Suetonius: DE VITIS CAESARUM

[1] Patrem Claudi Caesaris Drusum, olim Decimum mox Neronem praenomine, Livia, cum Augusto gravida nupsisset, intra mensem tertium peperit, fuitque suspicio ex vitrico per adulterii consuetudinem procreatum. Statim certe vulgatus est versus:

[1] The father of Claudius Caesar, Drusus, formerly by the praenomen Decimus, soon Nero, Livia, when she married Augustus while pregnant, gave birth within the third month, and there was a suspicion that he had been begotten by her stepfather through the practice of adultery. Certainly a verse was immediately circulated:

Τοῖς εὐτυχοῦσι καὶ τρίμηνα παιδία.

To the fortunate and to three-month-old children.

Is Drusus in quaesturae praeturaeque honore dux Raetici, deinde Germanici belli Oceanum septemtrionalem primus Romanorum ducum navigavit transque Rhenum fossas navi et immensi operis effecit, quae nunc adhuc Drusinae vocantur. Hostem etiam frequenter caesum ac penitus in intimas solitudines actum non prius destitit insequi, quam species barbarae mulieris humana amplior victorem tendere ultra sermone Latino prohibuisset. Quas ob res ovandi ius et triumphalia ornamenta percepit; ac post praeturam confestim inito consulatu atque expeditione repetita supremum diem morbo obiit in aestivis castris, quae ex eo Scelerata sunt appellata.

This Drusus, in the honour of quaestorship and praetorship, leader of the Raetians and then in the Germanic war the first of the Roman commanders, sailed the northern Ocean and crossed the Rhine, made by ship ditches and works of immense size, which are even now called Drusinae. He also frequently slew the enemy and drove them utterly into the innermost solitudes, and did not cease to pursue them until the apparition of a barbarian woman, more than human, forbade the victor from pressing farther in the Latin tongue. For these reasons he received the right of ovation and triumphal ornaments; and after the praetorship, having straightway entered the consulship and undertaken another expedition, he died his last day of disease in the summer camps, which from him have been called Scelerata.

Corpus eius per municipiorum coloniarumque primores suscipientibus obviis scribarum decuriis ad urbem devectum sepultumque est in campo Martio. Ceterum exercitus honorarium ei tumulum excitavit, circa quem deinceps stato die quotannis miles decurreret Galliarumque civitates publice supplicarent. Praeterea senatus inter alia complura marmoreum arcum cum tropaeis via Appia decrevit et Germanici cognomen ipsi posterisque eius.

His body, received by the leading men of the municipalities and colonies and met by decuries of scribes, was brought to the city and buried in the Field of Mars. Moreover the army raised for him an honorary tomb, about which thereafter on a fixed day each year a soldier would run down and the cities of Gaul would publicly supplicate. Furthermore the senate decreed, among other things, several marble works: an arch with trophies on the Via Appia, and the cognomen Germanicus for him and his posterity.

Fuisse autem creditur non minus gloriosi quam civilis animi; nam ex hoste super victorias opima quoque spolia captasse summoque saepius discrimine duces Germanorum tota acie insectatus; nec dissimulasse umquam pristinum se rei p. statum, quandoque posset, restituturum. Unde existimo nonnullos tradere ausos, suspectum eum Augusto revocatumque ex provincia et quia cunctaretur, interceptum veneno. Quod equidem magis ne praetermitterem rettuli, quam quia verum aut veri simile putem, cum Augustus tanto opere et vivum dilexerit, ut coheredem semper filiis instituerit, sicut quondam in senatu professus est, et defunctum ita pro contione laudaverit, ut deos precatus sit, similes ei Caesares suos facerent sibique tam honestum quandoque exitum darent quam illi dedissent.

Moreover he is believed to have been no less of glorious than of civic spirit; for from the enemy, after victories, he likewise captured opulent spoils, and oftentimes, in the utmost peril, pursued the chiefs of the Germans with his whole line; nor did he ever dissemble that he would, when he could, restore the former state of the res publica. Whence I think some have ventured to relate that he was suspected by Augustus and recalled from the province and, because he delayed, intercepted by poison. This I have indeed related rather that I might not omit it than because I judge it true or likely, since Augustus loved him so greatly and, while living, appointed him a co-heir alongside his sons, as he once declared in the senate, and praised the deceased so before the assembly that, having prayed to the gods, he asked that his Caesars be made like him and that they would some day grant him as honorable an end as they had given him.

Nec contentus elogium tumulo eius versibus a se compositis insculpsisse, etiam vitae memoriam prosa oratione composuit. Ex Antonia minore complures quidem liberos tulit, verum tres omnino reliquit: Germanicum, Livillam, Claudium.

Not content with having an elogium engraved on his tomb in verses composed by himself, he also composed a prose oration in memory of his life. By Antonia the Younger he indeed had several children, but he left only three in all: Germanicus, Livia, Claudius.

[2] Claudius natus est Iullo Antonio Fabio Africano conss. Kal. Aug.

[2] Claudius was born when Iullus Antonius and Fabius Africanus were consuls, on the Kalends of August.

Luguduni eo ipso die quo primum ara ibi Augusto dedicata est, appellatusque Tiberius Claudius Drusus. Mox fratre maiore in Iuliam familiam adoptato Germanici cognomen assumpsit. Infans autem relictus a patre ac per omne fere pueritiae atque adulescentiae tempus variis et tenacibus morbis conflictatus est, adeo ut animo simul et corpore hebetato ne progressa quidem aetate ulli publico privatoque muneri habilis existimaretur.

At Luguduni on that very day on which the altar there was first dedicated to Augustus, he was named Tiberius Claudius Drusus. Soon, with his elder brother adopted into the Iulian family, he assumed the cognomen Germanicus. As an infant moreover he was left by his father and throughout almost the whole time of his boyhood and youth was afflicted by various and tenacious diseases, so that, with both mind and body blunted, even when he had reached maturity he was not judged fit for any public or private office.

Diu atque etiam post tutelam receptam alieni arbitrii et sub paedagogo fuit; quem barbarum et olim superiumentarium ex industria sibi appositum, ut se quibuscumque de causis quam saevissime coerceret, ipse quodam libello conqueritur. Ob hanc eandem valitudinem et gladiatorio munere, quod simul cum fratre memoriae patris edebat, palliolatus novo more praesedit; et togae virilis die circa mediam noctem sine sollemni officio lectica in Capitolium latus est.

Diu atque etiam after his guardianship was restored he remained of another’s will and under a pedagogue; whom, a barbarian and once a steward by design appointed to him, that he might restrain him as fiercely as possible for whatever reasons, he himself complains of in a certain little booklet. Because of this same ill‑health and the gladiatorial munus, which he was exhibiting together with his brother in memory of his father, he presided clad in a little cloak in a new fashion; and on the day of the toga virilis, about midnight, without the solemn rite, he was borne in a litter to the Capitol.

[3] Disciplinis tamen liberalibus ab aetate prima non mediocrem operam dedit ac saepe experimenta cuiusque etiam publicavit. Verum ne sic quidem quicquam dignitatis assequi aut spem de se commodiorem in posterum facere potuit. Mater Antonia portentum eum hominis dictitabat, nec absolutum a natura, sed tantum incohatum; ac si quem socordiae argueret, stultiorem aiebat filio suo Claudio.

[3] Yet he devoted no small effort from earliest age to the liberal disciplines and often even made public the experiments of each. But not even thus could he attain any dignity or create a more favorable hope for himself in the future. His mother Antonia called him a portent of a man, not complete by nature, but only begun; and if she accused anyone of sluggishness, she would call them more foolish than her son Claudius.

Avia Augusta pro despectissimo semper habuit, non affari nisi rarissime, non monere nisi acerbo et brevi scripto aut per internuntios solita. Soror Livilla cum audisset quandoque imperaturum, tam iniquam et tam indignam sortem p. R. palam et clare detestata est. Nam avunculus maior Augustus quid de eo in utramque partem opinatus sit, quo certius cognoscatur, capita ex ipsius epistulis posui.

He always held his grandmother Augusta in the utmost contempt; she was wont to speak to him only very rarely, and to admonish only by bitter and brief writing or through messengers. His sister Livilla, when she had heard that he would sometime govern, publicly and plainly denounced so unjust and so unworthy a fate for the p. R. She did so. For, that it may be more certainly known what his elder uncle Augustus thought of him on either side, I have placed passages from the very letters of that man.

[4] "Collocutus sum cum Tiberio, ut mandasti, mea Livia, quid nepoti tuo Tiberio faciendum esset ludis Martialibus. Consentit autem uterque nostrum, semel nobis esse statvendum, quod consilium in illo sequamur. Nam si est artius, ut ita dicam, holocleros, quid est quod dubitemus, quin per eosdem articulos et gradus producendus sit, per quos frater eius productus sit?

[4] "I have spoken with Tiberius, as you commanded, my Livia, about what ought to be done for your nephew Tiberius at the Martial games. Both of us agreed, however, that it must be decided once for all that we will follow that plan in the matter. For if it is more closely, so to speak, holocleros, what is there to hesitate about, that he should be advanced through the same articulos and grades by which his brother was advanced?"

Sin autem ἠλαττῶσθαι sentimus eum et βεβλάφθαι καὶ εἰς τὴν τοῦ σώματος καὶ εἰς τὴν τῆς ψυχῆς ἀρτιότητα, praebenda materia deridendi et illum et nos non est hominibus τὰ τοιαῦτα σκώπτειν καὶ μυκτηρίζειν εἰωθόσιν. Nam semper aestuabimus, si de singulis articulis temporum deliberabimus, μὴ προϋποκειμένου ἡμῖν posse arbitremur eum gerere honores necne. In praesentia tamen quibus de rebus consulis, curare eum ludis Martialibus triclinium sacerdotum non displicet nobis, si est passurus se ab Silvani filio homine sibi affini admoneri, ne quid faciat quod conspici et derideri possit. Spectare eum circenses ex pulvinari non placet nobis; expositus enim in fronte prima spectaculorum conspicietur.

If, however, we feel him to be diminished and harmed, and lacking in the wholeness both of body and of soul, it is not fitting to give material for derision to men accustomed to scoff and jeer at such things, exposing both him and us to mockery. For we shall always be uneasy, if we deliberate about the separate articles of occasions, unless we can beforehand judge whether he is able to bear honors or not. In the present, however, as to the matters about which you consult, it does not displease us to have him cared for at the priests’ triclinium during the Martial games, provided he will endure being admonished by Silvanus’s son, a man akin to him, so that he do nothing that can be seen and ridiculed. It does not please us that he view the games from the pulvinar; for exposed in the foremost place of the spectacles he will be conspicuous.

In Albanum montem ire eum non placet nobis aut esse Romae Latinarum diebus. Cur enim non praeficitur urbi, si potest sequi fratrem suum in montem? Habes nostras, mea Livia, sententias, quibus placet semel de tota re aliquid constitui, ne semper inter spem et metum fluctuemur.

It does not please us that he go to the Alban Mount or be in Rome on the Latin days. For why is he not appointed to the city, if he can follow his brother to the mountain? You have our opinions, my Livia, by which it is pleasing that once about the whole matter something be decided, lest we always fluctuate between hope and fear.

Licebit autem, si voles, Antoniae quoque nostrae des hanc partem epistulae huius legendam."

It will be permitted, however, if you wish, that you give this part of the letter to our Antonia also to be read."

Rursus alteris litteris: "Tiberium adulescentem ego vero, dum tu aberis, cotidie invitabo ad cenam, ne solus cenet cum suo Sulpicio et Athenodoro. Qui vellem diligentius et minus μετεώρως deligeret sibi aliquem, cuius motum et habitum et incessum imitaretur. Misellus ἀτυχεῖ nam ἐν τοῖς σπουδαίοις, ubi non aberravit eius animus, satis apparet ἡ τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ εὐγένεια."

Again in other letters: "As for Tiberius the youth, I indeed, while you are away, will invite him to dinner every day, lest he dine alone with his Sulpicius and Athenodorus. I would wish that he choose for himself someone more carefully and less capriciously, whose movement and bearing and gait he might imitate. The poor fellow is unfortunate, for in serious matters, when his mind has not wandered, the nobility of his soul is sufficiently apparent."

Item tertiis litteris: "Tiberium nepotem tuum placere mihi declamantem potuisse, peream nisi, mea Livia, admiror. Nam qui tam ἀσαφῶς loquatur, qui possit cum declamat σαφῶς dicere quae dicenda sunt, non video." Nec dubium est, quid post haec Augustus constituerit, et reliquerit eum nullo praeter auguralis sacerdotii honore impertitum ac ne heredem quidem nisi inter tertios ac paene extraneos e parte sexta nuncuparet, legato quoque non amplius quam octingentorum sestertiorum prosecutus.

Also in the third letter: "That Tiberius, your nephew, could have pleased me by declaiming — I would perish if so, my Livia, I marvel. For one who speaks so indistinctly (ἀσαφῶς), I do not see who could, when he declaims, speak clearly (σαφῶς) the things that must be said." Nor is there any doubt what Augustus decided after these things: he left him invested with no honour except the augural priesthood, and did not even name him heir except among the third heirs and almost strangers, to receive a sixth part, and in a legacy likewise provided no more than eight hundred sestertii.

[5] Tiberius patruus petenti honores consularia ornamenta detulit; sed instantius legitimos flagitanti id solum codicillis rescripsit, quadraginta aureos in Saturnalia et Sigillaria misisse ei. Tunc demum abiecta spe dignitatis ad otium concessit, modo in hortis et suburbana domo, modo in Campaniae seccessu delitescens, atque ex contubernio sordidissimorum hominum super veterem segnitiae notam ebrietatis quoque et aleae infamiam subiit, cum interim, quanquam hoc modo agenti, numquam aut officium hominum aut reverentia publice defuit.

[5] Tiberius the uncle bestowed upon the petitioner consular honors and ornaments; but to the more pressing legitimate claimant he only answered by small tablets that he had sent him forty aurei at the Saturnalia and Sigillaria. Then at last, his hope of dignity cast aside, he retired to leisure, now in the gardens and a suburban house, now lurking in a Campanian retreat; and from the companionship of the most sordid men he, beyond the old mark of sloth, also took on the infamy of drunkenness and of dice. Yet meanwhile, although living in this manner, he never lacked the service of men nor public reverence.

[6] Equester ordo bis patronum cum perferendae pro se legationis elegit, semel cum deportandum Romam corpus Augusti umeris suis ab consulibus exposceret, iterum cum oppressum Seianum apud eosdern gratularetur; quin et spectaculis advenienti assurgere et lacernas deponere solebat. Senatus quoque, ut ad numerum sodalium Augustalium sorte ductorum extra ordinem adiceretur, censuit et mox ut domus ei, quam incendio amiserat, publica impensa restitueretur, dicendaeque inter consulares sententiae ius esset. Quod decretum abolitum est, excusante Tiberio imbecillitatem eius ac damnum liberalitate sua resarsurum pollicente.

[6] The equestrian order twice chose him as patron when a deputation for bearing a mission on his behalf was to be made: once when the consuls demanded that he shoulder the body of Augustus to be conveyed to Rome, again when he congratulated them on the overthrow of Sejanus in their presence; moreover he used to rise at the spectacles when the emperor arrived and to lay aside his mourning-cloak. The Senate likewise resolved that he should be added out of the proper order to the number of the Augustalian companions chosen by lot, and soon that the house which he had lost by fire should be restored to him at public expense, and that he should have the right to speak among consular opinions. That decree was abolished, Tiberius excusing his frailty and promising to repair the loss by his liberality.

Qui tamen moriens et in tertiis heredibus eum ex parte tertia nuncupatum, legato etiam circa sestertium vicies prosecutus, commendavit insuper exercitibus ac senatui populoque R. inter ceteras necessitudines nominatim.

Who nevertheless, on dying, having named him among the third heirs as entitled to a third part, and having likewise discharged a legacy of about two million sesterces, commended him moreover by name to the armies and to the Senate and people of Rome among his other ties.

[7] Sub Gaio demum fratris filio secundam existimationem circa initia imperii omnibus lenociniis colligente honores auspicatus consulatum gessit una per duos menses, evenitque ut primitus ingredienti cum fascibus Forum praetervolans aquila dexteriore umero consideret. Sortitus est et de altero consulatu in quartum annum; praeseditque nonnumquam spectaculis in Gai vicem, adclamante populo: "Feliciter" partim "patruo imperatoris" partim "Germanici fratri!"

[7] Finally, under Gaius, the brother’s son, garnering a second reputation about the beginnings of the empire by every blandishment, having received auspices for honors, held the consulship jointly for two months; and it happened that at first, as he was entering with the fasces, an eagle sweeping across the Forum settled upon his right shoulder. He was also allotted another consulship in the fourth year; and he sometimes presided at spectacles in Gaius’s stead, the people shouting: "Feliciter" partly "to the emperor’s uncle," partly "to the brother of Germanicus!"

[8] Nec eo minus contumeliis obnoxius vixit. Nam et si paulo serius ad praedictam cenae horam occurrisset, non nisi aegre et circuito demum triclinio recipiebatur, et quotiens post cibum addormisceret, quod ei fere accidebat, olearum aut palmularum ossibus incessebatur, interdum ferula flagrove velut per ludum excitabatur a copreis. Solebant et manibus stertentis socci induci, ut repente expergefactus faciem sibimet confricaret.

[8] Nor the less did he live subject to insults. For if he arrived a little later than the aforesaid hour of dinner, he was received into the triclinium only with difficulty and after a circuit, and whenever he nodded off after food — which almost always happened to him — he was prodded with the bones of oars or little palm-rods, and at times was roused by a ferula or by a whip as if in sport by the attendants. They were also wont to put slippers on his snoring hands, so that, suddenly awakened, he would rub his face with them.

[9] Sed ne discriminibus quidem caruit. Primum in ipso consulatu, quod Neronis et Drusi fratrum Caesaris statuas segnius locandas ponendasque curasset, paene honore summotus est; deinde extraneo vel etiam domesticorum aliquo deferente assidue varieque inquietatus. Cum vero detecta esset Lepidi et Gaetulici coniuratio, missus in Germaniam inter legatos ad gratulandum etiam vitae periculum adiit, indignante ac fremente Gaio patruum potissimum ad se missum quasi ad puerum regendum, adeo ut non defuerint, qui traderent praecipitatum quoque in flumen, sic ut vestitus advenerat.

[9] But he was not free from dangers. First, in his very consulship, because he had been sluggish about causing the statues of Nero and Drusus, the brothers of Caesar, to be placed and set up, he was almost deprived of honor; then he was continually and variously harassed by some stranger or even by members of his own household. When, however, the conspiracy of Lepidus and Gaetulicus was detected, he was sent into Germany among the legates to give congratulations and even faced peril to his life, Gaius being indignant and raging that his uncle had been sent to him above all as if to rule a boy — so much so that there were not wanting those who would deliver him, even after hurling him headlong into the river, so that he arrived still clothed.

Atque ex eo numquam non in senatu novissimus consularium sententiam dixit, ignominiae causa post omnes interrogatus. Etiam cognitio falsi testamenti recepta est, in quo et ipse signaverat. Postremo sestertium octogies pro introitu novi sacerdotii coactus impendere, ad eas rei familiaris angustias decidit, ut cum obligatam aerario fidem liberare non posset, in vacuum lege praediatoria venalis pependerit sub edicto praefectorum.

And from that time onwards he never failed to give the last opinion of the consulars in the senate, asked after all others for the sake of ignominy. An inquiry into a forged will was also received, in which he himself had signed. Finally, being forced to expend 80 sestertii for the entry into the new priesthood, he fell into such domestic straits on that account that, when he could not free the obligation of the treasury, he was put up for sale under the edict of the prefects by the predatory law concerning vacant property.

[10] Per haec ac talia maxima aetatis parte transacta quinquagesimo anno imperium cepit quantumvis mirabili casu. Exclusus inter ceteros ab insidiatoribus Gai, cum quasi secretum eo desiderante turbam submoverent, in diaetam, cui nomen est Hermaeum, recesserat; neque multo post rumore caedis exterritus prorepsit ad solarium proximum interque praetenta foribus vela se abdidit. Latentem discurrens forte gregarius miles, animadversis pedibus, studio sciscitandi quisnam esset, agnovit extractumque et prae metu ad genua sibi accidentem imperatorem salutavit.

[10] Through these and such events, the greatest part of his life having been passed, in the fiftieth year he took up the empire by a most wondrous chance. Excluded among the others by the plotters of Gaius, when, as if desiring privacy, they removed the throng from him, he had withdrawn into a chamber called Hermaeum; and not long after, terrified by the rumor of slaughter, he crept forth to the nearest balcony and, among doors hung with veils, hid himself beneath the drawn curtains. A common soldier, running about and by chance seeing his feet, with an eagerness to inquire who he was, recognized him, and having drawn him out and, through fear falling to his knees, saluted him as emperor.

Hinc ad alios commilitones fluctuantes nec quicquam adhuc quam frementes perduxit. Ab his lecticae impositus et, quia sui diffugerant vicissim succollantibus in castra delatus est tristis ac trepidus, miserante obvia turba quasi ad poenam raperetur insons. Receptus intra vallum inter excubias militum pernoctavit, aliquanto minore spe quam fiducia.

From there to other comrades he was led, wavering and as yet doing nothing but clamoring. By these he was placed upon a litter and, since his men had in turn fled, he was carried into the camp by those coming to aid, sad and trembling, the passing crowd pitying him as if an innocent were being dragged off to punishment. Received within the rampart, he passed the night among the soldiers' sentries, with somewhat less hope than confidence.

Nam consules cum senatu et cohortibus urbanis forum Capitoliumque occupaverant asserturi communem libertatem; accitusque et ipse per tr. pl. in curiam ad suadenda quae viderentur, vi se et necessitate teneri respondit. Verum postero die et senatu segniore in exequendis conatibus per taedium ac dissensionem diversa censentium et multitudine, quae circumstabat, unum rectorem iam et nominatim exposcente, armatos pro contione iurare in nomen suum passus est promisitque singulis quina dena sestertia, primus Caesarum fidem militis etiam praemio pigneratus.

For the consuls, together with the senate and the urban cohorts, had seized the forum and the Capitol to assert the common liberty; and he himself, summoned by the tribunes of the plebs into the curia to urge what seemed fit, replied that he was held by force and necessity. But on the following day, the senate being slacker in carrying out efforts through weariness and the dissension of those voting different things and the multitude that stood around, one leader already and by name proposing, he permitted armed men to swear on his behalf for the assembly and promised to each fifty sesterces (five times ten sestertii), the first of the Caesars even pawning the soldiers’ fidelity by a bribe.

[11] Imperio stabilito nihil antiquius duxit quam id biduum, quo de mutando rei p. statu haesitatum erat, memoriae eximere. Omnium itaque factorum dictorumque in eo veniam et oblivionem in perpetuum sanxit ac praestitit, tribunis modo ac centurionibus paucis e coniuratorum in Gaium numero interemptis, exempli simul causa et quod suam quoque caedem depoposcisse cognoverat. Conversus hinc ad officia pietatis ius iurandum neque sanctius sibi neque crebrius instituit quam per Augustum.

[11] With the government established he judged nothing more pressing than to blot from memory that two days’ period in which there had been hesitation about changing the state of the republic. He therefore ratified and granted pardon and perpetual oblivion for all deeds and words in that matter, excepting only a few tribunes and centurions of the conspirators who had been slain in the group aimed at Gaius—both as an example and because he had learned that they had demanded his own slaughter. Turning then to duties of piety, he instituted the oath, neither holier to himself nor more frequently administered, than by Augustus.

Aviae Liviae divinos honores et circensi pompa currum elephantorum Augustino similem decernenda curavit; parentibus inferias publicas, et hoc amplius patri circenses annuos natali die, matri carpentum, quo per circum duceretur, et cognomen Augustae ab viva recusatum. At in fratris memoriam per omnem occasionem celebratam comoediam quoque Graecam Neapolitano certamine docuit ac de sententia iudicum coronavit. Ne Marcum quidem Antonium inhonoratum ac sine grata mentione transmisit, testatus quondam per edictum, tanto impensius petere se ut natalem patris Drusi celebrarent, quod idem esset et aui sui Antoni.

To his grandmother Livia he procured that divine honors and a circus pomp, a chariot of elephants similar to the Augustan, should be decreed; public funeral rites for his parents, and furthermore for his father annual circenses on his natal day, for his mother a carpentum by which she might be led round the circus, and the cognomen Augusta refused while alive. But in memory of his brother, celebrated on every occasion, he also produced a Greek comedy in the Neapolitan contest and crowned it by the verdict of the judges. Nor did he let Marcus Antonius pass unhonored and without a grateful mention, having once by edict declared that he would press so earnestly that they should celebrate the birthday of his father Drusus, which was the same as that of his grandfather Antonius.

Tiberio marmoreum arcum iuxta Pompei theatrum, decretum quidem olim a senatu verum omissum, peregit. Gai quoque etsi acta omnia rescidit, diem tamen necis, quamvis exordium principatus sui, vetuit inter festos referri.

Tiberius completed a marble arch beside Pompey’s theatre, which had indeed once been decreed by the senate but in fact left unexecuted. Likewise, although he annulled all Gaius’s decrees, he nevertheless forbade that the day of his death, though the outset of his own principate, be reckoned among the festival days.

[12] At in semet augendo parcus atque civilis praenomine Imperatoris abstinuit, nimios honores recusavit, sponsalia filiae natalemque geniti nepotis silentio ac tantum domestica religione transegit. Neminem exulum nisi ex senatus auctoritate restituit. Ut sibi in curiam praefectum praetori tribunosque militum secum inducere liceret utque rata essent quae procuratores sui in iudicando statuerent, precario exegit.

[12] But in aggrandizing himself he was sparing and urbane; he abstained from the praenomen Imperator, refused excessive honors, and passed his daughter's betrothal and the birthday of his newborn grandson in silence and only with domestic reverence. He restored no exile except by the authority of the senate. He obtained by petition leave to bring the praetorian prefect and the military tribunes with him into the curia, and that the decisions which his procurators made in judging should be confirmed.

Ius nundinarum in privata praedia a consulibus petit. Cognitionibus magistratuum ut unus e consiliariis frequenter interfuit; eosdem spectacula edentes surgens et ipse cum cetera turba voce ac manu veneratus est. Tribunis plebis adeuntibus se pro tribunali excusavit, quod propter angustias non posset audire eos nisi stantes.

The right of market-days in
private estates was sought from the consuls. At the hearings of the magistrates he frequently attended as one of the councillors; when the same put on spectacles he himself also rose and, with the rest of the crowd, honored them with voice and hand. When the tribunes of the plebs approached he excused himself before the tribunal, because on account of the crowding he could not hear them except while standing.

Quare in brevi spatio tantum amoris favorisque collegit, ut cum profectum eum Ostiam perisse ex insidiis nuntiatum esset, magna consternatione populus et militem quasi proditorem et senatum quasi parricidam diris execrationibus incessere non ante destiterit, quam unus atque alter et mox plures a magistratibus in rostra producti salvum et appropinquare confirmarent.

Wherefore in a short space he acquired so much of love and favour, that when it was reported that he, having departed, had perished at Ostia by ambushes, with great consternation the people assailed both the soldier as if a traitor and the senate as if a parricide with dire execrations, and did not cease until one and another, and soon more, being brought out by the magistrates to the rostra, confirmed him safe and approaching.

[13] Nec tamen expers insidiarum usque quaque permansit, sed et a singulis et per factionem et denique civili bello infestatus est. E plebe homo nocte media iuxta cubiculum eius cum pugione deprehensus est; reperti et equestris ordinis duo in publico cum dolone ac venatorio cultro praestolantes, alter ut egressum theatro, alter ut sacrificantem apud Martis aedem adoreretur. Conspiraverunt autem ad res novas Gallus Asinius et Statilius Corvinus, Pollionis ac Messalae oratorum nepotes, assumptis compluribus libertis ipsius atque servis.

[13] Yet he did not remain entirely free from plots, but was harried both by individuals and by faction and at last by civil war. From the plebs a man was seized in the middle of the night beside his chamber with a dagger; and two men of equestrian rank were found lying in wait in public with a ruse and a hunting-knife—one to assault him as he left the theatre, the other to assault him while sacrificing at the temple of Mars. Gallus Asinius and Statilius Corvinus, nephews of the orators Pollio and Messala, however, conspired for revolutionary aims, having enlisted several of his freedmen and slaves.

Bellum civile movit Furius Camillus Scribonianus Delmatiae legatus; verum intra quintum diem oppressus est legionibus, quae sacramentum mutaverant, in paenitentiam religione conversis, postquam denuntiato ad novum imperatorem itinere casu quodam ac divinitus neque aquila ornari neque signa convelli moverique potuerunt.

Furius Camillus Scribonianus, legate of Dalmatia, stirred up a civil war; but within the fifth day he was overthrown by the legions, which had changed their oath and, converted by religion to repentance, after it was reported to the new emperor that on the march, by a certain chance and by divine agency, neither the eagle could be adorned nor the standards torn away and put in motion.

[14] Consulatus super pristinum quattuor gessit; ex quibus duos primos iunctim, sequentes per intervallum quarto quemque anno, semenstrem novissimum, bimenstres ceteros, tertium autem novo circa principem exemplo in locum demortui suffectus. Ius et consul et extra honorem laboriosissime dixit, etiam suis suorumque diebus sollemnibus, nonnumquam festis quoque antiquitus et religiosis. Nec semper praescripta legum secutus duritiam lenitatemve multarum ex bono et aequo, perinde ut adficeretur, moderatus est; nam et iis, qui apud privatos iudices plus petendo formula excidissent, restituit actiones et in maiore fraude convictos legitimam poenam supergressus ad bestias condemnavit.

[14] He held the consulship beyond the former four; of these the first two together, the next ones at intervals of four years each, the last a six‑month term, the others two‑month terms, and the third, however, was appointed as a suffect in place of one who had died, by a novel precedent concerning the princeps. He administered law with the greatest diligence both as consul and outside the office, even on the solemn days of his own household, and sometimes also on ancient and religious festivals. Nor did he always, in following the prescriptions of the laws, temper the harshness or lenity of many from what was good and equitable according as he was disposed; for to those who before private judges had lost their formula by over‑pleading he restored their actions, and, having transcended the legitimate penalty for those convicted of greater frauds, he condemned them to the beasts.

[15] In cognoscendo autem ac decernendo mira varietate animi fuit, modo circumspectus et sagax, interdum inconsultus ac praeceps, nonnumquam frivolus amentique similis. Cum decurias rerum actu expungeret, eum, qui dissimulata vacatione quam beneficio liberorum habebat responderat, ut cupidum iudicandi dimisit; alium interpellatum ab adversariis de propria lite negantemque cognitionis rem sed ordinari iuris esse, agere causam confestim apud se coegit, proprio negotio documentum daturum, quam aequus iudex in alieno negotio futurus esset. Feminam non agnoscentem filium suum dubia utrimque argumentorum fide ad confessionem compulit indicto matrimonio iuvenis.

[15] In hearing and deciding he was of marvelous variety of mind, at one time circumspect and sagacious, at another unadvised and headlong, sometimes frivolous and like a madman. When he struck items off the roll by action, he dismissed as eager to decide the man who had answered that he had dissimulated an exemption which he claimed by the benefit of children; another, interrupted by adversaries about his own suit and denying that the matter was one for cognizance rather than of ordinary law, he forced to plead his cause immediately before him, giving by his own affair proof that he would be a more just judge than an impartial judge would be in another’s case. He compelled a woman not acknowledging her son, by the doubtful probative force of arguments on both sides, to confession, the young man’s marriage having been alleged.

Absentibus secundum praesentes facillime dabat, nullo dilectu culpane quis an aliqua necessitate cessasset. Proclamante quodam praecidendas falsario manus, carnificem statim acciri cum machaera mensaque lanionia flagitavit. Peregrinitatis reum orta inter advocatos levi contentione, togatumne an palliatum dicere causam oporteret, quasi aequitatem integram ostentans, mutare habitum saepius et prout accusaretur defendereturve, iussit.

He very readily treated the absent as if present, making no inquiry whether any one had been absent through blame or through some necessity. When a certain man shouted that the forger’s hands should be cut off, he at once demanded that an executioner be summoned with sword and butchers’ block. A slight dispute arising among the advocates about whether one accused of foreignness ought to plead as togatus or as palliatum, he, as if displaying complete equity, ordered the garb to be changed oftentimes and according as he was accused or defended.

De quodam etiam negotio ita ex tabella pronuntiasse creditur, secundum eos se sentire, qui vera proposuissent. Propter quae usque eo eviluit, ut passim ac propalam contemptui esset. Excusans quidam testem e provincia ab eo vocatum negavit praesto esse posse dissimulata diu causa; ac post longas demum interrogationes: "Mortuus est," inquit, "puto, licuit." Alius gratias agens quod reum defendi pateretur, adiecit: "Et tamen fieri solet." Illud quoque a maioribus natu audiebam, adeo causidicos patientia eius solitos abuti, ut discedentem e tribunali non solum voce revocarent, sed et lacinia togae retenta, interdum pede apprehenso detinerent.

About a certain business he is even believed to have so pronounced from the docket, that he felt himself to be of the same mind as those who had propounded the truth. Because of this he fell so far into disrepute that he was everywhere and openly held in contempt. Excusing himself, one man said that a witness summoned from the province by him could not be present because the cause had long been concealed; and after long interrogations at last: "He is dead," he said, "I think, it was allowed." Another, giving thanks that he permitted the defendant to be defended, added: "And yet it is wont to happen." I also used to hear from men older in years that advocates were so accustomed to abuse his patience, that, when leaving the tribunal, they would not only call him back with a voice, but, the lappet of the toga being seized, would sometimes detain him by seizing his foot.

Ac ne cui haec mira sint, litigatori Graeculo vox in altercatione excidit: Καὶ σὺ γέρων εἶ καὶ μωρός. Equitem quidem Romanum obscaenitatis in feminas reum, sed falso et ab impotentibus inimicis conficto crimine, satis constat, cum scorta meritoria citari adversus se et audiri pro testimonio videret, graphium et libellos, quos tenebat in manu, ita cum magna stultitiae et saevitiae exprobratione iecisse in faciem eius, ut genam non leviter perstrinxerit.

And lest these things be strange to anyone, in the altercation a voice from the little Greek litigator broke out: "And you too are old and foolish." It is sufficiently clear that he accused a Roman eques of obscenity toward women, but falsely and on a charge fabricated by impotent enemies; when he saw mercenary prostitutes summoned against him and heard as testimony, he hurled the stylus and the little slips of paper which he held in his hand at his face with great reproach of folly and ferocity, so that it did not lightly graze his cheek.

[16] Gessit et censuram intermissam diu post Plancum Paulumque censores, sed hanc quoque inaequabiliter varioque et animo et eventu. Recognitione equitum iuvenem probri plenum, sed quem pater probatissimum sibi affirmabat, sine ignominia dimisit, habere dicens censorem suum; alium corruptelis adulteriisque famosum nihil amplius quam monuit, ut aut parcius aetatulae indulgeret aut certe cautius; addiditque: "quare enim ego scio, quam amicam habeas?" Et cum orantibus familiaribus dempsisset cuidam appositam notam: "litura tamen," inquit, "extet." Splendidum virum Graeciaeque provinciae principem, verum Latini sermonis ignarum, non modo albo iudicum erasit, sed in peregrinitatem redegit. Nec quemquam nisi sua voce, utcumque quis posset, ac sine patrono rationem vitae passus est reddere.

[16] He also held the censorship, long after Plancus and Paulus were censors, but this too irregularly and variously both in disposition and in outcome. At the review of the equites he discharged a young man full of reproach, yet whom his father declared most probative, without ignominy, saying he had his censor; another, notorious for corruptions and adulteries, he did no more than admonish, that he should either be more sparing in youth or at least more cautious; and he added, "for how do I know what sort of mistress you keep?" And when he had removed the pleading kinsmen he left to one an attached mark: "let a blot," he said, "remain however." A splendid man and leader of the province of Greece, but ignorant of the Latin tongue, he not only struck him from the white roll of judges, but reduced him to foreign status. Nor did he allow anyone to give an account of his life except by his own voice, in whatever manner one could, and without a patron.

Notavitque multos, et quosdam inopinantes et ex causa novi generis, quod se inscio ac sine commeatu Italia excessissent; quendam vero et quod comes regis in provincia fuisset, referens, maiorum temporibus Rabirio Postumo Ptolemaeum Alexandriam crediti servandi causa secuto crimen maiestatis apud iudices motum. Plures notare conatus, magna inquisitorum neglegentia sed suo maiore dedecore, innoxios fere repperit, quibuscumque caelibatum aut orbitatem aut egestatem obiceret, maritos, patres, opulentos se probantibus; eo quidem, qui sibimet vim ferro intulisse arguebatur, inlaesum corpus veste deposita ostentante. Fuerunt et illa in censura eius notabilia, quod essedum argenteum sumptuose fabricatum ac venale ad Sigillaria redimi concidique coram imperavit; quodque uno die XX edicta proposuit, inter quae duo, quorum altero admonebat, ut uberi vinearum proventu bene dolia picarentur; altero, nihil aeque facere ad viperae morsum quam taxi arboris sucum.

And he marked many, and some unsuspecting and on account of a new kind (that they had left Italy unknowingly and without leave); and one moreover as to the fact that he had been a comes of the king in the province, reporting that in the times of his ancestors Rabirius Postumus, having followed Ptolemy of Alexandria for the sake of being kept/entrusted, a charge of majesty was stirred up before the judges. He tried to note many others, and through great negligence of the prosecutors but with an even greater disgrace of his own, he found almost innocents — against whom whatever celibacy or widowhood or poverty could be alleged, husbands, fathers, rich men proving themselves; indeed one who was accused of having struck himself with a sword showed an uninjured body with his garment laid aside. There were also those notable acts in his censorship, namely that he ordered a silver essedum sumptuously made and, though for sale, to be bought back at the Sigillaria and publicly broken; and that in one day he promulgated 20 edicts, among which two: by the one he warned that vats should be well pitched with the abundant produce of the vineyards; by the other, that nothing is as effective for a viper’s bite as the juice of the yew tree.

[17] Expeditionem unam omnino suscepit eamque modicam. Cum decretis sibi a senatu ornamentis triumphalibus leviorem maiestati principali titulum arbitraretur velletque iusti triumphi decus, unde adquireret Britanniam potissimum elegit, neque temptatam ulli post Divum Iulium et tunc tumultuantem ob non redditos transfugas. Huc cum ab Ostia navigaret, vehementi circio bis paene demersus est, prope Liguriam iuxtaque Stoechadas insulas.

[17] He undertook one expedition altogether, and that a modest one. Since he judged the triumphal ornaments decreed to him by the senate a lighter title than his supreme majesty, and wished the honour of a rightful triumph — by which he would chiefly acquire Britain — he chose it; a venture not attempted by any after the Divine Julius, and then turbulent because of deserters not returned. When he sailed from Ostia to this place, he was twice nearly overwhelmed by a violent squall, near Liguria and close to the Stoechades islands.

Quare a Massilia Gesoriacum usque pedestri itinere confecto inde transmisit ac sine ullo proelio aut sanguine intra paucissimos dies parte insulae in deditionem recepta, sexto quam profectus erat mense Romam rediit triumphavitque maximo apparatu. Ad cuius spectaculum commeare in urbem non solum praesidibus provinciarum permisit, verum etiam exulibus quibusdam; atque inter hostilia spolia navalem coronam fastigio Palatinae domus iuxta civicam fixit, traiecti et quasi domiti Oceani insigne. Currum eius Messalina uxor carpento secuta est; secuti et triumphalia ornamenta eodem bello adepti, sed ceteri pedibus et in praetexta, M. Crassus Frugi equo phalerato et in veste palmata, quod eum honorem iteraverat.

Wherefore from Massilia he crossed on foot to Gesoriacum, and having completed that journey thence he crossed over and, with no battle or bloodshed, within very few days—part of the island having been received into surrender—on the sixth month from his departure he returned to Rome and triumphed with the greatest pomp. To the spectacle of which he permitted to come into the city not only the praesides of the provinces but even certain exiles; and among the hostile spoils he fixed a naval crown on the pediment of the Palatine house next to the civic arch, a token of having crossed and, as it were, subdued the Ocean. His chariot was followed by his wife Messalina in a carpentum; those who had also won triumphal ornaments in the same war followed, but the others on foot and in the toga praetexta, with M. Crassus Frugi on a horse bedecked with phalerae and in a palm-embroidered robe, because he had twice received that honor.

[18] Urbis annonaeque curam sollicitissime semper egit. Cum Aemiliana pertinacius arderent, in diribitorio duabus noctibus mansit ac deficiente militum ac familiarum turba auxilio plebem per magistratus ex omnibus vicis convocavit ac positis ante se cum pecunia fiscis ad subveniendum hortatus est, repraesentans pro opera dignam cuique mercedem. Artiore autem annona ob assiduas sterilitates detentus quondam medio foro a turba conviciisque et simul fragminibus panis ita infestatus, ut aegre nec nisi postico evadere in Palatium valuerit, nihil non excogitavit ad invehendos etiam tempore hiberno commeatus.

[18] He always took the most solicitous care of the city and of the annona. When the Aemilian quarter was burning more stubbornly, he remained in the diribitorium for two nights, and, the throng of soldiers and household servants failing as aid, he summoned the plebs through the magistrates from all the wards, and placing before him the fiscuses with money to relieve, urged them to assist, presenting to each a wage worthy of the work. Moreover, constrained by a narrower annona because of continual sterilities, once detained in the middle forum by a crowd and jeers and at the same time assailed by fragments of bread so that he scarcely could escape into the Palatium except by the back door, he contrived every means to bring in provisions even in the winter season.

Nam et negotiatoribus certa lucra proposuit suscepto in se damno, si cui quid per tempestates accidisset, et naves mercaturae causa fabricantibus magna commoda constituit pro condicione cuiusque: [19] civi vacationem legis Papiae Poppaeae, Latino ius Quiritium, feminis ius IIII liberorum; quae constituta hodieque servantur.

For he also proposed fixed profits to merchants, the loss being taken upon himself if anything happened to anyone through storms, and to those who build ships for the sake of trade he established great advantages according to each one’s condition: [19] exemption from the law Papia Poppaea for citizens, the Latin right of the Quirites, the right of four children for women; which were established and are observed even today.

[20] Opera magna potius necessaria quam multa perfecit, sed vel praecipua: ductum aquarum a Gaio incohatum, item emissarium Fucini lacus portumque Ostiensem, quanquam sciret ex iis alterum ab Augusto precantibus assidue Marsis negatum, alterum a Divo Iulio saepius destinatum ac propter difficultatem omissum. Claudiae aquae gelidos et uberes fontes, quorum alteri Caeruleo, alteri Curtio et Albudigno nomen est, simulque rivum Anienis novi lapideo opere in urbem perduxit divisitque in plurimos et ornatissimos lacus. Fucinum adgressus est non minus compendii spe quam gloriae, cum quidam privato sumptu emissuros se repromitterent, si sibi siccati agri concederentur.

[20] He completed great works rather necessary than numerous, but even the principal ones: the conduit of waters begun by Gaius, likewise the emissary of Lake Fucinus and the port of Ostia, although he knew that of these one had been denied by Augustus to the Marsi who were continually entreating, the other oftentimes planned by the Divine Julius and, on account of its difficulty, left undone. He brought the cold and abundant springs of the Claudia aqueduct — one of which bears the name Caeruleus, the other Curtio and Albudignus — and at the same time led the stream of the Anio into the city with new stonework and divided it into very many and most ornate lakes. He undertook the Fucinus project no less in hope of profit than of glory, since certain men promised to themselves to cut an emissary at private expense if dried lands were granted to them.

Per tria autem passuum milia partim effosso monte partim exciso canalem absoluit aegre et post undecim annos, quamvis continuis XXX hominum milibus sine intermissione operantibus. Portum Ostiae extruxit circumducto dextra sinistraque brachio et ad introitum profundo iam solo mole obiecta; quam quo stabilius fundaret, navem ante demersit, qua magnus obeliscus ex Aegypto fuerat advectus, congestisque pilis superposuit altissimam turrem in exemplum Alexandrini Phari, ut ad nocturnos ignes cursum navigia dirigerent.

He completed with difficulty a canal of three thousand paces, partly by a mountain dug out, partly by a mountain cut away, and after 11 years, although with a continuous 30,000 men working without intermission. He built the port of Ostia, with a right and left arm carried round, and at the entrance the deep already opposed by a mass placed on the seabed; that he might found it more stably, he first sank a ship by which a great obelisk had been conveyed from Aegypt, and, having heaped piles upon it, he superposed a very high tower in imitation of the Alexandrine Pharos, so that ships might steer their course by its nocturnal fires.

[21] Congiaria populo saepius distribuit. Spectacula quoque complura et magnifica edidit, non usitata modo ac solitis locis, sed et commenticia et ex antiquitate repetita, et ubi praeterea nemo ante eum. Ludos dedicationis Pompeiani theatri, quod ambustum restitverat, e tribunali posito in orchestra commisit, cum prius apud superiores aedes supplicasset perque mediam caueam sedentibus ac silentibus cunctis descendisset.

[21] He more than once distributed congiaria to the people. He also produced many and magnificent spectacles, not only in customary and usual places, but also contrived and revived from antiquity, and in places where moreover no one had done so before him. He entrusted the games of dedication of the Pompeian theatre, which he had restored after it was burned, from a tribunal set in the orchestra, having first supplicated at the upper seats and then descended through the middle cavea with all sitting and silent.

Fecit et saeculares, quasi anticipatos ab Augusto nec legitimo tempori reservatos, quamvis ipse in historiis suis prodat, intermissos eos Augustum multo post diligentissime annorum ratione subducta in ordinem redegisse. Quare vox praeconis irrisa est inuitantis more sollemni ad ludos, quos nec spectasset quisquam nec spectaturus esset, cum superessent adhuc qui spectaverant, et quidam histrionum producti olim tunc quoque producerentur. Circenses frequenter etiam in Vaticano commisit, nonnumquam interiecta per quinos missus venatione.

He also staged the saecular games, as if anticipated from Augustus and not reserved for their legitimate time, although he himself relates in his histories that Augustus, those games having been interrupted, much later — and with the years very diligently computed — restored them to their proper order. Wherefore the herald’s voice was mocked, in the manner of one solemnly summoning to games which no one had seen nor would see, while there still remained those who had seen them, and some actors who had once been brought forth were then likewise produced. He also frequently held circus games in the Vatican, sometimes with a venatio interposed every five days.

Circo vero maximo marmoreis carceribus auratisque metis, quae utraque et tofina ac lignea antea fuerant, exculto propria senatoribus constituit loca promiscue spectare solitis; ac super quadrigarum certamina Troiae lusum exhibuit et Africanas, conficiente turma equitum praetorianorum, ducibus tribunis ipsoque praefecto; praeterea Thessalos equites, qui feros tauros per spatia circi agunt insiliuntque defessos et ad terram cornibus detrahunt. Gladiatoria munera plurifariam ac multiplicia exhibuit: anniversarium in castris praetorianis sine venatione apparatuque, iustum atque legitimum in Saeptis; ibidem extraordinarium et breve dierumque paucorum, quodque appellare coepit "sportulam," quia primum daturus edixerat, velut ad subitam condictamque cenulam inuitare se populum. Nec ullo spectaculi genere communior aut remissior erat, adeo ut oblatos victoribus aureos prolata sinistra pariter cum vulgo voce digitisque numeraret ac saepe hortando rogandoque ad hilaritatem homines provocaret, dominos identidem appellans, immixtis interdum frigidis et arcessitis iocis; qualis est ut cum Palumbum postulantibus daturum se promisit, si captus esset.

Circus Maximus, however, with marble carceres and gilded metae, which had both formerly been of turf and wood, he had embellished, assigning the places for the senators to sit together with the common folk, as was the custom; and moreover over the chariot races he put on a "Game of Troy" and African ones, with a complete turma of praetorian horsemen performing, commanded by their tribune leaders and by the prefect himself; besides these, Thessalian horsemen, who drive fierce bulls through the length of the circus, leap upon them when they are exhausted, and drag them to the ground by their horns. He exhibited gladiatorial shows in many and varied forms: an annual one in the praetorian camps without hunting or equipage, a just and lawful one in the Saepta; there too an extraordinary and short one of a few days, which he began to call a "sportula," because he had proclaimed he would be the first to give, as if to invite the populace to a sudden and arranged little supper. In no kind of spectacle was he more common or more relaxed, so that he would count the gold offered to victors with the left hand aloud together with the crowd and with his fingers, and often by urging and entreating provoke men to mirth, repeatedly calling them "masters," sometimes mixing in cold and summoned jests; such as when he promised that he would give if they demanded a dove, should he be captured.

Illud plane quantumvis salubriter et in tempore: cum essedario, pro quo quattuor fili deprecabantur, magno omnium fauore indulsisset rudem, tabulam ilico misit admonens populum, quanto opere liberos suscipere deberet, quos videret et gladiatori praesidio gratiaeque esse. Edidit et in Martio campo expugnationem direptionemque oppidi ad imaginem bellicam et deditionem Britanniae regum praeseditque paludatus. Quin et emissurus Fucinum lacum naumachiam ante commisit.

That plainly, however salutary and timely: when he had indulged a charioteer, for whom four sons were pleading, with the great favor of all, he at once sent a tablet admonishing the people how much they ought to receive the children, whom he saw to be a protection and a grace to the gladiator. He also produced in the Campus Martius an assault and pillage of a town as a warlike spectacle, and presided, clad in a cloak, over the surrender of the kings of Britain. Moreover he even beforehand entrusted the Fucine Lake for a naumachia he was about to stage.

Sed cum proclamantibus naumachiariis: "Have imperator, morituri te salutant!" Respondisset: "Aut non," neque post hanc vocem quasi venia data quisquam dimicare vellet, diu cunctatus an omnes igni ferroque absumeret, tandem e sede sua prosiluit ac per ambitum lacus non sine foeda vacillatione discurrens partim minando partim adhortando ad pugnam compulit. Hoc spectaculo classis Sicula et Rhodia concurrerunt, duodenarum triremium singulae, exciente bucina Tritone argenteo, qui e medio lacu per machinam emerserat.

But when the naumachiarii were proclaiming: "Hail, emperor, those about to die salute you!" he had answered: "Or not," and after this word, as if pardon granted, no one wished to fight; long hesitating whether he should consume all with fire and sword, at last he leapt from his seat and, running about the circuit of the lake not without foul staggering, compelled them to fight, partly by threatening, partly by exhorting. To this spectacle the Sicilian and Rhodian fleets hastened together, each of twelve triremes, the silver Triton sounding a trumpet, who had emerged from the middle of the lake by a machine.

[22] Quaedam circa caerimonias civilemque et militarem morem, item circa omnium ordinum statum domi forisque aut correxit aut exoleta revocavit aut etiam nova instituit. In cooptandis per collegia sacerdotibus neminem nisi iuratus nominavit; observavitque sedulo, ut quotiens terra in urbe movisset, ferias advocata contione praetor indiceret, utque dira aue in Capitolio visa obsecratio haberetur, eamque ipse iure maximi pontificis pro rostris populo praeiret summotaque operariorum seruorumque turba.

[22] He corrected certain practices concerning ceremonies and the civil and military custom, likewise revived obsolete ones and even instituted new ones concerning the status of all orders at home and abroad. In selecting priests through the colleges he named no one except one who had sworn; and he observed carefully that whenever the earth had moved in the city the praetor should proclaim holidays with the assembly summoned, and that when a dread bird was seen on the Capitol a supplication should be held, and that he himself, by the authority of the chief pontiff, should lead it before the rostra for the people, the throng of workmen and of slaves being removed.

[23] Rerum actum diuisum antea in hibernos aestiuosque menses coniunxit. Iuris dictionem de fidei commissis quotannis et tantum in urbe delegari magistratibus solitam in perpetuum atque etiam per provincias potestatibus demandavit. Capiti Papiae Poppaeae legis a Tiberio Caesare, quasi sexagenarii generare non possent, addito obrogavit.

[23] He joined together the conduct of affairs formerly divided into the winter and summer months. He transferred the iurisdictio concerning fidei-commissa, which had been accustomed to be delegated annually and only in the city to the magistrates, into perpetuity and even to the authorities throughout the provinces. He abrogated the Papian–Poppaean law of Tiberius Caesar as to capital sanction, adding the clause, as if men of sixty could not beget.

Sanxit ut pupillis extra ordinem tutores a consulibus darentur, utque ii, quibus a magistratibus provinciae interdicerentur, urbe quoque et Italia summoverentur. Ipse quosdam novo exemplo relegavit, ut ultra lapidem tertium vetaret egredi ab urbe. De maiore negotio acturus in curia medius inter consulum sellas tribunicio subsellio sedebat.

He enacted that guardians for minors should be appointed by the consuls outside the normal order, and that those who were interdicted by the magistrates of a province should also be removed from the city and from Italy. He himself banished certain men by a new example, forbidding them to leave the city beyond the third milestone. About to undertake a greater business in the curia, he sat midway between the consuls’ chairs on the tribune’s bench.

Commeatus a senatu peti solitos benefici sui fecit.

He turned into his personal favor the commeatus that were wont to be requested from the senate.

[24] Ornamenta consularia etiam procuratoribus ducenariis indulsit. Senatoriam dignitatem recusantibus equestrem quoque ademit. Latum clavum, quamvis initio affirmasset non lecturum se senatorem nisi civis R. abnepotem, etiam libertini filio tribuit, sed sub condicione si prius ab equite R. adoptatus esset; ac sic quoque reprehensionem uerens, et Appium Caecum censorem, generis sui proauctorem, libertinorum filios in senatum adlegisse docuit, ignarus temporibus Appi et deinceps aliquamdiu libertinos dictos non ipsos, qui manu emitterentur, sed ingenuos ex his procreatos.

[24] He even granted consular ornaments to ducenary procurators. Denying the senatorial dignity, he likewise took away the equestrian rank. He bestowed the broad purple stripe (latum clavum), although at first he had declared that he would not enroll a senator unless he were a citizen of R. and a great-grandson (abnepos), even upon the son of a freedman, but on the condition that he first be adopted by an eques of R.; and thus also, avoiding censure, he showed Appius Caecus the censor, an augmenter of his own family, to have enrolled the sons of freedmen into the senate, being ignorant of the times of Appius and thereafter for some while calling libertini not those who had been manumitted, but freeborn persons procreated from them.

Collegio quaestorum pro stratura viarum gladiatorium munus iniunxit detractaque Ostiensi et Gallica provincia curam aerari Saturni reddidit, quam medio tempore praetores aut, uti nunc, praetura functi sustinverant. Triumphalia ornamenta Silano, filiae suae sponso, nondum puberi dedit, maioribus vero natu tam multis tamque facile, ut epistula communi legionum nomine extiterit petentium, ut legatis consularibus simul cum exercitu et triumphalia darentur, ne causam belli quoquo modo quaererent. Aulo Plautio etiam ovationem decreuit ingressoque urbem obviam progressus et in Capitolium eunti et inde rursus reuertenti latus texit.

Through the college of quaestors he imposed a gladiatorial munus for the paving of the roads, and, having withdrawn the care of the aerarium Saturni from the Ostian and Gallic provinces, restored it to the treasury, which in the meantime the praetors, or as now those who had discharged the praetorship, had borne. He gave the triumphal ornaments to Silanus, the betrothed of his daughter, not yet of puberty; to those older in birth he gave them so many and so readily, that a letter in the common name of the legions of petitioners appeared, asking that they be granted to consular legates together with the army and the triumphalia, lest they in any way seek a cause of war. He also decreed an ovation for Aulus Plautius, and, going out to meet the city at his entrance and covering his side both in going into the Capitol and again in returning thence, honored him.

Gabinio Secundo Cauchis gente Germanica superatis cognomen Cauchius usurpare concessit.

He granted to Gabinius Secundus, with the Cauchii of the Germanic people having been subdued, the right to assume the cognomen Cauchius.

[25] Equestris militias ita ordinavit, ut post cohortem alam, post alam tribunatum legionis daret; stipendiaque instituit et imaginariae militiae genus, quod vocatur "supra numerum," quo absentes et titulo tenus fungerentur. Milites domus senatorias salutandi causa ingredi etiam patrum decreto prohibuit. Libertinos, qui se pro equitibus R. agerent, publicavit, ingratos et de quibus patroni quererentur revocavit in servitutem advocatisque eorum negavit se adversus libertos ipsorum ius dicturum.

[25] He arranged the equestrian militias so that after a cohort he gave an ala, and after an ala the tribunician rank of a legion; and he established pay and also a kind of imaginary military service, which is called "supra numerum," by which the absent would serve only in title. He even forbade by the decree of the fathers soldiers to enter the senatorial houses for the sake of saluting. He declared public the freedmen who pretended to be equites of R., and he recalled into servitude the ungrateful and those of whom their patrons complained; and when their advocates pleaded he refused to pronounce any legal right against their freedmen.

Cum quidam aegra et adfecta mancipia in insulam Aesculapi taedio medendi exponerent, omnes qui exponerentur liberos esse sanxit, nec redire in dicionem domini, si convaluissent; quod si quis necare quem mallet quam exponere, caedis crimine teneri. Viatores ne per Italiae oppida nisi aut pedibus aut sella aut lectica transirent, monuit edicto. Puteolis et Ostiae singulas cohortes ad arcendos incendiorum casus collocavit.

When certain sick and infirm slaves were exposed on the island of Aesculapius from the tedium of healing, he enacted that all who were exposed should be free, and should not return into the dominion of their master if they had convalesced; but if anyone preferred to kill someone rather than expose him, he was to be held on the charge of murder. By edict he warned that travelers should not pass through the towns of Italy except on foot or by sella or by lectica. He stationed single cohorts at Puteoli and Ostia to guard against incidents of fire.

Peregrinae condicionis homines vetuit usurpare Romana nomina dum taxat gentilicia. Civitatem R. usurpantes in campo Esquilino securi percussit. provincias Achaiam et Macedoniam, quas Tiberius ad curam suam transtulerat, senatui reddidit.

People of foreign condition
he forbade to assume Roman names, except only the gentilicia. Those usurping the civitas R. he struck with the axe in the Esquiline Field. He restored the provinces Achaia and Macedonia, which Tiberius had transferred to his care, to the senate.

Lyciis ob exitiabiles inter se discordias libertatem ademit, Rhodiis ob paenitentiam veterum delictorum reddidit. Iliensibus quasi Romanae gentis auctoribus tributa in perpetuum remisit recitata vetere epistula Graeca senatus populique R. Seleuco regi amicitiam et societatem ita demum pollicentis, si consanguineos suos Ilienses ab omni onere immunes praestitisset. Iudaeos impulsore Chresto assidue tumultuantis Roma expulit.

He deprived the Lycians of liberty because of their ruinous quarrels among themselves, and restored it to the Rhodians on account of their penitence for former offences.
To the Ilians, as if at the instigation of the Roman people, he remitted the tributes in perpetuity, an old Greek letter having been read in which the senate and people of Rome promised friendship and alliance to King Seleucus only on condition that he had made his kinsmen the Ilians exempt from every burden.
He expelled from Rome the Jews, who, at the instigation of Chrestus, were continually fomenting tumults.

Germanorum legatis in orchestra sedere permisit, simplicitate eorum et fiducia commotus, quod in popularia deducti, cum animaduertissent Parthos et Armenios sedentis in senatu, ad eadem loca sponte transierant, nihilo deteriorem virtutem aut condicionem suam praedicantes. Druidarum religionem apud Gallos dirae immanitatis et tantum civibus sub Augusto interdictam penitus abolevit; contra sacra Eleusinia etiam transferre ex Attica Romam conatus est, templumque in Sicilia Veneris Erycinae vetustate conlapsum ut ex aerario pop. R. reficeretur, auctor fuit.

He permitted the envoys of the Germans to sit in the orchestra, moved by their simplicity and confidence, because, having been led into the popular seats, when they perceived the Parthians and Armenians sitting in the senate, they of their own accord had passed to the same places, proclaiming that this in no way made their virtue or condition inferior. He utterly abolished the religion of the Druids among the Gauls as a dread enormity, and as having been prohibited to citizens only under Augustus; on the other hand he even attempted to transfer the Eleusinian rites from Attica to Rome, and he was the author of having the temple of Venus Erycina in Sicily, fallen down through age, repaired from the treasury of the Roman people.

Cum regibus foedus in foro icit porca caesa ac vetere fetialium praefatione adhibita. Sed et haec et cetera totumque adeo ex parte magna principatum non tam suo quam uxorum libertorumque arbitrio administravit, talis ubique plerumque, qualem esse eum aut expediret illis aut liberet.

When he made treaties with kings in the forum a sow was slaughtered and the ancient fetial preface was employed. But he administered these and other matters, and the whole principate so far largely by the will not so much of himself as of his wives and freedmen, being generally such everywhere as would either suit them or free him from them.

[26] Sponsas admodum adulescens duas habuit: Aemiliam Lepidam Augusti proneptem, item Liviam Medullinam, cui et cognomen Camillae erat, e genere antiquo dictatoris Camilli. Priorem, quod parentes eius Augustum offenderant, virginem adhuc repudiavit, posteriorem ipso die, qui erat nuptiis destinatus, ex valitudine amisit. Uxores deinde duxit Plautiam Vrgulanillam triumphali et mox Aeliam Paetinam consulari patre.

[26] As a very young man he had two fiancées: Aemilia Lepida, great-grandniece of Augustus, and likewise Livia Medullina, who also bore the surname Camilla, of the ancient stock of the dictator Camillus. He repudiated the former while she was still a virgin, because her parents had offended Augustus; he lost the latter on that very day which had been appointed for the wedding, through illness. He then took as wives Plautia Vrgulanilla, of triumphal family, and soon Aelia Paetina, whose father was consular.

Cum utraque diuortium fecit, sed cum Paetina ex levibus offensis, cum Vrgulanilla ob libidinum probra et homicidii suspicionem. Post has Valeriam Messalinam, Barbati Messalae consobrini sui filiam, in matrimonium accepit. Quam cum comperisset super cetera flagitia atque dedecora C. Silio etiam nupsisse dote inter auspices consignata, supplicio adfecit confirmavitque pro contione apud praetorianos, quatenus sibi matrimonia male cederent, permansurum se in caelibatu, ac nisi permansisset, non recusaturum confodi manibus ipsorum.

He divorced both wives, but he divorced Paetina for slight offenses, and Vrgulanilla on account of reproaches of lusts and the suspicion of homicide. Afterwards he took Valeria Messalina, the daughter of Barbatus Messala, his cousin, into marriage. When he discovered that she had, beyond other crimes and disgraces, also married C. Silius with a dowry consigned among the auspices, he subjected her to punishment and declared in an assembly before the Praetorians that, insofar as marriages went ill for him, he would remain in celibacy, and that unless she remained so, he would not refuse to be pierced by their hands.

Nec durare valuit quin de condicionibus continuo tractaret, etiam de Paetinae, quam olim exegerat, deque Lolliae Paulinae, quae C. Caesari nupta fuerat. Verum inlecebris Agrippinae, Germanici fratris sui filiae, per ius osculi et blanditiarum occasiones pellectus in amorem, subornavit proximo senatu qui censerent, cogendum se ad ducendum eam uxorem, quasi rei p. maxime interesset, dandamque ceteris veniam talium coniugiorum, quae ad id tempus incesta habebantur. Ac vix uno interposito die confecit nuptias, non repertis qui sequerentur exemplum, excepto libertino quodam et altero primipilari, cuius nuptiarum officium et ipse cum Agrippina celebravit.

Nor could he refrain from at once treating the conditions, even concerning Paetina, whom he had once set aside, and concerning Lollia Paulina, who had been married to C. Caesar. But beguiled into love by the allurements of Agrippina, the daughter of his brother Germanicus, by the right of kiss (ius osculi) and by occasions of blandishments, he contrived before the next senate those who thought that he ought to be compelled to take her as wife, as if it were a matter of greatest public concern, and that pardon should be granted to others for such marriages, which up to that time were held incestuous. And with scarcely one day interposed he brought the marriage to completion, no examples being found to follow except a certain freedman and another primipilus, whose office in the wedding he himself also performed with Agrippina.

[27] Liberos ex tribus uxoribus tulit: ex Vrgulanilla Drusum et Claudiam, ex Paetina Antoniam, ex Messalina Octaviam et quem primo Germanicum, mox Britannicum cognominavit. Drusum prope iam puberem amisit piro per lusum in sublime iactato et hiatu oris excepto strangulatum, cum ei ante paucos dies filiam Seiani despondisset. Quo magis miror fuisse qui traderent fraude a Seiano necatum.

[27] He fathered children by three wives: by Urgulania Drusus and Claudia, by Paetina Antonia, by Messalina Octavia and the one whom at first he surnamed Germanicus, soon Britannicus. He lost Drusus, almost now of age, who was strangled after being tossed aloft in play and with his mouth gaping, Sejanus having a few days earlier betrothed his daughter to him. Wherefore I am the more amazed that there were those who reported him to have been slain by fraud by Sejanus.

Claudiam ex liberto suo Botere conceptam, quamvis ante quintum mensem diuortii natam alique coeptam, exponi tamen ad matris ianuam et nudam iussit abici. Antoniam Cn. Pompeio Magno, deinde Fausto Sullae, nobilissimis iuvenibus, Octaviam Neroni priuigno suo collocavit, Silano ante desponsam. Britannicum vicesimo imperii die inque secundo consulatu, natum sibi paruulum etiam tum, et militi pro contione manibus suis gestans et plebi per spectacula gremio aut ante se retinens assidue commendabat faustisque ominibus cum adclamantium turba prosequebatur.

He ordered Claudia, conceived by his freedman Boter, to be exposed and cast off naked at her mother’s door, although she had been born before the fifth month from the divorce and had been begun elsewhere. He gave Antonia to Cn. Pompeius Magnus, then to Faustus Sulla, most noble youths; he married Octavia to Nero, his stepson, she having been previously promised to Silanus. Britannicus was born to him on the twentieth day of his reign and in his second consulship, then still a little child, and he continually displayed him—holding him in his hands as if before an assembly and presenting him to the people in spectacles, or keeping him on his lap or before him—praising him and, with auspicious omens, accompanying him with a throng of acclamers.

E generis Neronem adoptavit, Pompeium atque Silanum non recusavit modo, sed et interemit.

He adopted Nero from his own stock; Pompeius and Silanus he not only did not spare, but also put to death.

[28] Libertorum praecipue suspexit Posiden spadonem, quem etiam Britannico triumpho inter militares viros hasta pura donavit; nec minus Felicem, quem cohortibus et alis provinciaeque Iudaeae praeposuit, trium reginarum maritum; et Harpocran, cui lectica per urbem vehendi spectaculaque publice edendi ius tribuit; ac super hos Polybium ab studiis, qui saepe inter duos consules ambulabat; sed ante omnis Narcissum ab epistulis et Pallantem a rationibus, quos decreto quoque senatus non praemiis modo ingentibus, sed et quaestoriis praetoriisque ornamentis honorari libens passus est; tantum praeterea adquirere et rapere, ut querente eo quondam de fisci exiguitate non absurde dictum sit, abundaturum, si a duobus libertis in consortium reciperetur.

[28] He especially favored the freedmen: Posides the eunuch, whom he even presented with the hasta pura among the military men at Britannicus’ triumph; and no less Felix, whom he set over the cohorts and wings and the province of Judea, the husband of three queens; and Harpocran, to whom he granted the right to be borne in a litter through the city and to put on public spectacles; and moreover Polybius, for his studies, who often walked between the two consuls; but above all Narcissus, from the correspondence, and Pallanteus, from the accounts, whom by decree of the senate he gladly allowed to be honored not only with vast rewards but also with quaestorian and praetorian ornaments; he acquired and seized besides so much, that once, when someone complained to him about the scantiness of the fisc, it was not absurdly said that it would abound if it were taken into partnership by two freedmen.

[29] His, ut dixi, uxoribusque addictus, non principem, sed ministrum egit, compendio cuiusque horum vel etiam studio aut libidine honores exercitus impunitates supplicia largitus est, et quidem insciens plerumque et ignarus. Ac ne singillatim minora quoque enumerem, revocatas liberalitates eius, iudicia rescissa, suppositos aut etiam palam immutatos datorum officiorum codicillos: Appium Silanum consocerum suum Iuliasque, alteram Drusi, alteram Germanici filiam, crimine incerto nec defensione ulla data occidit, item Cn. Pompeium maioris filiae virum et L. Silanum minoris sponsum. Ex quibus Pompeius in concubitu dilecti adulescentuli confossus est, Silanus abdicare se praetura ante IIII.

[29] These, as I said, addicted to his wives, he acted not as a prince but as a minister; in brief he lavished honours, commands, impunities, and punishments at the bidding or even the zeal and lust of any of them, and indeed mostly unknowingly and ignorant. And lest I enumerate lesser matters one by one: his liberality recalled, judgments annulled, forged or even openly altered codicils of conferred offices; he killed Appius Silanus, his brother‑in‑law, and the Julias, one the wife of Drusus, the other the daughter of Germanicus, on an uncertain charge and with no defence allowed; likewise Cn. Pompeius, the husband of his elder daughter, and L. Silanus, the betrothed of his younger. Of these, Pompeius was stabbed to death in the bed of the beloved young man, Silanus resigned the praetorship four days before.

Kal. Ian. Morique initio anni coactus die ipso Claudi et Agrippinae nuptiarum.

On the Kalends of January, and at the beginning of the year, he was compelled on that very day into the marriage of Claudius and Agrippina.

In quinque et triginta senatores trecentosque amplius equites R. tanta facilitate animaduertit, ut, cum de nece consularis viri renuntiante centurione factum esse quod imperasset, negaret quicquam se imperasse, nihilo minus rem comprobaret, affirmantibus libertis officio milites functos, quod ad ultionem imperatoris ultro procucurrissent. Nam illud omnem fidem excesserit quod nuptiis, quas Messalina cum adultero Silio fecerat, tabellas dotis et ipse consignaverit, inductus, quasi de industria simularentur ad auertendum transferendumque periculum, quod imminere ipsi per quaedam ostenta portenderetur.

In thirty-five senators and more than three hundred equites R. he perceived with such facility that, when a centurion reported that the death of a consular man had been effected by what he had commanded, he denied that he had commanded anything, yet nevertheless approved the matter, the freedmen affirming, out of duty, that the soldiers, having been discharged, had run forward of their own accord for the emperor’s vengeance. For that surpasses all belief: that he himself had sealed the dowry tablets for the marriage which Messalina had made with the adulterer Silius, having been induced, as if they were simulated deliberately to avert and transfer the peril which was foretold to him by certain omens.

[30] Auctoritas dignitasque formae non defuit ei, verum stanti uel sedenti ac praecipue quiescenti, nam et prolixo nec exili corpore erat et specie canitieque pulchra, opimis ceruicibus; ceterum et ingredientem destituebant poplites minus firmi, et remisse quid vel serio agentem multa dehonestabant: risus indecens, ira turpior spumante rictu, umentibus naribus, praeterea linguae titubantia caputque cum semper tum in quantulocumque actu vel maxime tremulum.

[30] Authority and dignity of bearing were not lacking to him, but when standing or sitting and especially when at rest; for he was neither of a lanky nor of a slight body, and in appearance and in the whiteness of his hair was handsome, with ample necks; moreover, when walking his hamstrings/knees were less firm, and whether acting laxly or earnestly many things dishonored him: an indecent laugh, an uglier anger with a foaming mouth, damp nostrils, besides a faltering tongue and a head always, and then in any small action especially, most tremulous.

[31] Valitudine sicut olim gravi, ita princeps prospera usus est excepto stomachi dolore, quo se correptum etiam de consciscenda morte cogitasse dixit.

[31] In ill health as once severe, so the prince enjoyed prosperity, save for a pain of the stomach, by which, he said, being seized, he even thought of taking his own life.

[32] Convivia agitavit et ampla et assidua ac fere patentissimis locis, ut plerumque sesceni simul discumberent. Convivatus est et super emissarium Fucini lacus ac paene summersus, cum emissa impetu aqua redundasset. Adhibebat omni cenae et liberos suos cum pueris puellisque nobilibus, qui more veteri ad fulcra lectorum sedentes uescerentur.

[32] He kept feasts both sumptuous and constant and in almost the most conspicuous places, so that commonly sixty would recline at table together. There was even a banquet on the emissary of the Fucine Lake, and it was almost submerged, when, the water having been let out with force, it had flowed back. To every dinner he admitted also his children and noble boys and girls, who, according to the old custom, sitting at the foot-rests of the couches, took their food.

Convivae, qui pridie scyphum aureum subripuisse existimabatur, revocato in diem posterum calicem fictilem apposuit. Dicitur etiam meditatus edictum, quo veniam daret flatum crepitumque ventris in convivio emittendi, cum periclitatum quendam prae pudore ex continentia repperisset.

The guest, who the day before was thought to have filched a golden goblet, when recalled on the following day was set before a pottery cup. It is also said that he devised an edict by which he would pardon the emission of a fart and the creaking of the belly at a banquet, since he had found a certain man put in peril by shame because of his continence.

[33] Cibi vinique quocumque et tempore et loco appetentissimus, cognoscens quondam in Augusti foro ictusque nidore prandii, quod in proxima Martis aede Saliis apparabatur, deserto tribunali ascendit ad sacerdotes unaque decubuit. Nec temere umquam triclinio abscessit nisi distentus ac madens, et ut statim supino ac per somnum hianti pinna in os inderetur ad exonerandum stomachum. Somni brevissimi erat.

[33] Most eager for food and wine at every time and place, once perceiving in the Forum of Augustus the scent and smack of a luncheon that was being prepared in the nearby temple of Mars for the Salii, he left the deserted tribunal, climbed up to the priests, and reclined with them. Nor did he ever quit a triclinium rashly except when distended and sweaty, and so that immediately, lying on his back and with his mouth gaping in sleep, a quill might be thrust into his mouth to unload his stomach. His sleep was very short.

Nam ante mediam noctem plerumque vigilabat, ut tamen interdiu nonnumquam in iure dicendo obdormisceret vixque ab advocatis de industria vocem augentibus excitaretur. Libidinis in feminas profusissimae, marum omnino expers. Aleam studiosissime lusit, de cuius arte librum quoque emisit, solitus etiam in gestatione ludere, ita essedo alueoque adaptatis ne lusus confunderetur.

For before midnight he for the most part kept watch, yet by day he would sometimes nod off while pleading in court, and was scarcely roused when advocates, deliberately raising their voices, called to him. Excessive in lust for women, altogether lacking in regard for men. He played dice most zealously, of whose art he moreover published a book; he was also wont to play while being carried, his chariot and boat fitted so that the game would not be disturbed.

[34] Saevum et sanguinarium natura fuisse, magnis minimisque apparuit rebus. Tormenta quaestionum poenasque parricidarum repraesentabat exigebatque coram. Cum spectare antiqui moris supplicium Tiburi concupisset et deligatis ad palum noxiis carnifex deesset, accitum ab urbe vesperam usque opperiri perseveravit.

[34] That he was savage and bloodthirsty by nature appeared in great and small matters. He displayed the torments of interrogations and the penalties of parricides, and exacted them in public. When he desired to behold the punishment according to ancient custom at Tibur, and though the guilty had been bound to the stake the executioner was lacking, he persisted in waiting, after summons from the town, even until evening.

Quocumque gladiatorio munere, vel suo vel alieno, etiam forte prolapsos iugulari iubebat, maxime retiarios, ut expirantium facies videret. Cum par quoddam mutuis ictibus concidisset, cultellos sibi paruulos ex utroque ferro in usum fieri sine mora iussit. Bestiaris meridianisque adeo delectabatur, ut et prima luce ad spectaculum descenderet et meridie dimisso ad prandium populo persederet praeterque destinatos etiam levi subitaque de causa quosdam committeret, de fabrorum quoque ac ministrorum atque id genus numero, si automatum vel pegma vel quid tale aliud parum cessisset.

Wherever at a gladiatorial munus, whether his own or another’s, he would even order those perhaps fallen to be slaughtered at the throat, above all the retiarii, so that he might behold the faces of the expiring. When a certain pair had fallen by mutual blows, he ordered little knives to be made for his use from each blade without delay. He delighted so much in bestiaries and midday spectacles that he would descend at first light to the show and, at noon, after dismissing it, sit down to luncheon with the people, and beyond the appointed ones would also assign certain men for slight and sudden causes from the number of smiths and attendants and that sort, if the automata or pegma or any such other device had failed him in any degree.

Induxit et unum ex nomenculatoribus suis, sic ut erat togatus.

He also brought in one of his nomenclators, who was thus togated (wearing a toga).

[35] Sed nihil aeque quam timidus ac diffidens fuit. Primis imperii diebus quanquam, ut diximus, iactator civilitatis, neque convivia inire ausus est nisi ut speculatores cum lanceis circumstarent militesque vice ministrorum fungerentur, neque aegrum quemquam visitavit nisi explorato prius cubiculo culcitisque et stragulis praetemptatis et excussis. Reliquo autem tempore salutatoribus scrutatores semper apposuit, et quidem omnibus et acerbissimos.

[35] But in nothing was he so much as timid and distrustful. In the first days of his reign, however, although, as we said, a braggart of courtesy, he dared not attend banquets unless scouts with lances stood round and soldiers served in place of attendants, nor did he visit any sick man unless the bedchamber had first been searched and the mattresses and rugs and coverlets shaken out and examined. At other times he always set investigators among the salutators, and indeed the most severe of them all.

Sero enim ac vix remisit, ne feminae praetextatique pueri et puellae contrectarentur et ne cuius comiti aut librario calamariae et graphiariae thecae adimerentur. Motu civili cum eum Camillus, non dubitans etiam citra bellum posse terreri, contumeliosa et minaci et contumaci epistula cedere imperio iuberet vitamque otiosam in privata re agere, dubitavit adhibitis principibus viris an optemperaret.

For he relaxed late and scarcely, lest women and boys and girls in the praetexta be molested and lest the cases of inkhorns and writing-boxes be taken from any companion or librarian. When, on account of the civil unrest, Camillus, not doubting that he could be terrified even without war, ordered him by an insulting, threatening, and stubborn letter to yield to authority and to lead a quiet life in private, he hesitated, having summoned eminent men, whether he should comply.

[36] Quasdam insidias temere delatas adeo expavit, ut deponere imperium temptaverit. Quodam, ut supra rettuli, cum ferro circa sacrificantem se deprehenso, senatum per praecones propere convocavit lacrimisque et vociferatione miseratus est condicionem suam, cui nihil tuti usquam esset, ac diu publico abstinuit. Messalinae quoque amorem flagrantissimum non tam indignitate contumeliarum quam periculi metu abiecit, cum adultero Silio adquiri imperium credidisset; quo tempore foedum in modum trepidus ad castra confugit, nihil tota via quam essetne sibi salvum imperium requirens.

[36] He was so terrified by certain plots rashly brought against him that he attempted to lay down his imperium. On one occasion, as I have related above, when he was seized with a sword about him while near one sacrificing, he hastily summoned the senate by heralds and with tears and outcry bewailed his condition, for whom nothing was safe anywhere, and for a long time refrained from public life. He likewise cast off Messalina’s most blazing love not so much from the indignity of the insults as from fear of danger, when he believed that imperium was being acquired by the adulterer Silius; at that time shamefully and trembling he fled to the camp, asking all along the road whether his imperium would be safe for him.

[37] Nulla adeo suspicio, nullus auctor tam levis extitit, a quo non mediocri scrupulo iniecto ad cavendum ulciscendumque compelleretur. Unus ex litigatoribus seducto in salutatione affirmavit, vidisse se per quietem occidi eum a quodam; dein paulo post, quasi percussorem agnosceret, libellum tradentem adversarium suum demonstravit: confestimque is pro deprenso ad poenam raptus est. Pari modo oppressum ferunt Appium Silanum: quem cum Messalina et Narcissus conspirassent perdere, diuisis partibus alter ante lucem similis attonito patroni cubiculum inrupit, affirmans somniasse se uim ei ab Appio inlatam; altera in admirationem formata sibi quoque eandem speciem aliquot iam noctibus obversari rettulit; nec multo post ex composito inrumpere Appius nuntiatus, cui pridie ad id temporis ut adesset praeceptum erat, quasi plane repraesentaretur somnii fides, arcessi statim ac mori iussus est.

[37] No suspicion so slight, no author so trivial arose, from whom, with a moderate scruple thrown in, one was not driven to beware and to avenge. One of the litigants, led aside in a salutation, affirmed that he had seen him slain in sleep by a certain man; then a little later, as if he had recognized the striker, he pointed out his adversary as the one handing over a little writ: and immediately that man, for being detected, was snatched away to punishment. In like manner they relate Appius Silanus to have been overborne: whom, when Messalina and Narcissus had conspired to ruin, with their roles divided one before dawn, like one astonished, burst into his patron’s bedchamber, asserting that he had dreamed force had been done to him by Appius; the other, struck with amazement, reported that the same vision had been hovering about her for several nights; and not long after, Appius was announced to have broken out from composure, to whom on the day before it had been commanded to be present at that hour, and as if the dream’s truth were plainly reenacted, he was at once summoned and ordered to die.

Nec dubitavit postero die Claudius ordinem rei gestae perferre ad senatum ac liberto gratias agere, quod pro salute sua etiam dormiens excubaret.

Nor did Claudius hesitate on the next day to carry the record of the affair to the senate and to give thanks to the freedman, since he, even while sleeping, kept watch for his safety.

[38] Irae atque iracundiae conscius sibi, utramque excusavit edicto distinxitque, pollicitus alteram quidem brevem et innoxiam, alteram non iniustam fore. Ostiensibus, quia sibi subeunti Tiberim scaphas obviam non miserint, graviter correptis eaque cum inuidia, ut in ordinem se coactum conscriberet, repente tantum non satis facientis modo veniam dedit. Quosdam in publico parum tempestiue adeuntis manu sua reppulit.

[38] Conscious to himself of wrath and irascibility, he excused each by edict and distinguished them, promising that one indeed would be brief and harmless, the other not unjust. To the Ostienses, because they had not sent skiffs to meet him as he was approaching the Tiber, he severely rebuked them, and with that resentment, so that he might have them enrolled into the order, he suddenly—scarcely doing enough—granted clemency. He struck back with his hand at some who approached him in public untimely.

Item scribam quaestorium itemque praetura functum senatorem inauditos et innoxios relegavit, quod ille adversus privatum se intemperantius affuisset, hic in aedilitate inquilinos praediorum suorum contra vetitum cocta vendentes multasset vilicumque intervenientem flagellasset. Qua de causa etiam coercitionem popinarum aedilibus ademit. Ac ne stultitiam quidem suam reticuit simulatamque a se ex industria sub Gaio, quod aliter evasurus perventurusque ad susceptam stationem non fuerit, quibusdam oratiunculis testatus est; nec tamen persuasit, cum intra breve tempus liber editus sit, cui index erat μωρῶν ἐπανάστασις, argumentum autem stultitiam neminem fingere.

Likewise he banished a senator who had served first as quaestor and then as praetor, unheard-of and harmless, because the one had acted with excessive intemperance toward a private person, the other in the aedileship had beaten tenants of his estates who, contrary to prohibition, sold cooked food, and had flogged the steward who intervened. For this reason he also took away from the aediles the regulation of taverns. Nor did he hide even his folly, but attested that he had feigned it deliberately under Gaius — on the ground that otherwise he would not have escaped and reached the post he undertook — by certain little speeches; yet he did not convince, since shortly afterward a freedman was published whose badge was μωρῶν ἐπανάστασις ('a rising of fools'), the argument being that folly cannot be feigned.

[39] Inter cetera in eo mirati sunt homines et oblivionem et inconsiderantiam, vel ut Graece dicam, μετεωρίαν et ἀβλεψίαν. Occisa Messalina, paulo post quam in triclinio decubuit, cur domina non veniret requisiit. Multos ex iis, quos capite damnaverat, postero statim die et in consilium et ad aleae lusum admoneri iussit et, quasi morarentur, ut somniculosos per nuntium increpuit. Ducturus contra fas Agrippinam uxorem, non cessavit omni oratione filiam et alumnam et in gremio suo natam atque educatam praedicare.

[39] Among other things in this he astonished men by both forgetfulness and heedlessness, or, as I should say in Greek, μετεωρίαν et ἀβλεψίαν. With Messalina slain, shortly after she had lain down in the triclinium, he asked why the mistress did not come. Many of those whom he had condemned to death he ordered to be summoned on the very next day both to the council and to a game of dice, and, as if to detain them, he chided them as drowsy by a messenger. About to take Agrippina as a wife contrary to right, he did not cease in every speech to proclaim her his daughter and foster-child, born and reared in his bosom.

Adsciturus in nomen Neronem, quasi parum reprehenderetur, quod adulto iam filio priuignum adoptaret, identidem divulgavit neminem umquam per adoptionem familiae Claudiae insertum.

About to be adopted into the name Nero, as if it were little to be blamed that he should adopt a stepson while his son was already grown, he repeatedly spread that no one had ever been inserted into the Claudian family by adoption.

[40] Sermonis vero rerumque tantam saepe neglegentiam ostendit, ut nec quis nec inter quos, quoue tempore ac loco uerba faceret, scire aut cogitare existimaretur. Cum de laniis ac vinariis ageretur, exclamavit in curia: "rogo vos, quis potest sine offula viuere?" Descripsitque abundantiam veterum tabernarum, unde solitus esset uinum olim et ipse petere. De quaesturae quodam candidato inter causas suffragationis suae posuit, quod pater eius frigidam aegro sibi tempestiue dedisset.

[40] He showed so great and so frequent negligence of speech and of affairs that it was thought he neither knew nor reflected who, nor among whom, nor at what time and place he would utter words. When the talk turned to butchers and wine-sellers, he exclaimed in the curia: "I ask you, who can live without a morsel?" And he described the abundance of the old taverns, from which he himself was once accustomed to seek wine. Concerning a certain candidate for the quaestorship he set down among the reasons for his canvass that his father had seasonably given him something cold when he was ill.

Inducta teste in senatu: "haec," inquit, "matris meae liberta et ornatrix fuit, sed me patronum semper existimavit; hoc ideo dixi, quod quidam sunt adhuc in domo mea, qui me patronum non putant." Sed et pro tribunali Ostiensibus quiddam publice orantibus cum excanduisset, nihil habere se vociferatus est, quare eos demereatur; si quem alium, et se liberum esse. Nam illa eius cotidiana et plane omnium horarum et momentorum erant: "quid, ego tibi Telegenius videor?" et: λάλει καὶ μὴ θίγγανε, multaque talia etiam privatis deformia, nedum principi, neque infacundo neque indocto, immo etiam pertinaciter liberalibus studiis dedito.

With a witness introduced into the senate: "This," he said, "was my mother's freedwoman and hairdresser, but she always regarded me as her patron; I said this because there are still some in my house who do not think me their patron." But also, when some Ostiensians were publicly pleading at the tribunal and he had grown hot, he shouted that he had nothing to take, and that they should be removed; if anyone else (was involved), that he himself was a free man. For those were his daily and plainly perpetual sayings at all hours and moments: "What, do I seem to you Telegenius?" and: λάλει καὶ μὴ θίγγανε, and many such things, unbecoming even in private persons, much less in a prince — who was neither ineloquent nor unlearned, nay even stubbornly given to liberal studies.

[41] Historiam in adulescentia hortante T. Livio, Sulpicio vero Flavo etiam adiuvante, scribere adgressus est. Et cum primum frequenti auditorio commisisset, aegre perlegit refrigeratus saepe a semet ipso. Nam cum initio recitationis defractis compluribus subsellis obesitate cuiusdam risus exortus esset, ne sedato quidem tumultu temperare potuit, quin ex intervallo subinde facti reminisceretur cachinnosque revocaret.

[41] He undertook in his youth to write history, urged on by T. Livius and with Sulpicius Flavus likewise assisting. And when he first committed his work to a crowded audience, he read through it with difficulty, oft pausing to recover. For at the beginning of the recitation, when several benches gave way, a laughter had arisen from the weight or bulk of a certain man; nor, even when the tumult was quelled, could he refrain, but from time to time he would recall the incident and renew his loud laughter.

In principatu quoque et scripsit plurimum et assidue recitavit per lectorem. Initium autem sumpsit historiae post caedem Caesaris dictatoris, sed et transiit ad inferiora tempora coepitque a pace civili, cum sentiret neque libere neque uere sibi de superioribus tradendi potestatem relictam, correptus saepe et a matre et ab avia. Prioris materiae duo volumina, posterioris unum et quadraginta reliquit.

In the principate also he wrote very much and frequently recited through a reader. The beginning of his history he took up after the slaughter of Caesar the dictator, but he also passed on to later times and began from the civil peace, since he perceived that neither freely nor truly had the power of transmitting the earlier matters been left to him, being often urged both by his mother and by his grandmother. He left two volumes of the earlier material and forty‑one of the later.

Composuit et "de vita sua" octo volumina, magis inepte quam ineleganter; item "Ciceronis defensionem adversus Asini Galli libros" satis eruditam. novas etiam commentus est litteras tres ac numero veterum quasi maxime necessarias addidit; de quarum ratione cum privatus adhuc volumen edidisset, mox princeps non difficulter optinuit ut in usu quoque promiscuo essent. Extat talis scriptura in plerisque libris ac diurnis titulisque operum.

He also composed "On His Life" in eight volumes, more clumsily than inelegantly; likewise "Cicero’s Defense Against the Books of Asinius Gallus," fairly learned. He likewise devised three new letters and added them to the number of the ancients as if most necessary; concerning the manner of these, when as a private man he had already published a volume, the prince soon without difficulty secured that they should be in common use as well. Such a writing exists in most books and in daily records and in the titles of works.

[42] Nec minore cura Graeca studia secutus est, amorem praestantiamque linguae occasione omni professus. Cuidam barbaro Graece ac Latine disserenti: "cum utroque," inquit, "sermone nostro sis paratus"; et in commendanda patribus conscriptis Achaia, gratam sibi provinciam ait communium studiorum commercio; ac saepe in senatu legatis perpetua oratione respondit. Multum vero pro tribunali etiam Homericis locutus est versibus. Quotiens quidem hostem vel insidiatorem ultus esset, excubitori tribuno signum de more poscenti non temere aliud dedit quam:

[42] Nor with less care did he pursue Greek studies, professing on every occasion a love for and the excellence of the language. To a certain barbarian speaking Greek and Latin he said, "Be ready with both our tongues"; and, in commending Achaia to the conscript fathers, he called the province pleasing to him by the commerce of common studies; and often in the senate he replied to the legates with a continuous speech. Indeed he spoke much also before the tribunal in Homeric verse. Whenever, moreover, he had avenged an enemy or an ambusher, when the sentinel-tribune, by custom, asked for the signal, he gave no other than:

Ἄνδρ᾽ ἀπαμύνασθαι, ὅτε τις πρότερος χαλεπήνῇ.

To withstand a man when he first becomes harsh.

Denique et Graecas scripsit historias, Tyrrhenicon viginti, Carchedoniacon octo. Quarum causa veteri Alexandriae Musio additum ex ipsius nomine novum; institutumque ut quotannis in altero Tyrrhenicon libri, in altero Carchedoniacon diebus statutis velut in auditorio recitarentur toti a singulis per vices.

Finally he also wrote Greek histories, twenty Tyrrhenicon and eight Carchedoniacon. For these a new (book) was added to the old Musius of Alexandria, named from himself; and it was instituted that, year by year, the Tyrrhenicon books in one year and the Carchedoniacon in the other should be recited on appointed days, as in an auditorium, the whole by individuals in turn.

[43] Sub exitu vitae signa quaedam nec obscura paenitentis de matrimonio Agrippinae deque Neronis adoptione dederat, siquidem commemorantibus libertis ac laudantibus cognitionem, qua pridie quandam adulterii ream condemnarat, sibi quoque in fatis esse iactavit omnia impudica, sed non impunita matrimonia; et subinde obvium sibi Britannicum artius complexus hortatus est, ut cresceret rationemque a se omnium factorum acciperet; Graeca insuper voce prosecutus: ὁ τρώσας ἰάσεται. Cumque impubi teneroque adhuc, quando statura permitteret, togam dare destinasset, adiecit: "Ut tandem populus R. verum Caesarem habeat."

[43] At the approach of death he had given certain not obscure signs of penitence about his marriage to Agrippina and about the adoption of Nero; for with the freedmen recounting and praising the acknowledgement by which on the day before he had condemned a certain woman as guilty of adultery, he also vaunted that all his shameless acts were appointed in his fates, though not his marriages unpunished; and thereupon, meeting Britannicus, he embraced him more closely and urged that he should grow and receive from him an account of all his deeds; and moreover uttered in Greek: “He who wounds will heal.” And when he had resolved to give the toga to one still unpubescent and tender, when his stature would permit, he added: "So that at last the Roman people may have a true Caesar."

[44] Non multoque post testamentum etiam conscripsit ac signis omnium magistratuum obsignavit. Prius igitur quam ultra progrederetur, praeventus est ab Agrippina, quam praeter haec conscientia quoque nec minus delatores multorum criminum arguebant. Et veneno quidem occisum convenit; ubi autem et per quem dato, discrepat.

[44] Not long after he also drew up a will and sealed it with the marks of all the magistracies. Therefore, before he could go further, he was forestalled by Agrippina, whom, besides this, conscience itself and no less the informers of many crimes accused. And it is agreed that he was killed by poison; but as to where and by whom it was given, accounts differ.

Quidam tradunt epulanti in arce cum sacerdotibus per Halotum spadonem praegustatorem; alii domestico convivio per ipsam Agrippinam, quae boletum medicatum auidissimo ciborum talium optulerat. Etiam de subsequentibus diversa fama est. Multi statim hausto veneno obmutuisse aiunt excruciatumque doloribus nocte tota defecisse prope lucem.

Some relate that, while feasting in the citadel with the priests, the taster was the eunuch Halotus who sampled beforehand; others say at a domestic banquet by Agrippina herself, who had offered a medicated boletus to the most avid eater of such foods. There is also diverse rumor about what followed. Many say that, having immediately taken a draught of the poison, he was struck dumb and, racked with pains, collapsed during the whole night, near dawn.

Nonnulli inter initia consopitum, deinde cibo afflvente euomuisse omnia, repetitumque toxico, incertum pultine addito, cum velut exhaustum refici cibo oporteret, an immisso per clystera[m], ut quasi abundantia laboranti etiam hoc genere egestionis subveniretur.

Some say that at first he was asleep, then, with food flowing upon him, he vomited everything, and the poison was administered again; it is uncertain whether, with pulten added, since, as if exhausted, he ought to be restored by food, or whether, an enema (clyster) having been introduced [m], so that, as if to one suffering from abundance, aid was supplied even by this kind of egestion.

[45] Mors eius celata est, donec circa successorem omnia ordinarentur. Itaque et quasi pro aegro adhuc vota suscepta sunt et inducti per simulationem comoedi, qui velut desiderantem oblectarent. Excessit III.

[45] His death was concealed until everything concerning the successor was arranged. And thus, both as if vows had been undertaken for one still sick, and they were brought in by the simulation of comedians, who as though to amuse the one longing, entertained him. He departed on the 3rd.

Id. Octob. Asinio Marcello Acilio Auiola coss. sexagesimo quarto aetatis, imperii quarto decimo anno, funeratusque est sollemni principum pompa et in numerum deorum relatus; quem honorem a Nerone destitutum abolitumque recepit mox per Vespasianum.

Ides of October. Asinius Marcellus and Acilius Avila, consuls. In the sixty-fourth year of his age, in the fourteenth year of his reign, he was buried with a solemn procession of princes and was numbered among the gods; that honor, having been withdrawn and abolished by Nero, he received again shortly under Vespasian.

[46] Praesagia mortis eius praecipua fuerunt: exortus crinitae stellae, quam cometen vocant, tactumque de caelo monumentum Drusi patris, et quod eodem anno ex omnium magistratuum genere plerique mortem obierant. Sed nec ipse ignorasse aut dissimulasse ultima vitae suae tempora videtur, aliquot quidem argumentis. Nam et cum consules designaret, neminem ultra mensem quo obiit designavit, et in senatu, cui novissime interfuit, multum ad concordiam liberos suos cohortatus, utriusque aetatem suppliciter patribus commendavit, et in ultima cognitione pro tribunali accessisse ad finem mortalitatis, quanquam abominantibus qui audiebant, semel atque iterum pronuntiavit.

[46] The chief presages of his death were: the rising of a crinite star, which they call a comet, and a token from the sky taken for a monument of Drusus his father, and that in the same year many from the whole rank of magistrates met death. But he himself does not seem to have been ignorant of or to have dissembled the last times of his life, as is shown by several signs. For even when he was appointing consuls, he appointed no one beyond the month in which he died; and in the senate, in which he last took part, having much exhorted his children to concord, he commended the age of each to the fathers in supplication, and at the final hearing approached the tribunal as to the end of mortality, though those who heard recoiled, he proclaimed it once and again.