 Chapter 14, Section 2-3 of J. B. Bury's The Student's Roman Empire, Part 1. The Principate of Gaius, Caligula. 37-41 A. D. Section 2-3. Extravagance and tyranny of Gaius, his murder. Reeling himself superior to both law and custom, Gaius did not hesitate to parade his degraded tastes before the public, and to prostitute the imperial dignity in a way which would have seemed simply inconceivable to Augustus or Tiberius. He took a keen delight in the sports of the circus and in gladiatorial shows, and is said to have himself sung and danced in public, and even descended into the arena. Knights and senators were compelled to take part in the chariot races. Charioteering became a sort of political institution in this reign, and continued to be so until the latest days of the empire. There were four rival parties, distinguished by colours, the green, blue, red and white. Gaius favoured the green faction and built a special place of exercise for it. But the gladiatorial shows were the special delight of the emperor. He removed the limitations which Augustus had set on the number of gladiators, and the amphitheater of Taurus and the scepter in the campus marches were constantly filled with the rubble and the court witnessing not only pairs of gladiators, but the battles of armed bands. Nobles and knights were forced to fight, as well as slaves, for all his fellow citizens were his slaves in the eyes of these princeps. Combats with wild beasts were also a frequent amusement. One wonders that the higher classes tolerated this juvenile tyranny and such shameless degradation of the imperial dignity. But they seemed to have felt it as a change for the better after the parsimony and austerity of the preceding reign, and they saw that the new fashion of things was popular with the rubble. Gaius is said to have lived in incestuous connection with his three sisters. And though this charge is uncertain in regard to Agrippina and Julia, there can be no doubt about Tusila, of whom he was very fond. He had separated her from her husband, and lived openly with her, after the manner of the Ptolemies and other Oriental potentates. When she died, July 38 AD, he was inconsolable. The senate decreed her the honours of Livia, her statues were placed in the Curia and in the Temple of Venus, and she was deified under the title of Panthea. All the cities of the empire were commanded to worship her. During his principate Gaius was married three times, and in all cases to married women whom he snatched from their husbands. The first, Orestila, wife of Sian Piso, was soon repudiated for the sake of Lolia Paulina, the wife of Memyus Regulus, the same who had assisted in the arrest of Sigenus. She was a very rich lady, and her wealth was probably her cheap attraction for the emperor. She was then divorced on the ground of barrenness, and was succeeded by Melonia Casonia, to whom, though she was a woman of plain features, the emperor seems to have been really attached. As time went on and Gaius found no resistance offered to his sovereign will, as he saw the world at his feet and men of all classes content to be his slaves, he was seized with the idea of his own godhead and exacted divine worship. The oriental notions which he learned from Agrippa, and the deification of Julius and Augustus, suggested to him this extravagance. He believed that nothing was impossible for him to execute, and his great passion was to make it manifest that he was controlled by no law, and not subject to ordinary human affections. He exalted in looking on suffering without blenching. He regretted that his reign was not marked by some striking disaster such as the defeat of the barian legions. He used to dress himself like vacus or hercules or venus, and play the part of these deities in the temples before an admiring crowd. He pretended to converse with Jupiter in the temple on the capital, and for this purpose, in order to have speedier access to his divine kinsmen, he caused a flying bridge to be thrown across the Velabram, reaching from the palatine close to the newly dedicated Temple of Augustus to the capital line. Among the gods, as among men, he claimed to be preeminent. He declared that he was the Latian Jupiter, and he challenged with a Homeric verse, Jupiter-capitalinus to combat. He endeavored to manifest his divine nature by architectural constructions of colossal and fantastic designs. He connected the imperial palace with the Temple of Casto in the Forum, perhaps by a series of corridors supported on a bridge, and thus made the temple the vestibule of the palace. This construction has disappeared without leaving a trace. His most useful work was the aqueduct conveying to Rome the waters of the aqua-claudia and the anionovus. But this he was unable to complete. He planned a work which has been often designed but never executed. The making of a canal through the Isthmus of Corinth. His most daring construction was the bridge across the Gulf of Biae, 39 AD, which was clearly not intended to be permanent. A soothsayer, it said, had prophesied that Gaius would never become emperor any more than he would drive a chariot across the Gulf of Biae. Gaius determined to drive across it, attended by a whole army. Having collected all the ships that were to be found in all the havens far and wide, thus impeding the regular course of commerce and causing serious inconvenience, he drew them up in a double line from Baolai to Putiolae. On this bridge of ships was placed a great floor of timber which was covered all over with earth and paved like a high road. A new and unheard of spectacle was devised to be exhibited on this structure before it was demolished, and the whole shore from Messenum to Putiolae was crowded with spectators. The emperor, dressed in armour which had been worn by Alexander the Great, rode at the head of a band of soldiers, across the bridge and entered Putiolae as a conqueror. Next morning he drove back in a triumphal chariot, but dressed as a charioteer of the Green Party. He halted at the centre of the bridge and made a speech. A banquet followed, which lasted till late in the night, and the whole scene was illuminated with torches on the bridge and on the coast. Nothing prevailed and many spectators were drowned. If he was zealous for his own fame, Gaius was jealous of the fame of others. He caused the statues of the distinguished men of the republic, which Augustus had set up in the campus, to be broken in pieces. He forbade the last descendant of the Pompeys to bear the name Magnus. He commanded the works of Virgil and Livy to be removed from the libraries on the ground that Virgil had no genius, and that Livy was careless. He would not permit the image of his own ancestor, Agrippa, to be placed beside that of Augustus. He even repudiated his grandfather and gave out that he was the grandson of Augustus and Julia, living in incest like the gods. The extravagances of Gaius at last plunged him into financial difficulties. He exhausted the large treasures accumulated by Tiberius, and in order to refill his per-empty purse he began to persecute the nobles and confiscate the property of the rich. Hitherto he had steadfastly and vehemently denounced all the works of Tiberius, but, pressed by want of gold, he did not hesitate to revive the law of treason and the system of delation in order to plunder his fellow citizens. Appearing in the senate, he openly praised the policy of his predecessor and announced the revival of the laws of Maestus. The senate thanked the emperor for his clemency in permitting them to live and decreed him special honours. Many rich senators were sacrificed to appease the emperor's cupidity. El and Nea Seneca only escaped because his declining aid promised that his wealth would soon fall into the imperial coffers without prosecuting him. The nobles exiled in the islands were put to death, and their fortunes confiscated. But Gaius ultimately alienated not only the senate, but the people, by imposing new taxes which affected Italy and Rome, and the soldiers, by rescinding their wills. But before he went so far as to tax the citizens of Rome, 41 AD, he had plundered Gaul. In September 39 AD, he announced that hostilities of the Germans required his presence on the Rhine, and proceeded thither with a retinue of dancers and gladiators. Lentulus Gaetulicus, a son-in-law of Sojanus, had been now for ten years the commander of the legions of the Upper Rhine. Before the death of Tiberius, he had been accused of having relaxed the discipline of the camp in order to win the favour of his soldiers. When he was threatened by disgrace, he boldly defied the emperor to remove him from the governorship of Upper Germany, and Tiberius had left him where he was. Perhaps the purpose of the expedition of Gaius was to assert the imperial authority over this independent legatus, and restore military discipline. It is certain that the barbarians beyond the Limes were at this time troublesome, and the victory which Gaius announced to the senate may have been warranted by a real repulse inflicted on some band of Germans attempting to invade Gaul. At this time a conspiracy was formed, in which Lentulus Gaetulicus was implicated. The object of the plot was to slay Gaius and place M. Amelius Lepidus on the throne. Lepidus had been a favourite of the emperor and a companion of all his pleasures. Gaius had given him in marriage his favourite sister, the unfortunate Dusilla, and had intended to designate him as successor to the empire. The surviving sisters of Gaius, Agrippina and Julia, intrigued with Lepidus and took part in this treasonable plot, which was discovered in October 39 AD. Gaetulicus and Lepidus were executed, and the two women were banished. Gaius sent a full account of their adultery and treason to the senate, and asked the fathers to confer no distinctions on his kinfolk for the future. He also sent three swords, destined for his assassination, to be dedicated as votive offerings to Mars Ulta. To fill the place of Beatulicus he appointed Lucius Galva, afterwards emperor, who enforced and restored discipline among the demoralised legions. The emperor spent the winter at Lugdenum, where he practised every device for extorting money from the inhabitants of Gaul. Prosecutions and executions were the order of the day, auctions were held, at which the people were forced to buy at extravagant prices. It is said that furniture of the imperial palace was conveyed from Rome to the banks of the throne, and that the emperor himself played the auctioneer, recommending each article and encouraging the bidding. This was my father's, he said, this my great-grandfather's, this was a trope of Augustus, this an Egyptian rarity of Antony. By such means the imperial coppers were enriched. Lugdenum also witnessed the great-grandson of Augustus mocking the celebration of the ceremony at his altar, which represented the union of the Gallic provinces. Among the contests which were instituted in his honour were competitions in rhetoric and verse. Gaius compelled the unsuccessful candidates to wipe out what they had written with their tongues, under penalty of being cast into the river. On January 1, 40 A.D., he assumed the consulship for the third time, but resigned it on the twelfth day. As his destined colleague had died before the end of the year, and the senate was afraid to nominate any one in his place without the imperial sanction, the emperor was sole consul during the short period of his office. In spring he advanced northward from Lugdenum to the shores of the ocean, in order to achieve the work which his greater name said had attempted, the conquest of Britain. This project was suggested to him by Adminius, a fugitive prince of that island who had sought refuge with the Romans. The large army which Gaius had connected reached the Bologna. The northern Bologna is now Bologna, as the southern Bologna is Bologna, of the north, otherwise called Gasoriachem, expecting to take ship there, but one day they were ordered to form in line along the shore in full battle array, and Gaius, who reviewed his troops from a trireme, suddenly issued a command to pile arms and pick shells. The soldiers filled their helmets with the shells which were regarded as spoils of the sea, and sent to Rome in token of the great victory won by the emperor over the ocean and the island of the ocean. It is quite conceivable that this extraordinary caricature of a British expedition was actually enacted by the eccentric emperor, but it is also possible that the story may be a fictitious parody of a genuine expedition which came to nothing. Before he returned to Rome in order to celebrate there with unheard of magnificence a triumph for his warlike exploits, Gaius visited Castor Viterra and Opidum Ubiorum on the lower line, and report said that he conceived the monstrous idea of decimating those troops, who, twenty-five years ago, had by their mutiny caused the flight of his mother Agrippina when he was an infant in her arms. The tale probably rest on some jest which the emperor let fall in his bantering manner and which was taken up as serious. His entry into Rome, August 31, 40 AD, took the form of an ovation, not a triumph as he proposed. For the Senate, uncertain what his real wishes were, had not ventured to decree him a triumph until the last moment, and Gaius, filled with resentment, refused their tardy offer. I am coming, he said, but not for the Senate. I am coming for the knights and people who alone deserve my presence. For the Senate I will be neither prince nor citizen, but an imperator and a conqueror. From the moment of his return the emperor threw off all the remaining disguises which cloaked the monarchy and all the fictions of liberty. He appeared in the undisguised character of an eastern autocrat. Instead of entering Rome as a citizen he entered in the garb of an imperator, and it is said that he would have assumed a diadem if he had not thought himself superior to the kings of the East who wore it. The cruelties and excesses of the new tyranny, which exceeded what had been hitherto experienced, necessarily led to conspiracies. A plot, in which Anikis Kerialis, who will meet us again in a subsequent principate, took part, was detected, and the Senate decreed that the emperor should occupy a seat in the Curia, elevated so high that no conspirator could reach him. Fear of his life made Gaius doubly call, and yet the nobles, instead of striking a blow for their freedom, tried to save themselves by civility to the worthless favourites and delitors. Such was the freedman Protagonies, who carried about with him two tablets, called Sword and Dagger, on which the names were inscribed of those who were marked out for death by execution or assassination. To water past the spirit of the Senate had descended as illustrated by the fate of Scribonius Proculus. One day, when Protagonies entered the Curia, and the Senators pressed forward to shake hands with him, he cried to Proculus, who was among them, What! darest thou the enemy of Caesar to salute me? The word was hardly spoken when the fathers fell upon their brother Senator, and stabbed him to death with their styles. From such men the tyrant thought he had little to fear. Financial difficulties drove the emperor at length into imposing a number of new taxes on Italy and Rome, and these measures deprived him of any vestige of popularity that he still enjoyed with the populace on account of the shows with which he amused them. In January 41 A.D. he imposed a tax on imports at the Italian harbours and at the gates of the Italian cities, including Rome. He ordained a fee of two-and-a-half percent for persons suing in the courts of law. He established an income tax which was levied even on prostitutes. He seems also to have resorted to the device of debasing the currency. A feeling of hostility grew up between the people and their ruler, and it is said that Gaius, disgusted at the symptoms of his unpopularity, expressed the wish, would that the Roman people had only one neck. But from these new imposts men had not long to suffer. A conspiracy was formed among the Praetorian officers, in which Cassius Caria, who owed a personal grudge to the emperor, and Sabinas, both tribunes of the Praetorian guards, took the most active part. El Anias Vinicianus and some of the imperial freedmen were also implicated. The blow was struck on the 24th of January 41 A.D., just as Gaius was making preparations for a campaign of extortion in the rich province of Egypt. The assassination was accomplished by Caria and his fellows in the vaulted corridor which connected the palace with the Circus Maximus, through which Gaius was passing to see the horse races. The conspirators succeeded in escaping from the swords of the German bodyguards, and the corpse of Gaius was hastily interred in the Lamean gardens. At a later period it was exhumed and cremated by the sisters whom he had banished. At his death Gaius was only thirty years old. Section III. Provincial Government. The Jews. If the Principate of Gaius was a reaction on that of Tiberius in domestic policy, so too in provincial affairs he aimed at altering the arrangements of his predecessor. Tiberius had deposed Antiochus of Comagini and made that district a province. Gaius restored it to the deposed king's son, Antiochus IV. Epiphanes Magnus increased it by the Cilician coast and restored one hundred million Cisterces, the confiscated property of his father. Agrippa, whom Tiberius had imprisoned, received the tetrarchy of his uncle, Philip II, who had recently died, and in addition Abilini. Two years later he induced the emperor to depose Antipas and his wife Herodias, the rulers of Sumeria, and send them into exile on the ground of Treason. Sumeria was given to Agrippa, who thus united under his sceptre the lands which had formed the kingdom of Herod the Great, with the exception of the province Judea. In Thrace a Roman officer had governed the inheritance of Cotus since nineteen A.D. Gaius restored it to Roma Talchis, son of Cotus, and increased the realm by the rest of Thrace, which had belonged to another Roma Talchis, the son of Raskuporis. The younger brothers of the restored Roma Talchis had been brought up with Gaius himself in Italy, and were related to their mother Antonia Trefania with his own grandmother Antonia. He therefore provided them also with kingdoms. To Palermo he gave Pontus Polymoniacus, and to Cotus Lesser Armenia. Another appointment made by Gaius at the same time, 38 A.D., was that of the Arabian Scamers to the throne of Iteria. But while he restored dependent kingdoms in the east, he pulled down a dependent kingdom in the west. Ptolemy, king of Mauritania, was summoned to Rome and executed in order that his treasures might replenish the emperor's coppers. It was contemplated to divide Mauritania into two provinces, Caesareansis and Tingitana, and this arrangement was afterwards carried out. Gaius also made an administrative change in the neighbouring provinces of Africa and Numidia. Africa was the only senatorial province in which a legion was stationed under the command of the governor. Gaius removed this anomaly by consigning the legion to an imperial legatus, who was also entrusted with civil functions in Numidia, while the powers of the proconsul were confined to the administration of civil affairs in Africa Vetus. The claim of the emperor to receive adoration as a god led to disturbances among the Jews, both in Judea and at Alexandria. In 38 B.C. Herod Agrippa visited Alexandria on the way to his new kingdom. His appearance in the streets in royal state led to an anti-Jewish demonstration among the non-Jewish population, and the prefect of Egypt, Avilius Flacus, with a zeal which proved unlucky for himself, seized the opportunity to require that the Jews whom they detested should set up statues of the emperor in their synagogues. When the Jews refused to submit to such an abomination, their fellow-citizens drove them into one quarter of the town and destroyed their dwellings throughout the rest. Many of them were slain in the tumult. But Flacus, who had also issued an edict forbidding the Jews to keep the Sabbath, paid the penalty of his wandering. He was immediately superseded and sent as a prisoner to Rome by Bassus, who succeeded him. The Jews, however, had only a short respite. When Gaius began to claim divine worship from all his subjects, he would not brook the solitary refusal of the Jews. It was expected that a decree would go forth, ordaining that the imperial image should be set up in all synagogues, and with a view to avert, if possible, such a calamity. The Jews of Alexandria sent an embassy to appeal directly to the emperor, 40 A.D. The details of this embassy have come down to us from the pen of the most distinguished of the ambassadors, the learned philosopher Philo. At the same time the Alexandrians sent a counter embassy to thwart the Jews. When they arrived on the coast of Campania, the tidings met them that orders had just been issued to Petronius, the governor of Judea, to set up a colossal statue of the emperor in the Holy of Holies at Jerusalem. Gaius was at this time engaged in transforming the house and gardens of the Lameus into a royal residence, and the rival embassies from Alexandria were summoned Sither. They found him hurrying about from room to room, surrounded by architects and workmen, to whom he was giving directions, and they were compelled to follow in his train. Stopping to address the Jews, he asked, Are you the God-haters who deny my divinity which all the world acknowledges? The Alexandrian envoys hastened to put in their word. Lord and Master, these Jews alone have refused to sacrifice for your safety. Nay, Lord Gaius, said the Jews, it is a slander. We sacrificed for you not once, but slice, first when you assumed the empire, then when you recovered from your sickness, and again for your success against the Germans. Yes, observed Gaius, you sacrificed for me, not to me, and thereupon he hurried to another room, the Jews trembling and their rivals jeering as in a play. The next remark he addressed to them was, Pray, why do you not eat pork? Finally he dismissed them with the observations. Men who deem me no God are, after all, more unlucky than guilty. The embassy of Philo and his fellows was of failure. Gaius was resolved to impose his worship on the Jews, and his orders to Petronius were confirmed. The rebellion of Judea seemed inevitable, when the death of the mad tyrant averted the sacrilege from the Temple of Jerusalem. Part 1 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Students' Roman Empire Part 1 by John Bucknell Bury Chapter 15 The Principe of Claudius Section 1 A Session of Character of Claudius Gaius Caesar was the first of a long list of Roman emperors who were destined to fall by the hands of assassins. His death led to a serious crisis, for the conspirators had acted without a thought of what was to come, and no one was marked out to step into the place of the murdered emperor. Augustus had formally selected Tiberius as his successor, and conferred on him the tribunician power. Tiberius had practically selected Gaius by his testament, but Gaius had not either conferred a share of the imperial prerogatives on anyone or made a will. Thus it seemed open to the Senate and the Roman people to put into practice the constitutional theory that the empire was elective. As soon as the assassination became known, the consuls sentius Saturninus and Pomponius Secundus ordered the urban cohorts to post themselves in various parts of the city, and immediately called together the Senate to deliberate on what was to be done. The father was met in the temple of Capitola and Jupiter, and not as usual in the Curia Julia, as though in his building they would have been under their influence of the Julian name. They were unanimous in denouncing the tyrannical rule of Gaius in abolishing his unpopular taxes and in promising a donative to the soldiers, but they were divided on the more momentous question as to the future of the state. Some held that the free republic should be restored and the constitution of the Caesars abolished. Others voted that the principate should continue, but in another family, and there were not wanting candidates for the supreme place. They could come to no agreement, but before they separated a decree was passed in honor of Cassius Caera and the other conspirators, and the watchword given by the councils to the city cohorts was Libertas. Caerea then sent an officer to put to death the Empress Caesonia and her infant daughter. But the solution of the difficulty did not rest with the Senate. The Praetorian guards had already determined that the empire was not to be abolished, and who the next emperor was to be. In the confusion which followed the assassination, some of these soldiers had rushed into the palace in search of plunder, and had discovered, hidden behind a curtain, in fear of his life, Claudius, the son of Drusus and brother of Germanicus. They greeted him with the title Imperator and carried him off to the Praetorian camp. The restoration of the Republic would have meant the dissolution of the guards, and they were naturally resolved to hinder it. Claudius favored before accepting the dignity, which was thus thrust upon him, and of which he had perhaps never dreamed. But the insistence of the soldiers, the voice of the people who gathered round the Senate on the following morning, and the councils of Herod Agrippa, who went to and fro between the Senate and the camp, determined him to yield, and he promised the guards, when they took the oath of allegiance, a donative of 15,000 cesterces, £120 each. He was the first of the Caesars who bought the fidelity of the soldiers by a donative. It would have been useless for the Senate to attempt to struggle against the will of the Praetorians, even if the urban cohorts had continued to support it. But these went over to the other side. Claudius was then conducted to the palace by the Praetorians, and he ordered the Senate to come to him there. The senators did not dare to refuse. Only the conspirators Kaerea and Sabinus held out and protested against the replacement of a madman by an Iediat. The usual decrees were passed, conferring the imperial powers upon Claudius, the first, but by no means the last Roman emperor, who was elected by the will of the Praetorian guards. Kaerea and others of the conspirators were immediately executed. Sabinus was pardoned, but killed himself by falling on his sword, having declared that he could not survive the accession of another Caesar. For all the other acts of the short interregnum, a general pardon was proclaimed. But the assassination of his nephew had made a deep impression on Claudius, and he adopted the practice of keeping guards continually posted around his person, even when he sat at table. All persons who were admitted to the imperial apartments were searched before they entered. The new emperor, Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus, was born at Lucodunum, on the day on which the Temple of Augustus and Rome was dedicated there by his father, 10 BC. He was thus about 50 years of age when he came to the throne. He had always been regarded and treated by his family as half an imbecile, but his defects seemed to have been physical rather than mental. His constitution was weak, his hands trembled, he halted on one leg, and his speech was thick. Labouring under these disadvantages, he was neglected by his mother, who described him as a monster, and left to the care of servants. His grandmother Livia ignored him. Augustus indeed recognized that he was not such a fool as he seemed, but slighted him, deeming him worthy of no higher dignity than an augurate, and leaving him only a very small bequest in his will. Tiberius treated him with undisguised contempt, and seeing no hope of a public career, Claudius retired to the country, devoted himself to literature, and amused himself with the society of low people. Under his nephew Gaius, he was promoted to the dignity of the councilship, and thereby entered the senatorial rank. But his wanton kinsmen forced him to submit to all kinds of indignities and insults. He was slighted in the curia, and at the court was the butt of the emperor's rollicking companions. The senate selected him as the head of a deputation to Gaius in Gaul, and on that occasion he was docked in the river Rhone. He was created priest to Gaius as Jupiter Latiaris, and ruined by the enormous expenses which devolved upon him in that capacity. Yet as Gaius had no children, the more far-sighted, like Herod Agrippa, saw that Claudius might one day be a candidate for empire, and took care to maintain friendly relations with him. He wrote three large historical works, a history of the Etruscans in twenty books, a history of the Cartagenaeans in eight books, and a history of the Roman state since the Battle of Actium in forty-one books. He also wrote his own biography in eight books, a defense of Cicero against the Seniors of Asinius Gallus, a treatise on dice-playing and a Greek comedy. The Etruscan and Cartagenaean histories were also written in Greek. He studied grammar, and attempted to enrich the Latin alphabet by three new letters, which, however, did not survive his reign. But though he was around with antiquarian lore, he had little judgment in applying it, and the circumstances of his early life did not tend to make him practical. Yet it was a gross misrepresentation to say that he was half-witted. When he came to the throne, he surprised all by showing considerable talent for administration, as well as the genuine anxiety for the welfare of the state. He was a weak-minded pedant, and lived under the influence of his wives and his freed men, but he was far from being an imbecile. He and James I of England, to whom he was aptly being compared, are the two notorious examples of pedants on the throne. They were alike also in their ungainly figures, coarse manners, and want of personal dignity. The face of Claudius, as represented in his busts, was handsome, and has a look of pain or weariness, which gives it a certain interest. Claudius did not belong, strictly speaking, to the house of the Caesar's. He had not been transferred into the Julian Gaens, like his uncle Tiberius and his brother Germanicus. When therefore he adopted the name Caesar, it was in strictness no longer a family name, but an imperial title. Yet Claudius had been so closely associated with the family of the Caesar's, that his assumption of the Julian Cognomen may have hardly seemed an innovation. The Claudius and Julians had been so closely connected, since the marriage of Augustus and Livia, that they were almost regarded as a single house. It was the policy of Claudius to emphasize his connection with Augustus. He caused the divine honors, which Tiberius had refused, to be granted to his grandmother Livia Augusta. His position was perhaps further strengthened by his marriage with Valeria Missalina, who was a descendant of Octavia, the sister of Augustus. Their daughter Octavia was intended to be the bride of Junius Silanus, who was a great-great grandson of Augustus, and his other daughter, Antonia, by a former wife, was affianced to Centurion Pompeius Magnus, who was connected through his parents with several distinguished families. The reign of Claudius was marked by a reaction against that of Gaius, as that of Gaius had been marked by a reaction against that of Tiberius. The new emperor showed himself clement and moderate. The acts of Gaius were annulled. The estates which he had confiscated were restored to their owners, and the statues of which he had dropped the temples of Greece and Asia, were sent back to their homes. Exiles and prisoners who were suffering under the charge of treason were pardoned, and Julia and Agrippina, the nieces of the emperor, were recalled from the banishment to which they had been condemned by their brother. The New Year's presents which Gaius had demanded from his subjects were forbidden, and the emperor accepted the inheritance of no man who had relatives. But the aristocrats were not at first contended with the rule of one whom they had been taught to regard with a pitying contempt. The fate of Gaius showed how easy it was to overthrow an emperor, and there were not wanting aspirants to the supreme power. A conspiracy was formed to strike down Claudius and set in his place Annius Vinesianus, a prominent senator. The movement was supported by Furios Camillus Cribonianus, governor of Dalmatia, who undertook to march into Italy at the head of the two legions under his command, and sent a message of insulin defiance to Claudius, who was so terrified that he sought of resigning the empire. But the soldiers refused to follow their commander when he announced his intention, and he was forced to fly to one of the islands of the coast to escape their anger. The legions, the seventh and elevenths, were rewarded for their loyalty, and the decree of the senate conferred upon each the titles of Claudian, Bios, Faithful. The chief conspirators were punished by death or committed suicide. Chapter 15 Section 2 and 3 of J. B. Bioris The Student's Roman Empire This is a Librivox recording. All Librivox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librivox.org. Recording by Morgan Scorpion. The Student's Roman Empire by John Bagnell Biori. Chapter 15 Section 2 and 3. Section 2 Administration of Claudius Claudius endeavored to model his statesmanship on that of Augustus. He set himself to restore the relations of cordiality which had subsisted between senate and princeps under the first emperor. The division of power between them was strictly maintained, and Claudius was prompted by his passion for antiquity to preserve the dignity of the senate. He reserved for members of the ancient order special seats in the Circus Maximus. The influence of the senate was also increased by the rivalry which existed between the freedmen and the wives of the emperor, each party seeking a support in the authority of the senate. The list of the order had not been revised since the reign of Augustus, and Claudius undertook the unpopular task which his two predecessors had admitted. The task was necessary, but like most things which Claudius did, he performed it in a manner which excited ridicule. Instead of simply assuming sensorial power, he revived the office of censor, a title which Augustus had avoided, and held a lustrum. His colleague in the office was Elvid Tellius. The act was harmless, but it seemed to sabre of the antiquarian on the throne, and when the zealous censor issued fifty edicts in one day, there was matter for jest in Rome. But useful business was done. Many new members were admitted into the senate, and the equestrian order was also revised. Claudius showed that he had not forgotten the land of his birth, by paying the way for extending the honorium to the three Gauls, so far as they already possessed the civitar sine suffragio. Natives of Gallia Narbonensis, of Spain and Africa, had already been admitted to the senate and the magistracies. Claudius extended the privilege to the Edui, who whilst the first Gallic allies of Rome were called the brothers of the Roman people. This mark of favor came fitly from the son of Drusus, the brother of Germanicus, and the conqueror of Britain. The speech which Claudius pronounced on this occasion before the senate was characteristic of the man. Two considerable fragments of it have been preserved on bronze tablets, which were dug up at Lyon, and we can judge from these remains that the oration was long and rambling, displaying knowledge of the ancient history of Rome, which wore very little on the matter in hand, and illustrating that want of sense of proportion, which made even the best acts of Claudius seem a little absurd. After a long and tedious historical disquisition, he suddenly breaks out in an address to himself which is simply grotesque. But it is high time for thee, Tiberius Caesar Germanicus, to unfold to the conscript fathers the aim of thy discourse. Like Augustus, Claudius was specially empowered by the senate, in the year of his censorship, to increase the number of patrician families which were gradually dwindling, with the view to the conservation of religious ceremonies. This was a work solely congenial to the spirit of the antiquarian sovereign. He also received powers to enlarge the Pomerarium, so as to include the Aventine Hill, which had hitherto lain outside the limits of the city in its narrower sense. As an imitator of Augustus and a student of Etruscan archaeology, he naturally made the maintenance of religion a special care, and did away with the oriental rites which had come into practice at the court in the reign of Gaius. The Jews were tolerated in Rome until their seditions caused him to expel them again, as they had been expelled by Tiberius. In the eight hundredth year of the city, which fell in this reign, 47 A.D., Claudius, as Pontifex Maximus, celebrated the ludi secularis, though they had been celebrated sixty-three years before by Augustus. He founded a college of sixty house-pieces for the official maintenance of Etruscan auguries. But in his zeal for religion he did not neglect the dictates of worldly wisdom, and limited the number of holidays which interfered with the course of business. Claudius also imitated his great model in devoting himself assiduously to the administration of justice. He used to sit patiently, hour after hour, through tedious judicial investigations in the open forum, or in the Basilica Giulia. But while we may recognise his good intentions, it is doubtful whether such personal activity of assolvent in administering justice is not more harmful than beneficial. He annulged the laws of treason, suppressed the practice of delation, and promised that no Roman citizen should be submitted to the pain of torture. He did away with the innovation introduced by Gaius, that slaves might give evidence against their masters. In connection with these measures, which were designed to preserve the dignity of the Roman citizen, it may be mentioned that he meted out strict punishment to those who claimed the franchise on false pretenses. He also regulated marriages between free women and slaves, and defined the legal position of their children as servile. Some important administrative changes were made in the reign of Claudius. Judicial authority was committed to the procurators, who managed the affairs of the fiscals in the provinces. Thus, suits concerning fiscal debts were withdrawn from the ordinary tribunals, but those who were not satisfied with the award of the imperial procurator could appeal to the emperor. Claudius also made new arrangements for the administration of the agrarium. It will be remembered that Augustus had transferred this treasury from the urban Christus to two praetories, Erarii. Claudius restored it to the Christus, with a modification of the old arrangement. The two treasures were selected from the Christus, not by lot, but by the choice of the emperor, and they held office for three years, under the title of great stories Erarii Saturni, 44 A.D. The tendency to return to old constitutional forms was also manifested in the revival of the legislative power of the committia of the people. Some of the laws of Claudius took the form of plebiscita, but it was the unpractical experiment of an antiquarian, and all his important legislation took the form of Sonata's consulter. His reign was distinguished by the execution of works of public utility. He completed the aqueduct which had been begun by Gaius and left unfinished, and from him it derived the name of Aquaclaudia. A much greater work was the construction of the Portus Romanus. When Claudius came to the throne, the public granaries were empty, and Rome was threatened with a famine. The immediate necessity was relieved by extending privileges to private trade in corn, but the scarcity continued, and one of the chief and abiding causes was the want of a good haven close to Rome. The mass of the tiber was silted up with sand, and the corn-ships from Egypt were obliged to anchor at Putiolae. Claudius supplied this great want by making a new haven, a little above the well-mine deserted port of Ostia, and connected with the river by an artificial channel. This haven was formed by two immense moulds built out into the sea, and a lighthouse was erected at the entrance. This undertaking involved a large outlay, but it was of great and permanent utility. A still faster enterprise was the draining of the Foucailles lake in the land of the Marcy, but the cost and the labour were not recompensed by the results. The agriculture of the Marcians suffered constantly from the swelling of the waters of the lake, and Claudius undertook to hinder this calamity by constructing a tunnel three miles in length through Monte Solviano to carry away the overflow into the river Lyris. The work of 30,000 men for eleven years, 41 to 51 A.D., were spent on this design, but the tunnel did not prove permanently efficient, like that which drained the Alban lake. Claudius celebrated the completion of the work by a mimic naval battle on the lake, like one which Augustus had exhibited in an artificial basin in the transthaibertine suburb of Rome, but on a much larger scale. Claudius equipped vessels of three and four banks of oars with 19,000 men. He lined the shores of the lake with a continuous platform of rafts to prevent the galley slaves from escaping, but full space was left for the operations of a sea fight. Divisions of criterion cohorts and cavalry were posted on the rafts, with the breastwork in front of them, from which they could direct missiles against any of the naval gladiators who tried to escape. An immense multitude of people, both from Rome and the neighboring towns, had gathered, both to see the wonderous spectacle and to show their respect for the emperor, and the banks, the slopes, and the hilltops were crowned with spectators, so that the scene resembled a vast theatre. The emperor dressed in a splendid military cloak, Paludamentum, and his wife Agrippina, also wearing a military cloak, presided. Though the combatants were condemned criminals, they fought bravely, and when much blood had been shed, they were allowed to separate. The story is told that when they saluted Claudius, with the words Ave imperato moritori tesalutante, hail emperor, men doomed to die, greet thee, he answered without none, or not, doomed to die, and they taking the words as a pardon refused to fight. Claudius at first thought of having them all massacred, but afterwards, going round in person, induced them to fight by threats and exhortations. Section 3 The Provinces Under Claudius The gradual elevation of the provinces to a political equality with Italy is one of the features of the imperial period. The extension of the Duce Honorum to Gaul, which has been already mentioned, was an important step in this direction, and the reign of Claudius was marked by a tendency to bestow the Roman citizenship on provincial communities. He was ridiculed in a humorous satire written after his death by the philosopher Seneca for having resolved to see all the Greeks, Gauls, Spaniards, and Britons dressed in the Roman toga. He introduced many changes in the administration of the subject lands, both the provinces and the dependent kingdoms. In the north, the empire gained a new province by the conquest of Britain, which will be recounted in another chapter, and this led to an increase of the army by two new legions. The Praetorian cohorts were also increased in this reign from nine to twelve. Mauritania had to be conquered anew at the other extremity of the empire. The inhabitants had rushed to arms after the execution of their king Ptolemy under the leadership of Edmon, one of his freedmen. The governor, Poblius Galvinius, was not equal to coping with the rebellion, but his successor, C. Suetonius Paulinus, who became famous afterwards by his campaign in Britain, crossed Mount Atlas and went as far south as the river Gere, reducing the Morusian tribes, forty-two A.D. This expedition, however, was not decisive, and the struggle seems to have lasted until forty-five A.D., when Lucius Galva, who was afterwards emperor, became proconsul of Africa, and C. N. Hossilius Gator commanded in Numidia. When order was restored chiefly through the energy of Gator, Mauritania was divided into two provinces, separated by the river Matua. The western was distinguished as Tingitana, from the town Tingi, the eastern as Cesariensis, from the town Joel Cesaria. Each was governed by a procurator, but in case of necessity they were united under the authority of a Legatus. Another change in the western half of the empire was the enlargement of the little privilege of the Cotian Alps, and the elevation of its prefect, Julius Cotius, to the rank of King. Claudius conquered Britain, but he did not assay the other Entifiers which had once seemed expedient for the protection of Gaul. He did not try to repeat the conquest of Germany, which had busied his father Drusus and his brother Germanicus. There was, however, in his reign some fighting beyond the Rhine. Demetius Corbulo, an able soldier, the rival of Suetonus Paulinus, was appointed Legatus of lower Germany. He was the half-brother of Cisonia, the wife of Gaius, in whose reign he had been entrusted with the task of inspecting the condition of the roads in Italy. On reaching the Rhine, he set himself to check the piracy which had been practiced in recent years by the German peoples along the coast of the North Sea. He punished the Frisians, who had refused to pay the stipulated tribute, and made an expedition against the Churchi, 47 AD, who had dared to make incursions into the lower province. But as he was about to establish a fortress in the land of that people, he received orders from the Emperor to desist from his undertaking, and leave the Churchi to themselves. The enemies of Corbulo had represented that he was only seeking his own glory. But in any case it was the policy of the government at this time to keep the Germans in order by diplomacy while be banned by arms. Thus the Churuschi, who had degenerated since the days of Arminius, besought the Emperor to provide them with a chief. Claudius sent Italicus, the son of Vleibus and the nephew of Arminius. For a time the youth was popular, but he soon became suspected and disliked on account of his Roman manners, and had great difficulty in maintaining his position. This was just what Rome desired. It was her policy to promote discord and dissension among the Germans. Corbulo returned to his province disgusted and disappointed. How happy were the Roman commanders in old days? He is reported to have murmured when he received the Imperial Command. As the soldiers were not to fight, he employed them in the task of cutting a great canal, connecting the Muzza, Mars, with the northern ranch of the Rhine parallel to the coast. This supplied the place of a road, and has lasted till the present day, running from Rotterdam to Leiden. The reign of Claudius was also distinguished in the history of the Rhine lands by the elevation of the Opidum Ubiorum to the rank of a military colony, 50 AD. Colonia Claudia Agrippinensis, called after his fourth wife, the Empress Agrippina, who was born there. Colonia, as it was simply called, and is still called so in the form of Cologne or Cologne, became an important centre of Roman civilisation. It is possible that another illustrious Roman colony, Augusta Trevororum, Tria on the Muzza, was also founded under the auspices of Claudius. One work which had been begun by his father, it devolved upon him to complete. This was the great road connecting Italy with the upper Danube, passing over the Brenner Alps, the Via Claudia Augusta. There were also hostilities in the upper province during the reign of Claudius. It was found necessary to make an expedition against the Chatty and the last of the three eagles lost by Varus was on this occasion recovered. Some years later, 50 AD, predatory bands of Chatty invaded the province, which was then governed by Publius Pomponius Secundus. He ordered the Bantiones and the Nometes, tribes which dwelled on the left bank of the Rhine about four-bed Tomegas, worms, and Nubiomegas, speya, along with the auxiliary cavalry, to intercept the retreat of the invaders and attack them while they were dispersed. The troops were divided into two columns. One of these cut off the plunderers on their return, when after a corouse they were heavy with sleep, and some survivors of the disaster of Varus were delivered from captivity. The other column inflicted greater loss on the foe in a regular battle, and returned laden with spoil to Mount Tornus, where Pomponius was waiting with his legions. The triumphal ornaments were decreed to Pomponius, who, however, was more celebrated for his poems than for his military achievements. On the Pannonian frontier, Claudius was called upon to intervene in the affairs of the Suévi. After the overthrow of Moura Bodduus, Varius had been recognized as king on the Suévi realm, which included Bohemia in the land of the Marco Mani, and also the modern Moravia in the land of the Quadi. For about thirty years Varius reigned, in great prosperity, popular with his countrymen, whom he enriched by plunder and the tribute of subject tribes. But long possession made him a tyrant, and domestic hatred, combined with the enmity of neighbouring peoples, proved his ruin. In 50 AD a plot was formed for his overthrow by his nephews Vangio and Cidol, who were supported by Vibilius, king of the Hermon Dury, a people who lived best of Bohemia. Claudius declined to send Roman troops to protect his vassal, and would only promise a safe refuge to Varius in case he were expelled. But he instructed Pulpelius Hista, the legatus of Pannonia, to have his legions with some chosen auxiliaries posted along the banks of the Danube, as of all their station was on the drive, to be a support to Varius if he were conquered, and a terror to the conquerors. The enemies of Varius were supported by an immense force of Lugii, a Suavec tribe which probably dwelled in modern Silesia. To oppose this large force, Varius had obtained some cavalry from the Yersigis, a summation race who lived between the Danube and the Thace, to support his own infantry. He wished to protract the war by maintaining himself in fortresses, but the Yersigis, who could not endure a siege, brought on an engagement. Varius was compelled to come down from his forts, and was defeated. He then fled to the Roman fleet on the Danube, and grants of land in Pannonia were assigned to him and his followers. Vangio and Ceddo divided his kingdom, and remained loyal to Rome. In the east, the list of provinces was augmented by the conversion of the kingdom of Thracia into a province governed by a procurator, 46 AD. The free confederation of the cities of Lycia was also abolished, and that country united to the province of Panfilia, 43 AD. This measure led to the complete Hellenization of Lycia. Macedonia and Archaea, which Tiberius had placed under the common control of an imperial legatus, were restored by Claudius to the senate, and again governed by Praetorian procuncels. Now that Mauricia was separately administered, they were gird round by a chain of frontier provinces which secured them against hostile inwards, so that they could be safely entrusted to the senate. The affairs of the small dependent kingdoms in the east were ordered anew. Antiochus IV was restored to the throne of Comargini, which Gaius had given him, and then capriciously taken away. Special attention was attracted to the kingdom of Bosporus and the northeastern shores of the Exuni. The history of these regions is so little known that the glimpse of them which we get now is welcome. In 41 AD, Claudius transferred the kingdom of Bosporus, which Gaius had bestowed on Palimo, to a certain Mithridates, who claims to be descended from the great opponent of Rome, and Palimo received some districts in Cilicia as a compensation. But a few years later, 45 AD, he was deposed for what reason is unknown, and his brother, a youth named Cotis, was set up in his stead and at first supported by a considerable Roman force under Aulis Didius Gallus, who was probably governor of Maurizia. When the Romans departed, leaving only a few cohorts under a knight named Julius Aquila, Mithridates saw his opportunity. Collecting a band of men who were exiles like himself, he overthrew the king of the Dandaridae, a people which dwelled under the Hipponus, the Kuban, and established himself as ruler over them. Cotis and Aquila were alarmed at the prospect of an invasion by Mithridates at the head of the Dandarids, especially as the Soraki, another obscure people of those regions, had assumed a hostile attitude. Accordingly they sought the alliance of Unones, king of the Eosi, another race whose exact home is uncertain. It was resolved to anticipate the designs of the dethroned king of Bosporus by attacking him in his new Dandarid realm. The army of Cotis consisted of the Roman cohorts, native Bosporus troops, and cavalry supplied by Unones. Mithridates, having no adequate forces to oppose to this attack, was defeated, and Sosa, the town of Dandarica, was occupied by the invaders. The victors then proceeded against the Soraki and laid siege to their town, named Usbi, which was built on high ground and also fortified by art. The place was easily taken, and the inhabitants, although they had offered submission, were massacred. After the fall of Usbi, the king of the Soraki deserted the cause of Mithridates, and frustrated himself before the image of the emperor. The Romans were very proud of this expedition. They had advanced within three days journey to the banks of the Tanaus, which in their geography was regarded as one of the limits of the known world. But as they returned by sea, some ships were wrecked on the shores of the Tari, and the barbarians slew one of the prefects and some of the soldiers. For Mithridates it only remained to throw himself on the mercy of some protector. Not trusting his brother Cotis, and there being no Roman officer of influence on the spot, he gave himself up to Yunonis, king of the Aorci. Yunonis undertook his cause, and sent envoys to Claudius, begging mercy for the captive. After some hesitation the emperor decided on exercising clemency. Mithridates once conducted to Rome, and is said to have spoken bold words in the imperial presence. I have returned to you of my own free will. If you do not believe it, let me go, and look for me. The fate of Mithridates is uncertain, but he was probably kept, like Marobodius, in some Italian city. But the most important change was the restoration of the kingdom of Herod. Judea, which since his death had been governed by a Roman procurator, was given along with Samaria to his grandson Agrippa, who had played a prominent part in securing the accession of Claudius. This change was at least as much a matter of policy as a reward to Agrippa. It was intended to soothe the bad feeling against the Roman government which had been stirred up among the Jews under the reign of Gaius. Two edicts were issued, according, first to the Jews of Alexandria, and then to the Jews of the whole empire, the free exercise of their worship. Agrippa was very popular with the Jews, and he was also popular with the Greeks. At Jerusalem he was a Jew. At Caesarea he was a Gentile. On two occasions the governor of Syria, Vibius Morsus, was obliged to interfere with his policy, in 42 AD, to prevent him from fortifying the new town of Jerusalem, and in the following year to put a stop to a suspicious Congress of Kings, Antiochus of Comagini, Cotis of Little Armenia, Sump Cigarum of Emessa, Parleno of Pontus, who had assembled at Tiberius to meet Agrippa. But the restored kingdom of Judea was of short duration. Agrippa died eaten up of worms in 44 AD, and his son, who was kept as a hostage at Rome, was not deemed competent to succeed him. Judea was placed again under the government of a procurator. But to assuage the discontent of the Jews and prevent disturbances, the nomination of the high priest and the administration of the treasure of the temple were not assigned to him, but to King Herod of the Syrian Chalchis, a brother of Agrippa. At this time Judea was much disturbed by brigands as well as by the fanatical hatred of the Jews against the pagans, and the constant interference of the governor of Syria was required. The administration of Judea was one of the most difficult problems that the Romans had to deal with, and they committed the error of not stationing sufficiently large military forces in that province. In 53 AD, Claudius granted immunity from tribute to the island of Kos, as a personal favour to his physician Xenophon, who belonged to the Asclepidae, a family of medical priests who lived in that island. The emperor made one of his characteristic speeches in the senate, going into the ancient history of the Coens, and then letting out the true motive of his proposal by mentioning Xenophon, their distinguished countryman. About the same time tribute was remitted for five years to Byzantium, which had suffered severely from the Bosporus War and from disturbances in place when that country was made a province. The history of the war in Armenia must be reserved for another chapter. It may be asked how far the administration of the empire was guided by the mind of Claudius, and how far the measures of his reign were due to his advisors. On this it is impossible to speak with certainty. There is a curious contrast between his rather ridiculous personality and the not inconsiderable positive results of his reign. However much he owed to his able counsellors, it is certain that he impressed many of his measures with his personal stamp. If he was weak-minded, easily influenced by women and freedmen, immoderate insensual indulgence, and fond of wine and gambling, it must not be forgotten that he was well educated. Nor is it fair to blame him for the prominent part which the freedmen of his household played in the administration of the state. It must be remembered that the emperor had neither official ministers nor a regular civil service at his disposal. He was supposed to be his own secretary of state, and his own treasurer, and he was therefore obliged to have recourse to the services of his freedmen for carrying on the business of the state. Augustus himself had depended on freedmen after the death of his advisors Agrippa and Massinus. Tiberius and Gaius also employed them, but did not admit them to their confidence. They occupied, however, such a position that the influence over weak-minded princes was almost a matter of course. This happened in the case of Claudius. He needed counsellors to lean upon, and the freedmen were there at his hand. His most trusted advisors were Narcissus, who held the post of Ab Epistolis, or secretary, Pallas, who was the Aratiónibus, or steward and accountant, Calistus, the early Belis, who received all petitions preferred to the emperor, and Polybius, who assisted his master in his studies, and had himself won a place in literature by translating Homer into Latin and Virgil into Greek. These Greeks were well-educated men, capable and versatile, and it would be an error of prejudice to ridicule the government of Claudius as being conducted by a company of menials. They were doubtless far more competent to perform the duties of their officers and to advise the emperor than the officials of a question and sanatorium rank. But in consequence of their position they were overbearing and avaricious. Having no social position, they sought a compensation in a massing wealth, and their administration was consequently marked by the grossest corruption. They sold appointments to the highest bidders. They compassed the confiscation of the estates of nobles on false or frivolous charges. They extorted bribes by threats. In these small practices the freed men were aided and bettered by the Empress Messalina. In his youth Claudius had been betrothed to Emilia Lepida, daughter of the younger Julia, but the marriage was broken off on account of a mother's misconduct. He lost a second bride, Livia Camilla, through her death on the wedding day, and finally married Plosia Ogalanila, daughter of Plosia Silvanus, who had distinguished himself in Illyricum. Plosia was repudiated on account of an intrigue with the freed men, and Claudius then married Elia Petina, by whom he had one daughter. Elia was also divorced, but for no serious cause, and about thirty-eight AD, Claudius took a third wife, as has been already mentioned, Valeria Messalina. This remarkable woman was descended on the father's side from the race of the orator Masala Corvinus, but by her mother, Demetia Lepida, she was connected with the family of the Caesars. Claudius and Lepida were cousins, being both the grandchild of Novantonius, the trimver, and Octavia, the sister of Augustus. The name of Messalina has become proverbial for unblushing sensuality, the tales that have been preserved for vices and orgies bear on them the marks of exaggeration, but there can be no doubt that a conduct was disillusioned, and that she exercised an evil influence on the women of Rome. She is said to have carried on criminal intrigues with the emperor's freedmen, especially with the Narcissus. It seems certain that she and they combined to hoodwink Claudius. They concealed her love affairs with others, and she concealed their speculations. While Messalina indulged to amorous caprices, Narcissus and Pallas build up such great fortunes, that when Claudius once complained of want of money, he was taught that he would be rich enough if those two freedmen took him into partnership. The position of Messalina seemed secured by the circumstance that she had borne her husband a son, Tiberius Claudius Domenicus, who afterwards received the name Britannicus, in memory of the conquest of Britain. He was born in February, shortly after his father's accession, and this was the first case of a son born to a reigning Caesar. But Claudius declined the proposal to confer either upon his son the title Augustus, or upon the empress, that of Augusta. But although Messalina was not raised to the rank which had been held by Livia, she received conspicuous honour by the decree which permitted her to write in the carpentum, the use of which was still generally restricted to persons holding breezly offices at solemn festivals. A like permission had been already granted to the emperor's mother, Antonia. It has been already stated that Claudius recalled his nieces Julia and Agrippina from exile. Agrippina's husband, Neus Domenius Ahana Barbis, was dead, and some time after her return she married Crispus Pacianus. Julia was espoused to Marcus Finishes. Both ladies were young and attractive, and as the daughters of Germanicus and sisters of Gaius, they both exercised influence and awakened suspicion of the court of Claudius. Agrippina avoided the dangers which around her, but Julia's marked attentions to her uncle excited the jealousy of Messalina. She was driven again into banishment and died of starvation. The philosopher Seneca, noted for his wealth as well as for his writings, was banished at the same time to Corsica as a lover of Julia, but strange to say his estates were not confiscated. In the following year, 42 AD, a far more glaring act of injustice was committed to satisfy the vengeance of Messalina. A distinguished nobleman, Apius Salinas, of the Junion Gens, had rejected the Lysentius advances of the Empress, and she determined to destroy him, although he had been recently married to her mother Demetia Laphida. As there was no possible ground of charge against him, Messalina and her accomplice Narcissus devised a curious plot. Narcissus entered the Empress chamber early one morning, and told an accent of alarm that he had drummed the previous night that Claudius was murdered by Salinas. Messalina then said that she had been visited by the same dream. Claudius' weak and superstitious was terrified by the startling coincidence, and before he had time to recover from his fright, Salinas himself appeared, according to an appointment which the Emperor had made with him. But Claudius in his bewilderment forgot the appointment, and saw in the sudden appearance of Salinas a confirmation of the suspicions which had been aroused by the dreams. Messalina and Narcissus rest their advantage, and easily persuaded the deceived Emperor to issue an order for the immediate execution of Salinas. If this tale can be trusted, it shows how unscrupulous the Empress and Friedman were encompassing their ends, and how completely the Emperor was dominated by their influence. Many other conspicuous victims were sacrificed to the jealousy or covetousness of Messalina. Among them was Propaia Sabina, said to be the most beautiful woman of the day, the wife of Lucius Cornelius Scipio. A real offence was that she tried to fascinate molest her, a dancer with whom Messalina was in love. But a charge preferred against her, was that she committed adultery with valerious Asiaticus, a noble man of wealth and influence who was one of the consuls of the year, 47 AD. He was brought into the trial because Messalina covered it to the gardens of Loculus on the Pinchon Hill which he had inherited. At the same time he was accused of treatable designs, and was given no opportunity to defend himself before the Senate. The trial took place privately in the palace, sentence was passed on the accused, and he was allowed to choose his own death. He adopted the manner of suicide, which was then in fashion, and after bathing and supping, cut open his veins and let himself bleed to death. Propaia put an end to her own life before the trial was concluded. So far the plans of Messalina and those of the freedmen had not clashed. The interests of the letter were not threatened by an intrigue with the dance of Nasta, or by the confiscation of the gardens of Asiaticus. But once she engaged in the intrigue with the Roman noble, Gaius Cilius, the case was very different. For such a connection was clearly a man as to the throne. A man in the position of Cilius would hardly have suffered himself to be drawn into an intrigue with the woman of Messalina's evil reputation, if he had not been urged by motives of ambition. But the interests of the freedmen were bound up in their master's life, and his overthrow would have almost certainly meant their ruin. They determined that Gaius Cilius should not attain to the Principate, and as Messalina refused to listen to their warnings, they brought about her foal, 48 AD. The Empress infatuated with her new lover, induced him to divorce his wife, and promised to wet him after the death of Claudius, whose weak constitution might not be expected to hold out much longer. But at length, Cilius, wary of his ambiguous and dangerous position, and apprehensive, perhaps, of the constancy of his paramour, urged her to consent to the broad step of removing Claudius. He undertook to adopt Britannicus, and promised to reign in his name and as his guardian. Messalina, however, was not anxious to gratify his wishes. She feared that when Cilius reached the gall of his ambition, he might spurn her from him on account of his licentiousness. Nevertheless, she felt such pleasure in trampling upon public opinion and outraging morality, that she consented to celebrate a former marriage with her lover. Claudius was just then about to set forth for Ostia, but before he started, he was assured by Divinus that some evil was destined to befall the husband of Messalina. To avert evil from his own head, he was induced to sanction a pretendent marriage between his wife and another. Gaius Cilius was chosen to be the sham bridegroom. The betrothal took place in the Empress's presence, and he himself signed his marriage contract. He then started for Ostia, but Messalina remained behind on a plea of indisposition, and, incredible as it may seem, celebrated her marriage with Cilius with all the customary festivities. It was an anxious moment for the freedmen, Narcissus, Pallas, and Callistus. The destruction of Gaius Cilius must at all hazards be affected, and it was necessary to set cautiously to work. The influence which Messalina still possessed had been recently shown by the sentence of death, passing Polybius, who had attempted to interfere between her and her lover. So Narcissus laid a plan to take her unawares, and ensure her fall before she could obtain an interview with her husband. He suborned to women, who were intimate with Cilius, to awaken him to the knowledge of a strange situation. Narcissus was then, according to the pre-arranged plot, summoned to the Empress's presence, and confirmed the strange tale of the marriage of Messalina. Did Claudius, he asked, know that he had been divorced by his own wife? That the people, the Senate, the soldiers had witnessed the marriage of Cilius? Was he still unaware that, unless he acted promptly, the city was in the hands of the husband of Messalina? The Emperor could hardly believe the story, but others of the household brought testimony to its truth, and he was urged to hurry back to Rome with all speed, and secure himself in the Praetorian camp. Utterly bewildered and frightened, Claudius let his counselers do with him what they would, and on his way back to Rome, he kept continually asking, Am I the Emperor? Is Cilius a private citizen? Narcissus distrusted Lucius Gata, one of the two prefects of the Praetorian guards, as a friend of Messalina. He therefore induced Claudius to commit to himself the command of the guards for a single day. On obtaining the consent of the Emperor, he sent orders to Rome that a house of Cilius should be occupied, and all who were present arrested. He obtained a seat in the carriage of the Emperor, lest the two companions of Claudius, Vitellius and Largus, should weaken his resolution. Lucius Vitellius had gained distinction in the East and the Tiberius, and had worked himself into the favour of Gaius by unscrupulous flattery, carefully abstained from committing himself to an opinion. To the complaints of Claudius, he merely said, how scandalous, how horrible, leaving the freedman to bear all the responsibility. Meanwhile, in the house of Cilius, the Empress was celebrating a vintage festival. The grape-juice flowed in streams from the wine-presses, and women, a raiders' backhands, with skins flung over their shoulders, performed wild dances. Messalina herself brandishing as Circes, and Cilius, crowned with ivy at her side, stowed about in buskins. A note of discord suddenly broke upon the dissolute scene. A physician, one Vitellius Valens, had climbed up a high tree, and when they asked him what he saw, he replied in jest, or by some kind of provision, a terrible storm coming from Ostia. Presently the news came that Claudius was indeed coming from Ostia, and coming to avenge. The riotous company was instantly scattered. Cilius rushed to the forum to hide his fear and a de-appearance of business. Messalina fled to the gardens of Lachylus. They were hardly gone when the offices sent by Narcissus arrived, and some of the guests, who were slow in making their escape, were arrested. Messalina had no fears at all was lost. She trusted in her power over her husband. She made arrangements, but her children, Britannicus and Octavia, should meet their father, and silently plead their mother's cause, and she prayed for Bidia, the eldest of the Vestal Virgins, to implore the Pontifex Maximus for pardon. Then, having passed through the city and foot, she set forth on the road to Ostia, and was able to find no better conveyance than a cart which was used to carry garden refuse. But all her endeavours failed. Narcissus prevented Claudius from listening to her cries, and the Vestal, when she met the carriage on its entry into Rome, was dismissed with an assurance that the Empress would have an opportunity of defending herself. Claudius visited the house of Cilius, and saw in the hall the statue of the culprit's father, which if the Senate had ordered to be overthrown, and other sides, calculated to increase his indignation. He then proceeded to the camp of the reputorians, and the Senate to the tribunal. Cilius would not defend himself, and merely asked for his speedy death. He was immediately executed. The same fate befell Vettius Valens, and several others, who were charged with abetting Cilius in his crime. The dance of Mnester was also put to death on account of his intrigue with Messalina, and likewise a young knight, named Cexus Montanus, who had been her lover for only one day. In the meantime, Messalina had returned to the La Cullen Gardens, and did not yet despair. Her mother, Demetia Lapida, who had stood aloof in the days of her prosperity, came to her in the hour of her distress. She urged her daughter to anticipate the stroke of the executioner by a voluntary death. Life is over, she said. Nothing remains but an honourable end. But Messalina was fond of life, and she knew the nature of her husband. Claudius, exhausted by his work of retribution, had retired to the palace to dine, and after dinner he sent a message to the poor woman, bidding her come next day and plead her cause. But Narcissus was determined that she should have no chance of pleading, so he immediately ordered a tribune and some centurions to go and slay the criminal, saying such arty emperor's orders. Messalina, having in vain attempted to pierce herself with a sword, was killed by a blow of the tribune, and the corpse was left to her mother. Claudius meanwhile, under the influence of wine, had forgotten the events which had just passed, and began to ask why the lady tarried. When they told him that she was dead, he merely called for another cup, and never mentioned her again. The sinner decreed that her name should be abased from all monuments, and Narcissus received as a reward for his services the insignia of the questorship. Such it seems to be the least improbable version of the strange history of the crowning insolent of Messalina, and her sudden fall. But the episode of her public marriage with Cillius will always remain a perplexing riddle, unless some totally new evidence be discovered. End of Chapter 15, Section 4 Chapter 15, Section 5 Of J. B. Bury's The Student's Roman Empire Part 1 This is a LibriVox recording, or LibriVox according to under public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Juleva Mulligam The Student's Roman Empire Part 1 By John Bagnell Bury Chapter 15 The Principate of Claudius 41-54 A.D. Section 5 Agrapina Death of Claudius Messalina had fallen, and the question was, who was to be her successor? On this, the freedmen were not unanimous. Narcissus urged that Claudius should take back his second wife, Aelia Patina, whom he had divorced. Callistus worked on behalf of Lola Paulina, the divorced wife of the Emperor Gaius. Pellis espoused the cause of Agrapina, the Emperor's niece. This remarkable woman, who inherited the ambition without a morality of her mother, had long been scheming to establish an influence over Claudius, who was very susceptible to female fascinations. She aimed at securing the empire for her son Lucius Domitius, and winning for herself such a position as had been held by Livia. It is impossible to know how far she may have been involved in the intrigues connected with the fall of Messalina, but it is probable that she has influenced the verdict of history on the career of her rival. For Agrapina published personal memoirs, in which she revealed the secret history of the Pellis, and it was almost certainly from these memoirs that a historian Tacitus drew his account of Messalina's wickedness. It may easily be believed that Agrapina highly coloured the story and distorted the truth. The death of her husband, Pessianus, had left her free and wealthy, and she determined to marry her uncle, in spite of the rowing prejudice against such a union. Her charms, supported by the persuasions of Pellis, subdued the weak emperor, and in a few weeks after the death of Messalina, Agrapina exerted over Claudius all the influence of her wife. Before the end of the year, forty-eight AD, she took the first step in the direction of elevating her son to the throne. He was then eleven years old, but she resolved sad when he came of age, he should marry Octavia, the daughter of Claudius. For this purpose it was necessary to break off the betrothal which existed between Octavia and Lucius Silanus, a great-great grandson of Augustus. In accomplishing this, Agrapina was assisted by Vitalius, the emperor's colleague in the censorship, who bore a grudge against Silanus and was ready to ruin him. He informed Claudius that Silanus had committed incest with his sister, and the horrified emperor immediately broke off the engagement of his daughter. Silanus, who was a braver that year, was ordered to lay down his office, and Vitalius, although no longer censor, presumed on his recent tenure of that office to remove the name of Silanus from the list of senators. When this obstacle to the future marriage of Demetius and Octavia was removed, it remained for Agrapina to smooth the way for her own union with Claudius. No precedent in Roman history could be found for marrying a brother's daughter. Such an alliance was regarded as incestuous, and in all matters of religion, Claudius was punctiliously scrupulous. The censor, who had just expressed his horror at the alleged incest of Silanus, shrank from incurring the charge of a similar offense. But here again Vitalius came to the aid of Agrapina. He appeared in the senate, and delivered a specious harangue in favour of the proposed marriage. The sanatis tumultuously applauded, and Claudius, then appearing in the curia, caused a decree to be passed that, henceforward, marriages with the daughters of brothers should be valid. The forced marriage of Claudius took place in the early days of 49 AD, and on the wedding day, as it were to bring a curse on the event, Silanus, the betrothed of Octavia, killed himself. Another victim, who had come across the path of Agrapina, was Lola Paulina, who had aspired to the hand of Claudius. She was accused of having consulted cardian astrologers concerning the imperial marriage, and the emperor himself spoke against her in the sanat. She was banished from Italy. But Agrapina is said to have dispatched a tribune after her to put her to death. While Marcellina cared only for sensuality, Agrapina was enamoured of power. She was not content with being the emperor's wife, but wished to be his colleague. This position was designated by the title Augusta, which was conferred upon her in 50 AD. She was a third woman who bore this title, but it meant for her, as it had meant for Livia, a share in political power, and was not merely, as it had been for Antonia, an honourable title. But Agrapina enjoyed a mark of distinction, which had not been granted even to the Concert of Augustus. She was the first Roman Empress, whose image was permitted to appear on coins during her lifetime by degree of the senate. When Claudius gave audiences to his friends, or to foreign envoys, his wife sat on a throne beside him. We have seen that she gave her name to the new colony of veterans established in the town of Diubi, as Colonia Agrippinensis. In order to secure her influence with the freedmen palace, she is said to have engaged in an intrigue with him, but the court, and her rules, seems to have been distinguished by outward propriety, and certainly by stricter etiquette. His schemes for his son's advancement rendered her a cruel stepmother to Britannicus. On the 25th of February, 50 A.D., Lucius de Mitius was adopted into the Claudian Gens, and is the name of nearer Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus. This was the first instance of an adoption of a son by a petitioned Claudius, and the emperor was disinclined to take this step, not only on this account, but less the prospect of Britannicus should be injured. He was overcome, however, by the example of Augustus. The advancement of Nero progressed rapidly, and the following year, he was permitted to assume the toga of manhood, and by a decree of the senate, he was made Brincapsio Ventutis, designated to hold the consulship at the age of twenty, and he received bro consular power. These honors were sufficient to mark him out as a successor for Claudius Caesar Principate. But Agrippina went even further, and caused his son to be elected Supranumero into the four chief Brasile colleges, the Pontiffs, the Augustus, the Quindicum Viri, and the Septum Viri. This was a distinction which of the youthful grandsons of Augustus, Gaes and Lucius, had not received. Nero had already been betrothed to his cousin Octavia, and his adoption, whereby he became legally her brother, was not allowed to hinder the celebration of the marriage, which it took place in 53 AD. In the meantime, Britannicus, who was only a little younger than Nero, was regarded and treated as a child. Misunderstandings and estrangements were treacherously brought about between him and his father. On one occasion, when the two young princes met, Nero saluted Britannicus by name, Britannicus saluted him as Dmitrius. Agrippina complained of this to the emperor, as implying contempt of Nero's adoption, and the decree of the senate. Claudius was moved by her representations to punish one of the instructors of his son by death, and others by banishment, and place him under the charge of the creatures of a stepmother. By her machinations, also, the two prefects of the Depritorian guard, who had been adherents of Masalina, and who were anxious to secure the succession of her son, where he posed and replaced by Ephrainius Borus, who was devoted to the interests of his patroness. All the officers who were attached to the cause of Britannicus was then removed. But the son of Masalina had not only a strong party in the senate, but a power for supporter in the imperial household. This was a freedmen of Cissus, who exerted all his energy and influence to weaken the power of Agrippina and keep Nero from the throne. After the marriage of Octavia, the struggle between the two parties became keener. Vitalius, who had shown his devotion to the Augusta, was a threatened witty criminal prosecution. The condemnation of Tarkisius Priscus also showed the uncertainty of her position. She coveted the house and gardens of Statilius Torres, a man of noble ancestry in great wells, where had been governor of Africa. Priscus brought against him charges of extortion in his administration of that province, and of practice and magic. Torres disdained her reply, and chose to die by a voluntary death. But the senate expelled the accuser from their body, although Agrippina exerted all her power to protect him. There were other signs, too, which might alarm the empress. Claudius showed himself inclined to reinstate his son Retanicus in his proper position, and spoke of allowing him to assume the toga virilis. An ominous remark is said to have dropped from his lips, that it was his fate first to endure the offenses of his wives, and afterwards to punish them. It looked as if the influence of Narcissus were likely once more to get the upper hand. Agrippina made an attempt to ruin Narcissus by inscribing to his mismanagement the failure of the tunnel of Lake Foukenes. She failed, but she soon enjoyed a drive from the ruin of her most formidable female rival, Demetia Lapida. This lady, as a daughter of the elder Antonia and Lucius Demetius, was a grand niece of Augustus, as a mother of Messalina, was a grand mother of Retanicus, and as a sister of Gneus Demetius, was a sister-in-law of Agrippina. In beauty, age, and wealth, there was not much difference between them, both were immodest, infamous, and violent. They were rivals in their vices no less than in the gifts which Fouken had given them. During the exile of Agrippina, Lapida had given home to the child Nero, and ever since had endeavoured to secure his affections by flattery and liberality, which contrasted with his mother's sternness and impatience. Lapida was charged with making attempts against life of the Empress by means of magical incantations, and was being a disturb of the public peas, by maintaining gangs of turbulent slaves on a calabrian estate. The indictment seems to have been brought before the Emperor, and it was a trial of strength between Agrippina and Narcissus, who did all he could to save Lapida. But Agrippina triumphed. Lapida was sentenced to death. Yet notwithstanding this victory, and notwithstanding the fact that Claudius had been induced to make will favourable to her son, the Empress did not feel sure of her ground, and read it a reaction. Under these circumstances, the greatest luck that could befall her was the death of Claudius, and Claudius died October 13th, 54 AD. It is generally believed that he was poisoned by his wife, and though we cannot say that a guilt is proved, it seems highly probable. Claudius was in a sixty-fourth year, and in declining health. His death took place when Arcissus was absent at Sinuesa, for the sake of the medicinal waters, and this coincidence supports the traditional account that there was foul play. For Narcissus suspected the design of Agrippina. According to the received story, she employed the services of a woman named Lucusta, notorious for the preparation of subtle poisons, who, according to the historian Testis, was long regarded as one of the instruments of monarchy. She compounded a curious jerk which had the property of disturbing the mind without causing instant deaths, and it was administered to Claudius in a dish of mushrooms. But for some reason the poison failed to work, and Agrippina, fearful lest a crime should be discovered, called in her confidential physician Xenophon, who did not hesitate to pass a poisoned phasor into the Empress of Throat, on the plea of helping him to vomit. The position of Nero at the death of Claudius was far stronger than that of Gaius at the death of Tiberius. Nero had to fear a declaration of favour of Britannicus, as Gaius had to fear the rivalry of the son of Drosus. But Nero possessed to broke consular power, as well as other dignities, which had not been conferred on Gaius. He had also the support of his mother's influence, and above all, Boris, the prefect of the Britannian guard, was devoted to his interest. Seeing that the accession of Gaius had proceeded so smoothly, there seemed no reason for doubt in the case of Nero. But Agrippina took every precaution for securing success. She concealed the Emperor's death for some hours, and made pretexts to detain his children in the palace, until her own son had been proclaimed Emperor by the guards. About midday, the doors of the palace were suddenly thrown open, and Nero issued force, accompanied by Boris, into the presence of the cohort, which was then on duty. The prefect gave a sign, and the soldiers received him with acclamations. It was said that some hesitated and asked for Britannicus, for this demuring was only for a moment. Nero was then carried in a letter to the Praetorian camp, where he spoke a few suitable words, and was saluted Iberator. This was the second occasion on which the Praetorians created an emperor, and following the example of his father Claudius, Nero promised them a donative. The Senate did not hesitate to accept the will of the guards, and on the same day, October 13th, the Diaz Imperii of Nero, decreed to him the brogue consular power in its higher unlimited form. The prerogatives embodied him the Lex di Imperio, and the name Augustus. The drabunition power, which was necessary to complete the prerogatives of the princeps, was conferred upon him by Commitia on the 4th of December. The legions in the provinces received the news of the new Principate, without a murmur of dissent. According to custom, the Senate met to consider the acts of Claudius. He was fortunate enough to receive the honours which had fallen to the loss of the model Augustus, and which his two predecessors had missed. He was judged worthy to enter into the number of the guards, and flaments were appointed for his worship. All his acts were decreed to be valid. His funeral was ordered after the precedent of Zeta for Augustus, and Agrippina emulated the magnificence of her great-grandmother Livia. But the will of the deceased sovereign was not read in public. It was feared that a preference shown to the Stubson over Britannicus would cause unpleasant remarks. Nero pronounced the funeral oration, composed by Lucius and Aesanica, over the dead emperor. One of Agrippina's first acts after her marriage with Claudius had been to recall Seneca from his exile in Corsica, and entrust to him the completion of his son's education. During his banishment he had attempted, by the arse of flattery, to get his sentence repealed, and had addressed the treaties to the freedmen Polybius, into which he wrought an extravagant panegyric of the emperor. But Claudius had paid no heed, and Seneca was resolved to have his revenge. He assailed to the memory of the emperor soon after his death, in an unsparing and remarkably clever satire, entitled The Apoglycan Toses, Pumpkinification, a play on apotheosis, or otherwise the Ludos de morte Claudii Caissaris. The arrival of Claudius in heaven, the surprise of the guards at seeing his strange-shaking figure, and hearing his indistinct babble, are described with many jests. The guards deliberate, whereas they should admit him, and are inclined to vote in his favour, when he, divine Augustus, arises, and tells all the crimes and iniquities, which have stained his reign of his grand-nephew. The guards agree that he deserves to be ejected from Olympus. Mercury immediately seizes him by his neck, and drags him to the place once none return. On the way to this shade, he passes through the Via Sacra, where he witnesses his own funeral, and sees the Roman people walking about as if they were free from a tyrant. When he reaches in the low regions, he is greeted with a shout, Claudius will come. He is surrounded by large company, consisting of the victims who had perished during his reign, senators, knights, freedmen, kinsfolk. I meet friends everywhere, said Claudius. How came your hizze? Do you ask, most cruel man? As you reply. Who else but thou sendest hizze, murderer of all thy friends? He was then led before the tribunal of Ayakus, and prosecuted on the basis of the lexcornelia de Sicariis. He is condemned to play forever with a bottomless dice-box. This satire of Seneca reflects the general derision which was cast upon the deification of Claudius. The addition of this emperor's ridiculous figure to his number of the Celestials, effectually dispelled that halo of divinity with which Augustus had sought to invest in the principate. End of Chapter 15, Section 5. Chapter 16, Section 1 Of H. B. Buries, The Student's Roman Empire, Part 1 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Student's Roman Empire, Part 1, by John Bagnale Burie Chapter 16. The Conquest of Burton, Section 1 The conquest of Burton was one of the tasks which the great Caesar left to the Caesars who were to come after him. Like the conquest of Germany it was an undertaking to which the subjugation of Gaul naturally led, and although his first successors did not cross the Channel as they crossed the Rhine, the island of the North was by no means forgotten. On two occasions Augustus had made preparations for an expedition against Britain, and both times the enterprise had fallen through. He was about to invade the island in 34 B.C., when he was recalled from Gaul by the rebellion in Dalmatia. And the poetical literature of the following years shows that the conquest of Ultima Tule was an achievement to which the Romans looked forward with confidence as destined to be accomplished when the civil wars were over. Horace deplores that Romans should turn their swords against each other instead of leading the chain Britain down the Via Sacra. In 27 B.C., after his accession, Augustus was believed to be about to fulfill their expectations and add a new province to the empire. Horace B.C. is fortunate to preserve Caesar about to set forth against the Britons who live in the ends of the earth. It is uncertain why this intention was not carried out. Perhaps the Cantabrian war and the hostilities of the Salasi, which occupied his attention at this time, made Augustus shrink from undertaking further warfare. At all events, the idea of subduing Britain was not again resumed by Augustus. Tiberius confessed that the occupation of Britain was necessary, but through reverence for the precept of Augustus, again extending the empire, refrained from attempting it. The problem also engaged the attention of Gaius, and we saw how his undertaking ended in a ridiculous demonstration on the Gaelic shore. Strange to say, the conquest of Britain, which Caesar himself had failed to accomplish in two attempts, which Augustus deemed too difficult, which Tiberius shrank from, was reserved for the arms of Claudius. And we are led to believe that the idea was his own and not the suggestion of his counselors. The importance of occupying Britain was perhaps brought home to him when he endeavored to suppress the druidical worship in Gaul. The constant communication which existed between the northern coast of Gaul and the opposite island rendered it hopeless to stamp out the barbarous rites, as long as Britain was not in the hands of Rome. Moreover, the fact that his model, Augustus, had contemplated the reduction of the island was a recommendation of the enterprise of Claudius. It is probable, too, that he was encouraged by his freedmen, who may have entertained an exaggerated idea of the wealth of the island and hoped to profit by it. Friendly relations had been maintained with British kings by Augustus and Tiberius. Exiled princes sought refuge with Augustus and Gaius. The immediate occasion of the expedition of Claudius is said to have been the request for Sucker, addressed to him by Barricus, who owing to domestic voids had fled from his country and became the supplier of Claudius, as Adminius had been the supplier of Gaius. This Barricus was probably a son of the king of the Atrebetes, who dwelled between the Severan and the Thames. But the restoration of this native was merely a pretext for carrying out at length what had long been inevitable. The emperor resolved to visit Britain himself and win the honour of personally achieving a great conquest and adding a new province to the empire. But it was arranged that the way should be prepared before him, so that he could arrive in time to witness the final scene. Four legions were assigned to the expedition, three from the German provinces, and one from Pannonia. Their numbers and names were 2 Augusta and 14 Gemina, from upper Germany, 12 Valeria Victrex, from lower Germany, and 9 Cispania, from Pannonia. Beside these, there were the usual contingents of auxiliary troops, cohorts of infantry, and ally of cavalry. Aulus Claudius Silvanus was selected to command the expedition. He was a relation of Claudius Orgullanilla, the divorced wife of Claudius, and is described as the senator of the highest repute. At this time he doubtless held command in some of the provinces, from which legions were drafted for the expedition, either upper or lower Germany, or possibly Belgium. He was supported by many able and distinguished officers, whose selection shows what importance was attached to the expedition. Among them was the mentioned El Galba, destined one day to be an emperor himself, an able officer whom we will have already met as legatus of upper Germany. The legatus of the second religion was Flavius Vespacianus, also destined like Galba, to rule the Roman world. Hosidius Getta, who had completed the work of Cetinius Paulinus in Mauritania, was probably the commander of another legion. Pallarius Asiaticus, who afterwards fell a victim to Messalina, and San Centius Saturninus may also be mentioned. It has been calculated that the whole forces amounted to upwards of 60,000 men, and an enormous transport fleet was necessary to convey them to the British coast. For this purpose ships were sent to Gessoriacum, Bologna, from the naval stations of Italy, Ravenna, and Misenum. Early in 43 A.D., the army assembled near the place, where just 100 years before Caesar had embarked on the same errand. But the difficulties of those first and successful attempts were remembered in the army. The soldiers murmured and showed a mutinous spirit, when Pallius revealed the object of the expedition. Pallius sent the news to Rome, and Pallius dispatched Narcissus to restore order. The freedmen harangued the turbulent troops, and they contended with mocking him as a slave, submitted to the emperor's wishes. The British coast was reached safely, though not without some difficulty from adverse weather, and the invading army disembarked in three harbors, without encountering any resistance from the Britons. It seems probable that these harbors were on the coast of Sussex and Kent, something that a landing was made as far west as Portsmouth. It is impossible to determine with anything like certainty the line of Roman advance, but it is clear that their first object was to overcome the Trinovantes, whose home was north of the Thames, in the territory which now forms the counties of Essex and Hertford, but whose way extended over southeastern Britain. In the days of Caesar, their leader, Cassival Launus, had formed a league to oppose the invaders. Their capital was then at Verulamium, St. Albans. But Conobelinus, the origin of Shakespeare's Cumberline, had transferred it to Camullodunum, Colchester. The sons of Conobelinus, by name Caractacus Antogodumnus, commanded the Trinovantes, and took the field against Plauteus. Their tactics were to draw the invaders into Vudi and Marchi country, but they were both defeated into distinct battles. The Boduni, one of the tribes which were ruled over by these princes, submitted and received a Roman garrison. Soon afterwards, the legions, drawn on by the barbarians, and perhaps conducted by the friendly atribates, reached a certain river, which may possibly be the Medway. The Britons offered a stubborn resistance, but at length, after two days fighting, the Romans affected a crossing. On this occasion, Vespasian and Hosidius Gheta, particularly distinguished themselves. The enemies then fell back behind the Thames. They were followed by the Batavian auxiliaries, who swam across the stream, and by some Roman troops, who crossed by a bridge higher up. But these forces were beaten back, and Plauteus determined to wait for the arrival of the emperor with reinforcements, before crossing the Thames and striking the final blow. In the meantime, he was able to secure the ground which he had won, and it seems likely that at this time King Kokidupnos declared for the Romans. He seems to have been the prince of the Regni, whose capital town has been identified with Chichester. He proved himself a firm friend of the Romans, and received as a reward from Claudius Roman citizenship the title of Legatus Augusti and a grant of territory, apparently his original possessions. A monument of him, as Tiberius Claudius Kokidupnos, he assumed the emperor's name, may be still seen in Goodwood Park. Leaving the conduct of affairs at Rome, during his absence, to Vitellius Claudius, with a large retinue, embarked from Azilia, about July, crossed Gaul and reached the Roman camp, probably somewhere near Londinium, London, before the end of the military season. A great battle was fought under the imperial auspices. The Britons were rooted, and Camolodunum, the capital of the Triuvantes, was taken. Claudius was a saluted emperor, by the army more than once, although only a single assumption of the title in a single campaign was allowed by usage. He honoured Camolodunum by a visit, and selected it to be the centre of the romanisation of Britain. The emperor remained only sixteen days on the island, and leaving the consolidation and extension of the conquest to his general, he recrossed the channel, spent the winter in Gaul, and reached Rome in the following spring, 44 A.D. His son-in-law Pompeius and Silanus, who had attended him on his journey, were sent forward to announce the victory. The senate decreed to the conqueror of Britain, the owner of a triumph, and the title Britannicus, which have ever he declined for himself, but accepted for his infant son. They also decreed the erection of two triumphal arches, one in the Campos Martius and the other at Gesoriacum. In the inscription on the roman arch, which has been partly preserved, Claudius boasts that he subdued eleven kings. The rejoicings were marked by the mimic representation in the Campos Martius of the siege of a British town and the submission of British chieftains. The part which the fleet had played in the expedition was afterwards celebrated by naval manoeuvres at the mouth of the paddows. Claudius was not a little proud of having outdone his three predecessors by adding a province to the empire, and the achievement seemed greater from the circumstance that the new province was beyond the ocean. An important consequence of the conquest of Claudius was the decree of the senate. The treaties made by Claudius or his legati should be valid, just as if they had been made by the senate or the roman people. This measure was intended to facilitate the reduction of the distant island.