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 byhis father-in-law. The following
					verse, however, was immediately in every one's mouth: τοῖσ εὐτυχοῦσι καὶ τρὶμηνα παιδία. 
					 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. He made likewise some prodigious trenches beyond the
						 Rhine , 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 further.
					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 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 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, 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, On 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 com ply 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.

Claudius was born at Lyons , in the
					consulship of Julius Antonius and Fabius Africanus, upon the first of
						August, the very day upon which an
					altar was first dedicated there to Augustus. He was named Tiberius Claudius
					Drusus, but soon afterwards, 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.

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.

"I have had some conversation with Tiberius , according 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, 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 shall be never 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, or be at Rome during the Latin festival. 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 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: ἀτυχεῖ πάνυ ἐν τοῖσ σπουδαίοις 
					 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.

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.

Notwithstanding this sort of life, much respect was shown him both in public and
					private. The equestrian 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.

At last Caius, 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.

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.

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 , 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.

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, 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; 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 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, 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.

Having thus established himself in power, his first obect 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 everything 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 his own
					thoughts towards paying respect to the memory of his relations. His most solemn
					and unusual 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, 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 birthday, and, for his mother, a chariot to be
					drawn through the circus; with the title of Augusta , which had been refused by his grandmother. To the memory of his brother, to which, upon all occasions, he showed
					a great regard, he gave a Greek comedy, to be exhibited in the public diversions
					at Naples , 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. 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.

But with regard to his own aggrandisement, he was sparing and modest, declining
					the title of emperor, an irefusing 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; and also
					that they would be pleased to bestow upon his procurators judicial authority in
					the provinces. 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 waylaid 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.

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, 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 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.

Besides his former consulship, he held the office afterwards four times; the
					first two successively, but the
					following, after an interval of four years each; 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.

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 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. 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." 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, that the advocates used to abuse his patience so grossly,
					that they would not only 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." 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.

He likewise assumed the censorship, 
					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 lie, "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;" 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; 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. 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, 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."

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, and was then chafing 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, upon the coast of Liguria , near the islands called Stoechades. Having marched
					by land from Marseilles to Gessoriacum , 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; to witness which, he not only 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.
						 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.

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, which
					lasted some time, he passed two nights in the Diribitorium, 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.

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
					difficulty in escaping into the palace by a back door. He therefore used all
					possible means to bring provisions to the city, even in 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; 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.

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, 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. He formed the harbour at Ostia , by carrying out circular piers on the right and on the
					left, with a mole protecting, in deep water, the entrance of the port. To secure the foundation of this mole,
					he sunk the vessel in which the great obelisk had been brought from
						 Egypt ; 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.

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, 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. He likewise exhibited the secular
					games, 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." 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 , 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 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, 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 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, 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
					behooved 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, 
					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.

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 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.

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, 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.

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 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, 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.

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 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, 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. 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. Those who falsely pretended to the
					freedom of Rome , he heheaded 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, from the senate and people of Rome to king Seleucus, 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. 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 religiouis rites of the Druids, solemnized
					with such horrid cruelties, which had only been forbidden the citizens of
						 Rome during the reigh of Augustus,
					he utterly abolished among the Gauls. On the other hand, he attempted to transfer the Eleusinian
					mysteries from Attica to Rome . 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 treateis 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 thigns, 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.

He was trice married at a very early age, first to Aemilia Lepida, the
					grand-daughter of Autustus, 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
					cause 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 dowry 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, 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. 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.

He had children by three of his wives; by Urgulanilla, Drusus and Claudia; by
					Petina, 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; 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 Bbter 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, and afterwards to Faustus Sylla, both youths of very noble parentage;
					Octavia to his step-son Nero, 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 sons-in-law, he adopted Nero. He not only dismissed from his
					favour both Pompey and Silanus , but put
					them to death.

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 , whom
					he not only preferred to commands both of cohorts and troops, but to the
					government of the province of Judea ;
					and he became, in consequence of his elevation, the husband of three queens.
						 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 ,
						 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 questorian 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."

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, 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 of 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 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 centuon brought him word of the execution ofa 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.

Either standing or sitting, but especially when he lay asleep, he had a majestic
					and graceful apearance; for he was tall, but not slender. His grey locks 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 of the head at all
					times, but particularly when he was engaged in any business, however
					trifling.

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.

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.

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, in the temple of Mars adjoining, whereupon he quitted 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.

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 Retiaii, 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 woul I 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 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.

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.

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. 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."

No suspicion was too trifling, no person on whom it rested too contemptible, to
					throw him into a panic, and inuce him to take precautions for his safety, and
					meditate reveng, 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.

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
					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 some cooked victuals contrary to law,
					and ordered his steward, who interfered, to be whipped. On this account,
					likewise, he took from the ediles 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 *mwrw=n a)nasta/sis , "The
					Resurrection of Fools," the design of which was to show "that nobody ever
					counterfeited folly."

Amongst other things, people admired in him his indifference and unconcern; or,
					to express it in Greek, his μετεωξία and
						 ἀβλεφία . 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."

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 what time or in what place, he spoke. In the 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 nraster; and this I say, because there are
					some still in my family that do not look upon tie 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?" And in Greek λάλει καὶ , "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.

By the encouragement of Titus Livius, and with the assistance of
					Sulpicius Flavus, he attempted at an early age the comlpeitiQof 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 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," which exhibited a considerable degree of learning. He besides invented
					three new letters, and added them to the former alphabet, 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.

He applied himself with no less attention to the study ofGreciani 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, according to custom, came for the word, any other than this: ἄνδρ' ἐπαμύνασθαι ὅτε τισ πρότερος 
					 '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.

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, ὁ τρώσασ καὶ ἰάσεται , "He who has wounded will
					also heal." And intending to give him the manly habit, while he was 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."

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 by Agrippina, at his own table, in mushrooms, a dish of which he was
					very fond. The accounts
					of what followed likewise differ. Some relate that he instantly became
					speechless, was racked with pain through the night, and died about daybreak;
					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.

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. 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.

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.

Remarks on Claudius 
				 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.