. Such of them as were ungrateful to their +patrons, and were complained of by them, he reduced to their former +condition of (317) slavery; and declared to their advocates, that he +would always give judgment against the freedmen, in any suit at law which +the masters might happen to have with them. Some persons having exposed +their sick slaves, in a languishing condition, on the island of +Aesculapius [524], because of the tediousness of their cure; he declared +all who were so exposed perfectly free, never more to return, if they +should recover, to their former servitude; and that if any one chose to +kill at once, rather than expose, a slave, he should be liable for +murder. He published a proclamation, forbidding all travellers to pass +through the towns of Italy any otherwise than on foot, or in a litter or +chair [525]. He quartered a cohort of soldiers at Puteoli, and another +at Ostia, to be in readiness against any accidents from fire. He +prohibited foreigners from adopting Roman names, especially those which +belonged to families [526]. Those who falsely pretended to the freedom +of Rome, he beheaded on the Esquiline. He gave up to the senate the +provinces of Achaia and Macedonia, which Tiberius had transferred to his +own administration. He deprived the Lycians of their liberties, as a +punishment for their fatal dissensions; but restored to the Rhodians +their freedom, upon their repenting of their former misdemeanors. He +exonerated for ever the people of Ilium from the payment of taxes, as +being the founders of the Roman race; reciting upon the occasion a letter +in Greek, (318) from the senate and people of Rome to king Seleucus +[527], on which they promised him their friendship and alliance, provided +that he would grant their kinsmen the Iliensians immunity from all +burdens. + +He banished from Rome all the Jews, who were continually making +disturbances at the instigation of one Chrestus [528]. He allowed the +ambassadors of the Germans to sit at the public spectacles in the seats +assigned to the senators, being induced to grant them favours by their +frank and honourable conduct. For, having been seated in the rows of +benches which were common to the people, on observing the Parthian and +Armenian ambassadors sitting among the senators, they took upon +themselves to cross over into the same seats, as being, they said, no way +inferior to the others, in point either, of merit or rank. The religious +rites of the Druids, solemnized with such horrid cruelties, which had +only been forbidden the citizens of Rome during the reign of Augustus, he +utterly abolished among the Gauls [529]. On the other hand, he attempted +(319) to transfer the Eleusinian mysteries from Attica to Rome [530]. He +likewise ordered the temple of Venus Erycina in Sicily, which was old and +in a ruinous condition, to be repaired at the expense of the Roman +people. He concluded treaties with foreign princes in the forum, with +the sacrifice of a sow, and the form of words used by the heralds in +former times. But in these and other things, and indeed the greater part +of his administration, he was directed not so much by his own judgment, +as by the influence of his wives and freedmen; for the most part acting +in conformity to what their interests or fancies dictated. + +XXVI. He was twice married at a very early age, first to Aemilia Lepida, +the grand-daughter of Augustus, and afterwards to Livia Medullina, who +had the cognomen of Camilla, and was descended from the old dictator +Camillus. The former he divorced while still a virgin, because her +parents had incurred the displeasure of Augustus; and he lost the latter +by sickness on the day fixed for their nuptials. He next married Plautia +Urgulanilla, whose father had enjoyed the honour of a triumph; and soon +afterwards, Aelia Paetina, the daughter of a man of consular rank. But +he divorced them both; Paetina, upon some trifling causes of disgust; and +Urgulanilla, for scandalous lewdness, and the suspicion of murder. After +them he took in marriage Valeria Messalina, the daughter of Barbatus +Messala, his cousin. But finding that, besides her other shameful +debaucheries, she had even gone so far as to marry in his own absence +Caius Silius, the settlement of her dower being formally signed, in the +presence of the augurs, he put her to death. When summoning his +pretorians to his presence, he made to them this declaration: "As I have +been so unhappy in my unions, I am resolved to continue in future +unmarried; and if I should not, I give you leave to stab me." He was, +however, unable to persist in this resolution; for he began immediately +to think of another wife; and even of taking back Paetina, whom he had +formerly divorced: he thought also of Lollia Paulina, who had been +married to Caius Caesar. But being ensnared by the arts of Agrippina, +(320) the daughter of his brother Germanicus, who took advantage of the +kisses and endearments which their near relationship admitted, to inflame +his desires, he got some one to propose at the next meeting of the +senate, that they should oblige the emperor to marry Agrippina, as a +measure highly conducive to the public interest; and that in future +liberty should be given for such marriages, which until that time had +been considered incestuous. In less than twenty-four hours after this, +he married her [531]. No person was found, however, to follow the +example, excepting one freedman, and a centurion of the first rank, at +the solemnization of whose nuptials both he and Agrippina attended. + +XXVII. He had children by three of his wives: by Urgulanilla, Drusus and +Claudia; by Paetina, Antonia; and by Messalina, Octavia, and also a son, +whom at first he called Germanicus, but afterwards Britannicus. He lost +Drusus at Pompeii, when he was very young; he being choked with a pear, +which in his play he tossed into the air, and caught in his mouth. Only +a few days before, he had betrothed him to one of Sejanus's daughters +[532]; and I am therefore surprised that some authors should say he lost +his life by the treachery of Sejanus. Claudia, who was, in truth, the +daughter of Boter his freedman, though she was born five months before +his divorce, he ordered to be thrown naked at her mother's door. He +married Antonia to Cneius Pompey the Great [533], and afterwards to +Faustus Sylla [534], both youths of very noble parentage; Octavia to his +step-son Nero [535], after she had been contracted to Silanus. +Britannicus was born upon the twentieth day of his reign, and in his +second consulship. He often earnestly commended him to the soldiers, +holding him in his arms before their ranks; and would likewise show him +to the people in the theatre, setting him upon his lap, or holding him +out whilst he was still very young; and was sure to receive their +acclamations, and good wishes on his behalf. Of his (321) sons-in-law, +he adopted Nero. He not only dismissed from his favour both Pompey and +Silanus, but put them to death. + +XXVIII. Amongst his freedmen, the greatest favourite was the eunuch +Posides, whom, in his British triumph, he presented with the pointless +spear, classing him among the military men. Next to him, if not equal, +in favour was Felix [536], whom he not only preferred to commands both of +cohorts and troops, but to the government of the province of Judaea; and +he became, in consequence of his elevation, the husband of three queens +[537]. Another favourite was Harpocras, to whom he granted the privilege +of being carried in a litter within the city, and of holding public +spectacles for the entertainment of the people. In this class was +likewise Polybius, who assisted him in his studies, and had often the +honour of walking between the two consuls. But above all others, +Narcissus, his secretary, and Pallas [538], the comptroller of his +accounts, were in high favour with him. He not only allowed them to +receive, by decree of the senate, immense presents, but also to be +decorated with the quaestorian and praetorian ensigns of honour. So much +did he indulge them in amassing wealth, and plundering the public, that, +upon his complaining, once, of the lowness of his exchequer, some one +said, with great reason, that "It would be full enough, if those two +freedmen of his would but take him into partnership with them." + +XXIX. Being entirely governed by these freedmen, and, as I have already +said, by his wives, he was a tool to others, rather than a prince. He +distributed offices, or the command of armies, pardoned or punished, +according as it suited their interests, (322) their passions, or their +caprice; and for the most part, without knowing, or being sensible of +what he did. Not to enter into minute details relative to the revocation +of grants, the reversal of judicial decisions, obtaining his signature to +fictitious appointments, or the bare-faced alteration of them after +signing; he put to death Appius Silanus, the father of his son-in-law, +and the two Julias, the daughters of Drusus and Germanicus, without any +positive proof of the crimes with which they were charged, or so much as +permitting them to make any defence. He also cut off Cneius Pompey, the +husband of his eldest daughter; and Lucius Silanus, who was betrothed to +the younger Pompey, was stabbed in the act of unnatural lewdness with a +favourite paramour. Silanus was obliged to quit the office of praetor +upon the fourth of the calends of January [29th Dec.], and to kill +himself on new year's day [539] following, the very same on which +Claudius and Agrippina were married. He condemned to death five and +thirty senators, and above three hundred Roman knights, with so little +attention to what he did, that when a centurion brought him word of the +execution of a man of consular rank, who was one of the number, and told +him that he had executed his order, he declared, "he had ordered no such +thing, but that he approved of it;" because his freedmen, it seems, had +said, that the soldiers did nothing more than their duty, in dispatching +the emperor's enemies without waiting for a warrant. But it is beyond +all belief, that he himself, at the marriage of Messalina with the +adulterous Silius, should actually sign the writings relative to her +dowry; induced, as it is pretended, by the design of diverting from +himself and transferring upon another the danger which some omens seemed +to threaten him. + +XXX. Either standing or sitting, but especially when he lay asleep, he +had a majestic and graceful appearance; for he was tall, but not slender. +His grey looks became him well, and he had a full neck. But his knees +were feeble, and failed him in walking, so that his gait was ungainly, +both when he assumed state, and when he was taking diversion. He was +outrageous in his laughter, and still more so in his wrath, for then he +foamed at the mouth, and discharged from his nostrils. He also stammered +in his speech, and had a tremulous motion (323) of the head at all times, +but particularly when he was engaged in any business, however trifling. + +XXXI. Though his health was very infirm during the former part of his +life, yet, after he became emperor, he enjoyed a good state of health, +except only that he was subject to a pain of the stomach. In a fit of +this complaint, he said he had thoughts of killing himself. + +XXXII. He gave entertainments as frequent as they were splendid, and +generally when there was such ample room, that very often six hundred +guests sat down together. At a feast he gave on the banks of the canal +for draining the Fucine Lake, he narrowly escaped being drowned, the +water at its discharge rushing out with such violence, that it overflowed +the conduit. At supper he had always his own children, with those of +several of the nobility, who, according to an ancient custom, sat at the +feet of the couches. One of his guests having been suspected of +purloining a golden cup, he invited him again the next day, but served +him with a porcelain jug. It is said, too, that he intended to publish +an edict, "allowing to all people the liberty of giving vent at table to +any distension occasioned by flatulence," upon hearing of a person whose +modesty, when under restraint, had nearly cost him his life. + +XXXIII. He was always ready to eat and drink at any time or in any +place. One day, as he was hearing causes in the Forum of Augustus, he +smelt the dinner which was preparing for the Salii [540], in the temple +of Mars adjoining, whereupon he quitted (324) the tribunal, and went to +partake of the feast with the priests. + +He scarcely ever left the table until he had thoroughly crammed himself +and drank to intoxication; and then he would immediately fall asleep, +lying upon his back with his mouth open. While in this condition, a +feather was put down his throat, to make him throw up the contents of his +stomach. Upon composing himself to rest, his sleep was short, and he +usually awoke before midnight; but he would sometimes sleep in the +daytime, and that, even, when he was upon the tribunal; so that the +advocates often found it difficult to wake him, though they raised their +voices for that purpose. He set no bounds to his libidinous intercourse +with women, but never betrayed any unnatural desires for the other sex. +He was fond of gaming, and published a book upon the subject. He even +used to play as he rode in his chariot, having the tables so fitted, that +the game was not disturbed by the motion of the carriage. + +XXXIV. His cruel and sanguinary disposition was exhibited upon great as +well as trifling occasions. When any person was to be put to the +torture, or criminal punished for parricide, he was impatient for the +execution, and would have it performed in his own presence. When he was +at Tibur, being desirous of seeing an example of the old way of putting +malefactors to death, some were immediately bound to a stake for the +purpose; but there being no executioner to be had at the place, he sent +for one from Rome, and waited for his coming until night. In any +exhibition of gladiators, presented either by himself or others, if any +of the combatants chanced to fall, he ordered them to be butchered, +especially the Retiarii, that he might see their faces in the agonies of +death. Two gladiators happening to kill each other, he immediately +ordered some little knives to be made of their swords for his own use. +He took great pleasure in seeing men engage with wild beasts, and the +combatants who appeared on the stage at noon. He would therefore come to +the theatre by break of day, and at noon, dismissing the people to +dinner, continued sitting himself; and besides those who were devoted to +that sanguinary fate, he would match others with the beasts, upon slight +or sudden occasions; as, for instance, the carpenters and their (326) +assistants, and people of that sort, if a machine, or any piece of work +in which they had been employed about the theatre did not answer the +purpose for which it had been intended. To this desperate kind of +encounter he forced one of his nomenclators, even encumbered as he was by +wearing the toga. + +XXXV. But the characteristics most predominant in him were fear and +distrust. In the beginning of his reign, though he much affected a +modest and humble appearance, as has been already observed, yet he durst +not venture himself at an entertainment without being attended by a guard +of spearmen, and made soldiers wait upon him at table instead of +servants. He never visited a sick person, until the chamber had been +first searched, and the bed and bedding thoroughly examined. At other +times, all persons who came to pay their court to him were strictly +searched by officers appointed for that purpose; nor was it until after a +long time, and with much difficulty, that he was prevailed upon to excuse +women, boys, and girls from such rude handling, or suffer their +attendants or writing-masters to retain their cases for pens and styles. +When Camillus formed his plot against him, not doubting but his timidity +might be worked upon without a war, he wrote to him a scurrilous, +petulant, and threatening letter, desiring him to resign the government, +and betake himself to a life of privacy. Upon receiving this +requisition, he had some thoughts of complying with it, and summoned +together the principal men of the city, to consult with them on the +subject. + +XXXVI. Having heard some loose reports of conspiracies formed against +him, he was so much alarmed, that he thought of immediately abdicating +the government. And when, as I have before related, a man armed with a +dagger was discovered near him while he was sacrificing, he instantly +ordered the heralds to convoke the senate, and with tears and dismal +exclamations, lamented that such was his condition, that he was safe no +where; and for a long time afterwards he abstained from appearing in +public. He smothered his ardent love for Messalina, not so much on +account of her infamous conduct, as from apprehension of danger; +believing that she aspired to share with Silius, her partner in adultery, +the imperial dignity. (326) Upon this occasion he ran in a great fright, +and a very shameful manner, to the camp, asking all the way he went, "if +the empire were indeed safely his?" + +XXXVII. No suspicion was too trifling, no person on whom it rested too +contemptible, to throw him into a panic, and induce him to take +precautions for his safety, and meditate revenge. A man engaged in a +litigation before his tribunal, having saluted him, drew him aside, and +told him he had dreamt that he saw him murdered; and shortly afterwards, +when his adversary came to deliver his plea to the emperor, the +plaintiff, pretending to have discovered the murderer, pointed to him as +the man he had seen in his dream; whereupon, as if he had been taken in +the act, he was hurried away to execution. We are informed, that Appius +Silanus was got rid of in the same manner, by a contrivance betwixt +Messalina and Narcissus, in which they had their several parts assigned +them. Narcissus therefore burst into his lord's chamber before daylight, +apparently in great fright, and told him that he had dreamt that Appius +Silanus had murdered him. The empress, upon this, affecting great +surprise, declared she had the like dream for several nights +successively. Presently afterwards, word was brought, as it had been +agreed on, that Appius was come, he having, indeed, received orders the +preceding day to be there at that time; and, as if the truth of the dream +was sufficiently confirmed by his appearance at that juncture, he was +immediately ordered to be prosecuted and put to death. The day +following, Claudius related the whole affair to the senate, and +acknowledged his great obligation to his freedmen for watching over him +even in his sleep. + +XXXVIII. Sensible of his being subject to passion and resentment, he +excused himself in both instances by a proclamation, assuring the public +that "the former should be short and harmless, and the latter never +without good cause." After severely reprimanding the people of Ostia for +not sending some boats to meet him upon his entering the mouth of the +Tiber, in terms which might expose them to the public resentment, he +wrote to Rome that he had been treated as a private person; yet +immediately afterwards he pardoned them, and that in a way which had the +appearance of making them (327) satisfaction, or begging pardon for some +injury he had done them. Some people who addressed him unseasonably in +public, he pushed away with his own hand. He likewise banished a person +who had been secretary to a quaestor, and even a senator who had filled +the office of praetor, without a hearing, and although they were +innocent; the former only because he had treated him with rudeness while +he was in a private station, and the other, because in his aedileship he +had fined some tenants of his, for selling cooked victuals contrary to +law, and ordered his steward, who interfered, to be whipped. On this +account, likewise, he took from the aediles the jurisdiction they had +over cooks'-shops. He did not scruple to speak of his own absurdities, +and declared in some short speeches which he published, that he had only +feigned imbecility in the reign of Caius, because otherwise it would have +been impossible for him to have escaped and arrived at the station he had +then attained. He could not, however, gain credit for this assertion; +for a short time afterwards, a book was published under the title of +Moron anastasis, "The Resurrection of Fools," the design of which was to +show "that nobody ever counterfeited folly." + +XXXIX. Amongst other things, people admired in him his indifference and +unconcern; or, to express it in Greek, his meteoria and ablepsia. +Placing himself at table a little after Messalina's death, he enquired, +"Why the empress did not come?" Many of those whom he had condemned to +death, he ordered the day after to be invited to his table, and to game +with him, and sent to reprimand them as sluggish fellows for not making +greater haste. When he was meditating his incestuous marriage with +Agrippina, he was perpetually calling her, "My daughter, my nursling, +born and brought up upon my lap." And when he was going to adopt Nero, +as if there was little cause for censure in his adopting a son-in-law, +when he had a son of his own arrived at years of maturity; he continually +gave out in public, "that no one had ever been admitted by adoption into +the Claudian family." + +XL. He frequently appeared so careless in what he said, and so +inattentive to circumstances, that it was believed he never reflected who +he himself was, or amongst whom, or at (328) what time, or in what place, +he spoke. In a debate in the senate relative to the butchers and +vintners, he cried out, "I ask you, who can live without a bit of meat?" +And mentioned the great plenty of old taverns, from which he himself used +formerly to have his wine. Among other reasons for his supporting a +certain person who was candidate for the quaestorship, he gave this: "His +father," said he, "once gave me, very seasonably, a draught of cold water +when I was sick." Upon his bringing a woman as a witness in some cause +before the senate, he said, "This woman was my mother's freedwoman and +dresser, but she always considered me as her master; and this I say, +because there are some still in my family that do not look upon me as +such." The people of Ostia addressing him in open court with a petition, +he flew into a rage at them, and said, "There is no reason why I should +oblige you: if any one else is free to act as he pleases, surely I am." +The following expressions he had in his mouth every day, and at all hours +and seasons: "What! do you take me for a Theogonius?" [541] And in Greek +lalei kai mae thingane, "Speak, but do not touch me;" besides many other +familiar sentences, below the dignity of a private person, much more of +an emperor, who was not deficient either in eloquence or learning, as +having applied himself very closely to the liberal sciences. + +XLI. By the encouragement of Titus Livius [542], and with the assistance +of Sulpicius Flavus, he attempted at an early age the composition of a +history; and having called together a numerous auditory, to hear and give +their judgment upon it, he read it over with much difficulty, and +frequently interrupting himself. For after he had begun, a great laugh +was raised amongst the company, by the breaking of several benches from +the weight of a very fat man; and even when order was restored, he could +not forbear bursting out into violent fits of laughter, at the +remembrance of the accident. After he became emperor, likewise, he wrote +several things (329) which he was careful to have recited to his friends +by a reader. He commenced his history from the death of the dictator +Caesar; but afterwards he took a later period, and began at the +conclusion of the civil wars; because he found he could not speak with +freedom, and a due regard to truth, concerning the former period, having +been often taken to task both by his mother and grandmother. Of the +earlier history he left only two books, but of the latter, one and forty. +He compiled likewise the "History of his Own Life," in eight books, full +of absurdities, but in no bad style; also, "A Defence of Cicero against +the Books of Asinius Gallus," [543] which exhibited a considerable degree +of learning. He besides invented three new letters, and added them to +the former alphabet [544], as highly necessary. He published a book to +recommend them while he was yet only a private person; but on his +elevation to imperial power he had little difficulty in introducing them +into common use; and these letters are still extant in a variety of +books, registers, and inscriptions upon buildings. + +XLII. He applied himself with no less attention to the study of Grecian +literature, asserting upon all occasions his love of that language, and +its surpassing excellency. A stranger once holding a discourse both in +Greek and Latin, he addressed him thus; "Since you are skilled in both +our tongues." And recommending Achaia to the favour of the senate, he +said, "I have a particular attachment to that province, on account of our +common studies." In the senate he often made long replies to ambassadors +in that language. On the tribunal he frequently quoted the verses of +Homer. When at any time he had taken vengeance on an enemy or a +conspirator, he scarcely ever gave to the tribune on guard, who, (330) +according to custom, came for the word, any other than this. + + Andr' epamynastai, ote tis proteros chalepaenae. + 'Tis time to strike when wrong demands the blow. + +To conclude, he wrote some histories likewise in Greek, namely, twenty +books on Tuscan affairs, and eight on the Carthaginian; in consequence of +which, another museum was founded at Alexandria, in addition to the old +one, and called after his name; and it was ordered, that, upon certain +days in every year, his Tuscan history should be read over in one of +these, and his Carthaginian in the other, as in a school; each history +being read through by persons who took it in turn. + +XLIII. Towards the close of his life, he gave some manifest indications +that he repented of his marriage with Agrippina, and his adoption of +Nero. For some of his freedmen noticing with approbation his having +condemned, the day before, a woman accused of adultery, he remarked, "It +has been my misfortune to have wives who have been unfaithful to my bed; +but they did not escape punishment." Often, when he happened to meet +Britannicus, he would embrace him tenderly, and express a desire "that he +might grow apace," and receive from him an account of all his actions: +using the Greek phrase, "o trosas kai iasetai,--He who has wounded will +also heal." And intending to give him the manly habit, while he was yet +under age and a tender youth, because his stature would allow of it, he +added, "I do so, that the Roman people may at last have a real Caesar." +[545] + +XLIV. Soon afterwards he made his will, and had it signed by all the +magistrates as witnesses. But he was prevented from proceeding further +by Agrippina, accused by her own guilty conscience, as well as by +informers, of a variety of crimes. It is agreed that he was taken off by +poison; but where, and by whom administered, remains in uncertainty. +Some authors say that it was given him as he was feasting with the +priests in the Capitol, by the eunuch Halotus, his taster. Others say +(331) by Agrippina, at his own table, in mushrooms, a dish of which he +was very fond [546]. The accounts of what followed likewise differ. +Some relate that he instantly became speechless, was racked with pain +through the night, and died about day-break; others, that at first he +fell into a sound sleep, and afterwards, his food rising, he threw up the +whole; but had another dose given him; whether in water-gruel, under +pretence of refreshment after his exhaustion, or in a clyster, as if +designed to relieve his bowels, is likewise uncertain. + +XLV. His death was kept secret until everything was settled relative to +his successor. Accordingly, vows were made for his recovery, and +comedians were called to amuse him, as it was pretended, by his own +desire. He died upon the third of the ides of October [13th October], in +the consulship of Asinius Marcellus and Acilius Aviola, in the +sixty-fourth year of his age, and the fourteenth of his reign [547]. His +funeral was celebrated with the customary imperial pomp, and he was +ranked amongst the gods. This honour was taken from him by Nero, but +restored by Vespasian. + +XLVI. The chief presages of his death were, the appearance of a comet, +his father Drusus's monument being struck by lightning, and the death of +most of the magistrates of all ranks that year. It appears from several +circumstances, that he was sensible of his approaching dissolution, and +made no secret of it. For when he nominated the consuls, he appointed no +one to fill the office beyond the month in which he died. At the last +assembly of the senate in which he made his appearance, he earnestly +exhorted his two sons to unity with each other, and with earnest +entreaties commended to the fathers the care of their tender years. And +in the last cause he heard from the tribunal, he repeatedly declared in +open court, "That he was now arrived at the last stage of mortal +existence;" whilst all who heard it shrunk at hearing these ominous +words. + + * * * * * * + +The violent death of Caligula afforded the Romans a fresh opportunity to +have asserted the liberty of their country; but the conspirators had +concerted no plan, by which they should proceed upon the assassination of +that tyrant; and the indecision of the senate, in a debate of two days, +on so sudden an emergency, gave time to the caprice of the soldiers to +interpose in the settlement of the government. By an accident the most +fortuitous, a man devoid of all pretensions to personal merit, so weak in +understanding as to be the common sport of the emperor's household, and +an object of contempt even to his own kindred; this man, in the hour of +military insolence, was nominated by the soldiers as successor to the +Roman throne. Not yet in possession of the public treasury, which +perhaps was exhausted, he could not immediately reward the services of +his electors with a pecuniary gratification; but he promised them a +largess of fifteen thousand sesterces a man, upwards of a hundred and +forty pounds sterling; and as we meet with no account of any subsequent +discontents in the army, we may justly conclude that the promise was soon +after fulfilled. This transaction laid the foundation of that military +despotism, which, through many succeeding ages, convulsed the Roman +empire. + +Besides the interposition of the soldiers upon this occasion, it appears +that the populace of Rome were extremely clamorous for the government of +a single person, and for that of Claudius in particular. This partiality +for a monarchical government proceeded from two causes. The commonalty, +from their obscure situation, were always the least exposed to +oppression, under a tyrannical prince. They had likewise ever been +remarkably fond of stage-plays and public shows, with which, as well as +with scrambles, and donations of bread and other victuals, the preceding +emperor had frequently gratified them. They had therefore less to fear, +and more to hope, from the government of a single person than any other +class of Roman citizens. With regard to the partiality for Claudius, it +may be accounted for partly from the low habits of life to which he had +been addicted, in consequence of which many of them were familiarly +acquainted with him; and this circumstance likewise increased their hope +of deriving some advantage from his accession. Exclusive of all these +considerations, it is highly probable that the populace were instigated +in favour of Claudius by the artifices of his freedmen, persons of mean +extraction, by whom he was afterwards entirely governed, and who, upon +such an occasion, would exert their utmost efforts to procure his +appointment to the throne. From the debate in the senate having +continued during (333) two days, it was evident that there was still a +strong party for restoring the ancient form of government. That they +were in the end overawed by the clamour of the multitude, is not +surprising, when we consider that the senate was totally unprovided with +resources of every kind for asserting the independence of the nation by +arms; and the commonalty, who interrupted their deliberations, were the +only people by whose assistance they ever could effect the restitution of +public freedom. To this may be added, that the senate, by the total +reduction of their political importance, ever since the overthrow of the +republic, had lost both the influence and authority which they formerly +enjoyed. The extreme cruelty, likewise, which had been exercised during +the last two reigns, afforded a further motive for relinquishing all +attempts in favour of liberty, as they might be severely revenged upon +themselves by the subsequent emperor: and it was a degree of moderation +in Claudius, which palliates the injustice of his cause, that he began +his government with an act of amnesty respecting the public transactions +which ensued upon the death of Caligula. + +Claudius, at the time of his accession, was fifty years of age; and +though he had hitherto lived apparently unambitious of public honours, +accompanied with great ostentation, yet he was now seized with a desire +to enjoy a triumph. As there existed no war, in which he might perform +some military achievement, his vanity could only be gratified by invading +a foreign country, where, contrary to the advice contained in the +testament of Augustus, he might attempt to extend still further the +limits of the empire. Either Britain, therefore, or some nation on the +continent, at a great distance from the capital, became the object of +such an enterprize; and the former was chosen, not only as more +convenient, from its vicinity to the maritime province of Gaul, but on +account of a remonstrance lately presented by the Britons to the court of +Rome, respecting the protection afforded to some persons of that nation, +who had fled thither to elude the laws of their country. Considering the +state of Britain at that time, divided as it was into a number of +principalities, amongst which there was no general confederacy for mutual +defence, and where the alarm excited by the invasion of Julius Caesar, +upwards of eighty years before, had long since been forgotten; a sudden +attempt upon the island could not fail to be attended with success. +Accordingly, an army was sent over, under the command of Aulus Plautius, +an able general, who defeated the natives in several engagements, and +penetrated a considerable way into the country. Preparations for the +emperor's voyage now being made, Claudius set sail from Ostia, at the +mouth of (334) the Tiber; but meeting with a violent storm in the +Mediterranean, he landed at Marseilles, and proceeding thence to Boulogne +in Picardy, passed over into Britain. In what part he debarked, is +uncertain, but it seems to have been at some place on the south-east +coast of the island. He immediately received the submission of several +British states, the Cantii, Atrebates, Regni, and Trinobantes, who +inhabited those parts; and returning to Rome, after an absence of six +months, celebrated with great pomp the triumph, for which he had +undertaken the expedition. + +In the interior parts of Britain, the natives, under the command of +Caractacus, maintained an obstinate resistance, and little progress was +made by the Roman arms, until Ostorius Scapula was sent over to prosecute +the war. He penetrated into the country of the Silures, a warlike tribe, +who inhabited the banks of the Severn; and having defeated Caractacus in +a great battle, made him prisoner, and sent him to Rome. The fame of the +British prince had by this time spread over the provinces of Gaul and +Italy; and upon his arrival in the Roman capital, the people flocked from +all quarters to behold him. The ceremonial of his entrance was conducted +with great solemnity. On a plain adjoining the Roman camp, the pretorian +troops were drawn up in martial array: the emperor and his court took +their station in front of the lines, and behind them was ranged the whole +body of the people. The procession commenced with the different trophies +which had been taken from the Britons during the progress of the war. +Next followed the brothers of the vanquished prince, with his wife and +daughter, in chains, expressing by their supplicating looks and gestures +the fears with which they were actuated. But not so Caractacus himself. +With a manly gait and an undaunted countenance, he marched up to the +tribunal, where the emperor was seated, and addressed him in the +following terms: + +"If to my high birth and distinguished rank, I had added the virtues of +moderation, Rome had beheld me rather as a friend than a captive; and you +would not have rejected an alliance with a prince, descended from +illustrious ancestors, and governing many nations. The reverse of my +fortune to you is glorious, and to me humiliating. I had arms, and men, +and horses; I possessed extraordinary riches; and can it be any wonder +that I was unwilling to lose them? Because Rome aspires to universal +dominion, must men therefore implicitly resign themselves to subjection? +I opposed for a long time the progress of your arms, and had I acted +otherwise, would either you have had the glory of conquest, or I of a +brave resistance? I am now in your (335) power: if you are determined to +take revenge, my fate will soon be forgotten, and you will derive no +honour from the transaction. Preserve my life, and I shall remain to the +latest ages a monument of your clemency." + +Immediately upon this speech, Claudius granted him his liberty, as he did +likewise to the other royal captives. They all returned their thanks in +a manner the most grateful to the emperor; and as soon as their chains +were taken off, walking towards Agrippina, who sat upon a bench at a +little distance, they repeated to her the same fervent declarations of +gratitude and esteem. + +History has preserved no account of Caractacus after this period; but it +is probable, that he returned in a short time to his own country, where +his former valour, and the magnanimity, which he had displayed at Rome, +would continue to render him illustrious through life, even amidst the +irretrievable ruin of his fortunes. + +The most extraordinary character in the present reign was that of Valeria +Messalina, the daughter of Valerius Messala Barbatus. She was married to +Claudius, and had by him a son and a daughter. To cruelty in the +prosecution of her purposes, she added the most abandoned incontinence. +Not confining her licentiousness within the limits of the palace, where +she committed the most shameful excesses, she prostituted her person in +the common stews, and even in the public streets of the capital. As if +her conduct was already not sufficiently scandalous, she obliged C. +Silius, a man of consular rank, to divorce his wife, that she might +procure his company entirely to herself. Not contented with this +indulgence to her criminal passion, she next persuaded him to marry her; +and during an excursion which the emperor made to Ostia, the ceremony of +marriage was actually performed between them. The occasion was +celebrated with a magnificent supper, to which she invited a large +company; and lest the whole should be regarded as a frolic, not meant to +be consummated, the adulterous parties ascended the nuptial couch in the +presence of the astonished spectators. Great as was the facility of +Claudius's temper in respect of her former behaviour, he could not +overlook so flagrant a violation both of public decency and the laws of +the country. Silius was condemned to death for the adultery which he had +perpetrated with reluctance; and Messalina was ordered into the emperor's +presence, to answer for her conduct. Terror now operating upon her mind +in conjunction with remorse, she could not summon the resolution to +support such an interview, but retired into the gardens of Lucullus, +there to indulge at last the compunction which she felt for her crimes, +and to meditate the entreaties by which she should endeavour to soothe +the resentment (336) of her husband. In the extremity of her distress, +she attempted to lay violent hands upon herself, but her courage was not +equal to the emergency. Her mother, Lepida, who had not spoken with her +for some years before, was present upon the occasion, and urged her to +the act which alone could put a period to her infamy and wretchedness. +Again she made an effort, but again her resolution abandoned her; when a +tribune burst into the gardens, and plunging his sword into her body, she +instantly expired. Thus perished a woman, the scandal of whose lewdness +resounded throughout the empire, and of whom a great satirist, then +living, has said, perhaps without a hyperbole, + + Et lassata viris, necdum satiata, recessit.--Juvenal, Sat. VI. + +It has been already observed, that Claudius was entirely governed by his +freedmen; a class of retainers which enjoyed a great share of favour and +confidence with their patrons in those times. They had before been the +slaves of their masters, and had obtained their freedom as a reward for +their faithful and attentive services. Of the esteem in which they were +often held, we meet with an instance in Tiro, the freedman of Cicero, to +whom that illustrious Roman addresses several epistles, written in the +most familiar and affectionate strain of friendship. As it was common +for them to be taught the more useful parts of education in the families +of their masters, they were usually well qualified for the management of +domestic concerns, and might even be competent to the superior +departments of the state, especially in those times when negotiations and +treaties with foreign princes seldom or never occurred; and in arbitrary +governments, where public affairs were directed more by the will of the +sovereign or his ministers, than by refined suggestions of policy. + +From the character generally given of Claudius before his elevation to +the throne, we should not readily imagine that he was endowed with any +taste for literary composition; yet he seems to have exclusively enjoyed +this distinction during his own reign, in which learning was at a low +ebb. Besides history, Suetonius informs us that he wrote a Defence of +Cicero against the Charges of Asinius Gallus. This appears to be the +only tribute of esteem or approbation paid to the character of Cicero, +from the time of Livy the historian, to the extinction of the race of the +Caesars. Asinius Gallus was the son of Asinius Pollio, the orator. +Marrying Vipsania after she had been divorced by Tiberius, he incurred +the displeasure of that emperor, and died of famine, either voluntarily, +or by order of the tyrant. He wrote a comparison between his father and +Cicero, in which, with more filial partiality than justice, he gave the +preference to the former. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + + +[465] A.U.C. 714. + +[466] Pliny describes Drusus as having in this voyage circumnavigated +Germany, and reached the Cimbrian Chersonese, and the Scythian shores, +reeking with constant fogs. + +[467] Tacitus, Annal. xi. 8, 1, mentions this fosse, and says that +Drusus sailed up the Meuse and the Waal. Cluverius places it between the +village of Iselvort and the town of Doesborg. + +[468] The Spolia Opima were the spoils taken from the enemy's king, or +chief, when slain in single combat by a Roman general. They were always +hung up in the Temple of Jupiter Feretrius. Those spoils had been +obtained only thrice since the foundation of Rome; the first by Romulus, +who slew Acron, king of the Caeninenses; the next by A. Cornelius Cossus, +who slew Tolumnius, king of the Veientes, A.U. 318; and the third by M. +Claudius Marcellus, who slew Viridomarus, king of the Gauls, A.U. 330. + +[469] A.U.C. 744. + +[470] This epistle, as it was the habit of Augustus, is interspersed +with Greek phrases. + +[471] The Alban Mount is the most interesting feature of the scenery of +the Campagna about Rome, Monti Cavo, the summit, rising above an +amphitheatre of magnificent woods, to an elevation of 2965 French feet. +The view is very extensive: below is the lake of Albano, the finest of +the volcanic lakes in Italy, and the modern town of the same name. Few +traces remain of Alba Longa, the ancient capital of Latium. + +[472] On the summit of the Alban Mount, on the site of the present +convent, stood the temple of Jupiter Latialis, where the Latin tribes +assembled annually, and renewed their league, during the Feriae Latinae, +instituted by Tarquinus Superbus. It was here, also, that Roman +generals, who were refused the honours of a full triumph, performed the +ovation, and sacrificed to Jupiter Latialis. Part of the triumphal way +by which the mountain was ascended, formed of vast blocks of lava, is +still in good preservation, leading through groves of chestnut trees of +vast size and age. Spanning them with extended arms--none of the +shortest--the operation was repeated five times in compassing their +girth. + +[473] CALIGULA. See c. v. of his life. + +[474] A.U.C. 793. Life of CALIGULA, cc. xliv., xlv., etc. + +[475] A.U.C. 794. + +[476] The chamber of Mercury; the names of deities being given to +different apartments, as those "of Isis," "of the Muses," etc. + +[477] See the note, p. 265. + +[478] The attentive reader will have marked the gradual growth of the +power of the pretorian guard, who now, and on so many future occasions, +ruled the destinies of the empire. + +[479] See AUGUSTUS, cc. xliii., xlv. + +[480] Ib. c. ci. + +[481] Germanicus. + +[482] Naples and other cities on that coast were Greek colonies. + +[483] This arch was erected in memory of the standards (the eagles) lost +by Varus, in Germany, having been recovered by Germanicus under the +auspices of Tiberius. See his Life, c. xlvii.; and Tacit. Annal. ii. 41. +It seems to have stood at the foot of the Capitol, on the side of the +Forum, near the temple of Concord; but there are no remains of it. + +[484] Tacitus informs us that the same application had been made by +Tiberius. Annal. iii. The prefect of the pretorian guards, high and +important as his office had now become, was not allowed to enter the +senate-house, unless he belonged to the equestrian order. + +[485] The procurators had the administration of some of the less +important provinces, with rank and authority inferior to that of the pro- +consuls and prefects. Frequent mention of these officers is made by +Josephus; and Pontius Pilate, who sentenced our Lord to crucifixion, held +that office in Judaea, under Tiberius. + +[486] Pollio and Messala were distinguished orators, who flourished +under the Caesars Julius and Augustus. + +[487] A.U.C. 795, 796. + +[488] A.U.C. 800, 804. + +[489] "Ad bestias" had become a new and frequent sentence for +malefactors. It will be recollected, that it was the most usual form of +martyrdom for the primitive Christians. Polycarp was brought all the way +from Smyrna to be exposed to it in the amphitheatre at Rome. + +[490] This reminds us of the decision of Solomon in the case of the two +mothers, who each claimed a child as their own, 1 Kings iii. 22-27. + +[491] A most absurd judicial conclusion, the business of the judge or +court being to decide, on weighing the evidence, on which side the truth +preponderated. + +[492] See the note in CALIGULA, c. xix., as to Suetonius's sources of +information from persons cotemporary with the occurrences he relates. + +[493] The insult was conveyed in Greek, which seems, from Suetonius, to +have been in very common use at Rome: kai su geron ei, kai moros. + +[494] A.U.C. 798, or 800. + +[495] There was a proverb to the same effect: "Si non caste, saltem +caute." + +[496] Ptolemy appointed him to an office which led him to assume a +foreign dress. Rabirius was defended by Cicero in one of his orations, +which is extant. + +[497] The Sigillaria was a street in Rome, where a fair was held after +the Saturnalia, which lasted seven days; and toys, consisting of little +images and dolls, which gave their name to the street and festival, were +sold. It appears from the text, that other articles were exposed for sale +in this street. Among these were included elegant vases of silver and +bronze. There appears also to have been a bookseller's shop, for an +ancient writer tells us that a friend of his showed him a copy of the +Second Book of the Aeneid, which he had purchased there. + +[498] Opposed to this statement there is a passage in Servius Georgius, +iii. 37, asserting that he had heard (accipimus) that Augustus, besides +his victories in the east, triumphed over the Britons in the west; and +Horace says:-- + + Augustus adjectis Britannis + Imperio gravibusque Persis.--Ode iii. 5, 1. + +Strabo likewise informs us, that in his time, the petty British kings +sent embassies to cultivate the alliance of Augustus, and make offerings +in the Capitol: and that nearly the whole island was on terms of amity +with the Romans, and, as well as the Gauls, paid a light tribute.-- +Strabo, B. iv. p. 138. + +That Augustus contemplated a descent on the island, but was prevented +from attempting it by his being recalled from Gaul by the disturbances in +Dalmatia, is very probable. Horace offers his vows for its success: + + Serves iturum, Caesarem in ultimos Orbis Britannos.--Ode i. 35. + +But the word iturus shews that the scheme was only projected, and the +lines previously quoted are mere poetical flattery. Strabo's statement +of the communications kept up with the petty kings of Britain, who were +perhaps divided by intestine wars, are, to a certain extent, probably +correct, as such a policy would be a prelude to the intended expedition. + +[499] Circius. Aulus Gellius, Seneca, and Pliny, mention under this +name the strong southerly gales which prevail in the gulf of Genoa and +the neighbouring seas. + +[500] The Stoechades were the islands now called Hieres, off Toulon. + +[501] Claudius must have expended more time in his march from Marseilles +to Gessoriacum, as Boulogne was then called, than in his vaunted conquest +of Britain. + +[502] In point of fact, he was only sixteen days in the island, +receiving the submission of some tribes in the south-eastern districts. +But the way had been prepared for him by his able general, Aulus +Plautius, who defeated Cunobeline, and made himself master of his +capital, Camulodunum, or Colchester. These successes were followed up by +Ostorius, who conquered Caractacus and sent him to Rome. + +It is singular that Suetonius has supplied us with no particulars of +these events. Some account of them is given in the disquisition appended +to this life of CLAUDIUS. + +The expedition of Plautius took place A.U.C. 796., A.D. 44. + +[503] Carpentum: see note in CALIGULA, c. xv. + +[504] The Aemiliana, so called because it contained the monuments of the +family of that name, was a suburb of Rome, on the Via Lata, outside the +gate. + +[505] The Diribitorium was a house in the Flaminian Circus, begun by +Agrippa, and finished by Augustus, in which soldiers were mustered and +their pay distributed; from whence it derived its name. When the Romans +went to give their votes at the election of magistrates, they were +conducted by officers named Diribitores. It is possible that one and the +same building may have been used for both purposes. + +The Flaminian Circus was without the city walls, in the Campus Martius. +The Roman college now stands on its site. + +[506] A law brought in by the consuls Papius Mutilus and Quintus +Poppaeus; respecting which, see AUGUSTUS, c. xxxiv. + +[507] The Fucine Lake is now called Lago di Celano, in the Farther +Abruzzi. It is very extensive, but shallow, so that the difficulty of +constructing the Claudian emissary, can scarcely be compared to that +encountered in a similar work for lowering the level of the waters in the +Alban lake, completed A.U.C. 359. + +[508] Respecting the Claudian aqueduct, see CALIGULA, c. xxi. + +[509] Ostia is referred to in a note, TIBERIUS, c. xi. + +[510] Suetonius calls this "the great obelisk" in comparison with those +which Augustus had placed in the Circus Maximus and Campus Martius. The +one here mentioned was erected by Caligula in his Circus, afterwards +called the Circus of Nero. It stood at Heliopolis, having been dedicated +to the sun, as Herodotus informs us, by Phero, son of Sesostris, in +acknowledgment of his recovery from blindness. It was removed by Pope +Sixtus V. in 1586, under the celebrated architect, Fontana, to the centre +of the area before St. Peter's, in the Vatican, not far from its former +position. This obelisk is a solid piece of red granite, without +hieroglyphics, and, with the pedestal and ornaments at the top, is 182 +feet high. The height of the obelisk itself is 113 palms, or 84 feet. + +[511] Pliny relates some curious particulars of this ship: "A fir tree +of prodigious size was used in the vessel which, by the command of +Caligula, brought the obelisk from Egypt, which stands in the Vatican +Circus, and four blocks of the same sort of stone to support it. Nothing +certainly ever appeared on the sea more astonishing than this vessel; +120,000 bushels of lentiles served for its ballast; the length of it +nearly equalled all the left side of the port of Ostia; for it was sent +there by the emperor Claudius. The thickness of the tree was as much as +four men could embrace with their arms."--B. xvi. c. 76. + +[512] See AUGUSTUS, c. xxxi. It appears to have been often a prey to +the flames, TIBERIUS, c. xli.; CALIGULA, c. xx. + +[513] Contrary to the usual custom of rising and saluting the emperor +without acclamations. + +[514] A.U.C. 800. + +[515] The Secular Games had been celebrated by Augustus, A.U.C. 736. +See c. xxxi. of his life, and the Epode of Horace written on the +occasion. + +[516] In the circus which he had himself built. + +[517] Tophina; Tuffo, a porous stone of volcanic origin, which abounds +in the neighbourhood of Rome, and, with the Travertino, is employed in +all common buildings. + +[518] In compliment to the troops to whom he owed his elevation: see +before, c. xi. + +[519] Palumbus was a gladiator: and Claudius condescended to pun upon +his name, which signifies a wood-pigeon. + +[520] See before, c. xvii. Described is c. xx and note. + +[521] See before, AUGUSTUS, c. xxxiv. + +[522] To reward his able services as commander of the army in Britain. +See before, c. xvii. + +[523] German tribes between the Elbe and the Weser, whose chief seat was +at Bremen, and others about Ems or Lueneburg. + +[524] This island in the Tiber, opposite the Campus Martius, is said to +have been formed by the corn sown by Tarquin the Proud on that +consecrated field, and cut down and thrown by order of the consuls into +the river. The water being low, it lodged in the bed of the stream, and +gradual deposits of mud raising it above the level of the water, it was +in course of time covered with buildings. Among these was the temple of +Aesculapius, erected A.U.C. 462, to receive the serpent, the emblem of +that deity which was brought to Rome in the time of a plague. There is a +coin of Antoninus Pius recording this event, and Lumisdus has preserved +copies of some curious votive inscriptions in acknowledgment of cures +which were found in its ruins, Antiquities of Rome, p. 379. + +It was common for the patient after having been exposed some nights in +the temple, without being cured, to depart and put an end to his life. +Suetonius here informs us that slaves so exposed, at least obtained their +freedom. + +[525] Which were carried on the shoulders of slaves. This prohibition +had for its object either to save the wear and tear in the narrow +streets, or to pay respect to the liberties of the town. + +[526] See the note in c. i. of this life of CLAUDIUS. + +[527] Seleucus Philopater, son of Antiochus the Great, who being +conquered by the Romans, the succeeding kings of Syria acknowledged the +supremacy of Rome. + +[528] Suetonius has already, in TIBERIUS, c. xxxvi., mentioned the +expulsion of the Jews from Rome, and this passage confirms the +conjecture, offered in the note, that the Christians were obscurely +alluded to in the former notice. The antagonism between Christianity and +Judaism appears to have given rise to the tumults which first led the +authorities to interfere. Thus much we seem to learn from both passages: +but the most enlightened men of that age were singularly ill-informed on +the stupendous events which had recently occurred in Judaea, and we find +Suetonius, although he lived at the commencement of the first century of +the Christian aera, when the memory of these occurrences was still fresh, +and it might be supposed, by that time, widely diffused, transplanting +Christ from Jerusalem to Rome, and placing him in the time of Claudius, +although the crucifixion took place during the reign of Tiberius. + +St. Luke, Acts xviii. 2, mentions the expulsion of the Jews from Rome by +the emperor Claudius: Dio, however, says that he did not expel them, but +only forbad their religious assemblies. + +It was very natural for Suetonius to write Chrestus instead of Christus, +as the former was a name in use among the Greeks and Romans. Among +others, Cicero mentions a person of that name in his Fam. Ep. 11. 8. + +[529] Pliny tells us that Druidism had its origin in Gaul, and was +transplanted into Britain, xxi. 1. Julius Caesar asserts just the +contrary, Bell. Gall. vi. 13, 11. The edict of Claudius was not carried +into effect; at least, we find vestiges of Druidism in Gaul, during the +reigns of Nero and Alexander Severus. + +[530] The Eleusinian mysteries were never transferred from Athens to +Rome, notwithstanding this attempt of Claudius, and although Aurelius +Victor says that Adrian effected it. + +[531] A.U.C. 801. + +[532] A.U.C. 773. + +[533] It would seem from this passage, that the cognomen of "the Great," +had now been restored to the descendants of Cneius Pompey, on whom it was +first conferred. + +[534] A.U.C. 806. + +[535] A.U.C. 803. + +[536] This is the Felix mentioned in the Acts, cc. xxiii. and xxiv., +before whom St. Paul pleaded. He is mentioned by Josephus; and Tacitus, +who calls him Felix Antonius, gives his character: Annal. v, 9. 6. + +[537] It appears that two of these wives of Felix were named Drusilla. +One, mentioned Acts xxiv. 24, and there called a Jewess, was the sister +of king Agrippa, and had married before, Azizus, king of the Emessenes. +The other Drusilla, though not a queen, was of royal birth, being the +granddaughter of Cleopatra by Mark Antony. Who the third wife of Felix +was, is unknown. + +[538] Tacitus and Josephus mention that Pallas was the brother of Felix, +and the younger Pliny ridicules the pompous inscription on his tomb. + +[539] A.U.C. 802. + +[540] The Salii, the priests of Mars, twelve in number, were instituted +by Numa. Their dress was an embroidered tunic, bound with a girdle +ornamented with brass. They wore on their head a conical cap, of a +considerable height; carried a sword by their side; in their right hand a +spear or rod, and in their left, one of the Ancilia, or shields of Mars. +On solemn occasions, they used to go to the Capitol, through the Forum +and other public parts of the city, dancing and singing sacred songs, +said to have been composed by Numa; which, in the time of Horace, could +hardly be understood by any one, even the priests themselves. The most +solemn procession of the Salii was on the first of March, in +commemoration of the time when the sacred shield was believed to have +fallen from heaven, in the reign of Numa. After their procession, they +had a splendid entertainment, the luxury of which was proverbial. + +[541] Scaliger and Casauhon give Teleggenius as the reading of the best +manuscripts. Whoever he was, his name seems to have been a bye-word for +a notorious fool. + +[542] Titus Livius, the prince of Roman historians, died in the fourth +year of the reign of Tiberius, A.U.C. 771; at which time Claudius was +about twenty-seven years old, having been born A.U.C. 744. + +[543] Asinius Gallus was the son of Asinius Pollio, the famous orator, +and had written a hook comparing his father with Cicero, and giving the +former the preference. + +[544] Quintilian informs us, that one of the three new letters the +emperor Claudius attempted to introduce, was the Aeolic digamma, which +had the same force as v consonant. Priscian calls another anti-signs, +and says that the character proposed was two Greek sigmas, back to back, +and that it was substituted for the Greek ps. The other letter is not +known, and all three soon fell into disuse. + +[545] Caesar by birth, not by adoption, as the preceding emperors had +been, and as Nero would be, if he succeeded. + +[546] Tacitus informs us, that the poison was prepared by Locusta, of +whom we shall hear, NERO, c. xxxiii. etc. + +[547] A.U.C. 806; A.D. 54. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tiberius Claudius Drusus Caesar (Claudius) +by C. 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Suetonius Tranquillus + +Release Date: August, 2004 [EBook #6390] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on December 3, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIVES OF THE CAESARS, SUETONIUS, V5 *** + + + +This eBook was produced by Tapio Riikonen +and David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + + + + THE LIVES + OF + THE TWELVE CAESARS + + By + C. Suetonius Tranquillus; + + To which are added, + + HIS LIVES OF THE GRAMMARIANS, RHETORICIANS, AND POETS. + + + The Translation of + Alexander Thomson, M.D. + + revised and corrected by + T.Forester, Esq., A.M. + + + + +(295) + + + + TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS DRUSUS CAESAR. +[465] + + +I. Livia, having married Augustus when she was pregnant, was within +three months afterwards delivered of Drusus, the father of Claudius +Caesar, who had at first the praenomen of Decimus, but afterwards that of +Nero; and it was suspected that he was begotten in adultery by his +father-in-law. The following verse, however, was immediately in every +one's mouth: + + Tois eutychousi kai primaena paidia. + + Nine months for common births the fates decree; + But, for the great, reduce the term to three. + +This Drusus, during the time of his being quaestor and praetor, commanded +in the Rhaetian and German wars, and was the first of all the Roman +generals who navigated the Northern Ocean [466]. He made likewise some +prodigious trenches beyond the Rhine [467], which to this day are called +by his name. He overthrew the enemy in several battles, and drove them +far back into the depths of the desert. Nor did he desist from pursuing +them, until an apparition, in the form of a barbarian woman, of more than +human size, appeared to him, and, in the Latin tongue, forbad him to +proceed any farther. For these achievements he had the honour of an +ovation, and the triumphal ornaments. After his praetorship, he +immediately entered on the office of consul, and returning again to +Germany, died of disease, in the summer encampment, which thence obtained +the name of "The Unlucky Camp." His corpse was carried to Rome by the +principal persons of the several municipalities and colonies upon the +road, being met and received by the recorders of each place, and buried +in the Campus Martius. In honour of his (296) memory, the army erected a +monument, round which the soldiers used, annually, upon a certain day, to +march in solemn procession, and persons deputed from the several cities +of Gaul performed religious rites. The senate likewise, among various +other honours, decreed for him a triumphal arch of marble, with trophies, +in the Appian Way, and gave the cognomen of Germanicus to him and his +posterity. In him the civil and military virtues were equally displayed; +for, besides his victories, he gained from the enemy the Spolia Opima +[468], and frequently marked out the German chiefs in the midst of their +army, and encountered them in single combat, at the utmost hazard of his +life. He likewise often declared that he would, some time or other, if +possible, restore the ancient government. In this account, I suppose, +some have ventured to affirm that Augustus was jealous of him, and +recalled him; and because he made no haste to comply with the order, took +him off by poison. This I mention, that I may not be guilty of any +omission, more than because I think it either true or probable; since +Augustus loved him so much when living, that he always, in his wills, +made him joint-heir with his sons, as he once declared in the senate; and +upon his decease, extolled him in a speech to the people, to that degree, +that he prayed the gods "to make his Caesars like him, and to grant +himself as honourable an exit out of this world as they had given him." +And not satisfied with inscribing upon his tomb an epitaph in verse +composed by himself, he wrote likewise the history of his life in prose. +He had by the younger Antonia several children, but left behind him only +three, namely, Germanicus, Livilla, and Claudius. + +II. Claudius was born at Lyons, in the consulship of Julius Antonius, +and Fabius Africanus, upon the first of August [469], the very day upon +which an altar was first dedicated there to Augustus. He was named +Tiberius Claudius Drusus, but soon afterwards, (297) upon the adoption of +his elder brother into the Julian family, he assumed the cognomen of +Germanicus. He was left an infant by his father, and during almost the +whole of his minority, and for some time after he attained the age of +manhood, was afflicted with a variety of obstinate disorders, insomuch +that his mind and body being greatly impaired, he was, even after his +arrival at years of maturity, never thought sufficiently qualified for +any public or private employment. He was, therefore, during a long time, +and even after the expiration of his minority, under the direction of a +pedagogue, who, he complains in a certain memoir, "was a barbarous +wretch, and formerly superintendent of the mule-drivers, who was selected +for his governor, on purpose to correct him severely on every trifling +occasion." On account of this crazy constitution of body and mind, at +the spectacle of gladiators, which he gave the people, jointly with his +brother, in honour of his father's memory, he presided, muffled up in a +pallium--a new fashion. When he assumed the manly habit, he was carried +in a litter, at midnight, to the Capitol, without the usual ceremony. + +III. He applied himself, however, from an early age, with great +assiduity to the study of the liberal sciences, and frequently published +specimens of his skill in each of them. But never, with all his +endeavours, could he attain to any public post in the government, or +afford any hope of arriving at distinction thereafter. His mother, +Antonia, frequently called him "an abortion of a man, that had been only +begun, but never finished, by nature." And when she would upbraid any +one with dulness, she said, "He was a greater fool than her son, +Claudius." His grandmother, Augusta, always treated him with the utmost +contempt, very rarely spoke to him, and when she did admonish him upon +any occasion, it was in writing, very briefly and severely, or by +messengers. His sister, Livilla, upon hearing that he was about to be +created emperor, openly and loudly expressed her indignation that the +Roman people should experience a fate so severe and so much below their +grandeur. To exhibit the opinion, both favourable and otherwise, +entertained concerning him by Augustus, his great-uncle, I have here +subjoined some extracts from the letters of that emperor. + +IV. "I have had some conversation with Tiberius, according (298) to your +desire, my dear Livia, as to what must be done with your grandson, +Tiberius, at the games of Mars. We are both agreed in this, that, once +for all, we ought to determine what course to take with him. For if he +be really sound and, so to speak, quite right in his intellects [470], +why should we hesitate to promote him by the same steps and degrees we +did his brother? But if we find him below par, and deficient both in +body and mind, we must beware of giving occasion for him and ourselves to +be laughed at by the world, which is ready enough to make such things the +subject of mirth and derision. For we never shall be easy, if we are +always to be debating upon every occasion of this kind, without settling, +in the first instance, whether he be really capable of public offices or +not. With regard to what you consult me about at the present moment, I +am not against his superintending the feast of the priests, in the games +of Mars, if he will suffer himself to be governed by his kinsman, +Silanus's son, that he may do nothing to make the people stare and laugh +at him. But I do not approve of his witnessing the Circensian games from +the Pulvinar. He will be there exposed to view in the very front of the +theatre. Nor do I like that he should go to the Alban Mount [471], or be +at Rome during the Latin festivals. For if he be capable of attending +his brother to the mount, why is he not made prefect of the city? Thus, +my dear Livia, you have my thoughts upon the matter. In my opinion, we +ought to (299) settle this affair once for all, that we may not be always +in suspense between hope and fear. You may, if you think proper, give +your kinsman Antonia this part of my letter to read." In another letter, +he writes as follows: "I shall invite: the youth, Tiberius, every day +during your absence, to supper, that he may not sup alone with his +friends Sulpicius and Athenodorus. I wish the poor creature was more +cautious and attentive in the choice of some one, whose manners, air, and +gait might be proper for his imitation: + + Atuchei panu en tois spoudaiois lian. + In things of consequence he sadly fails. + +Where his mind does not run astray, he discovers a noble disposition." +In a third letter, he says, "Let me die, my dear Livia, if I am not +astonished, that the declamation of your grandson, Tiberius, should +please me; for how he who talks so ill, should be able to declaim so +clearly and properly, I cannot imagine." There is no doubt but Augustus, +after this, came to a resolution upon the subject, and, accordingly, left +him invested with no other honour than that of the Augural priesthood; +naming him amongst the heirs of the third degree, who were but distantly +allied to his family, for a sixth part of his estate only, with a legacy +of no more than eight hundred thousand sesterces. + +V. Upon his requesting some office in the state, Tiberius granted him +the honorary appendages of the consulship, and when he pressed for a +legitimate appointment, the emperor wrote word back, that "he sent him +forty gold pieces for his expenses, during the festivals of the +Saturnalia and Sigillaria." Upon this, laying aside all hope of +advancement, he resigned himself entirely to an indolent life; living in +great privacy, one while in his gardens, or a villa which he had near the +city; another while in Campania, where he passed his time in the lowest +society; by which means, besides his former character of a dull, heavy +fellow, he acquired that of a drunkard and gamester. + +VI. Notwithstanding this sort of life, much respect was shown him both +in public and private. The equestrian (300) order twice made choice of +him to intercede on their behalf; once to obtain from the consuls the +favour of bearing on their shoulders the corpse of Augustus to Rome, and +a second time to congratulate him upon the death of Sejanus. When he +entered the theatre, they used to rise, and put off their cloaks. The +senate likewise decreed, that he should be added to the number of the +Augustal college of priests, who were chosen by lot; and soon afterwards, +when his house was burnt down, that it should be rebuilt at the public +charge; and that he should have the privilege of giving his vote amongst +the men of consular rank. This decree was, however, repealed; Tiberius +insisting to have him excused on account of his imbecility, and promising +to make good his loss at his own expense. But at his death, he named him +in his will, amongst his third heirs, for a third part of his estate; +leaving him besides a legacy of two millions of sesterces, and expressly +recommending him to the armies, the senate and people of Rome, amongst +his other relations. + +VII. At last, Caius [473], his brother's son, upon his advancement to +the empire, endeavouring to gain the affections of the public by all the +arts of popularity, Claudius also was admitted to public offices, and +held the consulship jointly with his nephew for two months. As he was +entering the Forum for the first time with the fasces, an eagle which was +flying that way; alighted upon his right shoulder. A second consulship +was also allotted him, to commence at the expiration of the fourth year. +He sometimes presided at the public spectacles, as the representative of +Caius; being always, on those occasions, complimented with the +acclamations of the people, wishing him all happiness, sometimes under +the title of the emperor's uncle, and sometimes under that of +Germanicus's brother. + +VIII. Still he was subjected to many slights. If at any time he came in +late to supper, he was obliged to walk round the room some time before he +could get a place at table. When he indulged himself with sleep after +eating, which was a common practice with him, the company used to throw +olive-stones and dates at him. And the buffoons who attended would wake +him, as if it were only in jest, with a cane or a whip. Sometimes they +would put slippers upon his hands; as he lay snoring, that he might, upon +awaking, rub his face with them. + +IX. He was not only exposed to contempt, but sometimes likewise to +considerable danger: first, in his consulship; for, having been too +remiss in providing and erecting the statues of Caius's brothers, Nero +and Drusus, he was very near being deprived of his office; and afterwards +he was continually harassed with informations against him by one or +other, sometimes even by his own domestics. When the conspiracy of +Lepidus and Gaetulicus was discovered, being sent with some other +deputies into Germany [474], to congratulate the emperor upon the +occasion, he was in danger of his life; Caius being greatly enraged, and +loudly complaining, that his uncle was sent to him, as if he was a boy +who wanted a governor. Some even say, that he was thrown into a river, +in his travelling dress. From this period, he voted in the senate always +the last of the members of consular rank; being called upon after the +rest, on purpose to disgrace him. A charge for the forgery of a will was +also allowed to be prosecuted, though he had only signed it as a witness. +At last, being obliged to pay eight millions of sesterces on entering +upon a new office of priesthood, he was reduced to such straits in his +private affairs, that in order to discharge his bond to the treasury, he +was under the necessity of exposing to sale his whole estate, by an order +of the prefects. + +X. Having spent the greater part of his life under these and the like +circumstances, he came at last to the empire in the fiftieth year of his +age [475], by a very surprising turn of fortune. Being, as well as the +rest, prevented from approaching Caius by the conspirators, who dispersed +the crowd, under the pretext of his desiring to be private, he retired +into an apartment called the Hermaeum [476]; and soon afterwards, +terrified by the report of Caius being slain, he crept into an adjoining +balcony, where he hid himself behind the hangings of (302) the door. A +common soldier, who happened to pass that way, spying his feet, and +desirous to discover who he was, pulled him out; when immediately +recognizing him, he threw himself in a great fright at his feet, and +saluted him by the title of emperor. He then conducted him to his +fellow-soldiers, who were all in a great rage, and irresolute what they +should do. They put him into a litter, and as the slaves of the palace +had all fled, took their turns in carrying him on their shoulders, and +brought him into the camp, sad and trembling; the people who met him +lamenting his situation, as if the poor innocent was being carried to +execution. Being received within the ramparts [477], he continued all +night with the sentries on guard, recovered somewhat from his fright, but +in no great hopes of the succession. For the consuls, with the senate +and civic troops, had possessed themselves of the Forum and Capitol, with +the determination to assert the public liberty; and he being sent for +likewise, by a tribune of the people, to the senate-house, to give his +advice upon the present juncture of affairs, returned answer, "I am under +constraint, and cannot possibly come." The day afterwards, the senate +being dilatory in their proceedings, and worn out by divisions amongst +themselves, while the people who surrounded the senate-house shouted that +they would have one master, naming Claudius, he suffered the soldiers +assembled under arms to swear allegiance to him, promising them fifteen +thousand sesterces a man; he being the first of the Caesars who purchased +the submission of the soldiers with money. [478] + +XI. Having thus established himself in power, his first object was to +abolish all remembrance of the two preceding days, in which a revolution +in the state had been canvassed. Accordingly, he passed an act of +perpetual oblivion and pardon for every thing said or done during that +time; and this he faithfully observed, with the exception only of putting +to death a few tribunes and centurions concerned in the conspiracy +against Caius, both as an example, and because he understood that they +had also planned his own death. He now turned (303) his thoughts towards +paying respect to the memory of his relations. His most solemn and usual +oath was, "By Augustus." He prevailed upon the senate to decree divine +honours to his grandmother Livia, with a chariot in the Circensian +procession drawn by elephants, as had been appointed for Augustus [479]; +and public offerings to the shades of his parents. Besides which, he +instituted Circensian games for his father, to be celebrated every year, +upon his birth-day, and, for his mother, a chariot to be drawn through +the circus; with the title of Augusta, which had been refused by his +grandmother [480]. To the memory of his brother [481], to which, upon +all occasions, he showed a great regard, he gave a Greek comedy, to be +exhibited in the public diversions at Naples [482], and awarded the crown +for it, according to the sentence of the judges in that solemnity. Nor +did he omit to make honourable and grateful mention of Mark Antony; +declaring by a proclamation, "That he the more earnestly insisted upon +the observation of his father Drusus's birth-day, because it was likewise +that of his grandfather Antony." He completed the marble arch near +Pompey's theatre, which had formerly been decreed by the senate in honour +of Tiberius, but which had been neglected [483]. And though he cancelled +all the acts of Caius, yet he forbad the day of his assassination, +notwithstanding it was that of his own accession to the empire, to be +reckoned amongst the festivals. + +XII. But with regard to his own aggrandisement, he was sparing and +modest, declining the title of emperor, and refusing all excessive +honours. He celebrated the marriage of his daughter and the birth-day of +a grandson with great privacy, at home. He recalled none of those who +had been banished, without a decree of the senate: and requested of them +permission for the prefect of the military tribunes and pretorian guards +to attend him in the senate-house [484]; and (304) also that they would +be pleased to bestow upon his procurators judicial authority in the +provinces [485]. He asked of the consuls likewise the privilege of +holding fairs upon his private estate. He frequently assisted the +magistrates in the trial of causes, as one of their assessors. And when +they gave public spectacles, he would rise up with the rest of the +spectators, and salute them both by words and gestures. When the +tribunes of the people came to him while he was on the tribunal, he +excused himself, because, on account of the crowd, he could not hear them +unless they stood. In a short time, by this conduct, he wrought himself +so much into the favour and affection of the public, that when, upon his +going to Ostia, a report was spread in the city that he had been way-laid +and slain, the people never ceased cursing the soldiers for traitors, and +the senate as parricides, until one or two persons, and presently after +several others, were brought by the magistrates upon the rostra, who +assured them that he was alive, and not far from the city, on his way +home. + +XIII. Conspiracies, however, were formed against him, not only by +individuals separately, but by a faction; and at last his government was +disturbed with a civil war. A low fellow was found with a poniard about +him, near his chamber, at midnight. Two men of the equestrian order were +discovered waiting for him in the streets, armed with a tuck and a +huntsman's dagger; one of them intending to attack him as he came out of +the theatre, and the other as he was sacrificing in the temple of Mars. +Gallus Asinius and Statilius Corvinus, grandsons of the two orators, +Pollio and Messala [486], formed a conspiracy against him, in which they +engaged many of his freedmen and slaves. Furius Camillus Scribonianus, +his lieutenant in Dalmatia, broke into rebellion, but was reduced in +(305) the space of five days; the legions which he had seduced from their +oath of fidelity relinquishing their purpose, upon an alarm occasioned by +ill omens. For when orders were given them to march, to meet their new +emperor, the eagles could not be decorated, nor the standards pulled out +of the ground, whether it was by accident, or a divine interposition. + +XIV. Besides his former consulship, he held the office afterwards four +times; the first two successively [487], but the following, after an +interval of four years each [488]; the last for six months, the others +for two; and the third, upon his being chosen in the room of a consul who +died; which had never been done by any of the emperors before him. +Whether he was consul or out of office, he constantly attended the courts +for the administration of justice, even upon such days as were solemnly +observed as days of rejoicing in his family, or by his friends; and +sometimes upon the public festivals of ancient institution. Nor did he +always adhere strictly to the letter of the laws, but overruled the +rigour or lenity of many of their enactments, according to his sentiments +of justice and equity. For where persons lost their suits by insisting +upon more than appeared to be their due, before the judges of private +causes, he granted them the indulgence of a second trial. And with +regard to such as were convicted of any great delinquency, he even +exceeded the punishment appointed by law, and condemned them to be +exposed to wild beasts. [489] + +XV. But in hearing and determining causes, he exhibited a strange +inconsistency of temper, being at one time circumspect and sagacious, at +another inconsiderate and rash, and sometimes frivolous, and like one out +of his mind. In correcting the roll of judges, he struck off the name of +one who, concealing the privilege his children gave him to be excused +from serving, had answered to his name, as too eager for the office. +Another who was summoned before him in a cause of his own, but alleged +that the affair did not properly come under the (306) emperor's +cognizance, but that of the ordinary judges, he ordered to plead the +cause himself immediately before him, and show in a case of his own, how +equitable a judge he would prove in that of other persons. A woman +refusing to acknowledge her own son, and there being no clear proof on +either side, he obliged her to confess the truth, by ordering her to +marry the young man [490]. He was much inclined to determine causes in +favour of the parties who appeared, against those who did not, without +inquiring whether their absence was occasioned by their own fault, or by +real necessity. On proclamation of a man's being convicted of forgery, +and that he ought to have his hand cut off, he insisted that an +executioner should be immediately sent for, with a Spanish sword and a +block. A person being prosecuted for falsely assuming the freedom of +Rome, and a frivolous dispute arising between the advocates in the cause, +whether he ought to make his appearance in the Roman or Grecian dress, to +show his impartiality, he commanded him to change his clothes several +times according to the character he assumed in the accusation or defence. +An anecdote is related of him, and believed to be true, that, in a +particular cause, he delivered his sentence in writing thus: "I am in +favour of those who have spoken the truth." [491] By this he so much +forfeited the good opinion of the world, that he was everywhere and +openly despised. A person making an excuse for the non-appearance of a +witness whom he had sent for from the provinces, declared it was +impossible for him to appear, concealing the reason for some time: at +last, after several interrogatories were put to him on the subject, he +answered, "The man is dead;" to which Claudius replied, "I think that is +a sufficient excuse." Another thanking him for suffering a person who +was prosecuted to make his defence by counsel, added, "And yet it is no +more than what is usual." I have likewise heard some old men say [492], +that the advocates used to abuse his patience so grossly, that they would +not only (307) call him back, as he was quitting the tribunal, but would +seize him by the lap of his coat, and sometimes catch him by the heels, +to make him stay. That such behaviour, however strange, is not +incredible, will appear from this anecdote. Some obscure Greek, who was +a litigant, had an altercation with him, in which he called out, "You are +an old fool." [493] It is certain that a Roman knight, who was +prosecuted by an impotent device of his enemies on a false charge of +abominable obscenity with women, observing that common strumpets were +summoned against him and allowed to give evidence, upbraided Claudius in +very harsh and severe terms with his folly and cruelty, and threw his +style, and some books which he had in his hands, in his face, with such +violence as to wound him severely in the cheek. + +XVI. He likewise assumed the censorship [494], which had been +discontinued since the time that Paulus and Plancus had jointly held it. +But this also he administered very unequally, and with a strange variety +of humour and conduct. In his review of the knights, he passed over, +without any mark of disgrace, a profligate young man, only because his +father spoke of him in the highest terms; "for," said he, "his father is +his proper censor." Another, who was infamous for debauching youths and +for adultery, he only admonished "to indulge his youthful inclinations +more sparingly, or at least more cautiously;" [495] adding, "why must I +know what mistress you keep?" When, at the request of his friends, he +had taken off a mark of infamy which he had set upon one knight's name, +he said, "Let the blot, however, remain." He not only struck out of the +list of judges, but likewise deprived of the freedom of Rome, an +illustrious man of the highest provincial rank in Greece, only because he +was ignorant of the Latin language. Nor in this review did he suffer any +one to give an account of his conduct by an advocate, but obliged each +man to speak for himself in the best way he could. He disgraced many, +and some that little expected it, and for a reason entirely new, namely, +for going out of Italy without his license; (308) and one likewise, for +having in his province been the familiar companion of a king; observing, +that, in former times, Rabirius Posthumus had been prosecuted for +treason, although he only went after Ptolemy to Alexandria for the +purpose of securing payment of a debt [496]. Having tried to brand with +disgrace several others, he, to his own greater shame, found them +generally innocent, through the negligence of the persons employed to +inquire into their characters; those whom he charged with living in +celibacy, with want of children, or estate, proving themselves to be +husbands, parents, and in affluent circumstances. One of the knights who +was charged with stabbing himself, laid his bosom bare, to show that +there was not the least mark of violence upon his body. The following +incidents were remarkable in his censorship. He ordered a car, plated +with silver, and of very sumptuous workmanship, which was exposed for +sale in the Sigillaria [497], to be purchased, and broken in pieces +before his eyes. He published twenty proclamations in one day, in one of +which he advised the people, "Since the vintage was very plentiful, to +have their casks well secured at the bung with pitch:" and in another, he +told them, "that nothing would sooner cure the bite of a viper, than the +sap of the yew-tree." + +XVII. He undertook only one expedition, and that was of short duration. +The triumphal ornaments decreed him by the senate, he considered as +beneath the imperial dignity, and was therefore resolved to have the +honour of a real triumph. For this purpose, he selected Britain, which +had never been attempted by any one since Julius Caesar [498], and was +then chafing (309) with rage, because the Romans would not give up some +deserters. Accordingly, he set sail from Ostia, but was twice very near +being wrecked by the boisterous wind called Circius [499], upon the coast +of Liguria, and near the islands called Stoechades [500]. Having marched +by land from Marseilles to Gessoriacum [501], he thence passed over to +Britain, and part of the island submitting to him, within a few days +after his arrival, without battle or bloodshed, he returned to Rome in +less than six months from the time of his departure, and triumphed in the +most solemn manner [502]; to witness which, he not only (310) gave leave +to governors of provinces to come to Rome, but even to some of the +exiles. Among the spoils taken from the enemy, he fixed upon the +pediment of his house in the Palatium, a naval crown, in token of his +having passed, and, as it were, conquered the Ocean, and had it suspended +near the civic crown which was there before. Messalina, his wife, +followed his chariot in a covered litter [503]. Those who had attained +the honour of triumphal ornaments in the same war, rode behind; the rest +followed on foot, wearing the robe with the broad stripes. Crassus Frugi +was mounted upon a horse richly caparisoned, in a robe embroidered with +palm leaves, because this was the second time of his obtaining that +honour. + +XVIII. He paid particular attention to the care of the city, and to have +it well supplied with provisions. A dreadful fire happening in the +Aemiliana [504], which lasted some time, he passed two nights in the +Diribitorium [505], and the soldiers and gladiators not being in +sufficient numbers to extinguish it, he caused the magistrates to summon +the people out of all the streets in the city, to their assistance. +Placing bags of money before him, he encouraged them to do their utmost, +declaring, that he would reward every one on the spot, according to their +exertions. + +XIX. During a scarcity of provisions, occasioned by bad crops for +several successive years, he was stopped in the middle of the Forum by +the mob, who so abused him, at the same time pelting him with fragments +of bread, that he had some (311) difficulty in escaping into the palace +by a back door. He therefore used all possible means to bring provisions +to the city, even in the winter. He proposed to the merchants a sure +profit, by indemnifying them against any loss that might befall them by +storms at sea; and granted great privileges to those who built ships for +that traffic. To a citizen of Rome he gave an exemption from the penalty +of the Papia-Poppaean law [506]; to one who had only the privilege of +Latium, the freedom of the city; and to women the rights which by law +belonged to those who had four children: which enactments are in force to +this day. + +XX. He completed some important public works, which, though not +numerous, were very useful. The principal were an aqueduct, which had +been begun by Caius; an emissary for the discharge of the waters of the +Fucine lake [507], and the harbour of Ostia; although he knew that +Augustus had refused to comply with the repeated application of the +Marsians for one of these; and that the other had been several times +intended by Julius Caesar, but as often abandoned on account of the +difficulty of its execution. He brought to the city the cool and +plentiful springs of the Claudian water, one of which is called +Caeruleus, and the other Curtius and Albudinus, as likewise the river of +the New Anio, in a stone canal; and distributed them into many +magnificent reservoirs. The canal from the Fucine lake was undertaken as +much for the sake of profit, as for the honour of the enterprise; for +there were parties who offered to drain it at their own expense, on +condition of their having a grant of the land laid dry. With great +difficulty he completed a canal three miles in length, partly by cutting +through, and partly by tunnelling, a mountain; thirty thousand men being +constantly employed in the work for eleven years [508]. He formed the +harbour at Ostia, by carrying out circular piers on the right and on the +left, with (312) a mole protecting, in deep water, the entrance of the +port [509]. To secure the foundation of this mole, he sunk the vessel in +which the great obelisk [510] had been brought from Egypt [511]; and +built upon piles a very lofty tower, in imitation of the Pharos at +Alexandria, on which lights were burnt to direct mariners in the night. + +XXI. He often distributed largesses of corn and money among the people, +and entertained them with a great variety of public magnificent +spectacles, not only such as were usual, and in the accustomed places, +but some of new invention, and others revived from ancient models, and +exhibited in places where nothing of the kind had been ever before +attempted. In the games which he presented at the dedication of Pompey's +theatre [512], which had been burnt down, and was rebuilt by him, he +presided upon a tribunal erected for him in the orchestra; having first +paid his devotions, in the temple above, and then coming down through the +centre of the circle, while all the people kept their seats in profound +silence [513]. He likewise (313) exhibited the secular games [514], +giving out that Augustus had anticipated the regular period; though he +himself says in his history, "That they had been omitted before the age +of Augustus, who had calculated the years with great exactness, and again +brought them to their regular period." [515] The crier was therefore +ridiculed, when he invited people in the usual form, "to games which no +person had ever before seen, nor ever would again;" when many were still +living who had already seen them; and some of the performers who had +formerly acted in them, were now again brought upon the stage. He +likewise frequently celebrated the Circensian games in the Vatican [516], +sometimes exhibiting a hunt of wild beasts, after every five courses. He +embellished the Circus Maximus with marble barriers, and gilded goals, +which before were of common stone [517] and wood, and assigned proper +places for the senators, who were used to sit promiscuously with the +other spectators. Besides the chariot-races, he exhibited there the +Trojan game, and wild beasts from Africa, which were encountered by a +troop of pretorian knights, with their tribunes, and even the prefect at +the head of them; besides Thessalian horse, who drive fierce bulls round +the circus, leap upon their backs when they have exhausted their fury, +and drag them by the horns to the ground. He gave exhibitions of +gladiators in several places, and of various kinds; one yearly on the +anniversary of his accession in the pretorian camp [518], but without any +hunting, or the usual apparatus; another in the Septa as usual; and in +the same place, another out of the common way, and of a few days' +continuance only, which he called Sportula; because when he was going to +present it, he informed the people by proclamation, "that he invited them +to a late supper, got up in haste, and without ceremony." Nor did he +lend himself to any kind of public diversion with more freedom and +hilarity; insomuch that he would hold out his left hand, and (314) joined +by the common people, count upon his fingers aloud the gold pieces +presented to those who came off conquerors. He would earnestly invite +the company to be merry; sometimes calling them his "masters," with a +mixture of insipid, far-fetched jests. Thus, when the people called for +Palumbus [519], he said, "He would give them one when he could catch it." +The following was well-intended, and well-timed; having, amidst great +applause, spared a gladiator, on the intercession of his four sons, he +sent a billet immediately round the theatre, to remind the people, "how +much it behoved them to get children, since they had before them an +example how useful they had been in procuring favour and security for a +gladiator." He likewise represented in the Campus Martius, the assault +and sacking of a town, and the surrender of the British kings [520], +presiding in his general's cloak. Immediately before he drew off the +waters from the Fucine lake, he exhibited upon it a naval fight. But the +combatants on board the fleets crying out, "Health attend you, noble +emperor! We, who are about to peril our lives, salute you;" and he +replying, "Health attend you too," they all refused to fight, as if by +that response he had meant to excuse them. Upon this, he hesitated for a +time, whether he should not destroy them all with fire and sword. At +last, leaping from his seat, and running along the shore of the lake with +tottering steps, the result of his foul excesses, he, partly by fair +words, and partly by threats, persuaded them to engage. This spectacle +represented an engagement between the fleets of Sicily and Rhodes; +consisting each of twelve ships of war, of three banks of oars. The +signal for the encounter was given by a silver Triton, raised by +machinery from the middle of the lake. + +XXII. With regard to religious ceremonies, the administration of affairs +both civil and military, and the condition of all orders of the people at +home and abroad, some practices he corrected, others which had been laid +aside he revived; and some regulations he introduced which were entirely +new. In appointing new priests for the several colleges, he made no +appointments without being sworn. When an earthquake (315) happened in +the city, he never failed to summon the people together by the praetor, +and appoint holidays for sacred rites. And upon the sight of any ominous +bird in the City or Capitol, he issued an order for a supplication, the +words of which, by virtue of his office of high priest, after an +exhortation from the rostra, he recited in the presence of the people, +who repeated them after him; all workmen and slaves being first ordered +to withdraw. + +XXIII. The courts of judicature, whose sittings had been formerly +divided between the summer and winter months, he ordered, for the +dispatch of business, to sit the whole year round. The jurisdiction in +matters of trust, which used to be granted annually by special commission +to certain magistrates, and in the city only, he made permanent, and +extended to the provincial judges likewise. He altered a clause added by +Tiberius to the Papia-Poppaean law [521], which inferred that men of +sixty years of age were incapable of begetting children. He ordered +that, out of the ordinary course of proceeding, orphans might have +guardians appointed them by the consuls; and that those who were banished +from any province by the chief magistrate, should be debarred from coming +into the City, or any part of Italy. He inflicted on certain persons a +new sort of banishment, by forbidding them to depart further than three +miles from Rome. When any affair of importance came before the senate, +he used to sit between the two consuls upon the seats of the tribunes. +He reserved to himself the power of granting license to travel out of +Italy, which before had belonged to the senate. + +XXIV. He likewise granted the consular ornaments to his Ducenarian +procurators. From those who declined the senatorian dignity, he took +away the equestrian. Although he had in the beginning of his reign +declared, that he would admit no man into the senate who was not the +great-grandson of a Roman citizen, yet he gave the "broad hem" to the son +of a freedman, on condition that he should be adopted by a Roman knight. +Being afraid, however, of incurring censure by such an act, he informed +the public, that his ancestor Appius Caecus, the censor, had elected the +sons of freedmen into (316) the senate; for he was ignorant, it seems, +that in the times of Appius, and a long while afterwards, persons +manumitted were not called freedmen, but only their sons who were free- +born. Instead of the expense which the college of quaestors was obliged +to incur in paving the high-ways, he ordered them to give the people an +exhibition of gladiators; and relieving them of the provinces of Ostia +and [Cisalpine] Gaul, he reinstated them in the charge of the treasury, +which, since it was taken from them, had been managed by the praetors, or +those who had formerly filled that office. He gave the triumphal +ornaments to Silanus, who was betrothed to his daughter, though he was +under age; and in other cases, he bestowed them on so many, and with so +little reserve, that there is extant a letter unanimously addressed to +him by all the legions, begging him "to grant his consular lieutenants +the triumphal ornaments at the time of their appointment to commands, in +order to prevent their seeking occasion to engage in unnecessary wars." +He decreed to Aulus Plautius the honour of an ovation [522], going to +meet him at his entering the city, and walking with him in the procession +to the Capitol, and back, in which he took the left side, giving him the +post of honour. He allowed Gabinius Secundus, upon his conquest of the +Chauci, a German tribe, to assume the cognomen of Chaucius. [523] + +XXV. His military organization of the equestrian order was this. After +having the command of a cohort, they were promoted to a wing of auxiliary +horse, and subsequently received the commission of tribune of a legion. +He raised a body of militia, who were called Supernumeraries, who, though +they were a sort of soldiers, and kept in reserve, yet received pay. He +procured an act of the senate to prohibit all soldiers from attending +senators at their houses, in the way of respect and compliment. He +confiscated the estates of all freedmen who presumed to take upon +themselves the equestrian rank. Such of them as were ungrateful to their +patrons, and were complained of by them, he reduced to their former +condition of (317) slavery; and declared to their advocates, that he +would always give judgment against the freedmen, in any suit at law which +the masters might happen to have with them. Some persons having exposed +their sick slaves, in a languishing condition, on the island of +Aesculapius [524], because of the tediousness of their cure; he declared +all who were so exposed perfectly free, never more to return, if they +should recover, to their former servitude; and that if any one chose to +kill at once, rather than expose, a slave, he should be liable for +murder. He published a proclamation, forbidding all travellers to pass +through the towns of Italy any otherwise than on foot, or in a litter or +chair [525]. He quartered a cohort of soldiers at Puteoli, and another +at Ostia, to be in readiness against any accidents from fire. He +prohibited foreigners from adopting Roman names, especially those which +belonged to families [526]. Those who falsely pretended to the freedom +of Rome, he beheaded on the Esquiline. He gave up to the senate the +provinces of Achaia and Macedonia, which Tiberius had transferred to his +own administration. He deprived the Lycians of their liberties, as a +punishment for their fatal dissensions; but restored to the Rhodians +their freedom, upon their repenting of their former misdemeanors. He +exonerated for ever the people of Ilium from the payment of taxes, as +being the founders of the Roman race; reciting upon the occasion a letter +in Greek, (318) from the senate and people of Rome to king Seleucus +[527], on which they promised him their friendship and alliance, provided +that he would grant their kinsmen the Iliensians immunity from all +burdens. + +He banished from Rome all the Jews, who were continually making +disturbances at the instigation of one Chrestus [528]. He allowed the +ambassadors of the Germans to sit at the public spectacles in the seats +assigned to the senators, being induced to grant them favours by their +frank and honourable conduct. For, having been seated in the rows of +benches which were common to the people, on observing the Parthian and +Armenian ambassadors sitting among the senators, they took upon +themselves to cross over into the same seats, as being, they said, no way +inferior to the others, in point either, of merit or rank. The religious +rites of the Druids, solemnized with such horrid cruelties, which had +only been forbidden the citizens of Rome during the reign of Augustus, he +utterly abolished among the Gauls [529]. On the other hand, he attempted +(319) to transfer the Eleusinian mysteries from Attica to Rome [530]. He +likewise ordered the temple of Venus Erycina in Sicily, which was old and +in a ruinous condition, to be repaired at the expense of the Roman +people. He concluded treaties with foreign princes in the forum, with +the sacrifice of a sow, and the form of words used by the heralds in +former times. But in these and other things, and indeed the greater part +of his administration, he was directed not so much by his own judgment, +as by the influence of his wives and freedmen; for the most part acting +in conformity to what their interests or fancies dictated. + +XXVI. He was twice married at a very early age, first to Aemilia Lepida, +the grand-daughter of Augustus, and afterwards to Livia Medullina, who +had the cognomen of Camilla, and was descended from the old dictator +Camillus. The former he divorced while still a virgin, because her +parents had incurred the displeasure of Augustus; and he lost the latter +by sickness on the day fixed for their nuptials. He next married Plautia +Urgulanilla, whose father had enjoyed the honour of a triumph; and soon +afterwards, Aelia Paetina, the daughter of a man of consular rank. But +he divorced them both; Paetina, upon some trifling causes of disgust; and +Urgulanilla, for scandalous lewdness, and the suspicion of murder. After +them he took in marriage Valeria Messalina, the daughter of Barbatus +Messala, his cousin. But finding that, besides her other shameful +debaucheries, she had even gone so far as to marry in his own absence +Caius Silius, the settlement of her dower being formally signed, in the +presence of the augurs, he put her to death. When summoning his +pretorians to his presence, he made to them this declaration: "As I have +been so unhappy in my unions, I am resolved to continue in future +unmarried; and if I should not, I give you leave to stab me." He was, +however, unable to persist in this resolution; for he began immediately +to think of another wife; and even of taking back Paetina, whom he had +formerly divorced: he thought also of Lollia Paulina, who had been +married to Caius Caesar. But being ensnared by the arts of Agrippina, +(320) the daughter of his brother Germanicus, who took advantage of the +kisses and endearments which their near relationship admitted, to inflame +his desires, he got some one to propose at the next meeting of the +senate, that they should oblige the emperor to marry Agrippina, as a +measure highly conducive to the public interest; and that in future +liberty should be given for such marriages, which until that time had +been considered incestuous. In less than twenty-four hours after this, +he married her [531]. No person was found, however, to follow the +example, excepting one freedman, and a centurion of the first rank, at +the solemnization of whose nuptials both he and Agrippina attended. + +XXVII. He had children by three of his wives: by Urgulanilla, Drusus and +Claudia; by Paetina, Antonia; and by Messalina, Octavia, and also a son, +whom at first he called Germanicus, but afterwards Britannicus. He lost +Drusus at Pompeii, when he was very young; he being choked with a pear, +which in his play he tossed into the air, and caught in his mouth. Only +a few days before, he had betrothed him to one of Sejanus's daughters +[532]; and I am therefore surprised that some authors should say he lost +his life by the treachery of Sejanus. Claudia, who was, in truth, the +daughter of Boter his freedman, though she was born five months before +his divorce, he ordered to be thrown naked at her mother's door. He +married Antonia to Cneius Pompey the Great [533], and afterwards to +Faustus Sylla [534], both youths of very noble parentage; Octavia to his +step-son Nero [535], after she had been contracted to Silanus. +Britannicus was born upon the twentieth day of his reign, and in his +second consulship. He often earnestly commended him to the soldiers, +holding him in his arms before their ranks; and would likewise show him +to the people in the theatre, setting him upon his lap, or holding him +out whilst he was still very young; and was sure to receive their +acclamations, and good wishes on his behalf. Of his (321) sons-in-law, +he adopted Nero. He not only dismissed from his favour both Pompey and +Silanus, but put them to death. + +XXVIII. Amongst his freedmen, the greatest favourite was the eunuch +Posides, whom, in his British triumph, he presented with the pointless +spear, classing him among the military men. Next to him, if not equal, +in favour was Felix [536], whom he not only preferred to commands both of +cohorts and troops, but to the government of the province of Judaea; and +he became, in consequence of his elevation, the husband of three queens +[537]. Another favourite was Harpocras, to whom he granted the privilege +of being carried in a litter within the city, and of holding public +spectacles for the entertainment of the people. In this class was +likewise Polybius, who assisted him in his studies, and had often the +honour of walking between the two consuls. But above all others, +Narcissus, his secretary, and Pallas [538], the comptroller of his +accounts, were in high favour with him. He not only allowed them to +receive, by decree of the senate, immense presents, but also to be +decorated with the quaestorian and praetorian ensigns of honour. So much +did he indulge them in amassing wealth, and plundering the public, that, +upon his complaining, once, of the lowness of his exchequer, some one +said, with great reason, that "It would be full enough, if those two +freedmen of his would but take him into partnership with them." + +XXIX. Being entirely governed by these freedmen, and, as I have already +said, by his wives, he was a tool to others, rather than a prince. He +distributed offices, or the command of armies, pardoned or punished, +according as it suited their interests, (322) their passions, or their +caprice; and for the most part, without knowing, or being sensible of +what he did. Not to enter into minute details relative to the revocation +of grants, the reversal of judicial decisions, obtaining his signature to +fictitious appointments, or the bare-faced alteration of them after +signing; he put to death Appius Silanus, the father of his son-in-law, +and the two Julias, the daughters of Drusus and Germanicus, without any +positive proof of the crimes with which they were charged, or so much as +permitting them to make any defence. He also cut off Cneius Pompey, the +husband of his eldest daughter; and Lucius Silanus, who was betrothed to +the younger Pompey, was stabbed in the act of unnatural lewdness with a +favourite paramour. Silanus was obliged to quit the office of praetor +upon the fourth of the calends of January [29th Dec.], and to kill +himself on new year's day [539] following, the very same on which +Claudius and Agrippina were married. He condemned to death five and +thirty senators, and above three hundred Roman knights, with so little +attention to what he did, that when a centurion brought him word of the +execution of a man of consular rank, who was one of the number, and told +him that he had executed his order, he declared, "he had ordered no such +thing, but that he approved of it;" because his freedmen, it seems, had +said, that the soldiers did nothing more than their duty, in dispatching +the emperor's enemies without waiting for a warrant. But it is beyond +all belief, that he himself, at the marriage of Messalina with the +adulterous Silius, should actually sign the writings relative to her +dowry; induced, as it is pretended, by the design of diverting from +himself and transferring upon another the danger which some omens seemed +to threaten him. + +XXX. Either standing or sitting, but especially when he lay asleep, he +had a majestic and graceful appearance; for he was tall, but not slender. +His grey looks became him well, and he had a full neck. But his knees +were feeble, and failed him in walking, so that his gait was ungainly, +both when he assumed state, and when he was taking diversion. He was +outrageous in his laughter, and still more so in his wrath, for then he +foamed at the mouth, and discharged from his nostrils. He also stammered +in his speech, and had a tremulous motion (323) of the head at all times, +but particularly when he was engaged in any business, however trifling. + +XXXI. Though his health was very infirm during the former part of his +life, yet, after he became emperor, he enjoyed a good state of health, +except only that he was subject to a pain of the stomach. In a fit of +this complaint, he said he had thoughts of killing himself. + +XXXII. He gave entertainments as frequent as they were splendid, and +generally when there was such ample room, that very often six hundred +guests sat down together. At a feast he gave on the banks of the canal +for draining the Fucine Lake, he narrowly escaped being drowned, the +water at its discharge rushing out with such violence, that it overflowed +the conduit. At supper he had always his own children, with those of +several of the nobility, who, according to an ancient custom, sat at the +feet of the couches. One of his guests having been suspected of +purloining a golden cup, he invited him again the next day, but served +him with a porcelain jug. It is said, too, that he intended to publish +an edict, "allowing to all people the liberty of giving vent at table to +any distension occasioned by flatulence," upon hearing of a person whose +modesty, when under restraint, had nearly cost him his life. + +XXXIII. He was always ready to eat and drink at any time or in any +place. One day, as he was hearing causes in the Forum of Augustus, he +smelt the dinner which was preparing for the Salii [540], in the temple +of Mars adjoining, whereupon he quitted (324) the tribunal, and went to +partake of the feast with the priests. + +He scarcely ever left the table until he had thoroughly crammed himself +and drank to intoxication; and then he would immediately fall asleep, +lying upon his back with his mouth open. While in this condition, a +feather was put down his throat, to make him throw up the contents of his +stomach. Upon composing himself to rest, his sleep was short, and he +usually awoke before midnight; but he would sometimes sleep in the +daytime, and that, even, when he was upon the tribunal; so that the +advocates often found it difficult to wake him, though they raised their +voices for that purpose. He set no bounds to his libidinous intercourse +with women, but never betrayed any unnatural desires for the other sex. +He was fond of gaming, and published a book upon the subject. He even +used to play as he rode in his chariot, having the tables so fitted, that +the game was not disturbed by the motion of the carriage. + +XXXIV. His cruel and sanguinary disposition was exhibited upon great as +well as trifling occasions. When any person was to be put to the +torture, or criminal punished for parricide, he was impatient for the +execution, and would have it performed in his own presence. When he was +at Tibur, being desirous of seeing an example of the old way of putting +malefactors to death, some were immediately bound to a stake for the +purpose; but there being no executioner to be had at the place, he sent +for one from Rome, and waited for his coming until night. In any +exhibition of gladiators, presented either by himself or others, if any +of the combatants chanced to fall, he ordered them to be butchered, +especially the Retiarii, that he might see their faces in the agonies of +death. Two gladiators happening to kill each other, he immediately +ordered some little knives to be made of their swords for his own use. +He took great pleasure in seeing men engage with wild beasts, and the +combatants who appeared on the stage at noon. He would therefore come to +the theatre by break of day, and at noon, dismissing the people to +dinner, continued sitting himself; and besides those who were devoted to +that sanguinary fate, he would match others with the beasts, upon slight +or sudden occasions; as, for instance, the carpenters and their (326) +assistants, and people of that sort, if a machine, or any piece of work +in which they had been employed about the theatre did not answer the +purpose for which it had been intended. To this desperate kind of +encounter he forced one of his nomenclators, even encumbered as he was by +wearing the toga. + +XXXV. But the characteristics most predominant in him were fear and +distrust. In the beginning of his reign, though he much affected a +modest and humble appearance, as has been already observed, yet he durst +not venture himself at an entertainment without being attended by a guard +of spearmen, and made soldiers wait upon him at table instead of +servants. He never visited a sick person, until the chamber had been +first searched, and the bed and bedding thoroughly examined. At other +times, all persons who came to pay their court to him were strictly +searched by officers appointed for that purpose; nor was it until after a +long time, and with much difficulty, that he was prevailed upon to excuse +women, boys, and girls from such rude handling, or suffer their +attendants or writing-masters to retain their cases for pens and styles. +When Camillus formed his plot against him, not doubting but his timidity +might be worked upon without a war, he wrote to him a scurrilous, +petulant, and threatening letter, desiring him to resign the government, +and betake himself to a life of privacy. Upon receiving this +requisition, he had some thoughts of complying with it, and summoned +together the principal men of the city, to consult with them on the +subject. + +XXXVI. Having heard some loose reports of conspiracies formed against +him, he was so much alarmed, that he thought of immediately abdicating +the government. And when, as I have before related, a man armed with a +dagger was discovered near him while he was sacrificing, he instantly +ordered the heralds to convoke the senate, and with tears and dismal +exclamations, lamented that such was his condition, that he was safe no +where; and for a long time afterwards he abstained from appearing in +public. He smothered his ardent love for Messalina, not so much on +account of her infamous conduct, as from apprehension of danger; +believing that she aspired to share with Silius, her partner in adultery, +the imperial dignity. (326) Upon this occasion he ran in a great fright, +and a very shameful manner, to the camp, asking all the way he went, "if +the empire were indeed safely his?" + +XXXVII. No suspicion was too trifling, no person on whom it rested too +contemptible, to throw him into a panic, and induce him to take +precautions for his safety, and meditate revenge. A man engaged in a +litigation before his tribunal, having saluted him, drew him aside, and +told him he had dreamt that he saw him murdered; and shortly afterwards, +when his adversary came to deliver his plea to the emperor, the +plaintiff, pretending to have discovered the murderer, pointed to him as +the man he had seen in his dream; whereupon, as if he had been taken in +the act, he was hurried away to execution. We are informed, that Appius +Silanus was got rid of in the same manner, by a contrivance betwixt +Messalina and Narcissus, in which they had their several parts assigned +them. Narcissus therefore burst into his lord's chamber before daylight, +apparently in great fright, and told him that he had dreamt that Appius +Silanus had murdered him. The empress, upon this, affecting great +surprise, declared she had the like dream for several nights +successively. Presently afterwards, word was brought, as it had been +agreed on, that Appius was come, he having, indeed, received orders the +preceding day to be there at that time; and, as if the truth of the dream +was sufficiently confirmed by his appearance at that juncture, he was +immediately ordered to be prosecuted and put to death. The day +following, Claudius related the whole affair to the senate, and +acknowledged his great obligation to his freedmen for watching over him +even in his sleep. + +XXXVIII. Sensible of his being subject to passion and resentment, he +excused himself in both instances by a proclamation, assuring the public +that "the former should be short and harmless, and the latter never +without good cause." After severely reprimanding the people of Ostia for +not sending some boats to meet him upon his entering the mouth of the +Tiber, in terms which might expose them to the public resentment, he +wrote to Rome that he had been treated as a private person; yet +immediately afterwards he pardoned them, and that in a way which had the +appearance of making them (327) satisfaction, or begging pardon for some +injury he had done them. Some people who addressed him unseasonably in +public, he pushed away with his own hand. He likewise banished a person +who had been secretary to a quaestor, and even a senator who had filled +the office of praetor, without a hearing, and although they were +innocent; the former only because he had treated him with rudeness while +he was in a private station, and the other, because in his aedileship he +had fined some tenants of his, for selling cooked victuals contrary to +law, and ordered his steward, who interfered, to be whipped. On this +account, likewise, he took from the aediles the jurisdiction they had +over cooks'-shops. He did not scruple to speak of his own absurdities, +and declared in some short speeches which he published, that he had only +feigned imbecility in the reign of Caius, because otherwise it would have +been impossible for him to have escaped and arrived at the station he had +then attained. He could not, however, gain credit for this assertion; +for a short time afterwards, a book was published under the title of +Moron anastasis, "The Resurrection of Fools," the design of which was to +show "that nobody ever counterfeited folly." + +XXXIX. Amongst other things, people admired in him his indifference and +unconcern; or, to express it in Greek, his meteoria and ablepsia. +Placing himself at table a little after Messalina's death, he enquired, +"Why the empress did not come?" Many of those whom he had condemned to +death, he ordered the day after to be invited to his table, and to game +with him, and sent to reprimand them as sluggish fellows for not making +greater haste. When he was meditating his incestuous marriage with +Agrippina, he was perpetually calling her, "My daughter, my nursling, +born and brought up upon my lap." And when he was going to adopt Nero, +as if there was little cause for censure in his adopting a son-in-law, +when he had a son of his own arrived at years of maturity; he continually +gave out in public, "that no one had ever been admitted by adoption into +the Claudian family." + +XL. He frequently appeared so careless in what he said, and so +inattentive to circumstances, that it was believed he never reflected who +he himself was, or amongst whom, or at (328) what time, or in what place, +he spoke. In a debate in the senate relative to the butchers and +vintners, he cried out, "I ask you, who can live without a bit of meat?" +And mentioned the great plenty of old taverns, from which he himself used +formerly to have his wine. Among other reasons for his supporting a +certain person who was candidate for the quaestorship, he gave this: "His +father," said he, "once gave me, very seasonably, a draught of cold water +when I was sick." Upon his bringing a woman as a witness in some cause +before the senate, he said, "This woman was my mother's freedwoman and +dresser, but she always considered me as her master; and this I say, +because there are some still in my family that do not look upon me as +such." The people of Ostia addressing him in open court with a petition, +he flew into a rage at them, and said, "There is no reason why I should +oblige you: if any one else is free to act as he pleases, surely I am." +The following expressions he had in his mouth every day, and at all hours +and seasons: "What! do you take me for a Theogonius?" [541] And in Greek +lalei kai mae thingane, "Speak, but do not touch me;" besides many other +familiar sentences, below the dignity of a private person, much more of +an emperor, who was not deficient either in eloquence or learning, as +having applied himself very closely to the liberal sciences. + +XLI. By the encouragement of Titus Livius [542], and with the assistance +of Sulpicius Flavus, he attempted at an early age the composition of a +history; and having called together a numerous auditory, to hear and give +their judgment upon it, he read it over with much difficulty, and +frequently interrupting himself. For after he had begun, a great laugh +was raised amongst the company, by the breaking of several benches from +the weight of a very fat man; and even when order was restored, he could +not forbear bursting out into violent fits of laughter, at the +remembrance of the accident. After he became emperor, likewise, he wrote +several things (329) which he was careful to have recited to his friends +by a reader. He commenced his history from the death of the dictator +Caesar; but afterwards he took a later period, and began at the +conclusion of the civil wars; because he found he could not speak with +freedom, and a due regard to truth, concerning the former period, having +been often taken to task both by his mother and grandmother. Of the +earlier history he left only two books, but of the latter, one and forty. +He compiled likewise the "History of his Own Life," in eight books, full +of absurdities, but in no bad style; also, "A Defence of Cicero against +the Books of Asinius Gallus," [543] which exhibited a considerable degree +of learning. He besides invented three new letters, and added them to +the former alphabet [544], as highly necessary. He published a book to +recommend them while he was yet only a private person; but on his +elevation to imperial power he had little difficulty in introducing them +into common use; and these letters are still extant in a variety of +books, registers, and inscriptions upon buildings. + +XLII. He applied himself with no less attention to the study of Grecian +literature, asserting upon all occasions his love of that language, and +its surpassing excellency. A stranger once holding a discourse both in +Greek and Latin, he addressed him thus; "Since you are skilled in both +our tongues." And recommending Achaia to the favour of the senate, he +said, "I have a particular attachment to that province, on account of our +common studies." In the senate he often made long replies to ambassadors +in that language. On the tribunal he frequently quoted the verses of +Homer. When at any time he had taken vengeance on an enemy or a +conspirator, he scarcely ever gave to the tribune on guard, who, (330) +according to custom, came for the word, any other than this. + + Andr' epamynastai, ote tis proteros chalepaenae. + 'Tis time to strike when wrong demands the blow. + +To conclude, he wrote some histories likewise in Greek, namely, twenty +books on Tuscan affairs, and eight on the Carthaginian; in consequence of +which, another museum was founded at Alexandria, in addition to the old +one, and called after his name; and it was ordered, that, upon certain +days in every year, his Tuscan history should be read over in one of +these, and his Carthaginian in the other, as in a school; each history +being read through by persons who took it in turn. + +XLIII. Towards the close of his life, he gave some manifest indications +that he repented of his marriage with Agrippina, and his adoption of +Nero. For some of his freedmen noticing with approbation his having +condemned, the day before, a woman accused of adultery, he remarked, "It +has been my misfortune to have wives who have been unfaithful to my bed; +but they did not escape punishment." Often, when he happened to meet +Britannicus, he would embrace him tenderly, and express a desire "that he +might grow apace, and receive from him an account of all his actions: +"using the Greek phrase, o trosas kai iasetai, "He who has wounded will +also heal." And intending to give him the manly habit, while he was yet +under age and a tender youth, because his stature would allow of it, he +added, "I do so, that the Roman people may at last have a real Caesar." +[545] + +XLIV. Soon afterwards he made his will, and had it signed by all the +magistrates as witnesses. But he was prevented from proceeding further +by Agrippina, accused by her own guilty conscience, as well as by +informers, of a variety of crimes. It is agreed that he was taken off by +poison; but where, and by whom administered, remains in uncertainty. +Some authors say that it was given him as he was feasting with the +priests in the Capitol, by the eunuch Halotus, his taster. Others say +(331) by Agrippina, at his own table, in mushrooms, a dish of which he +was very fond [546]. The accounts of what followed likewise differ. +Some relate that he instantly became speechless, was racked with pain +through the night, and died about day-break; others, that at first he +fell into a sound sleep, and afterwards, his food rising, he threw up the +whole; but had another dose given him; whether in water-gruel, under +pretence of refreshment after his exhaustion, or in a clyster, as if +designed to relieve his bowels, is likewise uncertain. + +XLV. His death was kept secret until everything was settled relative to +his successor. Accordingly, vows were made for his recovery, and +comedians were called to amuse him, as it was pretended, by his own +desire. He died upon the third of the ides of October [13th October], in +the consulship of Asinius Marcellus and Acilius Aviola, in the sixty- +fourth year of his age, and the fourteenth of his reign [547]. His +funeral was celebrated with the customary imperial pomp, and he was +ranked amongst the gods. This honour was taken from him by Nero, but +restored by Vespasian. + +XLVI. The chief presages of his death were, the appearance of a comet, +his father Drusus's monument being struck by lightning, and the death of +most of the magistrates of all ranks that year. It appears from several +circumstances, that he was sensible of his approaching dissolution, and +made no secret of it. For when he nominated the consuls, he appointed no +one to fill the office beyond the month in which he died. At the last +assembly of the senate in which he made his appearance, he earnestly +exhorted his two sons to unity with each other, and with earnest +entreaties commended to the fathers the care of their tender years. And +in the last cause he heard from the tribunal, he repeatedly declared in +open court, "That he was now arrived at the last stage of mortal +existence;" whilst all who heard it shrunk at hearing these ominous +words. + + * * * * * * + +The violent death of Caligula afforded the Romans a fresh opportunity to +have asserted the liberty of their country; but the conspirators had +concerted no plan, by which they should proceed upon the assassination of +that tyrant; and the indecision of the senate, in a debate of two days, +on so sudden an emergency, gave time to the caprice of the soldiers to +interpose in the settlement of the government. By an accident the most +fortuitous, a man devoid of all pretensions to personal merit, so weak in +understanding as to be the common sport of the emperor's household, and +an object of contempt even to his own kindred; this man, in the hour of +military insolence, was nominated by the soldiers as successor to the +Roman throne. Not yet in possession of the public treasury, which +perhaps was exhausted, he could not immediately reward the services of +his electors with a pecuniary gratification; but he promised them a +largess of fifteen thousand sesterces a man, upwards of a hundred and +forty pounds sterling; and as we meet with no account of any subsequent +discontents in the army, we may justly conclude that the promise was soon +after fulfilled. This transaction laid the foundation of that military +despotism, which, through many succeeding ages, convulsed the Roman +empire. + +Besides the interposition of the soldiers upon this occasion, it appears +that the populace of Rome were extremely clamorous for the government of +a single person, and for that of Claudius in particular. This partiality +for a monarchical government proceeded from two causes. The commonalty, +from their obscure situation, were always the least exposed to +oppression, under a tyrannical prince. They had likewise ever been +remarkably fond of stage-plays and public shows, with which, as well as +with scrambles, and donations of bread and other victuals, the preceding +emperor had frequently gratified them. They had therefore less to fear, +and more to hope, from the government of a single person than any other +class of Roman citizens. With regard to the partiality for Claudius, it +may be accounted for partly from the low habits of life to which he had +been addicted, in consequence of which many of them were familiarly +acquainted with him; and this circumstance likewise increased their hope +of deriving some advantage from his accession. Exclusive of all these +considerations, it is highly probable that the populace were instigated +in favour of Claudius by the artifices of his freedmen, persons of mean +extraction, by whom he was afterwards entirely governed, and who, upon +such an occasion, would exert their utmost efforts to procure his +appointment to the throne. From the debate in the senate having +continued during (333) two days, it was evident that there was still a +strong party for restoring the ancient form of government. That they +were in the end overawed by the clamour of the multitude, is not +surprising, when we consider that the senate was totally unprovided with +resources of every kind for asserting the independence of the nation by +arms; and the commonalty, who interrupted their deliberations, were the +only people by whose assistance they ever could effect the restitution of +public freedom. To this may be added, that the senate, by the total +reduction of their political importance, ever since the overthrow of the +republic, had lost both the influence and authority which they formerly +enjoyed. The extreme cruelty, likewise, which had been exercised during +the last two reigns, afforded a further motive for relinquishing all +attempts in favour of liberty, as they might be severely revenged upon +themselves by the subsequent emperor: and it was a degree of moderation +in Claudius, which palliates the injustice of his cause, that he began +his government with an act of amnesty respecting the public transactions +which ensued upon the death of Caligula. + +Claudius, at the time of his accession, was fifty years of age; and +though he had hitherto lived apparently unambitious of public honours, +accompanied with great ostentation, yet he was now seized with a desire +to enjoy a triumph. As there existed no war, in which he might perform +some military achievement, his vanity could only be gratified by invading +a foreign country, where, contrary to the advice contained in the +testament of Augustus, he might attempt to extend still further the +limits of the empire. Either Britain, therefore, or some nation on the +continent, at a great distance from the capital, became the object of +such an enterprize; and the former was chosen, not only as more +convenient, from its vicinity to the maritime province of Gaul, but on +account of a remonstrance lately presented by the Britons to the court of +Rome, respecting the protection afforded to some persons of that nation, +who had fled thither to elude the laws of their country. Considering the +state of Britain at that time, divided as it was into a number of +principalities, amongst which there was no general confederacy for mutual +defence, and where the alarm excited by the invasion of Julius Caesar, +upwards of eighty years before, had long since been forgotten; a sudden +attempt upon the island could not fail to be attended with success. +Accordingly, an army was sent over, under the command of Aulus Plautius, +an able general, who defeated the natives in several engagements, and +penetrated a considerable way into the country. Preparations for the +emperor's voyage now being made, Claudius set sail from Ostia, at the +mouth of (334) the Tiber; but meeting with a violent storm in the +Mediterranean, he landed at Marseilles, and proceeding thence to Boulogne +in Picardy, passed over into Britain. In what part he debarked, is +uncertain, but it seems to have been at some place on the south-east +coast of the island. He immediately received the submission of several +British states, the Cantii, Atrebates, Regni, and Trinobantes, who +inhabited those parts; and returning to Rome, after an absence of six +months, celebrated with great pomp the triumph, for which he had +undertaken the expedition. + +In the interior parts of Britain, the natives, under the command of +Caractacus, maintained an obstinate resistance, and little progress was +made by the Roman arms, until Ostorius Scapula was sent over to prosecute +the war. He penetrated into the country of the Silures, a warlike tribe, +who inhabited the banks of the Severn; and having defeated Caractacus in +a great battle, made him prisoner, and sent him to Rome. The fame of the +British prince had by this time spread over the provinces of Gaul and +Italy; and upon his arrival in the Roman capital, the people flocked from +all quarters to behold him. The ceremonial of his entrance was conducted +with great solemnity. On a plain adjoining the Roman camp, the pretorian +troops were drawn up in martial array: the emperor and his court took +their station in front of the lines, and behind them was ranged the whole +body of the people. The procession commenced with the different trophies +which had been taken from the Britons during the progress of the war. +Next followed the brothers of the vanquished prince, with his wife and +daughter, in chains, expressing by their supplicating looks and gestures +the fears with which they were actuated. But not so Caractacus himself. +With a manly gait and an undaunted countenance, he marched up to the +tribunal, where the emperor was seated, and addressed him in the +following terms: + +"If to my high birth and distinguished rank, I had added the virtues of +moderation, Rome had beheld me rather as a friend than a captive; and you +would not have rejected an alliance with a prince, descended from +illustrious ancestors, and governing many nations. The reverse of my +fortune to you is glorious, and to me humiliating. I had arms, and men, +and horses; I possessed extraordinary riches; and can it be any wonder +that I was unwilling to lose them? Because Rome aspires to universal +dominion, must men therefore implicitly resign themselves to subjection? +I opposed for a long time the progress of your arms, and had I acted +otherwise, would either you have had the glory of conquest, or I of a +brave resistance? I am now in your (335) power: if you are determined to +take revenge, my fate will soon be forgotten, and you will derive no +honour from the transaction. Preserve my life, and I shall remain to the +latest ages a monument of your clemency." + +Immediately upon this speech, Claudius granted him his liberty, as he did +likewise to the other royal captives. They all returned their thanks in +a manner the most grateful to the emperor; and as soon as their chains +were taken off, walking towards Agrippina, who sat upon a bench at a +little distance, they repeated to her the same fervent declarations of +gratitude and esteem. + +History has preserved no account of Caractacus after this period; but it +is probable, that he returned in a short time to his own country, where +his former valour, and the magnanimity, which he had displayed at Rome, +would continue to render him illustrious through life, even amidst the +irretrievable ruin of his fortunes. + +The most extraordinary character in the present reign was that of Valeria +Messalina, the daughter of Valerius Messala Barbatus. She was married to +Claudius, and had by him a son and a daughter. To cruelty in the +prosecution of her purposes, she added the most abandoned incontinence. +Not confining her licentiousness within the limits of the palace, where +she committed the most shameful excesses, she prostituted her person in +the common stews, and even in the public streets of the capital. As if +her conduct was already not sufficiently scandalous, she obliged C. +Silius, a man of consular rank, to divorce his wife, that she might +procure his company entirely to herself. Not contented with this +indulgence to her criminal passion, she next persuaded him to marry her; +and during an excursion which the emperor made to Ostia, the ceremony of +marriage was actually performed between them. The occasion was +celebrated with a magnificent supper, to which she invited a large +company; and lest the whole should be regarded as a frolic, not meant to +be consummated, the adulterous parties ascended the nuptial couch in the +presence of the astonished spectators. Great as was the facility of +Claudius's temper in respect of her former behaviour, he could not +overlook so flagrant a violation both of public decency and the laws of +the country. Silius was condemned to death for the adultery which he had +perpetrated with reluctance; and Messalina was ordered into the emperor's +presence, to answer for her conduct. Terror now operating upon her mind +in conjunction with remorse, she could not summon the resolution to +support such an interview, but retired into the gardens of Lucullus, +there to indulge at last the compunction which she felt for her crimes, +and to meditate the entreaties by which she should endeavour to soothe +the resentment (336) of her husband. In the extremity of her distress, +she attempted to lay violent hands upon herself, but her courage was not +equal to the emergency. Her mother, Lepida, who had not spoken with her +for some years before, was present upon the occasion, and urged her to +the act which alone could put a period to her infamy and wretchedness. +Again she made an effort, but again her resolution abandoned her; when a +tribune burst into the gardens, and plunging his sword into her body, she +instantly expired. Thus perished a woman, the scandal of whose lewdness +resounded throughout the empire, and of whom a great satirist, then +living, has said, perhaps without a hyperbole, + + Et lassata viris, necdum satiata, recessit.--Juvenal, Sat. VI. + +It has been already observed, that Claudius was entirely governed by his +freedmen; a class of retainers which enjoyed a great share of favour and +confidence with their patrons in those times. They had before been the +slaves of their masters, and had obtained their freedom as a reward for +their faithful and attentive services. Of the esteem in which they were +often held, we meet with an instance in Tiro, the freedman of Cicero, to +whom that illustrious Roman addresses several epistles, written in the +most familiar and affectionate strain of friendship. As it was common +for them to be taught the more useful parts of education in the families +of their masters, they were usually well qualified for the management of +domestic concerns, and might even be competent to the superior +departments of the state, especially in those times when negotiations and +treaties with foreign princes seldom or never occurred; and in arbitrary +governments, where public affairs were directed more by the will of the +sovereign or his ministers, than by refined suggestions of policy. + +From the character generally given of Claudius before his elevation to +the throne, we should not readily imagine that he was endowed with any +taste for literary composition; yet he seems to have exclusively enjoyed +this distinction during his own reign, in which learning was at a low +ebb. Besides history, Suetonius informs us that he wrote a Defence of +Cicero against the Charges of Asinius Gallus. This appears to be the +only tribute of esteem or approbation paid to the character of Cicero, +from the time of Livy the historian, to the extinction of the race of the +Caesars. Asinius Gallus was the son of Asinius Pollio, the orator. +Marrying Vipsania after she had been divorced by Tiberius, he incurred +the displeasure of that emperor, and died of famine, either voluntarily, +or by order of the tyrant. He wrote a comparison between his father and +Cicero, in which, with more filial partiality than justice, he gave the +preference to the former. + +FOOTNOTES: + + +[465] A.U.C. 714. + +[466] Pliny describes Drusus as having in this voyage circumnavigated +Germany, and reached the Cimbrian Chersonese, and the Scythian shores, +reeking with constant fogs. + +[467] Tacitus, Annal. xi. 8, 1, mentions this fosse, and says that +Drusus sailed up the Meuse and the Waal. Cluverius places it between the +village of Iselvort and the town of Doesborg. + +[468] The Spolia Opima were the spoils taken from the enemy's king, or +chief, when slain in single combat by a Roman general. They were always +hung up in the Temple of Jupiter Feretrius. Those spoils had been +obtained only thrice since the foundation of Rome; the first by Romulus, +who slew Acron, king of the Caeninenses; the next by A. Cornelius Cossus, +who slew Tolumnius, king of the Veientes, A.U. 318; and the third by M. +Claudius Marcellus, who slew Viridomarus, king of the Gauls, A.U. 330. + +[469] A.U.C. 744. + +[470] This epistle, as it was the habit of Augustus, is interspersed +with Greek phrases. + +[471] The Alban Mount is the most interesting feature of the scenery of +the Campagna about Rome, Monti Cavo, the summit, rising above an +amphitheatre of magnificent woods, to an elevation of 2965 French feet. +The view is very extensive: below is the lake of Albano, the finest of +the volcanic lakes in Italy, and the modern town of the same name. Few +traces remain of Alba Longa, the ancient capital of Latium. + +[472] On the summit of the Alban Mount, on the site of the present +convent, stood the temple of Jupiter Latialis, where the Latin tribes +assembled annually, and renewed their league, during the Feriae Latinae, +instituted by Tarquinus Superbus. It was here, also, that Roman +generals, who were refused the honours of a full triumph, performed the +ovation, and sacrificed to Jupiter Latialis. Part of the triumphal way +by which the mountain was ascended, formed of vast blocks of lava, is +still in good preservation, leading through groves of chestnut trees of +vast size and age. Spanning them with extended arms--none of the +shortest--the operation was repeated five times in compassing their +girth. + +[473] CALIGULA. See c. v. of his life. + +[474] A.U.C. 793. Life of CALIGULA, cc. xliv., xlv., etc. + +[475] A.U.C. 794. + +[476] The chamber of Mercury; the names of deities being given to +different apartments, as those "of Isis," "of the Muses," etc. + +[477] See the note, p. 265. + +[478] The attentive reader will have marked the gradual growth of the +power of the pretorian guard, who now, and on so many future occasions, +ruled the destinies of the empire. + +[479] See AUGUSTUS, cc. xliii., xlv. + +[480] Ib. c. ci. + +[481] Germanicus. + +[482] Naples and other cities on that coast were Greek colonies. + +[483] This arch was erected in memory of the standards (the eagles) lost +by Varus, in Germany, having been recovered by Germanicus under the +auspices of Tiberius. See his Life, c. xlvii.; and Tacit. Annal. ii. 41. +It seems to have stood at the foot of the Capitol, on the side of the +Forum, near the temple of Concord; but there are no remains of it. + +[484] Tacitus informs us that the same application had been made by +Tiberius. Annal. iii. The prefect of the pretorian guards, high and +important as his office had now become, was not allowed to enter the +senate-house, unless he belonged to the equestrian order. + +[485] The procurators had the administration of some of the less +important provinces, with rank and authority inferior to that of the pro- +consuls and prefects. Frequent mention of these officers is made by +Josephus; and Pontius Pilate, who sentenced our Lord to crucifixion, held +that office in Judaea, under Tiberius. + +[486] Pollio and Messala were distinguished orators, who flourished +under the Caesars Julius and Augustus. + +[487] A.U.C. 795, 796. + +[488] A.U.C. 800, 804. + +[489] "Ad bestias" had become a new and frequent sentence for +malefactors. It will be recollected, that it was the most usual form of +martyrdom for the primitive Christians. Polycarp was brought all the way +from Smyrna to be exposed to it in the amphitheatre at Rome. + +[490] This reminds us of the decision of Solomon in the case of the two +mothers, who each claimed a child as their own, 1 Kings iii. 22-27. + +[491] A most absurd judicial conclusion, the business of the judge or +court being to decide, on weighing the evidence, on which side the truth +preponderated. + +[492] See the note in CALIGULA, c. xix., as to Suetonius's sources of +information from persons cotemporary with the occurrences he relates. + +[493] The insult was conveyed in Greek, which seems, from Suetonius, to +have been in very common use at Rome: kai su geron ei, kai moros. + +[494] A.U.C. 798, or 800. + +[495] There was a proverb to the same effect: "Si non caste, saltem +caute." + +[496] Ptolemy appointed him to an office which led him to assume a +foreign dress. Rabirius was defended by Cicero in one of his orations, +which is extant. + +[497] The Sigillaria was a street in Rome, where a fair was held after +the Saturnalia, which lasted seven days; and toys, consisting of little +images and dolls, which gave their name to the street and festival, were +sold. It appears from the text, that other articles were exposed for sale +in this street. Among these were included elegant vases of silver and +bronze. There appears also to have been a bookseller's shop, for an +ancient writer tells us that a friend of his showed him a copy of the +Second Book of the Aeneid, which he had purchased there. + +[498] Opposed to this statement there is a passage in Servius Georgius, +iii. 37, asserting that he had heard (accipimus) that Augustus, besides +his victories in the east, triumphed over the Britons in the west; and +Horace says:-- + + Augustus adjectis Britannis + Imperio gravibusque Persis.--Ode iii. 5, 1. + +Strabo likewise informs us, that in his time, the petty British kings +sent embassies to cultivate the alliance of Augustus, and make offerings +in the Capitol: and that nearly the whole island was on terms of amity +with the Romans, and, as well as the Gauls, paid a light tribute.-- +Strabo, B. iv. p. 138. + +That Augustus contemplated a descent on the island, but was prevented +from attempting it by his being recalled from Gaul by the disturbances in +Dalmatia, is very probable. Horace offers his vows for its success: + + Serves iturum, Caesarem in ultimos Orbis Britannos.--Ode i. 35. + +But the word iturus shews that the scheme was only projected, and the +lines previously quoted are mere poetical flattery. Strabo's statement +of the communications kept up with the petty kings of Britain, who were +perhaps divided by intestine wars, are, to a certain extent, probably +correct, as such a policy would be a prelude to the intended expedition. + +[499] Circius. Aulus Gellius, Seneca, and Pliny, mention under this +name the strong southerly gales which prevail in the gulf of Genoa and +the neighbouring seas. + +[500] The Stoechades were the islands now called Hieres, off Toulon. + +[501] Claudius must have expended more time in his march from Marseilles +to Gessoriacum, as Boulogne was then called, than in his vaunted conquest +of Britain. + +[502] In point of fact, he was only sixteen days in the island, +receiving the submission of some tribes in the south-eastern districts. +But the way had been prepared for him by his able general, Aulus +Plautius, who defeated Cunobeline, and made himself master of his +capital, Camulodunum, or Colchester. These successes were followed up by +Ostorius, who conquered Caractacus and sent him to Rome. + +It is singular that Suetonius has supplied us with no particulars of +these events. Some account of them is given in the disquisition appended +to this life of CLAUDIUS. + +The expedition of Plautius took place A.U.C. 796., A.D. 44. + +[503] Carpentum: see note in CALIGULA, c. xv. + +[504] The Aemiliana, so called because it contained the monuments of the +family of that name, was a suburb of Rome, on the Via Lata, outside the +gate. + +[505] The Diribitorium was a house in the Flaminian Circus, begun by +Agrippa, and finished by Augustus, in which soldiers were mustered and +their pay distributed; from whence it derived its name. When the Romans +went to give their votes at the election of magistrates, they were +conducted by officers named Diribitores. It is possible that one and the +same building may have been used for both purposes. + +The Flaminian Circus was without the city walls, in the Campus Martius. +The Roman college now stands on its site. + +[506] A law brought in by the consuls Papius Mutilus and Quintus +Poppaeus; respecting which, see AUGUSTUS, c. xxxiv. + +[507] The Fucine Lake is now called Lago di Celano, in the Farther +Abruzzi. It is very extensive, but shallow, so that the difficulty of +constructing the Claudian emissary, can scarcely be compared to that +encountered in a similar work for lowering the level of the waters in the +Alban lake, completed A.U.C. 359. + +[508] Respecting the Claudian aqueduct, see CALIGULA, c. xxi. + +[509] Ostia is referred to in a note, TIBERIUS, c. xi. + +[510] Suetonius calls this "the great obelisk" in comparison with those +which Augustus had placed in the Circus Maximus and Campus Martius. The +one here mentioned was erected by Caligula in his Circus, afterwards +called the Circus of Nero. It stood at Heliopolis, having been dedicated +to the sun, as Herodotus informs us, by Phero, son of Sesostris, in +acknowledgment of his recovery from blindness. It was removed by Pope +Sixtus V. in 1586, under the celebrated architect, Fontana, to the centre +of the area before St. Peter's, in the Vatican, not far from its former +position. This obelisk is a solid piece of red granite, without +hieroglyphics, and, with the pedestal and ornaments at the top, is 182 +feet high. The height of the obelisk itself is 113 palms, or 84 feet. + +[511] Pliny relates some curious particulars of this ship: "A fir tree +of prodigious size was used in the vessel which, by the command of +Caligula, brought the obelisk from Egypt, which stands in the Vatican +Circus, and four blocks of the same sort of stone to support it. Nothing +certainly ever appeared on the sea more astonishing than this vessel; +120,000 bushels of lentiles served for its ballast; the length of it +nearly equalled all the left side of the port of Ostia; for it was sent +there by the emperor Claudius. The thickness of the tree was as much as +four men could embrace with their arms."--B. xvi. c. 76. + +[512] See AUGUSTUS, c. xxxi. It appears to have been often a prey to +the flames, TIBERIUS, c. xli.; CALIGULA, c. xx. + +[513] Contrary to the usual custom of rising and saluting the emperor +without acclamations. + +[514] A.U.C. 800. + +[515] The Secular Games had been celebrated by Augustus, A.U.C. 736. +See c. xxxi. of his life, and the Epode of Horace written on the +occasion. + +[516] In the circus which he had himself built. + +[517] Tophina; Tuffo, a porous stone of volcanic origin, which abounds +in the neighbourhood of Rome, and, with the Travertino, is employed in +all common buildings. + +[518] In compliment to the troops to whom he owed his elevation: see +before, c. xi. + +[519] Palumbus was a gladiator: and Claudius condescended to pun upon +his name, which signifies a wood-pigeon. + +[520] See before, c. xvii. Described is c. xx and note. + +[521] See before, AUGUSTUS, c. xxxiv. + +[522] To reward his able services as commander of the army in Britain. +See before, c. xvii. + +[523] German tribes between the Elbe and the Weser, whose chief seat was +at Bremen, and others about Ems or Lueneburg. + +[524] This island in the Tiber, opposite the Campus Martius, is said to +have been formed by the corn sown by Tarquin the Proud on that +consecrated field, and cut down and thrown by order of the consuls into +the river. The water being low, it lodged in the bed of the stream, and +gradual deposits of mud raising it above the level of the water, it was +in course of time covered with buildings. Among these was the temple of +Aesculapius, erected A.U.C. 462, to receive the serpent, the emblem of +that deity which was brought to Rome in the time of a plague. There is a +coin of Antoninus Pius recording this event, and Lumisdus has preserved +copies of some curious votive inscriptions in acknowledgment of cures +which were found in its ruins, Antiquities of Rome, p. 379. + +It was common for the patient after having been exposed some nights in +the temple, without being cured, to depart and put an end to his life. +Suetonius here informs us that slaves so exposed, at least obtained their +freedom. + +[525] Which were carried on the shoulders of slaves. This prohibition +had for its object either to save the wear and tear in the narrow +streets, or to pay respect to the liberties of the town. + +[526] See the note in c. i. of this life of CLAUDIUS. + +[527] Seleucus Philopater, son of Antiochus the Great, who being +conquered by the Romans, the succeeding kings of Syria acknowledged the +supremacy of Rome. + +[528] Suetonius has already, in TIBERIUS, c. xxxvi., mentioned the +expulsion of the Jews from Rome, and this passage confirms the +conjecture, offered in the note, that the Christians were obscurely +alluded to in the former notice. The antagonism between Christianity and +Judaism appears to have given rise to the tumults which first led the +authorities to interfere. Thus much we seem to learn from both passages: +but the most enlightened men of that age were singularly ill-informed on +the stupendous events which had recently occurred in Judaea, and we find +Suetonius, although he lived at the commencement of the first century of +the Christian aera, when the memory of these occurrences was still fresh, +and it might be supposed, by that time, widely diffused, transplanting +Christ from Jerusalem to Rome, and placing him in the time of Claudius, +although the crucifixion took place during the reign of Tiberius. + +St. Luke, Acts xviii. 2, mentions the expulsion of the Jews from Rome by +the emperor Claudius: Dio, however, says that he did not expel them, but +only forbad their religious assemblies. + +It was very natural for Suetonius to write Chrestus instead of Christus, +as the former was a name in use among the Greeks and Romans. Among +others, Cicero mentions a person of that name in his Fam. Ep. 11. 8. + +[529] Pliny tells us that Druidism had its origin in Gaul, and was +transplanted into Britain, xxi. 1. Julius Caesar asserts just the +contrary, Bell. Gall. vi. 13, 11. The edict of Claudius was not carried +into effect; at least, we find vestiges of Druidism in Gaul, during the +reigns of Nero and Alexander Severus. + +[530] The Eleusinian mysteries were never transferred from Athens to +Rome, notwithstanding this attempt of Claudius, and although Aurelius +Victor says that Adrian effected it. + +[531] A.U.C. 801. + +[532] A.U.C. 773. + +[533] It would seem from this passage, that the cognomen of "the Great," +had now been restored to the descendants of Cneius Pompey, on whom it was +first conferred. + +[534] A.U.C. 806. + +[535] A.U.C. 803. + +[536] This is the Felix mentioned in the Acts, cc. xxiii. and xxiv., +before whom St. Paul pleaded. He is mentioned by Josephus; and Tacitus, +who calls him Felix Antonius, gives his character: Annal. v, 9. 6. + +[537] It appears that two of these wives of Felix were named Drusilla. +One, mentioned Acts xxiv. 24, and there called a Jewess, was the sister +of king Agrippa, and had married before, Azizus, king of the Emessenes. +The other Drusilla, though not a queen, was of royal birth, being the +granddaughter of Cleopatra by Mark Antony. Who the third wife of Felix +was, is unknown. + +[538] Tacitus and Josephus mention that Pallas was the brother of Felix, +and the younger Pliny ridicules the pompous inscription on his tomb. + +[539] A.U.C. 802. + +[540] The Salii, the priests of Mars, twelve in number, were instituted +by Numa. Their dress was an embroidered tunic, bound with a girdle +ornamented with brass. They wore on their head a conical cap, of a +considerable height; carried a sword by their side; in their right hand a +spear or rod, and in their left, one of the Ancilia, or shields of Mars. +On solemn occasions, they used to go to the Capitol, through the Forum +and other public parts of the city, dancing and singing sacred songs, +said to have been composed by Numa; which, in the time of Horace, could +hardly be understood by any one, even the priests themselves. The most +solemn procession of the Salii was on the first of March, in +commemoration of the time when the sacred shield was believed to have +fallen from heaven, in the reign of Numa. After their procession, they +had a splendid entertainment, the luxury of which was proverbial. + +[541] Scaliger and Casauhon give Teleggenius as the reading of the best +manuscripts. Whoever he was, his name seems to have been a bye-word for +a notorious fool. + +[542] Titus Livius, the prince of Roman historians, died in the fourth +year of the reign of Tiberius, A.U.C. 771; at which time Claudius was +about twenty-seven years old, having been born A.U.C. 744. + +[543] Asinius Gallus was the son of Asinius Pollio, the famous orator, +and had written a hook comparing his father with Cicero, and giving the +former the preference. + +[544] Quintilian informs us, that one of the three new letters the +emperor Claudius attempted to introduce, was the Aeolic digamma, which +had the same force as v consonant. Priscian calls another anti-signs, +and says that the character proposed was two Greek sigmas, back to back, +and that it was substituted for the Greek ps. The other letter is not +known, and all three soon fell into disuse. + +[545] Caesar by birth, not by adoption, as the preceding emperors had +been, and as Nero would be, if he succeeded. + +[546] Tacitus informs us, that the poison was prepared by Locusta, of +whom we shall hear, NERO, c. xxxiii. etc. + +[547] A.U.C. 806; A.D. 54. + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIVES OF THE CAESARS, SUETONIUS, V5 *** + +************ This file should be named st05w10.txt or st05w10.zip ************ + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, st05w11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, st05w10a.txt + +This eBook was produced by Tapio Riikonen +and David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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