De Vita Caesarum--Divus Claudius, c. 110 CE.
Translated by J. C. Rolfe.
[Arkenberg Introduction]. Rolfe's annotations appear in brackets with no
attribution; mine are noted. I have also replaced modern place names, as used by Rolfe,
with those in use by the Romans and Hellenes; thus, for example, Rolfe's "Italy"
is now "Italia".
I. THE father of Claudius Caesar, Drusus, who at first had the
forename Decimus and later that of Nero, was born of Livia within three months after her
marriage to Augustus [38 B.C.] (for she was with child at the time) and there was
a suspicion that he was begotten by his stepfather in adulterous intercourse. Certain it
is that this verse at once became current: "In three months time come children to the
great." This Drusus, while holding the offices of quaestor and praetor, was in charge
of the war in Rhaetia and later of that in Germania. He was the first of Roman generals to
sail the northern Ocean [15 B.C.], and beyond the Rhine with prodigious labor he
constructed [12-11 B.C.] the huge canals which to this very day are called by his
name. Even after he had defeated the enemy in many battles and driven them far into the
wilds of the interior, he did not cease his pursuit until the apparition of a barbarian
woman of greater than human size, speaking in the Latin tongue, forbade him to push his
victory further. For these exploits he received the honor of an ovation with the triumphal
regalia; and immediately after his praetorship he became consul and resumed his campaign,
but died in his summer camp [9 B.C.], which for that reason was given the name of
"Accursed." The body was carried by the leading men of the free towns and
colonies to Rome [cf.. Tib. vii.3], where it was met and received by the decuries
of scribes [probably the scribae quaestorii, the quaestor's clerks, who were the most
important of the attendants upon the magistrates. They formed a guild composed of six
decuriae, or divisions of ten, presided over by six officers called sex primi curatorum],
and buried in the Campus Martius. But the army reared a monument in his honor, about which
the soldiers should make a ceremonial run [A decursus or decursio. After running
around it in full armor, the soldiers cast into the fire the military prizes which they
had received from the emperor.] each year thereafter on a stated day, which the
cities of Gaul were to observe with prayers and sacrifices. The Senate, in addition to
many other honors, voted him a marble arch adorned with trophies on the Appian Way, and
the surname Germanicus for himself and his descendants. It is the general belief that he
was as eager for glory as he was democratic by nature; for in addition to victories over
the enemy he greatly desired to win the spolia opima [the armor of the leader
of the enemy, taken from him in hand-to-hand combat by a Roman general], often
pursuing the leaders of the Germans all over the field at great personal risk; and he made
no secret of his intention of restoring the old-time form of government, whenever he
should have the power. It is because of this, I think, that some have made bold to write
that he was an object of suspicion to Augustus; that the emperor recalled him from his
province, and when he did not obey at once, took him off by poison. This I have mentioned,
rather not to pass it by, than that I think it true or even probable; for as a matter of
fact Augustus loved him so dearly while he lived that he always named him joint-heir along
with his sons, as he once declared in the senate; and when he was dead, he eulogized him
warmly before the people, praying the gods to make his Caesars like Drusus, and to grant
him, when his time came, as glorious a death as they had given that hero. And not content
with carving a laudatory inscription on his tomb in verses of his own composition,
Augustus also wrote a memoir of his life in prose. Drusus had several children by the
younger Antonia, but was survived by only three, Germanicus, Livina, and Claudius.
II. Claudius was born at Lugdunum on the Kalends of August in the
consulship of Iullus Antonius and Fabius Africanus, the very day when an altar was first
dedicated to Augustus in that town [August 1, 10 B.C.], and he received the name
of Tiberius Claudius Drusus. Later, on the adoption of his elder brother into the Julian
family, he took the surname Germanicus. He lost his father when he was still an infant,
and throughout almost the whole course of his childhood and youth he suffered so severely
from various obstinate disorders that the vigor of both his mind and his body was dulled,
and even when he reached the proper age he was not thought capable of any public or
private business. For a long time, even after he reached the age of independence [Arkenberg:
i.e., the age of his majority], he was in a state of pupillage and under a guardian,
of whom he himself makes complaint in a book of his, saying that he was a barbarian and a
former chief of muleteers, put in charge of him for the express purpose of punishing him
with all possible severity for any cause whatever. It was also because of his weak health
that contrary to all precedent he wore a cloak when he presided at the gladiatorial games
which he and his brother gave in honor of their father; and on the day when he assumed the
gown of manhood he was taken in a litter to the Capitol about midnight without the usual
escort [of relatives and friends].
III. Yet he gave no slight attention to liberal studies from his
earliest youth, and even published frequent specimens of his attainments in each line. But
even so he could not attain any public position or inspire more favorable hopes of his
future. His mother Antonia often called him "a monster of a man, not finished but
merely begun by Dame Nature"---; and if she accused anyone of dullness, she used to
say that he was "a bigger fool than her son Claudius." His grandmother Augusta [Arkenberg:
i.e., Livia] always treated him with the utmost contempt, very rarely speaking to
him; and when she admonished him, she did so in short, harsh letters, or through
messengers. When his sister Livina heard that he would one day be emperor, she openly and
loudly prayed that the Roman people might be spared so cruel and undeserved a fortune.
IV. Finally, to make it clearer what opinions, favorable and
otherwise, his great uncle Augustus had of him, I have appended extracts from his own
letters: "I have talked with Tiberius [the future emperor], my dear Livia,
as you requested, with regard to what is to be done with your grandson Tiberius [i.e.,
Claudius] at the games of Mars [celebrated by Augustus in 12 A.D. in honor of
Mars Ultor]. Now we are both agreed that we must decide once for all what plan we are
to adopt in his case. For if he be sound and so to say complete, what reason have we for
doubting that he ought to be advanced through the same grades and steps through which his
brother has been advanced? But if we realize that he is wanting and defective in soundness
of body and mind, we must not furnish the means of ridiculing both him and us to a public
which is wont to scoff at and deride such things. Surely we shall always be in a stew, if
we deliberate about each separate occasion and do not make up our minds in advance whether
we think he can hold public offices or not. However, as to the matters about which you ask
my present advice, I do not object to his having charge of the banquet of the priests at
the games of Mars, if he will allow himself to be advised by his kinsman the son of
Silvanus, so as not to do anything to make himself conspicuous or ridiculous. That he
should view the games in the Circus from the Imperial box does not meet with my approval;
for he will be conspicuous if exposed to full view in the front of the auditorium. I am
opposed to his going to the Alban Mount or being in Rome on the days of the Latin
festival; for why should he not be made prefect of the city, if he is able to attend his
brother to the Mount? You have my views, my dear Livia, to wit that I desire that
something be decided once for all about the whole matter, to save us from constantly
wavering between hope and fear. Moreover, you may, if you wish, give this part of my
letter to our kinswoman Antonia also to read. Again in another letter: "I certainly
shall invite the young Tiberius to dinner every day during your absence, to keep him from
dining alone with his friends Sulpicius and Athenodorus. I do wish that he would choose
more carefully and in a less scatter-brained fashion someone to imitate in his movements,
bearing, and gait. The poor fellow is unlucky; for in important matters, where his mind
does not wander, the nobility of his character is apparent enough." Also in a third
letter: "Confound me, dear Livia, if I am not surprised that your grandson Tiberius [i.e.,
Claudius] could please me with his declaiming. How in the world anyone who is so
unclear in his conversation can speak with clearness and propriety when he declaims, is
more than I can see." There is no doubt at all what Augustus later decided, and that
he left him invested with no office other than the augural priesthood, not even naming him
as one of his heirs, save in the third degree and to a sixth part of his estate, among
those who were all but strangers; while the legacy that he left him was not more than
eight hundred thousand sesterces.
V. His paternal uncle Tiberius gave him the consular regalia, when he
asked for office; but when he urgently requested the actual position, Tiberius merely
replied by a note in these words: "I have sent you forty gold-pieces for the
Saturnalia and the Sigillaria [December 21 and 22, an extension of the Saturnalia,
when it was customary to make presents of little images of various kinds (sigilla)]."
Then at last Claudius abandoned all hope of advancement and gave himself up to idleness,
living in obscurity now in his house and gardens in the suburbs, and sometimes at a villa
in Campania; moreover, from his intimacy with the lowest of men he incurred the reproach
of drunkenness and gambling, in addition to his former reputation for dullness. Yet all
this time, despite his conduct, he never lacked attention from individuals or respect from
the public.
VI. The equestrian order twice chose him as their patrons to head a
deputation on their behalf: once when they asked from the consuls the privilege of
carrying the body of Augustus to Rome on their shoulders, and again when they offered them
their congratulations on the downfall of Seianus. They even used to rise when he appeared
at the public shows and put off their cloaks. The Senate, too, voted that he be made a
special member of the priests of Augustus, who were usually chosen by lot; when he later
lost his house by fire, that it should be rebuilt at the public expense, and that he
should have the honor of giving his opinion among the consulars. This second decree was
however repealed, since Tiberius urged Claudius' infirmity as a reason, and promised that
he would make the loss good through his own generosity. Yet when Tiberius died, he named
Claudius only among his heirs in the third degree, to a third part of his estate, although
he gave him in addition a legacy of about two million sesterces, and expressly commended
him besides to the armies and to the Senate and People of Rome with the rest of his
kinsfolk.
VII. It was only under his nephew Gaius [Arkenberg: i.e., Caligula],
who in the early part of his reign tried to gain popularity by every device, that he at
last began his official career, holding the consulship as his colleague for two months;
and it chanced that as he entered the Forum for the first time with the fasces, an eagle
that was flying by lit upon his shoulder. He was also allotted a second consulship, to be
held four years later, and several times he presided at the shows in place of Gaius, and
was greeted by the people now with "Success to the emperor's uncle!" and now
with "All hail to the brother of Germanicus!"
VIII. But all this did not save him from constant insults; for if he
came to dinner a little after the appointed time, he took his place with difficulty and
only after making the round of the dining-room. Whenever he went to sleep after dinner, which was a habit of his, he was pelted with
the stones of olives and dates, and sometimes he was awakened by the jesters with a
whip or cane, in pretended sport. They used also to put slippers on his hands as he lay
snoring, so that when he was suddenly aroused he might rub his face with them.
IX. But he was exposed also to actual dangers. First in his very
consulship, when he was all but deposed, because he had been somewhat slow in
contracting for and setting up the statues of Nero and Drusus, the emperor's brothers.
Afterwards he was continually harassed by all kinds of accusations, brought against him by
strangers or even by the members of his household. Finally, when the conspiracy of Lepidus
and Gaetulicus was detected and he was sent to Germania as one of the envoys to
congratulate the emperor, he was really in peril of his life, since Gaius raged and fumed
because his uncle of all men had been sent to him, as if to a child in need of a guardian.
So great, indeed, was his wrath that some have written that Claudius was even thrown into
the river clothes and all, just as he had come. Moreover, from that time on he always gave
his opinion in the Senate last among the consulars, having the question put to him after
all the rest by way of humiliation. A case involving the forgery of a will was even
admitted in which Claudius himself was one of the signers. At last he was forced to pay
eight million sesterces to enter a new priesthood, which reduced him to such straitened
circumstances that he was unable to meet the obligation incurred to the treasury;
whereupon by edict of the prefects his property was advertised for sale to meet the
deficiency, in accordance with the law regulating confiscations.
X. Having spent the greater part of his life under these and like
circumstances, he became emperor in his fiftieth year [41 A.D.] by a remarkable
freak of fortune. When the assassins of Gaius shut out the crowd under pretense that the
emperor wished to be alone, Claudius was ousted with the rest and withdrew to an apartment
called the Hermaeum; and a little later, in great terror at the news of the
murder, he stole away to a balcony hard by and hid among the curtains which hung before
the door. As he cowered there, a common soldier, who was prowling about at random, saw his
feet, and intending to ask who he was, pulled him out and recognized him; and when
Claudius fell at his feet in terror, he hailed him as emperor. Then he took him to the
rest of his comrades, who were as yet in a condition of uncertainty and purposeless rage.
These placed him in a litter, took turns in carrying it, since his own bearers had made
off, and bore him to the Camp in a state of despair and terror, while the throng that met
him pitied him, as an innocent man who was being hurried off to execution. Received within
the rampart, he spent the night among the sentries with much less hope than confidence;
for the consuls with the Senate and the city cohorts had taken possession of the Forum and
the Capitol, resolved on maintaining the public liberty. When he too was summoned to the
House by the tribunes of the Plebeians, to give his advice on the situation, he sent word
that "he was detained by force and compulsion." But the next day, since the
Senate was dilatory in putting through its plans because of the tiresome bickering of
those who held divergent views, while the populace, who stood about the hall, called for
one ruler and expressly named Claudius, he allowed the armed assembly of the soldiers to
swear allegiance to him, and promised each man fifteen thousand sesterces; being the first
of the Caesars who resorted to bribery to secure the fidelity of the troops.
XI. As soon as his power was firmly established, he considered it of
foremost importance to obliterate the memory of the two days when men had thought of
changing the form of government. Accordingly he made a decree that all that had been done and said during that period
should be pardoned and forever forgotten; he kept his word too, save only that a few of
the tribunes and centurions who had conspired against Gaius were put to death, both to
make an example of them and because he knew that they had also demanded his own death.
Then turning to the duties of family loyalty, he adopted as his most sacred and frequent
oath "By Augustus." He had divine honors voted his grandmother Livia and a
chariot drawn by elephants in the procession at the circuses like that of Augustus; also
public offerings to the shades of his parents and in addition annual games in the Circus
on his father's birthday, and for his mother a carriage to bear her image through the
Circus and the surname of Augusta, which she had declined during her lifetime. In memory
of his brothers, whom he took every opportunity of honoring, he brought out a Hellenic
comedy in the contest at Naples, and awarded it the crown in accordance with the decision
of the judges. He did not leave even Marcus Antonius unhonored or without grateful
mention, declaring once in a proclamation that he requested the more earnestly that the
birthday of his father Drusus be celebrated because it was the same as that of his
grandfather Antonius. He completed the marble arch to Tiberius near Pompeius Magnus'
theater, which had been voted some time before by the Senate, but left unfinished. Even in
the case of Gaius, while he annulled all his acts, yet he would not allow the day of his
death to be added to the festivals, although it was also the beginning of his own reign.
XII. But in adding to his own dignity he was modest and unassuming,
refraining from taking the forename Imperator, refusing excessive honors, and
passing over the betrothal of his daughter and the birthday of a grandson in silence and
with merely private ceremonies. He recalled no one from exile except with the approval of
the Senate. He obtained from the members as a favor the privilege of bringing into the
House with him the prefect of the praetorian guard and the tribunes of the soldiers, and
the ratification of the judicial acts of his agents in the provinces. He asked the consuls
for permission to hold fairs on his private estates. He often appeared as one of the
advisers at cases tried before the magistrates; and when they gave games, he also arose
with the rest of the audience and showed his respect by acclamations and applause. When
the tribunes of the Plebeians appeared before him as he sat upon the tribunal, he
apologized to them because for lack of room he could not hear them unless they stood up.
By such conduct he won so much love and devotion in a short time, that when it was
reported that he had been waylaid and killed on a journey to Ostia, the people were horror
stricken and with dreadful execrations continued to assail the soldiers as traitors, and
the Senate as murderers, until finally one or two men, and later several, were brought
forward upon the Rostra by the magistrates and assured the people that Claudius was safe
and on his way to the city.
XIII. Yet he did not remain throughout without experience of
treachery, but he was attacked by individuals, by a conspiracy, and finally by a civil
war. A man of the Plebeians was caught near his bed-chamber in the middle of the night,
dagger in hand; and two members of the equestrian order were found lying in wait for him
in public places, one ready to attack him with a sword-cane as he came out of the theater,
the other with a hunting knife as he was sacrificing in the temple of Mars.
Asinius Gallus and Statilius Corvinus, grandsons of the orators Pollio and Messala,
conspired to overthrow him, aided by a number of his own freedmen and slaves. The civil
war was set on foot by Furius Camillus Scribonianus, governor of Dalmatia; but his
rebellion was put down within five days, since the legions which had changed their
allegiance were turned from their purpose by superstitious fear; for when the order was
given to march to their new commander, by some providential chance the eagles could not be
adorned---nor the standards pulled up and moved.
XIV. He held four consulships in addition to his original one [42,
43, 47, & 51 A.D.]. Of these the first two were in successive years, while the
other two followed at intervals of four years each, the last for six months, the others
for two; and in his third he was substituted for one of the consuls who had died, a thing
which was without precedent in the case of an emperor. He administered justice most
conscientiously both as consul and when out of office, even on his own anniversaries and
those of his family, and sometimes even on festivals of ancient date and days of ill-omen.
He did not always follow the letter of the laws, but modified their severity or lenity in
many cases according to his own notions of equity and justice; for he allowed a new trial
to those who had lost their cases before private judges by demanding more than the law
prescribed, while, overstepping the lawful penalty, he condemned to the wild beasts those
who were convicted of especially heinous crimes.
XV. But in hearing and deciding cases [before his own tribunal]
he showed strange inconsistency of temper, for he was now careful and shrewd, sometimes
hasty and inconsiderate, occasionally silly and like a crazy man. In revising the lists of
the divisions of jurors [more literally, "the decuries for court duty," to
distinguish them from the decuries of equites, scribes, etc.] he disqualified a man
who had presented himself without mentioning that he was immune because of the number of
his children [That is, he enjoyed the privileges of the Ius Trium Liberorum, one of
which was freedom from jury duty.] on the ground that he had a passion for jury duty.
Another, who was challenged by his opponents about a suit of his own, said that it did not
come before Caesar's tribunal, but the ordinary courts; whereupon Claudius compelled him
at once to bring the case before him, saying that the man would show in a case affecting
his own interests how just a juror he would be in the affairs of others. When a woman
refused to recognize her son, and the evidence on both sides was conflicting, he forced
her to admit the truth by ordering her to marry the young man. Whenever one party to a
suit was absent, he was prone to decide in favor of the one who was present without
considering whether his opponent had failed to appear through his own fault or from a
necessary cause [Cf.., Dio, 60.28]. On a man's being convicted of forgery, some
one cried out that his hands ought to be cut off; whereupon Claudius insisted that an
executioner be summoned at once with knife and block. In a case involving citizenship a
fruitless dispute arose among the advocates as to whether the defendant ought to make his
appearance in the toga [Only a Roman citizen had the right to wear the toga] or
in a Hellenic mantle, and the emperor, with the idea of showing absolute impartiality,
made him change his garb several times, according as he was accused or defended. In one
case he is credited with having rendered the following decision, which he had actually
written out beforehand: "I decide in favor of those who have told the truth." By
such acts as these he so discredited himself that he was held in general and open
contempt. One man in making excuses for a witness that the emperor had summoned from one
of the provinces, said that he could not appear, but for a long time would give no reason;
at last, after a long series of questions, he said: "He's dead; I think the excuse is
a lawful one." Another in thanking the emperor for allowing him to defend his client
added "After all, it is usual." I myself used to hear older men say that the
pleaders took such advantage of his good-nature, that they would not only call him back
when he had left the tribunal, but would catch hold of the fringe of his robe, and
sometimes of his foot, and thus detain him. To prevent any surprise at this, I may add
that a common Hellenic attorney let slip this remark in a hot debate: "You are both
an old man and a fool." All the world knows that a Roman eques who was tried
for improper conduct towards women, but on a false charge trumped up by unscrupulous
enemies, seeing common strumpets called as witnesses against him and their testimony
admitted, hurled the stylus and tablets which he held in his hand into the emperor's face
with such force as to badly cut his cheek, at the same time loudly reviling his cruelty
and stupidity.
XVI. He also assumed the censorship [48 A.D.], which had long
been discontinued, ever since the term of Plancus and Paulus [22 B.C.], but in
this office too he was variable, and both his theory and his practice were inconsistent.
In his review of the equites he let off a young man of evil character, whose father said
that he was perfectly satisfied with him, without any public censure [On these see
Aug. xxxix] saying "He has a censor of his own." Another who was notorious
for corruption and adultery he merely admonished to be more restrained in his indulgence,
or at any rate more circumspect, adding, "For why should I know what mistress you
keep?" When he had removed the mark of censure affixed to one man's name, yielding to
the entreaties of the latter's friends, he said: "But let the erasure be seen."
He not only struck from the list of jurors a man of high birth, a leading citizen of the
province of Hellas, because he did not know Latin, but even deprived him of the rights of
citizenship; and he would not allow anyone to render an account of his life save in his
own words, as well as he could, without the help of an advocate. And he degraded [By
affixing the "nota", or mark of disgrace, to their names on the census list]
many, some contrary to their expectation and on the novel charge that they had left Italia
without consulting him and obtaining leave of absence; one man merely because he had been
companion to a king in his province, citing the case of Rabirius Postumus, who in bygone
days had been tried for treason because he had followed Ptolemy to Alexandria, to recover
a loan. When he attempted to degrade still more, he found them in most cases blameless;
for owing to the great carelessness of his agents, but to his own greater shame, those
whom he accused of celibacy, childlessness, or lack of means proved that they were
married, or fathers, or well-to-do. In fact, one man, who was charged with having stabbed
himself, stripped off his clothing and showed a body without a scar. Other noteworthy acts
of his censorship were the following: he had a silver chariot of costly workmanship, which
was offered for sale in the Sigillaria [Referring to the street, or quarter],
bought and cut to pieces in his presence; in one single day he made twenty proclamations,
including these two: "As the yield of the vineyards is bountiful, the wine jars
should be well-pitched"; and "Nothing is so effective a cure for snake-bite as
the juice of the yew tree."
XVII. He made but one campaign and that of little importance. When the
Senate voted him the triumphal regalia, thinking the honor beneath the imperial dignity
and desiring the glory of a legitimate triumph, he chose Britain as the best place for
gaining it, a land that had been attempted by no one since the Deified Julius and was just
at that time in a state of rebellion because of the refusal to return certain deserters.
On the voyage there from Ostia he was nearly cast away twice in furious north-westers, off
Liguria and near the Stoechades islands. Therefore he made the journey from Massilia all
the way to Gesoriacum by land, crossed from there, and without any battle or bloodshed
received the submission of a part of the island [44 A.D.], returned to Rome
within six months after leaving the city, and celebrated a triumph of great splendor. To
witness the sight he allowed not only the governors of the provinces to come to Rome, but
even some of the exiles; and among the tokens of his victory he set a naval crown on the
gable of the Palace beside the civic crown, as a sign that he had crossed and, as it were,
subdued the Ocean. His wife Messalina followed his chariot in a carriage, as did also
those who had won the triumphal regalia in the same war; the rest marched on foot in
fringed togas, except Marcus Crassus Frugi, who rode a caparisoned horse and wore a tunic
embroidered with palms, because he was receiving the honor for the second time.
XVIII. He always gave scrupulous attention to the care of the city and
the supply of grain. On the occasion of a stubborn fire in the Aemiliana [A suburb of
Rome, lying north of the city, outside of the Servian wall] he remained in the
Diribitorium [A large building in the Campus Martius, where the votes cast in the
elections were sorted and counted; according to Dio 55.8, the largest building ever
covered by a single roof] for two nights, and when a body of soldiers and of his own
slaves could not give sufficient help, he summoned the Plebeians from all parts of the
city through the magistrates, and placing bags full of money before them, urged them to
the rescue, paying each man on the spot a suitable reward for his services. When there was
a scarcity of grain because of long-continued droughts, he was once stopped in the middle
of the Forum by a mob and so pelted with abuse and at the same time with pieces of bread,
that he was barely able to make his escape to the Palace by a back door; and after this
experience he resorted to every possible means to bring grain to Rome, even in the winter
season.
XIX. To the merchants he held out the certainty of profit by assuming
the expense of any loss that they might suffer from storms, and offered to those who would
build merchant ships large bounties, adapted to the condition of each: to a Roman citizen,
exemption from the Lex Papia Poppaea [Passed in 9 A.D., after the failure of
Augustus' law De Maritandis Ordinibus]; to a Latin citizen, the rights of Roman
citizenship; to women the privileges allowed the mothers of four children [These were
numerous and varied]. And all these provisions are in force today.
XX. The public works which he completed were great and essential
rather than numerous; they were in particular the following: an aqueduct begun by Gaius;
also the outlet of Lake Fucinus and the harbor at Ostia, although in the case of the last
two he knew that Augustus had refused the former to the Marsyans in spite of their
frequent requests, and that the latter had often been thought of by the Deified Julius,
but given up because of its difficulty. He brought to the city on stone arches the cool
and abundant founts of the Claudian aqueduct, one of which is called Caeruleus and the
other Curtius and Albudignus, and at the same time the spring of the new Anio,
distributing them into many beautifully ornamented pools. He made the attempt on the
Fucine Lake as much in the hope of gain as of glory, inasmuch as there were some who
agreed to drain it at their own cost, provided the land that was uncovered be given to
them. He finished the outlet, which was three miles in length, partly by leveling and
partly by tunneling a mountain, a work of great difficulty and requiring eleven years,
although he had thirty thousand men at work all the time without interruption. He
constructed the harbor at Ostia by building curving breakwaters on the right and left,
while before the entrance he placed a mole in deep water. To give this mole a firmer
foundation, he first sank the ship in which the great obelisk had been brought from Egypt
[This had been brought by Caligula from Heliopolis and set up in the spina of his
circus, near the Vatican Hill. It now stands before St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The
great ship in which it was transported to Rome from Alexandria is described by Pliny, Nat.
Hist. 16.201], and then securing it by piles, built upon it a very lofty tower after
the model of the Pharos at Alexandria, to be lighted at night and guide the course of
ships.
XXI. He very often distributed largesse to the people. He also gave
several splendid shows, not merely the usual ones in the customary places, but some of a
new kind and some revived from ancient times, and in places where no one had ever given
them before. He opened the games at the dedication of Pompeius Magnus's theater, which he
had restored when it was damaged by a fire, from a raised seat in the orchestra, after
first offering sacrifice at the temples [Pompeius Magnus placed the double Temple of
Venus Victrix at the top of his theater, so that the seats of the auditorium formed an
approach to it] in the upper part of the auditorium and coming down through the tiers
of seats while all sat in silence. He also celebrated secular games [See Aug. xxxi.4]
alleging that they had been given too earths by Augustus and not reserved for the regular
time; although he himself writes in his own History that when they had been
discontinued for a long time, Augustus restored them to their proper place after a very
careful calculation of the intervals. Therefore the herald's proclamation was greeted with
laughter, when he invited the people in the usual formula to games "which no one had
ever seen or would ever see again"; for some were still living who had seen them
before, and some actors who had appeared at the former performance appeared at that time
as well. He often gave games in the Vatican Circus [Built by Caligula] also, at
times with a beast-baiting between every five races. But the Circus Maximus he adorned
with barriers of marble and gilded goals [The carceres were compartments closed by
barriers, one for each chariot. They were probably twelve in number and were so arranged
as to be at an equal distance from the starting point of the race. When the race began,
the barriers were removed. The metae, or "goals", were three conical pillars at
each end of the spina, or low wall which ran down the middle of the arena, about which the
chariots had to run a given number of times, usually seven; see Dom. iv.3], whereas
before they had been of tufa and wood, and assigned special seats to the senators, who had
been in the habit of viewing the games with the rest of the people. In addition to the
chariot races he exhibited the game called Troy and also panthers, which were
hunted down by a squadron of the Praetorian cavalry under the lead of the tribunes and the
prefect himself; likewise Thessalian horseman, who drive wild bulls all over the arena,
leaping upon them when they are tired out and throwing them to the ground by the horns. He
gave many gladiatorial shows and in many places: one in yearly celebration of his
accession, in the Praetorian Camp without wild beasts and fine equipment, and one in the
Saepta of the regular and usual kind; another in the same place not in the regular list,
short and lasting but a few days, to which he was the first to apply the name of sportula,
because before giving it for the first time he made proclamation that he invited the
people "as it were to an extempore meal, hastily prepared." Now there
was no form of entertainment at which he was more familiar and free, even thrusting out
his left hand [Instead of keeping it covered with his toga, an undignified performance
for an emperor] as the Plebeians did, and counting aloud on his fingers the gold
pieces which were paid to the victors; and ever and anon he would address the audience,
and invite and urge them to merriment, calling them "masters" from time to time,
and interspersing feeble and far-fetched jokes. For example, when they called for Palumbus
[The "Dove", nickname of a gladiator] he promised that they should have
him, "if he could be caught." The following, however, was both exceedingly
timely and salutary; when he had granted the wooden sword [The symbol of discharge;
cf.. Hor. Epist. 1.1.2] to an essedarius [See Calig. xxxv.3], for
whose discharge four sons begged, and the act was received with loud and general applause,
he at once circulated a note, pointing out to the people how greatly they ought to desire
children, since they saw that they brought favor and protection even to a gladiator. He
gave representations in the Campus Martius of the storming and sacking of a town in the
manner of real warfare, as well as of the surrender of the kings of the Britons, and
presided clad in a general's cloak. Even when he was on the point of letting out the water
from Lake Fucinus he gave a sham sea-fight first. But when the combatants cried out:
"Hail, emperor, those who are about to die salute you," he replied, "Or
not," and after that all of them refused to fight, maintaining that they had been
pardoned. Upon this he hesitated for some time about destroying them all with fire and
sword, but at last leaping from his throne and running along the edge of the lake with his
ridiculous tottering gait he induced them to fight, partly by threats and partly by
promises. At this performance a Sicilian and a Rhodian fleet engaged, each numbering
twelve triremes, and the signal was sounded on a horn by a silver Triton, which was raised
from the middle of the lake by a mechanical device.
XXII. Touching religious ceremonies and civil and military customs, as
well as the condition of all classes at home and abroad, he corrected various abuses,
revived some old customs or even established new ones. In admitting priests into the
various colleges he never named anyone until he had first taken oath [That those whom
he had selected were worthy of the honor], and he scrupulously observed the custom of
having the praetor call an assembly and proclaim a holiday, whenever there was an
earthquake within the city; as well as that of offering up a supplication whenever a bird
of ill-omen was seen on the Capitol. This last he himself conducted in his capacity of
chief priest, first reciting the form of words to the people from the Rostra, after all
mechanics and slaves had been ordered to withdraw.
XXIII. The season for holding court, formerly divided into a winter
and a summer term, he made continuous [See Galba xiv.3, from which it appears that
Claudius made the summer and autumn seasons continuous, and did away with the winter term].
Jurisdiction in cases of trust, which it had been usual to assign each year and only to
magistrates in the city, he delegated for all time and extended to the governors of the
provinces. He annulled a clause added to the Lex Papia Poppaea by Tiberius,
implying that men of sixty could not beget children. He made a law that guardians might be
appointed for orphans by the consuls, contrary to the usual procedure, and that those who
were banished from a province by its magistrates should also be debarred from the city and
from Italia. He himself imposed upon some a new kind of punishment, by forbidding them to
go more than three miles outside of the city [The "relegatio" was a milder
form of exile, without loss of citizenship or confiscation of property, but in this case
the offenders were not banished, but confined to the city and its immediate vicinity].
When about to conduct business of special importance in the Senate, he took his seat
between the two consuls or on the tribunes' bench. He reserved to himself the granting of
permission to travel, which had formerly been requested of the Senate.
XXIV. He gave the consular regalia even to the second grade of
stewards [The procuratores were the emperor's agents, who performed various
administrative duties throughout the empire. They were members of the equestrian ordo and
were ranked on the basis of their annual stipend as trecenarii, ducenarii, centenarii, and
sexagenarii, receiving, respectively, 300,000, 200,000, 100,000, and 60,000 sesterces].
If any refused senatorial rank [A common reason for this was the desire to engage in
commerce, which senators were not allowed to do], he took from them the rank of eques
also. Though he had declared at the beginning of his reign that he would choose no one as
a senator who did not have a Roman citizen for a great-great-grandfather, he gave the
broad stripe even to a freedman's son, but only on condition that he should first be
adopted by a Roman eques.
Even then, fearful of criticism, he declared that the censor Appius Caecus, the ancient
founder of his family had chosen the sons of freedmen into the Senate; but he did not know
that in the days of Appius and for some time afterwards the term libertini
designated, not those who were themselves manumitted but their freeborn sons. He obliged
the college of quaestors to give a gladiatorial show in place of paving the roads; then
depriving them of their official duties at Ostia and in Gaul, he restored to them the
charge of the treasury of Saturn [The state treasury, located in the temple of Saturn
in the Forum; cf.. Aug. xxxvi], which had in the meantime been administered by
praetors, or by ex-praetors, as in our time. He gave the triumphal regalia to Silanus, his
daughter's affianced husband, who was still a boy, and conferred them on older men so
often and so readily, that a joint petition was circulated in the name of the legions [According
to Tac., Ann. 11.20, this was done by the legions in Germania], praying that those
emblems be given the consular governors at the same time with their armies, to prevent
their seeking all sorts of pretexts for war. To Aulus Plautius he also granted an ovation,
going out to meet him when he entered the city, and walking on his left as he went to the
Capitol and returned again. He allowed Gabinius Secundus to assume the surname of Cauchius
because of his conquest of the Cauchi, a Germanic nation.
XXV. He rearranged the military career of the equites, assigning a
division of cavalry after a cohort, and next the tribunate of a legion. He also instituted
a fictitious kind of paid military career, which is called "supernumerary" and
could be performed in absentia and in name only. He even had the Conscript
Fathers [Arkenberg: The Senate] pass a decree forbidding soldiers to enter the
houses of senators to pay their respects. He confiscated the property of those freedmen
who passed as Roman equites, and reduced to slavery again such as were ungrateful and a
cause of complaint to their patrons, declaring to their advocates that he would not
entertain a suit against their own freedmen [That is, if their own freedmen proved
ungrateful and they wished to bring suit against them]. When certain men were
exposing their sick and worn out slaves on the Island of Aesculapius [In the Tiber at
Rome, so-called from its Temple of Aesculapius] because of the trouble of treating
them, Claudius decreed that all such slaves were free, and that if they recovered,
they should not return to the control of their master; but if anyone preferred to kill
such a slave rather than to abandon him, he was liable to the charge of murder. He
provided by an edict that travelers should not pass through the towns of Italia except on
foot, or in a chair or litter. He stationed a cohort at Puteoli and one at Ostia, to guard
against the danger of fires. He forbade men of foreign birth to use the Roman names so far
as those of the clans [That is, the gentilician names such as Claudius, Cornelius,
etc.; apparently forenames (Gaius, Lucius, and the like) and surnames (Lentulus, Nasica),
might be assumed, although a foreigner often retained his native name as a surname]
were concerned. Those who usurped the privileges of Roman citizenship he executed in the
Esquiline field [That part of the Esquiline Hill on both sides of the Servian wall;
occupied in part by the Gardens of Maecenas; see Hor. Serm. 1.8. The place of execution
seems to have been outside of the Porta Esquilina]. He restored to the Senate the
provinces of Achaia and Macedonia, which Tiberius had taken into his own charge. He
deprived the Lykians of their independence because of deadly intestine feuds, andrestored
theirs to the Rhodians, since they had given up their former faults. He allowed the people
of Ilium perpetual exemption from tribute, on the ground that they were the founders of
the Roman race, reading an ancient letter of the Senate and People of Rome written in
Hellenic to King Seleukos, in which they promised him their friendship and alliance only
on condition that he should keep their kinsfolk of Ilium free from every burden. Since the
Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus [Another form of
Christus; see Tert. Apol. 3 (at the end). It is uncertain whether Suetonius is guilty of
an error in chronology or is referring to some Jew of that name. The former seems probable
because of the absence of "quodam". Tacitus, Ann. 15.44, uses the correct form,
Christus, and states that he was executed in the reign of Tiberius], he expelled them
from Rome. He allowed the envoys of the Germani to sit in the orchestra, led by their
naive self-confidence; for when they had been taken to the seats occupied by the common
people and saw the Parthian and Armenian envoys sitting with the Senate, they moved of
their own accord to the same part of the theater, protesting that their merits and rank
were no whit inferior. He utterly abolished the cruel and inhuman religion of the Druids
among the Gauls, which under Augustus had merely been prohibited to Roman citizens; on the
other hand he even attempted to transfer the Eleusinian rites from Attica to Rome, and had
the temple of Venus Erykina in Sicily, which had fallen to ruin through age, restored at
the expense of the treasury of the Roman people. He struck histreaties with foreign
princes in the Forum, sacrificing a pig and reciting the ancient formula of the fetial
priests. But these and other acts, and in fact almost the whole conduct of his reign, were
dictated not so much by his own judgment as that of his wives and freedmen, since he
nearly always acted in accordance with their interests and desires.
XXVI. He was betrothed twice at an early age: to Aemilia Lepida,
great-granddaughter of Augustus, and to Livia Medullina, who also had the surname of
Camilla and was descended from the ancient family of Camillus the dictator. He put away
the former before their marriage, because her parents had offended Augustus; the latter
was taken in and died on the very day which had been set for the wedding. He then married
Plautia Urgulanilla, whose father had been honored with a triumph, and later Aelia
Paetina, daughter of an ex-consul. He divorced both these, Paetina for trivial offences,
but Urgulanilla because of scandalous lewdness and the suspicion of murder. Then he
married Valeria Messalina, daughter of his cousin Messala Barbatus. But when he learned
that besides other shameful and wicked deeds she had actually married Gaius Silius, and
that a formal contract had been signed in the presence of witnesses, he put her to death
and declared before the assembled Praetorian guard that inasmuch as his marriages did not
turn out well, he would remain a widower, and if he did not keep his word, he would not
refuse death at their hands. Yet he could not refrain from at once planning another match,
even with Paetina, whom he had formerly discarded, and with Lollia Paulina, who had been
the wife of Gaius Caesar [Arkenberg: i.e., Caligula]. But his affections were
ensnared by the wiles of Agrippina, daughter of his brother Germanicus, aided by the right
of exchanging kisses and the opportunities for endearments offered by their relationship;
and at the next meeting of the Senate he induced some of the members to propose that he be
compelled to marry Agrippina, on the ground that it was for the interest of the State;
also that others be allowed to contract similar marriages, which up to that time had been
regarded as incestuous. And he married her with hardly a single day's delay; but none were
found to follow his example save a freedman and a chief centurion, whose marriage ceremony
he himself attended with Agrippina.
XXVII. He had children by three of his wives: by Urgulanilla: Drusus
and Claudia; by Paetina: Antonia; by Messalina: Octavia and a son, at first called
Germanicus and later Britannicus. He lost Drusus just before he came to manhood, for he
was strangled by a pear which he had thrown in the air in play and caught in his open
mouth. A few days before this he had betrothed him to the daughter of Seianus, which makes
me wonder all the more that some say that Drusus was treacherously slain by Seianus.
Claudia was the offspring of his freedman Boter, and although she was born within five
months after the divorce [Of Claudius from Urgulanilla; 20 A.D.] and he had begun
to rear her, yet he ordered her to be cast out naked at her mother's door and disowned. He
gave Antonia in marriage to Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, and later to Faustus Sulla, both young
men of high birth, and Octavia to his stepson Nero, after she had previously been
betrothed to Silanus. Britannicus was born on the twenty-second day of his reign and in
his second consulship [42 A.D.]. When he was still very small, Claudius would
often take him in his arms and commend him to the assembled soldiers, and to the people at
the games, holding him in his lap or in his outstretched hands, and he would wish him
happy auspices, joined by the applauding throng. Of his sons-in-law he adopted Nero;
Pompeius and Silanus he not only declined to adopt, but even put to death.
XXVIII. Of his freedmen he had special regard for the eunuch Posides,
whom he even presented with the headless spear [A common military prize] at his
British triumph, along with those who had served as soldiers. He was equally fond of
Felix, giving him the command of cohorts and of troops of horse, as well as of the
province of Judaea; and he became the husband of three queens [Only two of these are
known, both named Drusilla. One was the daughter of Juba II, King of Mauretania, and the
other of Herod Agrippa I of Judaea; the latter was previously married to Azizus, King of
Emesa]. Also of Harpocras, to whom he granted the privilege of riding through the
city in a litter and of giving public entertainments [Otherwise restricted to the
equites]. Still higher was his regard for Polybius, his literary adviser, who often
walked between the two consuls. But most of all he was devoted to his secretary Narcissus
and his treasurer Pallas, and he gladly allowed them to be honored in addition by a decree
of the Senate, not only with immense gifts, but even with the insignia of quaestors and
praetors. Besides this he permitted them to amass such wealth by plunder, that when he
once complained of the low state of his funds, the witty answer was made that he would
have enough and to spare, if he were taken into partnership by his two freedmen.
XXIX. Wholly under the control of these and of his wives, as I have
said, he played the part, not of a prince, but of a servant, lavishing honors, the command
of armies, pardons or punishments, according to the interests of each of them, or even
their wish or whim; and that too for the most part in ignorance and blindly. Not to go
into details about less important matters (such as revoking his grants, rescinding his
decisions, substituting false letters patent, or even openly changing those which he had
issued), he put to death his father-in-law Appius Silanus and the two Julias, daughters of
Drusus and Germanicus, on an unsupported charge and giving them no opportunity for
defense; also Gnaeus Pompeius, the husband of his elder daughter, and Lucius Silanus, who
was betrothed to his younger one. Of these Pompeius was stabbed in the embraces of a
favorite youth, while Silanus was compelled to abdicate his praetorship four days before
the Kalends of January and to take his own life at the beginning of the year, the very day
of the marriage of Claudius and Agrippina. He inflicted the death penalty on thirty-five
senators and more than three hundred Roman equites with such easy indifference, that when
a centurion, in reporting the death of an ex-consul, said that his order had been carried
out, he replied that he had given no order; but he nevertheless approved the act, since
his freedmen declared that the soldiers had done their duty in hastening to avenge their
emperor without instructions. But it is beyond all belief, that at the marriage which
Messalina had contracted with her paramour Silius he signed the contract for the dowry
with his own hand, being induced to do so on the ground that the marriage was a feigned
one, designed to avert and turn upon another a danger which was inferred from certain
portents to threaten the emperor himself.
XXX. He possessed majesty and dignity of appearance, but only when he
was standing still or sitting, and especially when he was lying down; for he was tall but
not slender, with an attractive face, becoming white hair, and a full neck. But when he
walked, his weak knees gave way under him, and he had many disagreeable traits both in his
lighter moments and when he was engaged in business; his laughter was unseemly and his
anger still more disgusting, for he would foam at the mouth and trickle at the nose; he
stammered besides and his head was very shaky at all times, but especially when he made
the least exertion.
XXXI. Though previously his health was bad, it was excellent while he
was emperor, except for attacks of heartburn which he said all but drove him to suicide.
XXXII. He gave frequent and grand dinner parties, as a rule in
spacious places, where six hundred guests were often entertained at one time. He even gave
a banquet close to the outlet of the Fucine Lake and was well-nigh drowned, when the water
was let out with a rush and deluged the place. He always invited his own children to
dinner along with the sons and daughters of distinguished men, having them sit at the arms
of the couches as they ate, after the old time custom. When a guest was suspected of
having stolen a golden bowl the day before, he invited him again the next day, but set
before him an earthenware cup. He is even said to have thought of an edict allowing the
privilege of breaking wind quietly or noisily at table, having learned of a man who ran
some risk by restraining himself through modesty.
XXXIII. He was eager for food and drink at all times and in all
places. Once, when he was holding court in the Forum of Augustus and had caught the savor
of a meal which was preparing for the Salii [Their feasts were proverbial for luxury;
see Hor. Odes I.37.2] in the temple of Mars hard by, he left the tribunal, went up to
where the priests were, and took his place at their table. He hardly ever left the
dining-room until he was stuffed and soaked; then he went to sleep at once, lying on his
back with his mouth open, and a feather was put down his throat to relieve his stomach. He
slept but little at a time, for he was usually awake before midnight; but he would
sometimes drop off in the daytime while holding court and could hardly be roused when the
advocates raised their voices for the purpose. He was immoderate in his passion for women,
but wholly free from unnatural vice. He was greatly devoted to gaming, even publishing a
book on the art, and he actually used to play while driving, having the board so fitted to
his carriage as to prevent his game from being disturbed.
XXXIV. That he was of a cruel and bloodthirsty disposition was shown
in matters great and small.
He always exacted examination by torture and the punishment of parricides at once and
in his presence. When he was at Tibur and wished to see an execution in the ancient
fashion, no executioner could be found after the criminals were bound to the stake.
Whereupon he sent to fetch one from the city and continued to wait for him until
nightfall. At any gladiatorial show, either his own or another's, he gave orders that even
those who fell accidentally should be slain, in particularly the net-fighters [Their
faces were not covered by helmets] so that he could watch their faces as they died.
When a pair of gladiators had fallen by mutually inflicted wounds, he at once had some
little knives made from both their swords for his use [According to Pliny, Nat. Hist.
28.34, game killed with a knife with which a man had been slain was a specific for
epilepsy]. He took such pleasure in the combats with wild beasts and of those that
fought at noonday that he would go down to the arena at daybreak and after dismissing the
people for luncheon at midday, he would keep his seat and in addition to the appointed
combatants, he would for trivial and hasty reasons match others, even of the carpenters,
the assistants, and men of that class, if any automatic device, or pageant [A
structure with several movable stories, for show pieces and other stage effects; see Juv.
4.122], or anything else of the kind, had not worked well. He even forced one of his
pages to enter the arena just as he was, in his toga.
XXXV. But there was nothing for which he was so notorious as timidity
and suspicion. Although in the early days of his reign, as we have said, he made a display
of simplicity, he never ventured to go to a banquet without being surrounded by guards
with lances and having his soldiers wait upon him in place of the servants; and he never
visited a man who was in without having the patient's room examined beforehand and his
pillows and bed-clothing felt over and shaken out. Afterwards he even subjected those who
came to pay their morning calls to search, sparing none the strictest examination. Indeed,
it was not until late, and then reluctantly, that he gave up having women and young boys
and girls grossly mishandled, and the cases for pens and styluses taken from every man's
attendant or scribe. When Camillus began his revolution, he felt sure that Claudius could
be intimidated without resorting to war; and in fact when he ordered the emperor in an
insulting, threatening, and impudent letter to give up his throne and betake himself to a
life of privacy and retirement, Claudius called together the leading men and asked their
advice about complying.
XXXVI. He was so terror-stricken by unfounded reports of conspiracies,
that he tried to abdicate.
When, as I have mentioned before, a man with a dagger was caught near him as he was
sacrificing, he summoned the Senate in haste by criers and loudly and tearfully bewailed
his lot, saying that there was no safety for him anywhere; and for a long time he should
not appear in public. His ardent love for Messalina too was cooled, not so much by her
unseemly and insulting conduct, as through fear of dangers, since he believed that her
paramour Silius aspired to the throne. On that occasion he made a shameful and cowardly
flight to the camp [Of the Praetorian Guard, in the northeastern part of the city],
doing nothing all the way but ask whether his throne was secure.
XXXVII. No suspicion was too trivial, nor the inspirer of it too
insignificant, to drive him on to precaution and vengeance, once a slight uneasiness
entered his mind. One of two parties to a suit, when he made his morning call, took
Claudius aside, and said that he had dreamed that he was murdered by someone; then a
little later pretending to recognize the assassin, he pointed out his opponent, as he was
handing in his petition. The latter was immediately seized, as if caught red-handed, and
hurried off to execution. It was in a similar way, they say, that Appius Silanus met his
downfall. When Messalina and Narcissus had put their heads together to destroy him, they
agreed on their parts and the latter rushed into his patron's bed-chamber before daybreak
in pretended consternation, declaring that he had dreamed that Appius had made an attack
on the emperor. Then Messalina, with assumed surprise, declared that she had had the same
dream for several successive nights. A little later, as had been arranged, Appius, who had
received orders the day before to come at that time, was reported to be forcing his way
in, and as if this were proof positive of the truth of the dream, his immediate accusation
and death were ordered. And Claudius did not hesitate to recount the whole affair to the
Senate next day and to thank the freedman [Narcissus] for watching over his
emperor's safety even in his sleep.
XXXVIII. He was conscious of his tendency to wrath and resentment and
excused both in an edict; he also drew a distinction between them, promising that the
former would be short and harmless and the latter not without cause. After sharply
rebuking the people of Ostia, because they had sent no boats to meet him when he entered
the Tiber, and in such bitter terms that he wrote that they had reduced him to the rank of
a commoner, he suddenly forgave them and all but apologized. He repulsed with his own hand
men who approached him in public at unseasonable times. He also banished a quaestor's
clerk without a hearing, as well as a senator of praetorian rank, although they were
blameless: the former for going too far in pleading a suit against him before he became
emperor; the latter, because he had fined the tenants of Claudius' estates for violating
the law forbidding the selling of cooked victuals, and had whipped his bailiff when he
remonstrated. And with the same motive he took from the aediles the regulation of the
cook-shops. He did not even keep quiet about his own stupidity, but in certain brief
speeches he declared that he had purposely feigned it under Gaius, because otherwise he
could not have escaped alive and attained his present station. But he convinced no one,
and within a short time a book was published, the title of which was The Elevation of
Fools, and its thesis, that no one feigned folly.
XXXIX. Among other things men have marveled at his absent-mindedness
and blindness. When he had put Messalina to death, he asked shortly after taking his place
at the table why the empress did not come. He caused many of those whom he had condemned
to death to be summoned the very next day to consult with him or game with him, and sent a
messenger to upbraid them for sleepy-heads when they delayed to appear. When he was
planning his unlawful marriage with Agrippina, in every speech that he made he constantly
called her his daughter and nursling, born and brought up in his arms. Just before his
adoption of Nero, as if it were not bad enough to adopt a stepson when he had a grownup
son of his own, he publicly declared more than once that no one had ever been taken into
the Claudian family by adoption.
XL. In short, he often showed such heedlessness in word and act that
one would suppose that he did not know or care to whom, with whom, when, or where he was
speaking. When a debate was going on about the butchers and vintners, he cried out in the
Senate: "Now, pray, who can live without a snack?" and then went on to describe
the abundance of the old taverns to which he himself used to go for wine in earlier days.
He gave as one of his reasons for supporting a candidate for the quaestorship, that the
man's father had once given him cold water when he was ill and needed it. Once, when a
witness had been brought before the Senate, he said: "This woman was my mother's
freedwoman and tire-woman, but she always regarded me as her patron; I mention this
because there are still some in my household now who do not look on me as patron."
When the people of Ostia made a public petition to him he flew into a rage on the very
tribunal and bawled out that he had no reason for obliging them; that he was surely free
if anyone was. In fact every day, and almost every hour and minute, he would make such
remarks as these: "What! do you take me for a Telegenius?" [Obviously some
man proverbial for his folly; but nothing else is known about him]; "Scold me,
but hands off!" and many others of the same kind which would be unbecoming even in
private citizens, not to mention a prince who lacked neither eloquence nor culture, but on
the contrary constantly devoted himself to liberal pursuits.
XLI. He began to write a history in his youth with the encouragement
of Titus Livius [The famous historian], and the direct help of Sulpicius Flavus.
But when he gave his first reading to a large audience, he had difficulty in finishing,
since he more than once threw cold water on his own performance. For at the beginning of
the reading the breaking down of several benches by a fat man raised a laugh, and even
after the disturbance was quieted, Claudius could not keep from recalling the incident and
renewing his guffaws. Even while he was emperor he wrote a good deal and gave constant
recitals through a professional reader. He began his history with the death of the
dictator Caesar, but passed to a later period and took a fresh start at the end of the
civil war, realizing that he was not allowed to give a frank or true account of the
earlier times, since he was often taken to task both by his mother and his grandmother [His
grandmother Octavia was the widow, and his mother Antonia, the daughter of Marcus
Antonius, while on the other side was his grandfather Augustus Caesar and his grandmother
Livia Augusta]. He left two books of the earlier history, but forty-one of the later.
He also composed an autobiography in eight books, lacking rather in good taste than in
style, as well as a Defense of Cicero Against the Writings of Asinius Gallus, a
work of no little learning. Besides this he invented three new letters and added them to
the alphabet, maintaining that they were greatly needed; he published a book on their
theory when he was still in private life, and when he became emperor had no difficulty in
bringing about their general use. These characters may still be seen in numerous books, in
the daily gazette [See Jul. xx.1, at the beginning], and in inscriptions on
public buildings.
XLII. He gave no less attention to Hellenic studies, taking every
occasion to declare his regard for that language and its superiority. To a foreigner who
held forth both in Hellenic and in Latin he said: "Since you are ready with both our
tongues"; and in commending Achaia to the senators he declared that it was a province
dear to him through the association of kindred studies; while he often replied to Hellenic
envoys in the Senate in a set speech [i.e., in Hellenic]. Indeed, he quoted many
Homeric lines from the tribunal, and whenever he had punished an enemy or a conspirator,
he commonly gave the tribune of the guard this verse when he asked for the usual
watchword: "Ward off stoutly the man whosoever is first to assail you" [Iliad,
24.369; Odyss. 21.133]. At last he even wrote historical works in Hellenic, twenty
books of Etruscan History and eight of Carthaginian. Because of these works there was
added to the old Museum at Alexandria a new one called after his name, and it was provided
that in the one his Etruscan History should be read each year from beginning to
end, and in the other his Carthaginian History by various readers in turn, in the
manner of public recitations
XLIII. Towards the end of his life he had shown some plain signs of
repentance for his marriage with Agrippina and his adoption of Nero; for when his freedmen
expressed their approval of a trial in which he had the day before condemned a woman for
adultery, he declared that it had been his destiny also to have wives who were all
unchaste, but not unpunished; and shortly afterwards meeting Britannicus, he hugged him
close and urged him to grow up and receive from his father an account of all that he had
done, adding in Hellenic, "He who dealt the wound will heal it"[A proverbial
expression, derived from the story of Telephus, who when wounded by Achilles was told by
the oracle that he could be cured only by the one who dealt the blow. Achilles cured him
by applying rust from his spear to the wound]. When he expressed his intention of
giving Britannicus the gown of manhood, since his stature justified it---though he was
still young and immature, he added: "That the Roman people may at last have a genuine
Caesar" [That is, a legitimate heir to the throne].
XLIV. Not long afterwards he also made his will and sealed it with the
seals of all the magistrates. But before he could go any farther, he was cut short by
Agrippina, who was being accused besides of many other crimes both by her own conscience
and by informers. That Claudius was poisoned is the general belief, but when it was done
and by whom is disputed. Some say that it was his taster, the eunuch Halotus, as he was
banqueting on the Citadel [The northern spur of the Capitoline Hill] with the
priests; others that at a family dinner Agrippina served the drug to him with her own hand
in mushrooms, a dish of which he was extravagantly fond. Reports also differ as to what
followed. Many say that as soon as he swallowed the poison he became speechless, and after
suffering excruciating pain all night, died just before dawn. Some say that he first fell
into a stupor, then vomited up the whole contents of his overloaded stomach, and was given
a second dose, perhaps in a gruel, under pretense that he must be refreshed with food
after his exhaustion, or administered in a syringe, as if he were suffering from a surfeit
and required relief by that form of evacuation as well.
XLV. His death was kept quiet until all the arrangements were made
about the succession. Accordingly, vows were offered for his safety, as if he were still
ill, and the farce was kept up by bringing in comic actors, under pretense that he had
asked to be entertained in that way. He died on the third day before the Ides of October
in the consulship of Asinius Marcellus and Acilius Aviola, in the sixty-fourth year of his
age and the fourteenth of his reign [October 13, 54 A.D.]. He was buried with
regal pomp and enrolled among the gods, an honor neglected and finally annulled by Nero,
but later restored to him by Vespasian.
XLVI. The principal omens of his death were the following: the rise of
a long-haired star, commonly called a comet, the striking of his father Drusus' tomb by
lightning; and the fact that many magistrates of all ranks had died that same year. There
are, besides, some indications that he himself was not unaware of his approaching end, and
that he made no secret of it; for when he was appointing the consuls, he made no
appointment beyond the month when he died, and on his last appearance in the Senate, after
earnestly exhorting his children to harmony, he begged the members to watch over the
tender years of both; and in his last sitting on the tribunal he declared more than once
that he had reached the end of a mortal career, although all who heard him prayed that the
omen might be averted [The formula was "Di meliora diunt!" or "May the
Gods grant better things!", i.e., "The Gods Forbid!"].
Source:
From: J. C. Rolfe, ed., Suetonius, 2 Vols., The Loeb Classical Library
(London: William Heinemann, and New York: The MacMillan Co., 1914), II.3-83.
Scanned by: J. S. Arkenberg, Dept. of History, Cal. State Fullerton. Prof. Arkenberg
has modernized the text.
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