Part 7 (1/2)

IV ”I have had so (298) to your desire, randson, Tiberius, at the gareed in this, that, once for all, we ought to determine what course to take with hiht in his intellects 470, why should we hesitate to prorees we did his brother? But if we find him below par, and deficient both in body andoccasion for hihed at by the world, which is ready enough to s 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 ainst his superintending the feast of the priests, in the gaoverned by his kins to h at hiames 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 Ro 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, hts upon the ht to (299) settle this affair once for all, that we may not be always in suspense between hope and fear You ive 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 soht 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 arandson, Tiberius, should please me; for hoho talks so ill, should be able to declaiine” There is no doubt but Augustus, after this, caly, left hiural priesthood; naree, ere but distantly allied to his faacy of no ht hundred thousand sesterces

V Upon his requesting soranted hies of the consulshi+p, and when he pressed for a legitimate appointold pieces for his expenses, during the festivals of the Saturnalia and Sigillaria” Upon this, laying aside all hope of advance 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 ga 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 fro on their shoulders the corpse of Augustus to Roratulate 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 nue of priests, ere 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 ast the men of consular rank This decree was, however, repealed; Tiberius insisting to have hi to ood his loss at his own expense But at his death, he nast his third heirs, for a third part of his estate; leaving hiacy of twohist his other relations

VII At last, Caius 473, his brother's son, upon his advanceain the affections of the public by all the arts of popularity, Claudius also was admitted to public offices, and held the consulshi+p jointly with his nephew for twothe Forule which was flying that way; alighted upon his right shoulder A second consulshi+p 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, co 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 hts If at any tied to walk round the rooet a place at table When he indulged hi, 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 Someti, that he , rub his face with them

IX He was not only exposed to conteer: first, in his consulshi+p; for, having been too re 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 inforainst him by one or other, sometimes even by his own domestics When the conspiracy of Lepidus and Gaetulicus was discovered, being sent with soratulate the eer of his life; Caius being greatly enraged, and loudly co, that his uncle was sent to hiovernor 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 thecalled upon after the rest, on purpose to disgrace hiery of a as also allowed to be prosecuted, though he had only signed it as a witness At last, being obliged to pay eightupon 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 cae 475, by a very surprising turn of fortune Being, as well as the rest, prevented fro 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 his of (302) the door A co his feet, and desirous to discover who he was, pulled hi hiht at his feet, and saluted him by the title of emperor He then conducted hie, 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 hiht hi; the people whohis situation, as if the poor innocent was being carried to execution Being received within the rauard, recovered soreat hopes of the succession For the consuls, with the senate and civic troops, had possessed themselves of the Forum and Capitol, with the deter 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 co dilatory in their proceedings, and worn out by divisions ast themselves, while the people who surrounded the senate-house shouted that they would have oneClaudius, he suffered the soldiers asse the the first of the Caesars who purchased the sub thus established himself in power, his first object was to abolish all re 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 ustus” 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 h 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 soleratefulby 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 est the festivals

XII But with regard to his own aggrandise the title of e all excessive honours He celebrated the randson 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 uards 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 istrates 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 theestures 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 tiht 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 istrates upon the rostra, who assured them that he was alive, and not far from the city, on his way hoainst him, not only by individuals separately, but by a faction; and at last his government was disturbed with a civil war A low felloas found with a poniard about hiht Twofor hier; one of the to attack him as he ca in the terandsons of the two orators, Pollio and Messala 486, fored 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 fro their purpose, upon an alariven theles 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 consulshi+p, he held the office afterwards four ti, after an interval of four years each 488; the last for sixchosen 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 sole 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 ofto his sentiments of justice and equity For where persons lost their suits by insisting upon es of private causes, he granted theard to such as were convicted of any great delinquency, he even exceeded the punishment appointed by law, and conde and detere inconsistency of teacious, at another inconsiderate and rash, and so the roll of judges, he struck off the naave hi, had answered to his naer for the office Another as sued that the affair did not properly conizance, but that of the ordinary judges, he ordered to plead the cause himself immediately before hie he would prove in that of other persons A wo no clear proof on either side, he obliged her to confess the truth, by ordering her toman 490 He was much inclined to deterainst those who did not, without inquiring whether their absence was occasioned by their own fault, or by real necessity On proclaht 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 assu between the advocates in the cause, whether he ought to make his appearance in the Roman or Grecian dress, to show his ie his clothes several ti 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 ood opinion of the world, that he was everywhere and openly despised A personan excuse for the non-appearance of a witness whom he had sent for from the provinces, declared it was i the reason for soatories 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 hi a person as 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 hi the tribunal, but would seize him by the lap of his coat, and sometimes catch him by the heels, to e, is not incredible, will appear froant, had an altercation with him, in which he called out, ”You are an old fool” 493 It is certain that a Roht, as prosecuted by an ie of abo that coive 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 censorshi+p 494, which had been discontinued since the time that Paulus and Plancus had jointly held it But this also he ade variety of huhts, he passed over, without anyhest terms; ”for,” said he, ”his father is his proper censor” Another, as infa youths and for adultery, he only adly, or at least , ”why must I knohat mistress you keep?” When, at the request of his friends, he had taken off a ht's name, he said, ”Let the blot, however, rees, but likewise deprived of the freedohest 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 raced many, and some that little expected it, and for a reason entirely new, na out of Italy without his license; (308) and one likewise, for having in his province been the fa, that, in former times, Rabirius Posthuh he only went after Ptole payrace several others, he, to his own greater shaence of the persons eed with living in celibacy, ant of children, or estate, proving themselves to be husbands, parents, and in affluent circu himself, laid his bosom bare, to show that there was not the leastincidents were remarkable in his censorshi+p He ordered a car, plated with silver, and of very suillaria 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 the 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 hinity, and was therefore resolved to have the honour of a real triumph For this purpose, he selected Britain, which had never been atte (309) with rage, because the Roly, he set sail fro 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 sub 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 ave leave to governors of provinces to co the spoils taken from the enemy, he fixed upon the pediment of his house in the Palatiu passed, and, as it were, conquered the Ocean, and had it suspended near the civic crohich 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 sa the robe with the broad stripes Crassus Frugi was mounted upon a horse richly caparisoned, in a robe embroidered with pal 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 Aehts in the Diribitoriu in sufficient nuistrates to summon the people out of all the streets in the city, to their assistance Placing bags of ed the, 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 Foru hi into the palace by a back door He therefore used all possibleprovisions to the city, even in the winter He proposed to the ainst any loss that es to those who built shi+ps for that traffic To a citizen of Roave an exemption from the penalty of the Papia-Poppaean law 506; to one who had only the privilege of Latiuhts which by law belonged to those who had four children: which enactments are in force to this day

XX He coh not numerous, were very useful The principal were an aqueduct, which had been begun by Caius; an ee 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 thenificent 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 co through, and partly by tunnelling, aconstantly employed in the work for eleven years 508 He for out circular piers on the right and on the left, with (312) a , in deep water, the entrance of the port 509 To secure the foundation of this reat obelisk 510 had been brought froypt 511; and built upon piles a very lofty tower, in ihts were burnt to direct ht

XXI He often distributed largesses of corn and reat variety of public nificent spectacles, not only such as were usual, and in the accustomed places, but some of new invention, and others revived fro of the kind had been ever before atteames 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 hi first paid his devotions, in the teh the centre of the circle, while all the people kept their seats in profound silence 513 He likewise (313) exhibited the secular gaular period; though he himself says in his history, ”That they had been oustus, who had calculated the years with great exactness, and again brought theular period” 515 The crier was therefore ridiculed, when he invited people in the usual foraain;” whenwho had already seen them; and some of the perforht upon the stage He likewise frequently celebrated the Circensian ga a hunt of wild beasts, after every five courses He eilded goals, which before were of coned proper places for the senators, ere used to sit promiscuously with the other spectators Besides the chariot-races, he exhibited there the Trojan game, and wild beasts frohts, 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 theladiators in several places, and of various kinds; one yearly on the anniversary of his accession in the pretorian ca, 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 proclaot 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 coold pieces presented to those who came off conquerors He would earnestly invite the co them his ”masters,” with a mixture of insipid, far-fetched jests Thus, when the people called for Paluive the ell-intended, and well-tiladiator, on the intercession of his four sons, he sent a billet immediately round the theatre, to reet children, since they had before the favour and security for a gladiator” He likewise represented in the Ca of a town, and the surrender of the British kings 520, presiding in his general's cloak Immediately before he drew off the waters froht But the co 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 the fro the shore of the lake with tottering steps, the result of his foul excesses, he, partly by fair words, and partly by threats, persuaded thee each of twelve shi+ps of war, of three banks of oars The signal for the encounter was given by a silver Triton, raised by machinery froious 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 soulations he introduced which were entirely new In appointing new priests for the several colleges, hesworn When an earthquake (315) happened in the city, he never failed to suether 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 the 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 ranted annually by special coistrates, and in the city only, he es likewise He altered a clause added by Tiberius to the Papia-Poppaean law 521, which inferred thatchildren He ordered that, out of the ordinary course of proceeding, orphans uardians appointed them by the consuls; and that those ere banished froistrate, should be debarred fro into the City, or any part of Italy He inflicted on certain persons a new sort of banish 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 hi license to travel out of Italy, which before had belonged to the senate

XXIV He likewise granted the consular ornaments to his Ducenarian procurators Fronity, he took away the equestrian Although he had in the beginning of his reign declared, that he would adrandson of a Roave the ”broad hem” to the son of a freedht 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 freednorant, it see while afterwards, persons manumitted were not called freedmen, but only their sons ere free-born Instead of the expense which the college of quaestors was obliged to incur in paving the high-ways, he ordered theladiators; and relieving them of the provinces of Ostia and [Cisalpine] Gaul, he reinstated thee of the treasury, which, since it was taken froed by the praetors, or those who had forave the triuhter, 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 unanirant his consular lieutenants the triumphal ornaments at the time of their appoint occasion to engage in unnecessary wars” He decreed to Aulus Plautius the honour of an ovation 522, going towith 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 Gernoanization of the equestrian order was this After having the co of auxiliary horse, and subsequently received the coion He raised a body of h they were a sort of soldiers, and kept in reserve, yet received pay He procured an act of the senate to prohibit all soldiers fro senators at their houses, in the way of respect and compliment He confiscated the estates of all freedmen who presumed to take upon therateful 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 judgainst the freedht happen to have with theuishi+ng condition, on the island of Aesculapius 524, because of the tediousness of their cure; he declared all ere 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 forall 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 fro Roed to families 526 Those who falsely pretended to the freedoave 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 freedo of their former misdemeanors He exonerated for ever the people of Iliu the founders of the Ro upon the occasion a letter in Greek, (318) fro Seleucus 527, on which they promised hirant their kinsmen the Iliensians immunity from all burdens

He banished fro disturbances at the instigation of one Chrestus 528 He allowed the ambassadors of the Gerned to the senators, being induced to grant the been seated in the rows of benches which were co the Parthian and Ar the senators, they took upon the, they said, no way inferior to the others, in point either, of ious rites of the Druids, solemnized with such horrid cruelties, which had only been forbidden the citizens of Ro 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 Ron princes in the forum, with the sacrifice of a sow, and the form of words used by the heralds in forreater part of his adment, as by the influence of his wives and freed in conformity to what their interests or fancies dictated