THE LIVES OF THE TWELVE CAESARS

 By C. Suetonius Tranquillus;

 To which are added, HIS LIVES OF THE GRAMMARIANS, RHETORICIANS, AND POETS. 

 The Translation of Alexander Thomson, M. D. 

 revised and corrected by T. Forester, Esq. , A. M. 

CAIUS CAESAR CALIGULA. 

(251)

I. Germanicus, the father of Caius Caesar, and son of Drusus and theyounger Antonia, was, after his adoption by Tiberius, his uncle, preferred to the quaestorship [377] five years before he had attained thelegal age, and immediately upon the expiration of that office, to theconsulship [378]. Having been sent to the army in Germany, he restoredorder among the legions, who, upon the news of Augustus's death, obstinately refused to acknowledge Tiberius as emperor [379], and offeredto place him at the head of the state. In which affair it is difficultto say, whether his regard to filial duty, or the firmness of hisresolution, was most conspicuous. Soon afterwards he defeated the enemy, and obtained the honours of a triumph. Being then made consul for thesecond time [380], before he could enter upon his office he was obligedto set out suddenly for the east, where, after he had conquered the kingof Armenia, and reduced Cappadocia into the form of a province, he diedat Antioch, of a lingering distemper, in the thirty-fourth year of hisage [381], not without the suspicion of being poisoned. For besides thelivid spots which appeared all over his body, and a foaming at the mouth;when his corpse was burnt, the heart was found entire among the bones;its nature being such, as it is supposed, that when tainted by poison, itis indestructible by fire. [382]

II. It was a prevailing opinion, that he was taken off by thecontrivance of Tiberius, and through the means of Cneius Piso. Thisperson, who was about the same time prefect of Syria, and made no secretof his position being such, that (252) he must either offend the fatheror the son, loaded Germanicus, even during his sickness, with the mostunbounded and scurrilous abuse, both by word and deed; for which, uponhis return to Rome, he narrowly escaped being torn to pieces by thepeople, and was condemned to death by the senate. 

III. It is generally agreed, that Germanicus possessed all the noblestendowments of body and mind in a higher degree than had ever beforefallen to the lot of any man; a handsome person, extraordinary courage, great proficiency in eloquence and other branches of learning, both Greekand Roman; besides a singular humanity, and a behaviour so engaging, asto captivate the affections of all about him. The slenderness of hislegs did not correspond with the symmetry and beauty of his person inother respects; but this defect was at length corrected by his habit ofriding after meals. In battle, he often engaged and slew an enemy insingle combat. He pleaded causes, even after he had the honour of atriumph. Among other fruits of his studies, he left behind him someGreek comedies. Both at home and abroad he always conducted himself in amanner the most unassuming. On entering any free and confederate town, he never would be attended by his lictors. Whenever he heard, in histravels, of the tombs of illustrious men, he made offerings over them tothe infernal deities. He gave a common grave, under a mound of earth, tothe scattered relics of the legionaries slain under Varus, and was thefirst to put his hand to the work of collecting and bringing them to theplace of burial. He was so extremely mild and gentle to his enemies, whoever they were, or on what account soever they bore him enmity, that, although Piso rescinded his decrees, and for a long time severelyharassed his dependents, he never showed the smallest resentment, untilhe found himself attacked by magical charms and imprecations; and eventhen the only steps he took was to renounce all friendship with him, according to ancient custom, and to exhort his servants to avenge hisdeath, if any thing untoward should befall him. 

IV. He reaped the fruit of his noble qualities in abundance, being somuch esteemed and beloved by his friends, that Augustus (to say nothingof his other relations) being a long time in doubt, whether he should notappoint him his successor, at last ordered Tiberius to adopt him. He wasso extremely popular, that many authors tell us, the crowds of those whowent to meet him upon his coming to any place, or to attend him at hisdeparture, were so prodigious, that he was sometimes in danger of hislife; and that upon his return from Germany, after he had quelled themutiny in the army there, all the cohorts of the pretorian guards marchedout to meet him, notwithstanding the order that only two should go; andthat all the people of Rome, both men and women, of every age, sex, andrank, flocked as far as the twentieth milestone to attend his entrance. 

V. At the time of his death, however, and afterwards, they displayedstill greater and stronger proofs of their extraordinary attachment tohim. The day on which he died, stones were thrown at the temples, thealtars of the gods demolished, the household gods, in some cases, throwninto the streets, and new-born infants exposed. It is even said thatbarbarous nations, both those engaged in intestine wars, and those inhostilities against us, all agreed to a cessation of arms, as if they hadbeen mourning for some very near and common friend; that some petty kingsshaved their beards and their wives' heads, in token of their extremesorrow; and that the king of kings [383] forbore his exercise of huntingand feasting with his nobles, which, amongst the Parthians, is equivalentto a cessation of all business in a time of public mourning with us. 

VI. At Rome, upon the first news of his sickness, the city was throwninto great consternation and grief, waiting impatiently for fartherintelligence; when suddenly, in the evening, a report, without anycertain author, was spread, that he was recovered; upon which the peopleflocked with torches (254) and victims to the Capitol, and were in suchhaste to pay the vows they had made for his recovery, that they almostbroke open the doors. Tiberius was roused from out of his sleep with thenoise of the people congratulating one another, and singing about thestreets, Salva Roma, salva patria, salvus est Germanicus. Rome is safe, our country safe, for our Germanicus is safe. 

But when certain intelligence of his death arrived, the mourning of thepeople could neither be assuaged by consolation, nor restrained byedicts, and it continued during the holidays in the month of December. The atrocities of the subsequent times contributed much to the glory ofGermanicus, and the endearment of his memory; all people supposing, andwith reason, that the fear and awe of him had laid a restraint upon thecruelty of Tiberius, which broke out soon afterwards. 

VII. Germanicus married Agrippina, the daughter of Marcus Agrippa andJulia, by whom he had nine children, two of whom died in their infancy, and another a few years after; a sprightly boy, whose effigy, in thecharacter of a Cupid, Livia set up in the temple of Venus in the Capitol. Augustus also placed another statue of him in his bed-chamber, and usedto kiss it as often as he entered the apartment. The rest survived theirfather; three daughters, Agrippina, Drusilla, and Livilla, who were bornin three successive years; and as many sons, Nero, Drusus, and CaiusCaesar. Nero and Drusus, at the accusation of Tiberius, were declaredpublic enemies. 

VIII. Caius Caesar was born on the day before the calends [31st August]of September, at the time his father and Caius Fonteius Capito wereconsuls [384]. But where he was born, is rendered uncertain from thenumber of places which are said to have given him birth. Cneius LentulusGaetulicus [385] says that he was born at Tibur; Pliny the younger, inthe country of the Treviri, at a village called Ambiatinus, aboveConfluentes [386]; and he alleges, as a proof of it, that altars arethere shown with this inscription: "For Agrippina's child-birth. " Someverses which were published in his reign, intimate that he was born inthe winter quarters of the legions, In castris natus, patriis nutritius in armis, Jam designati principis omen erat. 

 Born in the camp, and train'd in every toil Which taught his sire the haughtiest foes to foil; Destin'd he seem'd by fate to raise his name, And rule the empire with Augustan fame. 

I find in the public registers that he was born at Antium. Pliny chargesGaetulicus as guilty of an arrant forgery, merely to soothe the vanity ofa conceited young prince, by giving him the lustre of being born in acity sacred to Hercules; and says that he advanced this false assertionwith the more assurance, because, the year before the birth of Caius, Germanicus had a son of the same name born at Tibur; concerning whoseamiable childhood and premature death I have already spoken [387]. Datesclearly prove that Pliny is mistaken; for the writers of Augustus'shistory all agree, that Germanicus, at the expiration of his consulship, was sent into Gaul, after the birth of Caius. Nor will the inscriptionupon the altar serve to establish Pliny's opinion; because Agrippina wasdelivered of two daughters in that country, and any child-birth, withoutregard to sex, is called puerperium, as the ancients were used to callgirls puerae, and boys puelli. There is also extant a letter written byAugustus, a few months before his death, to his granddaughter Agrippina, about the same Caius (for there was then no other child of hers livingunder that name). He writes as follows: "I gave orders yesterday forTalarius and Asellius to set out on their journey towards you, if thegods permit, with your child Caius, upon the fifteenth of the calends ofJune [18th May]. I also send with him a physician of mine, and I wroteto Germanicus that he may retain him if he pleases. Farewell, my dearAgrippina, and take what care you can to (256) come safe and well to yourGermanicus. " I imagine it is sufficiently evident that Caius could notbe born at a place to which he was carried from The City when almost twoyears old. The same considerations must likewise invalidate the evidenceof the verses, and the rather, because the author is unknown. The onlyauthority, therefore, upon which we can depend in this matter, is that ofthe acts, and the public register; especially as he always preferredAntium to every other place of retirement, and entertained for it allthat fondness which is commonly attached to one's native soil. It issaid, too, that, upon his growing weary of the city, he designed to havetransferred thither the seat of empire. 

IX. It was to the jokes of the soldiers in the camp that he owed thename of Caligula [388], he having been brought up among them in the dressof a common soldier. How much his education amongst them recommended himto their favour and affection, was sufficiently apparent in the mutinyupon the death of Augustus, when the mere sight of him appeased theirfury, though it had risen to a great height. For they persisted in it, until they observed that he was sent away to a neighbouring city [389], to secure him against all danger. Then, at last, they began to relent, and, stopping the chariot in which he was conveyed, earnestly deprecatedthe odium to which such a proceeding would expose them. 

X. He likewise attended his father in his expedition to Syria. Afterhis return, he lived first with his mother, and, when she was banished, with his great-grandmother, Livia Augusta, in praise of whom, after herdecease, though then only a boy, he pronounced a funeral oration in theRostra. He was then transferred to the family of his grandmother, Antonia, and afterwards, in the twentieth year of his age, being calledby Tiberius to Capri, he in one and the same day assumed the manly habit, and shaved his beard, but without receiving any of the honours which hadbeen paid to his brothers on a similar (257) occasion. While he remainedin that island, many insidious artifices were practised, to extort fromhim complaints against Tiberius, but by his circumspection he avoidedfalling into the snare [390]. He affected to take no more notice of theill-treatment of his relations, than if nothing had befallen them. Withregard to his own sufferings, he seemed utterly insensible of them, andbehaved with such obsequiousness to his grandfather [391] and all abouthim, that it was justly said of him, "There never was a better servant, nor a worse master. "

XI. But he could not even then conceal his natural disposition tocruelty and lewdness. He delighted in witnessing the infliction ofpunishments, and frequented taverns and bawdy-houses in the night-time, disguised in a periwig and a long coat; and was passionately addicted tothe theatrical arts of singing and dancing. All these levities Tiberiusreadily connived at, in hopes that they might perhaps correct theroughness of his temper, which the sagacious old man so well understood, that he often said, "That Caius was destined to be the ruin of himselfand all mankind; and that he was rearing a hydra [392] for the people ofRome, and a Phaeton for all the world. " [393]

XII. Not long afterwards, he married Junia Claudilla, the daughter ofMarcus Silanus, a man of the highest rank. Being then chosen augur inthe room of his brother Drusus, before he could be inaugurated he wasadvanced to the pontificate, with no small commendation of his dutifulbehaviour, and great capacity. The situation of the court likewise wasat this time favourable to his fortunes, as it was now left destitute ofsupport, Sejanus being suspected, and soon afterwards taken off; and hewas by degrees flattered with the hope of succeeding Tiberius in theempire. In order more effectually to secure this object, upon Junia'sdying in child-bed, he engaged in a criminal commerce with Ennia Naevia, the wife (258) of Macro, at that time prefect of the pretorian cohorts;promising to marry her if he became emperor, to which he bound himself, not only by an oath, but by a written obligation under his hand. Havingby her means insinuated himself into Macro's favour, some are of opinionthat he attempted to poison Tiberius, and ordered his ring to be takenfrom him, before the breath was out of his body; and that, because heseemed to hold it fast, he caused a pillow to be thrown upon him [394], squeezing him by the throat, at the same time, with his own hand. One ofhis freedmen crying out at this horrid barbarity, he was immediatelycrucified. These circumstances are far from being improbable, as someauthors relate that, afterwards, though he did not acknowledge his havinga hand in the death of Tiberius, yet he frankly declared that he hadformerly entertained such a design; and as a proof of his affection forhis relations, he would frequently boast, "That, to revenge the death ofhis mother and brothers, he had entered the chamber of Tiberius, when hewas asleep, with a poniard, but being seized with a fit of compassion, threw it away, and retired; and that Tiberius, though aware of hisintention, durst not make any inquiries, or attempt revenge. "

XIII. Having thus secured the imperial power, he fulfilled by hiselevation the wish of the Roman people, I may venture to say, of allmankind; for he had long been the object of expectation and desire to thegreater part of the provincials and soldiers, who had known him when achild; and to the whole people of Rome, from their affection for thememory of Germanicus, his father, and compassion for the family almostentirely destroyed. Upon his moving from Misenum, therefore, although hewas in mourning, and following the corpse of Tiberius, he had to walkamidst altars, victims, and lighted torches, with prodigious crowds ofpeople everywhere attending him, in transports of joy, and calling him, besides other auspicious names, by those of "their star, " "their chick, ""their pretty puppet, " and "bantling. "

XIV. Immediately on his entering the city, by the joint acclamations ofthe senate, and people, who broke into the senate-house, Tiberius's willwas set aside, it having left his (259) other grandson [395], then aminor, coheir with him, the whole government and administration ofaffairs was placed in his hands; so much to the joy and satisfaction ofthe public, that, in less than three months after, above a hundred andsixty thousand victims are said to have been offered in sacrifice. Uponhis going, a few days afterwards, to the nearest islands on the coast ofCampania [396], vows were made for his safe return; every personemulously testifying their care and concern for his safety. And when hefell ill, the people hung about the Palatium all night long; some vowed, in public handbills, to risk their lives in the combats of theamphitheatre, and others to lay them down, for his recovery. To thisextraordinary love entertained for him by his countrymen, was added anuncommon regard by foreign nations. Even Artabanus, king of theParthians, who had always manifested hatred and contempt for Tiberius, solicited his friendship; came to hold a conference with his consularlieutenant, and passing the Euphrates, paid the highest honours to theeagles, the Roman standards, and the images of the Caesars. [397]

XV. Caligula himself inflamed this devotion, by practising all the artsof popularity. After he had delivered, with floods of tears, a speech inpraise of Tiberius, and buried him with the utmost pomp, he immediatelyhastened over to Pandataria and the Pontian islands [398], to bringthence the ashes of his mother and brother; and, to testify the greatregard he had for their memory, he performed the voyage in a verytempestuous season. He approached their remains with profoundveneration, and deposited them in the urns with his own hands. Havingbrought them in grand solemnity to Ostia [399], with an ensign flying inthe stern of the galley, and thence up the Tiber to Rome, they were borneby persons of the first distinction in the equestrian order, on twobiers, into the mausoleum [400], (260) at noon-day. He appointed yearlyofferings to be solemnly and publicly celebrated to their memory, besidesCircensian games to that of his mother, and a chariot with her image tobe included in the procession [401]. The month of September he calledGermanicus, in honour of his father. By a single decree of the senate, he heaped upon his grandmother, Antonia, all the honours which had beenever conferred on the empress Livia. His uncle, Claudius, who till thencontinued in the equestrian order, he took for his colleague in theconsulship. He adopted his brother, Tiberius [402], on the day he tookupon him the manly habit, and conferred upon him the title of "Prince ofthe Youths. " As for his sisters, he ordered these words to be added tothe oaths of allegiance to himself: "Nor will I hold myself or my ownchildren more dear than I do Caius and his sisters:" [403] and commandedall resolutions proposed by the consuls in the senate to be prefacedthus: "May what we are going to do, prove fortunate and happy to CaiusCaesar and his sisters. " With the like popularity he restored all thosewho had been condemned and banished, and granted an act of indemnityagainst all impeachments and past offences. To relieve the informers andwitnesses against his mother and brothers from all apprehension, hebrought the records of their trials into the forum, and there burnt them, calling loudly on the gods to witness that he had not read or handledthem. A memorial which was offered him relative to his own security, hewould not receive, declaring, "that he had done nothing to make any onehis enemy:" and said, at the same time, "he had no ears for informers. "

XVI. The Spintriae, those panderers to unnatural lusts [404], hebanished from the city, being prevailed upon not to throw them (261) intothe sea, as he had intended. The writings of Titus Labienus, CordusCremutius, and Cassius Severus, which had been suppressed by an act ofthe senate, he permitted to be drawn from obscurity, and universallyread; observing, "that it would be for his own advantage to have thetransactions of former times delivered to posterity. " He publishedaccounts of the proceedings of the government--a practice which had beenintroduced by Augustus, but discontinued by Tiberius [405]. He grantedthe magistrates a full and free jurisdiction, without any appeal tohimself. He made a very strict and exact review of the Roman knights, but conducted it with moderation; publicly depriving of his horse everyknight who lay under the stigma of any thing base and dishonourable; butpassing over the names of those knights who were only guilty of venialfaults, in calling over the list of the order. To lighten the labours ofthe judges, he added a fifth class to the former four. He attemptedlikewise to restore to the people their ancient right of voting in thechoice of magistrates [406]. He paid very honourably, and without anydispute, the legacies left by Tiberius in his will, though it had beenset aside; as likewise those left by the will of Livia Augusta, whichTiberius had annulled. He remitted the hundredth penny, due to thegovernment in all auctions throughout Italy. He made up to many theirlosses sustained by fire; and when he restored their kingdoms to anyprinces, he likewise allowed them all the arrears of the taxes andrevenues which had accrued in the interval; as in the case of Antiochusof Comagene, where the confiscation would have amounted to a hundredmillions of sesterces. To prove to the world that he was ready toencourage good examples of every kind, he gave to a freed-woman eightythousand sesterces, for not discovering a crime committed by her patron, though she had been put to exquisite torture for that purpose. For allthese acts of beneficence, amongst other honours, a golden shield wasdecreed to him, which the colleges of priests were to carry annually, upon a fixed day, into the Capitol, with the senate attending, and theyouth of the nobility, of both sexes, celebrating the praise of hisvirtues in (262) songs. It was likewise ordained, that the day on whichhe succeeded to the empire should be called Palilia, in token of thecity's being at that time, as it were, new founded. [407]

XVII. He held the consulship four times; the first [408], from thecalends [the first] of July for two months: the second [409], from thecalends of January for thirty days; the third [410], until the ides [the13th] of January; and the fourth [411], until the seventh of the sameides [7th January]. Of these, the two last he held successively. Thethird he assumed by his sole authority at Lyons; not, as some are ofopinion, from arrogance or neglect of rules; but because, at thatdistance, it was impossible for him to know that his colleague had died alittle before the beginning of the new year. He twice distributed to thepeople a bounty of three hundred sesterces a man, and as often gave asplendid feast to the senate and the equestrian order, with their wivesand children. In the latter, he presented to the men forensic garments, and to the women and children purple scarfs. To make a perpetualaddition to the public joy for ever, he added to the Saturnalia [412] oneday, which he called Juvenalis [the juvenile feast]. 

XVIII. He exhibited some combats of gladiators, either in theamphitheatre of Taurus [413], or in the Septa, with which he intermingledtroops of the best pugilists from Campania and Africa. He did not alwayspreside in person upon those occasions, but sometimes gave a commissionto magistrates or friends to supply his place. He frequently entertainedthe people with stage-plays (263) of various kinds, and in several partsof the city, and sometimes by night, when he caused the whole city to belighted. He likewise gave various things to be scrambled for among thepeople, and distributed to every man a basket of bread with othervictuals. Upon this occasion, he sent his own share to a Roman knight, who was seated opposite to him, and was enjoying himself by eatingheartily. To a senator, who was doing the same, he sent an appointmentof praetor-extraordinary. He likewise exhibited a great number ofCircensian games from morning until night; intermixed with the hunting ofwild beasts from Africa, or the Trojan exhibition. Some of these gameswere celebrated with peculiar circumstances; the Circus being overspreadwith vermilion and chrysolite; and none drove in the chariot races whowere not of the senatorian order. For some of these he suddenly gave thesignal, when, upon his viewing from the Gelotiana [414] the preparationsin the Circus, he was asked to do so by a few persons in the neighbouringgalleries. 

XIX. He invented besides a new kind of spectacle, such as had never beenheard of before. For he made a bridge, of about three miles and a halfin length, from Baiae to the mole of Puteoli [415], collecting tradingvessels from all quarters, mooring them in two rows by their anchors, andspreading earth upon them to form a viaduct, after the fashion of theAppian Way [416]. This bridge he crossed and recrossed for two daystogether; the first day mounted on a horse richly caparisoned, wearing onhis head a crown of oak leaves, armed with a battle-axe, a Spanishbuckler and a sword, and in a cloak made of cloth of gold; the dayfollowing, in the habit of a charioteer, standing in a chariot, drawn bytwo high-bred horses, having with him a young boy, Darius by name, one ofthe Parthian hostages, with a cohort of the pretorian guards attendinghim, and a (264) party of his friends in cars of Gaulish make [417]. Most people, I know, are of opinion, that this bridge was designed byCaius, in imitation of Xerxes, who, to the astonishment of the world, laid a bridge over the Hellespont, which is somewhat narrower than thedistance betwixt Baiae and Puteoli. Others, however, thought that he didit to strike terror in Germany and Britain, which he was upon the pointof invading, by the fame of some prodigious work. But for myself, when Iwas a boy, I heard my grandfather say [418], that the reason assigned bysome courtiers who were in habits of the greatest intimacy with him, wasthis; when Tiberius was in some anxiety about the nomination of asuccessor, and rather inclined to pitch upon his grandson, Thrasyllus theastrologer had assured him, "That Caius would no more be emperor, than hewould ride on horseback across the gulf of Baiae. "

XX. He likewise exhibited public diversions in Sicily, Grecian games atSyracuse, and Attic plays at Lyons in Gaul besides a contest forpre-eminence in the Grecian and Roman eloquence; in which we are told thatsuch as were baffled bestowed rewards upon the best performers, and wereobliged to compose speeches in their praise: but that those who performedthe worst, were forced to blot out what they had written with a sponge ortheir tongue, unless they preferred to be beaten with a rod, or plungedover head and ears into the nearest river. 

XXI. He completed the works which were left unfinished by Tiberius, namely, the temple of Augustus, and the theatre (265) of Pompey [419]. He began, likewise, the aqueduct from the neighbourhood of Tibur [420], and an amphitheatre near the Septa [421]; of which works, one wascompleted by his successor Claudius, and the other remained as he leftit. The walls of Syracuse, which had fallen to decay by length of time, he repaired, as he likewise did the temples of the gods. He formed plansfor rebuilding the palace of Polycrates at Samos, finishing the temple ofthe Didymaean Apollo at Miletus, and building a town on a ridge of theAlps; but, above all, for cutting through the isthmus in Achaia [422];and even sent a centurion of the first rank to measure out the work. 

XXII. Thus far we have spoken of him as a prince. What remains to besaid of him, bespeaks him rather a monster than a man. He assumed avariety of titles, such as "Dutiful, " "The (266) Pious, " "The Child ofthe Camp, the Father of the Armies, " and "The Greatest and Best Caesar. "Upon hearing some kings, who came to the city to pay him court, conversing together at supper, about their illustrious descent, heexclaimed, Eis koiranos eto, eis basileus. Let there be but one prince, one king. 

He was strongly inclined to assume the diadem, and change the form ofgovernment, from imperial to regal; but being told that he far exceededthe grandeur of kings and princes, he began to arrogate to himself adivine majesty. He ordered all the images of the gods, which were famouseither for their beauty, or the veneration paid them, among which wasthat of Jupiter Olympius, to be brought from Greece, that he might takethe heads off, and put on his own. Having continued part of the Palatiumas far as the Forum, and the temple of Castor and Pollux being convertedinto a kind of vestibule to his house, he often stationed himself betweenthe twin brothers, and so presented himself to be worshipped by allvotaries; some of whom saluted him by the name of Jupiter Latialis. Healso instituted a temple and priests, with choicest victims, in honour ofhis own divinity. In his temple stood a statue of gold, the exact imageof himself, which was daily dressed in garments corresponding with thosehe wore himself. The most opulent persons in the city offered themselvesas candidates for the honour of being his priests, and purchased itsuccessively at an immense price. The victims were flamingos, peacocks, bustards, guinea-fowls, turkey and pheasant hens, each sacrificed ontheir respective days. On nights when the moon was full, he was in theconstant habit of inviting her to his embraces and his bed. In theday-time he talked in private to Jupiter Capitolinus; one while whisperingto him, and another turning his ear to him: sometimes he spoke aloud, andin railing language. For he was overheard to threaten the god thus:

 Hae em' anaeir', hae ego se; [423] Raise thou me up, or I'll--

(267) until being at last prevailed upon by the entreaties of the god, ashe said, to take up his abode with him, he built a bridge over the templeof the Deified Augustus, by which he joined the Palatium to the Capitol. Afterwards, that he might be still nearer, he laid the foundations of anew palace in the very court of the Capitol. 

XXIII. He was unwilling to be thought or called the grandson of Agrippa, because of the obscurity of his birth; and he was offended if any one, either in prose or verse, ranked him amongst the Caesars. He said thathis mother was the fruit of an incestuous commerce, maintained byAugustus with his daughter Julia. And not content with this vilereflection upon the memory of Augustus, he forbad his victories atActium, and on the coast of Sicily, to be celebrated, as usual; affirmingthat they had been most pernicious and fatal to the Roman people. Hecalled his grandmother Livia Augusta "Ulysses in a woman's dress, " andhad the indecency to reflect upon her in a letter to the senate, as ofmean birth, and descended, by the mother's side, from a grandfather whowas only one of the municipal magistrates of Fondi; whereas it iscertain, from the public records, that Aufidius Lurco held high officesat Rome. His grandmother Antonia desiring a private conference with him, he refused to grant it, unless Macro, the prefect of the pretorianguards, were present. Indignities of this kind, and ill usage, were thecause of her death; but some think he also gave her poison. Nor did hepay the smallest respect to her memory after her death, but witnessed theburning from his private apartment. His brother Tiberius, who had noexpectation of any violence, was suddenly dispatched by a militarytribune sent by his order for that purpose. He forced Silanus, hisfather-in-law, to kill himself, by cutting his throat with a razor. Thepretext he alleged for these murders was, that the latter had notfollowed him upon his putting to sea in stormy weather, but stayed behindwith the view of seizing the city, if he should perish. The other, hesaid, smelt of an antidote, which he had taken to prevent his beingpoisoned by him; whereas Silanus was only afraid of being sea-sick, andthe disagreeableness of a voyage; and Tiberius had merely taken amedicine for an habitual cough, (268) which was continually growingworse. As for his successor Claudius, he only saved him for alaughing-stock. 

XXIV. He lived in the habit of incest with all his sisters; and attable, when much company was present, he placed each of them in turnsbelow him, whilst his wife reclined above him. It is believed, that hedeflowered one of them, Drusilla, before he had assumed the robe ofmanhood; and was even caught in her embraces by his grandmother Antonia, with whom they were educated together. When she was afterwards marriedto Cassius Longinus, a man of consular rank, he took her from him, andkept her constantly as if she were his lawful wife. In a fit ofsickness, he by his will appointed her heiress both of his estate and theempire. After her death, he ordered a public mourning for her; duringwhich it was capital for any person to laugh, use the bath, or sup withhis parents, wife, or children. Being inconsolable under his affliction, he went hastily, and in the night-time, from the City; going throughCampania to Syracuse, and then suddenly returned without shaving hisbeard, or trimming his hair. Nor did he ever afterwards, in matters ofthe greatest importance, not even in the assemblies of the people orbefore the soldiers, swear any otherwise, than "By the divinity ofDrusilla. " The rest of his sisters he did not treat with so muchfondness or regard; but frequently prostituted them to his catamites. Hetherefore the more readily condemned them in the case of AemiliusLepidus, as guilty of adultery, and privy to that conspiracy against him. Nor did he only divulge their own hand-writing relative to the affair, which he procured by base and lewd means, but likewise consecrated toMars the Avenger three swords which had been prepared to stab him, withan inscription, setting forth the occasion of their consecration. 

XXV. Whether in the marriage of his wives, in repudiating them, orretaining them, he acted with greater infamy, it is difficult to say. Being at the wedding of Caius Piso with Livia Orestilla, he ordered thebride to be carried to his own house, but within a few days divorced her, and two years after banished her; because it was thought, that upon herdivorce she returned to the embraces of her former husband. (269) Somesay, that being invited to the wedding-supper, he sent a messenger toPiso, who sat opposite to him, in these words: "Do not be too fond withmy wife, " and that he immediately carried her off. Next day he publisheda proclamation, importing, "That he had got a wife as Romulus andAugustus had done. " [424] Lollia Paulina, who was married to a man ofconsular rank in command of an army, he suddenly called from the provincewhere she was with her husband, upon mention being made that hergrandmother was formerly very beautiful, and married her; but he soonafterwards parted with her, interdicting her from having ever afterwardsany commerce with man. He loved with a most passionate and constantaffection Caesonia, who was neither handsome nor young; and was besidesthe mother of three daughters by another man; but a wanton of unboundedlasciviousness. Her he would frequently exhibit to the soldiers, dressedin a military cloak, with shield and helmet, and riding by his side. Tohis friends he even showed her naked. After she had a child, he honouredher with the title of wife; in one and the same day, declaring himselfher husband, and father of the child of which she was delivered. Henamed it Julia Drusilla, and carrying it round the temples of all thegoddesses, laid it on the lap of Minerva; to whom he recommended the careof bringing up and instructing her. He considered her as his own childfor no better reason than her savage temper, which was such even in herinfancy, that she would attack with her nails the face and eyes of thechildren at play with her. 

XXVI. It would be of little importance, as well as disgusting, to add toall this an account of the manner in which he treated his relations andfriends; as Ptolemy, king Juba's son, his cousin (for he was the grandsonof Mark Antony by his daughter Selene) [425], and especially Macrohimself, and Ennia likewise [426], by whose assistance he had obtainedthe empire; all of whom, for their alliance and eminent services, herewarded with violent deaths. Nor was he more mild or respectful in hisbehaviour towards the senate. Some who had borne the (270) highestoffices in the government, he suffered to run by his litter in theirtogas for several miles together, and to attend him at supper, sometimesat the head of his couch, sometimes at his feet, with napkins. Others ofthem, after he had privately put them to death, he nevertheless continuedto send for, as if they were still alive, and after a few days pretendedthat they had laid violent hands upon themselves. The consuls havingforgotten to give public notice of his birth-day, he displaced them; andthe republic was three days without any one in that high office. Aquaestor who was said to be concerned in a conspiracy against him, hescourged severely, having first stripped off his clothes, and spread themunder the feet of the soldiers employed in the work, that they mightstand the more firm. The other orders likewise he treated with the sameinsolence and violence. Being disturbed by the noise of people takingtheir places at midnight in the circus, as they were to have freeadmission, he drove them all away with clubs. In this tumult, abovetwenty Roman knights were squeezed to death, with as many matrons, with agreat crowd besides. When stage-plays were acted, to occasion disputesbetween the people and the knights, he distributed the money-ticketssooner than usual, that the seats assigned to the knights might be alloccupied by the mob. In the spectacles of gladiators, sometimes, whenthe sun was violently hot, he would order the curtains, which covered theamphitheatre, to be drawn aside [427], and forbad any person to be letout; withdrawing at the same time the usual apparatus for theentertainment, and presenting wild beasts almost pined to death, the mostsorry gladiators, decrepit with age, and fit only to work the machinery, and decent house-keepers, who were remarkable for some bodily infirmity. Sometimes shutting up the public granaries, he would oblige the people tostarve for a while. 

XXVII. He evinced the savage barbarity of his temper chiefly by thefollowing indications. When flesh was only to be had at a high price forfeeding his wild beasts reserved for the spectacles, he ordered thatcriminals should be given them (271) to be devoured; and upon inspectingthem in a row, while he stood in the middle of the portico, withouttroubling himself to examine their cases he ordered them to be draggedaway, from "bald-pate to bald-pate. " [428] Of one person who had made avow for his recovery to combat with a gladiator, he exacted itsperformance; nor would he allow him to desist until he came offconqueror, and after many entreaties. Another, who had vowed to give hislife for the same cause, having shrunk from the sacrifice, he delivered, adorned as a victim, with garlands and fillets, to boys, who were todrive him through the streets, calling on him to fulfil his vow, until hewas thrown headlong from the ramparts. After disfiguring many persons ofhonourable rank, by branding them in the face with hot irons, hecondemned them to the mines, to work in repairing the high-ways, or tofight with wild beasts; or tying them by the neck and heels, in themanner of beasts carried to slaughter, would shut them up in cages, orsaw them asunder. Nor were these severities merely inflicted for crimesof great enormity, but for making remarks on his public games, or for nothaving sworn by the Genius of the emperor. He compelled parents to bepresent at the execution of their sons; and to one who excused himself onaccount of indisposition, he sent his own litter. Another he invited tohis table immediately after he had witnessed the spectacle, and coollychallenged him to jest and be merry. He ordered the overseer of thespectacles and wild beasts to be scourged in fetters, during several dayssuccessively, in his own presence, and did not put him to death until hewas disgusted with the stench of his putrefied brain. He burned alive, in the centre of the arena of the amphitheatre, the writer of a farce, for some witty verse, which had a double meaning. A Roman knight, whohad been exposed to the wild beasts, crying out that he was innocent, hecalled him back, and having had his tongue cut out, remanded him to thearena. 

XXVIII. Asking a certain person, whom he recalled after a long exile, how he used to spend his time, he replied, with flattery, "I was alwayspraying the gods for what has happened, that Tiberius might die, and yoube emperor. " Concluding, therefore, that those he had himself banishedalso (272) prayed for his death, he sent orders round the islands [429]to have them all put to death. Being very desirous to have a senatortorn to pieces, he employed some persons to call him a public enemy, fallupon him as he entered the senate-house, stab him with their styles, anddeliver him to the rest to tear asunder. Nor was he satisfied, until hesaw the limbs and bowels of the man, after they had been dragged throughthe streets, piled up in a heap before him. 

XXIX. He aggravated his barbarous actions by language equallyoutrageous. "There is nothing in my nature, " said he, "that I commend orapprove so much, as my adiatrepsia (inflexible rigour). " Upon hisgrandmother Antonia's giving him some advice, as if it was a small matterto pay no regard to it, he said to her, "Remember that all things arelawful for me. " When about to murder his brother, whom he suspected oftaking antidotes against poison, he said, "See then an antidote againstCaesar!" And when he banished his sisters, he told them in a menacingtone, that he had not only islands at command, but likewise swords. Oneof pretorian rank having sent several times from Anticyra [430], whitherhe had gone for his health, to have his leave of absence prolonged, heordered him to be put to death; adding these words "Bleeding is necessaryfor one that has taken hellebore so long, and found no benefit. " It washis custom every tenth day to sign the lists of prisoners appointed forexecution; and this he called "clearing his accounts. " And havingcondemned several Gauls and Greeks at one time, he exclaimed in triumph, "I have conquered Gallograecia. " [431]

XXX. He generally prolonged the sufferings of his victims by causingthem to be inflicted by slight and frequently repeated strokes; thisbeing his well-known and constant order: (273) "Strike so that he mayfeel himself die. " Having punished one person for another, by mistakinghis name, he said, "he deserved it quite as much. " He had frequently inhis mouth these words of the tragedian, Oderint dum metuant. [432] I scorn their hatred, if they do but fear me. 

He would often inveigh against all the senators without exception, asclients of Sejanus, and informers against his mother and brothers, producing the memorials which he had pretended to burn, and excusing thecruelty of Tiberius as necessary, since it was impossible to question theveracity of such a number of accusers [433]. He continually reproachedthe whole equestrian order, as devoting themselves to nothing but actingon the stage, and fighting as gladiators. Being incensed at the people'sapplauding a party at the Circensian games in opposition to him, heexclaimed, "I wish the Roman people had but one neck. " [434] WhenTetrinius, the highwayman, was denounced, he said his persecutors toowere all Tetrinius's. Five Retiarii [435], in tunics, fighting in acompany, yielded without a struggle to the same number of opponents; andbeing ordered to be slain, one of them taking up his lance again, killedall the conquerors. This he lamented in a proclamation as a most cruelbutchery, and cursed all those who had borne the sight of it. 

XXXI. He used also to complain aloud of the state of the times, becauseit was not rendered remarkable by any public (274) calamities; for, whilethe reign of Augustus had been made memorable to posterity by thedisaster of Varus [436], and that of Tiberius by the fall of the theatreat Fidenae [437], his was likely to pass into oblivion, from anuninterrupted series of prosperity. And, at times, he wished for someterrible slaughter of his troops, a famine, a pestilence, conflagrations, or an earthquake. 

XXXII. Even in the midst of his diversions, while gaming or feasting, this savage ferocity, both in his language and actions, never forsookhim. Persons were often put to the torture in his presence, whilst hewas dining or carousing. A soldier, who was an adept in the art ofbeheading, used at such times to take off the heads of prisoners, whowere brought in for that purpose. At Puteoli, at the dedication of thebridge which he planned, as already mentioned [438], he invited a numberof people to come to him from the shore, and then suddenly, threw themheadlong into the sea; thrusting down with poles and oars those who, tosave themselves, had got hold of the rudders of the ships. At Rome, in apublic feast, a slave having stolen some thin plates of silver with whichthe couches were inlaid, he delivered him immediately to an executioner, with orders to cut off his hands, and lead him round the guests, withthem hanging from his neck before his breast, and a label, signifying thecause of his punishment. A gladiator who was practising with him, andvoluntarily threw himself at his feet, he stabbed with a poniard, andthen ran about with a palm branch in his hand, after the manner of thosewho are victorious in the games. When a victim was to be offered upon analtar, he, clad in the habit of the Popae [439], and holding the axealoft for a while, at last, instead of the animal, slaughtered an officerwho attended to cut up the sacrifice. And at a sumptuous entertainment, he fell suddenly into a violent fit of laughter, and upon the consuls, who reclined next to him, respectfully asking him the occasion, "Nothing, " replied he, "but that, upon a single nod of mine, you mightboth have your throats cut. "

(275) XXXIII. Among many other jests, this was one: As he stood by thestatue of Jupiter, he asked Apelles, the tragedian, which of them hethought was biggest? Upon his demurring about it, he lashed him mostseverely, now and then commending his voice, whilst he entreated formercy, as being well modulated even when he was venting his grief. Asoften as he kissed the neck of his wife or mistress, he would say, "Sobeautiful a throat must be cut whenever I please;" and now and then hewould threaten to put his dear Caesonia to the torture, that he mightdiscover why he loved her so passionately. 

XXXIV. In his behaviour towards men of almost all ages, he discovered adegree of jealousy and malignity equal to that of his cruelty and pride. He so demolished and dispersed the statues of several illustriouspersons, which had been removed by Augustus, for want of room, from thecourt of the Capitol into the Campus Martius, that it was impossible toset them up again with their inscriptions entire. And, for the future, he forbad any statue whatever to be erected without his knowledge andleave. He had thoughts too of suppressing Homer's poems: "For why, " saidhe, "may not I do what Plato has done before me, who excluded him fromhis commonwealth?" [440] He was likewise very near banishing thewritings and the busts of Virgil and Livy from all libraries; censuringone of them as "a man of no genius and very little learning;" and theother as "a verbose and careless historian. " He often talked of thelawyers as if he intended to abolish their profession. "By Hercules!"he would say, "I shall put it out of their power to answer any questionsin law, otherwise than by referring to me!"

XXXV. He took from the noblest persons in the city the ancient marks ofdistinction used by their families; as the collar from Torquatus [441];from Cincinnatus the curl of (276) hair [442]; and from Cneius Pompey, the surname of Great, belonging to that ancient family. Ptolemy, mentioned before, whom he invited from his kingdom, and received withgreat honours, he suddenly put to death, for no other reason, but becausehe observed that upon entering the theatre, at a public exhibition, heattracted the eyes of all the spectators, by the splendour of his purplerobe. As often as he met with handsome men, who had fine heads of hair, he would order the back of their heads to be shaved, to make them appearridiculous. There was one Esius Proculus, the son of a centurion of thefirst rank, who, for his great stature and fine proportions, was calledthe Colossal. Him he ordered to be dragged from his seat in the arena, and matched with a gladiator in light armour, and afterwards with anothercompletely armed; and upon his worsting them both, commanded himforthwith to be bound, to be led clothed in rags up and down the streetsof the city, and, after being exhibited in that plight to the women, tobe then butchered. There was no man of so abject or mean condition, whose excellency in any kind he did not envy. The Rex Nemorensis [443]having many years enjoyed the honour of the priesthood, he procured astill stronger antagonist to oppose him. One Porius, who fought in achariot [444], having been victorious in an exhibition, and in his joygiven freedom to a slave, was applauded so vehemently, that Caligula rosein such haste from his seat, that, treading upon the hem of his toga, hetumbled down the steps, full of indignation, (277) and crying out, "Apeople who are masters of the world, pay greater respect to a gladiatorfor a trifle, than to princes admitted amongst the gods, or to my ownmajesty here present amongst them. "

XXXVI. He never had the least regard either to the chastity of his ownperson, or that of others. He is said to have been inflamed with anunnatural passion for Marcus Lepidus Mnester, an actor in pantomimes, andfor certain hostages; and to have engaged with them in the practice ofmutual pollution. Valerius Catullus, a young man of a consular family, bawled aloud in public that he had been exhausted by him in thatabominable act. Besides his incest with his sisters, and his notoriouspassion for Pyrallis, the prostitute, there was hardly any lady ofdistinction with whom he did not make free. He used commonly to invitethem with their husbands to supper, and as they passed by the couch onwhich he reclined at table, examine them very closely, like those whotraffic in slaves; and if any one from modesty held down her face, heraised it up with his hand. Afterwards, as often as he was in thehumour, he would quit the room, send for her he liked best, and in ashort time return with marks of recent disorder about them. He wouldthen commend or disparage her in the presence of the company, recountingthe charms or defects of her person and behaviour in private. To some hesent a divorce in the name of their absent husbands, and ordered it to beregistered in the public acts. 

XXXVII. In the devices of his profuse expenditure, he surpassed all theprodigals that ever lived; inventing a new kind of bath, with strangedishes and suppers, washing in precious unguents, both warm and cold, drinking pearls of immense value dissolved in vinegar, and serving up forhis guests loaves and other victuals modelled in gold; often saying, "that a man ought either to be a good economist or an emperor. " Besides, he scattered money to a prodigious amount among the people, from the topof the Julian Basilica [445], during several days successively. He builttwo ships with ten banks of oars, after the Liburnian fashion, the poopsof which blazed with jewels, and the sails were of various parti-colours. They were fitted up with ample baths, galleries, and saloons, andsupplied with a great variety of vines and other fruit-trees. In thesehe would sail in the day-time along the coast of Campania, feasting (278)amidst dancing and concerts of music. In building his palaces andvillas, there was nothing he desired to effect so much, in defiance ofall reason, as what was considered impossible. Accordingly, moles wereformed in the deep and adverse sea [446], rocks of the hardest stone cutaway, plains raised to the height of mountains with a vast mass of earth, and the tops of mountains levelled by digging; and all these were to beexecuted with incredible speed, for the least remissness was a capitaloffence. Not to mention particulars, he spent enormous sums, and thewhole treasures which had been amassed by Tiberius Caesar, amounting totwo thousand seven hundred millions of sesterces, within less than ayear. 

XXXVIII. Having therefore quite exhausted these funds, and being in wantof money, he had recourse to plundering the people, by every mode offalse accusation, confiscation, and taxation, that could be invented. Hedeclared that no one had any right to the freedom of Rome, although theirancestors had acquired it for themselves and their posterity, unless theywere sons; for that none beyond that degree ought to be considered asposterity. When the grants of the Divine Julius and Augustus wereproduced to him, he only said, that he was very sorry they were obsoleteand out of date. He also charged all those with making false returns, who, after the taking of the census, had by any means whatever increasedtheir property. He annulled the wills of all who had been centurions ofthe first rank, as testimonies of their base ingratitude, if from thebeginning of Tiberius's reign they had not left either that prince orhimself their heir. He also set aside the wills of all others, if anyperson only pretended to say, that they designed at their death to leaveCaesar their heir. The public becoming terrified at this proceeding, hewas now appointed joint-heir with their friends, and in the case ofparents with their children, by persons unknown to him. Those who livedany considerable time after making such a will, he said, were only makinggame of him; and accordingly he sent many of them poisoned cakes. Heused to try such causes himself; fixing previously the sum he proposed toraise during the sitting, and, after he had secured it, quitting thetribunal. Impatient of the least delay, he condemned by a singlesentence forty (279) persons, against whom there were different charges;boasting to Caesonia when she awoke, "how much business he had dispatchedwhile she was taking her mid-day sleep. " He exposed to sale by auction, the remains of the apparatus used in the public spectacles; and exactedsuch biddings, and raised the prices so high, that some of the purchaserswere ruined, and bled themselves to death. There is a well-known storytold of Aponius Saturninus, who happening to fall asleep as he sat on abench at the sale, Caius called out to the auctioneer, not to overlookthe praetorian personage who nodded to him so often; and accordingly thesalesman went on, pretending to take the nods for tokens of assent, untilthirteen gladiators were knocked down to him at the sum of nine millionsof sesterces [447], he being in total ignorance of what was doing. 

XXXIX. Having also sold in Gaul all the clothes, furniture, slaves, andeven freedmen belonging to his sisters, at prodigious prices, after theircondemnation, he was so much delighted with his gains, that he sent toRome for all the furniture of the old palace [448]; pressing for itsconveyance all the carriages let to hire in the city, with the horses andmules belonging to the bakers, so that they often wanted bread at Rome;and many who had suits at law in progress, lost their causes, becausethey could not make their appearance in due time according to theirrecognizances. In the sale of this furniture, every artifice of fraudand imposition was employed. Sometimes he would rail at the bidders forbeing niggardly, and ask them "if they were not ashamed to be richer thanhe was?" at another, he would affect to be sorry that the property ofprinces should be passing into the hands of private persons. He hadfound out that a rich provincial had given two hundred thousand sestercesto his chamberlains for an underhand invitation to his table, and he wasmuch pleased to find that honour valued at so high a rate. The dayfollowing, as the same person was sitting at the sale, he sent him somebauble, for which he told him he must pay two hundred thousand sesterces, and "that he should sup with Caesar upon his own invitation. "

(280) XL. He levied new taxes, and such as were never before known, atfirst by the publicans, but afterwards, because their profit wasenormous, by centurions and tribunes of the pretorian guards; nodescription of property or persons being exempted from some kind of taxor other. For all eatables brought into the city, a certain excise wasexacted: for all law-suits or trials in whatever court, the fortieth partof the sum in dispute; and such as were convicted of compromisinglitigations, were made liable to a penalty. Out of the daily wages ofthe porters, he received an eighth, and from the gains of commonprostitutes, what they received for one favour granted. There was aclause in the law, that all bawds who kept women for prostitution orsale, should be liable to pay, and that marriage itself should not beexempted. 

XLI. These taxes being imposed, but the act by which they were leviednever submitted to public inspection, great grievances were experiencedfrom the want of sufficient knowledge of the law. At length, on theurgent demands of the Roman people, he published the law, but it waswritten in a very small hand, and posted up in a corner, so that no onecould make a copy of it. To leave no sort of gain untried, he openedbrothels in the Palatium, with a number of cells, furnished suitably tothe dignity of the place; in which married women and free-born youthswere ready for the reception of visitors. He sent likewise hisnomenclators about the forums and courts, to invite people of all ages, the old as well as the young, to his brothel, to come and satisfy theirlusts; and he was ready to lend his customers money upon interest; clerksattending to take down their names in public, as persons who contributedto the emperor's revenue. Another method of raising money, which hethought not below his notice, was gaming; which, by the help of lying andperjury, he turned to considerable account. Leaving once the managementof his play to his partner in the game, he stepped into the court, andobserving two rich Roman knights passing by, he ordered them immediatelyto be seized, and their estates confiscated. Then returning, in greatglee, he boasted that he had never made a better throw in his life. 

XLII. After the birth of his daughter, complaining of his (281) poverty, and the burdens to which he was subjected, not only as an emperor, but afather, he made a general collection for her maintenance and fortune. Helikewise gave public notice, that he would receive new-year's gifts onthe calends of January following; and accordingly stood in the vestibuleof his house, to clutch the presents which people of all ranks threw downbefore him by handfuls and lapfuls. At last, being seized with aninvincible desire of feeling money, taking off his slippers, herepeatedly walked over great heaps of gold coin spread upon the spaciousfloor, and then laying himself down, rolled his whole body in gold overand over again. 

XLIII. Only once in his life did he take an active part in militaryaffairs, and then not from any set purpose, but during his journey toMevania, to see the grove and river of Clitumnus [449]. Beingrecommended to recruit a body of Batavians, who attended him, he resolvedupon an expedition into Germany. Immediately he drew together severallegions, and auxiliary forces from all quarters, and made every where newlevies with the utmost rigour. Collecting supplies of all kinds, such asnever had been assembled upon the like occasion, he set forward on hismarch, and pursued it sometimes with so much haste and precipitation, that the pretorian cohorts were obliged, contrary to custom, to packtheir standards on horses or mules, and so follow him. At other times, he would march so slow and luxuriously, that he was carried in a litterby eight men; ordering the roads to be swept by the people of theneighbouring towns, and sprinkled with water to lay the dust. 

XLIV. On arriving at the camp, in order to show himself an activegeneral, and severe disciplinarian, he cashiered the lieutenants who cameup late with the auxiliary forces from different quarters. In reviewingthe army, he deprived of their companies most of the centurions of thefirst rank, who had now served their legal time in the wars, and somewhose time would have expired in a few days; alleging against them theirage and infirmity; and railing at the covetous disposition (282) of therest of them, he reduced the bounty due to those who had served out theirtime to the sum of six thousand sesterces. Though he only received thesubmission of Adminius, the son of Cunobeline, a British king, who beingdriven from his native country by his father, came over to him with asmall body of troops [450], yet, as if the whole island had beensurrendered to him, he dispatched magnificent letters to Rome, orderingthe bearers to proceed in their carriages directly up to the forum andthe senate-house, and not to deliver the letters but to the consuls inthe temple of Mars, and in the presence of a full assembly of thesenators. 

XLV. Soon after this, there being no hostilities, he ordered a fewGermans of his guard to be carried over and placed in concealment on theother side of the Rhine, and word to be brought him after dinner, that anenemy was advancing with great impetuosity. This being accordingly done, he immediately threw himself, with his friends, and a party of thepretorian knights, into the adjoining wood, where lopping branches fromthe trees, and forming trophies of them, he returned by torch-light, upbraiding those who did not follow him, with timorousness and cowardice;but he presented the companions, and sharers of his victory with crownsof a new form, and under a new name, having the sun, moon, and starsrepresented on them, and which he called Exploratoriae. Again, somehostages were by his order taken from the school, and privately sent off;upon notice of which he immediately rose from table, pursued them withthe cavalry, as if they had run away, and coming up with them, broughtthem back in fetters; proceeding to an extravagant pitch of ostentationlikewise in this military comedy. Upon his again sitting down to table, it being reported to him that the troops were all reassembled, he orderedthem to sit down as they were, in their armour, animating them in thewords of that well-known verse of Virgil:

 (283) Durate, et vosmet rebus servate secundis. --Aen. 1. Bear up, and save yourselves for better days. 

In the mean time, he reprimanded the senate and people of Rome in a verysevere proclamation, "For revelling and frequenting the diversions of thecircus and theatre, and enjoying themselves at their villas, whilst theiremperor was fighting, and exposing himself to the greatest dangers. "

XLVI. At last, as if resolved to make war in earnest, he drew up hisarmy upon the shore of the ocean, with his balistae and other engines ofwar, and while no one could imagine what he intended to do, on a suddencommanded them to gather up the sea shells, and fill their helmets, andthe folds of their dress with them, calling them "the spoils of the oceandue to the Capitol and the Palatium. " As a monument of his success, heraised a lofty tower, upon which, as at Pharos [451], he ordered lightsto be burnt in the night-time, for the direction of ships at sea; andthen promising the soldiers a donative of a hundred denarii [452] a man, as if he had surpassed the most eminent examples of generosity, "Go yourways, " said he, "and be merry: go, ye are rich. "

XLVII. In making preparations for his triumph, besides the prisoners anddeserters from the barbarian armies, he picked out the men of greateststature in all Gaul, such as he said were fittest to grace a triumph, with some of the chiefs, and reserved them to appear in the procession;obliging them not only to dye their hair yellow, and let it grow long, but to learn the German language, and assume the names commonly used inthat country. He ordered likewise the gallies in which he had enteredthe ocean, to be conveyed to Rome a great part of the way by land, andwrote to his comptrollers in the city, "to make proper preparations for atriumph against (284) his arrival, at as small expense as possible; buton a scale such as had never been seen before, since they had full powerover the property of every one. "

XLVIII. Before he left the province, he formed a design of the mosthorrid cruelty--to massacre the legions which had mutinied upon the deathof Augustus, for seizing and detaining by force his father, Germanicus, their commander, and himself, then an infant, in the camp. Though he waswith great difficulty dissuaded from this rash attempt, yet neither themost urgent entreaties nor representations could prevent him frompersisting in the design of decimating these legions. Accordingly, heordered them to assemble unarmed, without so much as their swords; andthen surrounded them with armed horse. But finding that many of them, suspecting that violence was intended, were making off, to arm in theirown defence, he quitted the assembly as fast as he could, and immediatelymarched for Rome; bending now all his fury against the senate, whom hepublicly threatened, to divert the general attention from the clamourexcited by his disgraceful conduct. Amongst other pretexts of offence, he complained that he was defrauded of a triumph, which was justly hisdue, though he had just before forbidden, upon pain of death, any honourto be decreed him. 

XLIX. In his march he was waited upon by deputies from the senatorianorder, entreating him to hasten his return. He replied to them, "I willcome, I will come, and this with me, " striking at the same time the hiltof his sword. He issued likewise this proclamation: "I am coming, butfor those only who wish for me, the equestrian order and the people; forI shall no longer treat the senate as their fellow-citizen or prince. "He forbad any of the senators to come to meet him; and either abandoningor deferring his triumph, he entered the city in ovation on hisbirthday. Within four months from this period he was slain, after he hadperpetrated enormous crimes, and while he was meditating the execution, if possible, of still greater. He had entertained a design of removingto Antium, and afterwards to Alexandria; having first cut off the flowerof the equestrian and senatorian orders. This is placed beyond allquestion, by two books which were found in his cabinet (285) underdifferent titles; one being called the sword, and the other, the dagger. They both contained private marks, and the names of those who weredevoted to death. There was also found a large chest, filled with avariety of poisons which being afterwards thrown into the sea by order ofClaudius, are said to have so infected the waters, that the fish werepoisoned, and cast dead by the tide upon the neighbouring shores. 

L. He was tall, of a pale complexion, ill-shaped, his neck and legs veryslender, his eyes and temples hollow, his brows broad and knit, his hairthin, and the crown of the head bald. The other parts of his body weremuch covered with hair. On this account, it was reckoned a capital crimefor any person to look down from above, as he was passing by, or so muchas to name a goat. His countenance, which was naturally hideous andfrightful, he purposely rendered more so, forming it before a mirror intothe most horrible contortions. He was crazy both in body and mind, beingsubject, when a boy, to the falling sickness. When he arrived at the ageof manhood, he endured fatigue tolerably well; but still, occasionally, he was liable to a faintness, during which he remained incapable of anyeffort. He was not insensible of the disorder of his mind, and sometimeshad thoughts of retiring to clear his brain [453]. It is believed thathis wife Caesonia administered to him a love potion which threw him intoa frenzy. What most of all disordered him, was want of sleep, for heseldom had more than three or four hours' rest in a night; and even thenhis sleep was not sound, but disturbed by strange dreams; fancying, amongother things, that a form representing the ocean spoke to him. Beingtherefore often weary with lying awake so long, sometimes he sat up inhis bed, at others, walked in the longest porticos about the house, andfrom time to time, invoked and looked out for the approach of day. 

LI. To this crazy constitution of his mind may, I think, very justly beascribed two faults which he had, of a nature directly repugnant one tothe other, namely, an excessive confidence and the most abject timidity. For he, who affected so (286) much to despise the gods, was ready to shuthis eyes, and wrap up his head in his cloak at the slightest storm ofthunder and lightning; and if it was violent, he got up and hid himselfunder his bed. In his visit to Sicily, after ridiculing many strangeobjects which that country affords, he ran away suddenly in the nightfrom Messini, terrified by the smoke and rumbling at the summit of MountAetna. And though in words he was very valiant against the barbarians, yet upon passing a narrow defile in Germany in his light car, surroundedby a strong body of his troops, some one happening to say, "There wouldbe no small consternation amongst us, if an enemy were to appear, " heimmediately mounted his horse, and rode towards the bridges in greathaste; but finding them blocked up with camp-followers andbaggage-waggons, he was in such a hurry, that he caused himself to becarried in men's hands over the heads of the crowd. Soon afterwards, uponhearing that the Germans were again in rebellion, he prepared to quitRome, and equipped a fleet; comforting himself with this consideration, that if the enemy should prove victorious, and possess themselves of theheights of the Alps, as the Cimbri [454] had done, or of the city, as theSenones [455] formerly did, he should still have in reserve thetransmarine provinces [456]. Hence it was, I suppose, that it occurred tohis assassins, to invent the story intended to pacify the troops whomutinied at his death, that he had laid violent hands upon himself, in afit of terror occasioned by the news brought him of the defeat of hisarmy. 

LII. In the fashion of his clothes, shoes, and all the rest of hisdress, he did not wear what was either national, or properly civic, orpeculiar to the male sex, or appropriate to mere mortals. He oftenappeared abroad in a short coat of stout cloth, richly embroidered andblazing with jewels, in a tunic with sleeves, and with bracelets upon hisarms; sometimes all in silks and (287) habited like a woman; at othertimes in the crepidae or buskins; sometimes in the sort of shoes used bythe light-armed soldiers, or in the sock used by women, and commonly witha golden beard fixed to his chin, holding in his hand a thunderbolt, atrident, or a caduceus, marks of distinction belonging to the gods only. Sometimes, too, he appeared in the habit of Venus. He wore very commonlythe triumphal ornaments, even before his expedition, and sometimes thebreast-plate of Alexander the Great, taken out of his coffin. [457]

LIII. With regard to the liberal sciences, he was little conversant inphilology, but applied himself with assiduity to the study of eloquence, being indeed in point of enunciation tolerably elegant and ready; and inhis perorations, when he was moved to anger, there was an abundant flowof words and periods. In speaking, his action was vehement, and hisvoice so strong, that he was heard at a great distance. When winding upan harangue, he threatened to draw "the sword of his lucubration, "holding a loose and smooth style in such contempt, that he said Seneca, who was then much admired, "wrote only detached essays, " and that "hislanguage was nothing but sand without lime. " He often wrote answers tothe speeches of successful orators; and employed himself in composingaccusations or vindications of eminent persons, who were impeached beforethe senate; and gave his vote for or against the party accused, accordingto his success in speaking, inviting the equestrian order, byproclamation, to hear him. 

LIV. He also zealously applied himself to the practice of several otherarts of different kinds, such as fencing, charioteering, singing, anddancing. In the first of these, he practised with the weapons used inwar; and drove the chariot in circuses built in several places. He wasso extremely fond of singing and dancing, that he could not refrain inthe theatre from singing with the tragedians, and imitating the gesturesof the actors, either by way of applause or correction. A nightexhibition which he had ordered the day he was slain, was thought to beintended for no other reason, than to take the opportunity afforded bythe licentiousness of the season, to make his first appearance upon thestage. Sometimes, also, (288) he danced in the night. Summoning once tothe Palatium, in the second watch of the night [458], three men ofconsular rank, who feared the words from the message, he placed them onthe proscenium of the stage, and then suddenly came bursting out, with aloud noise of flutes and castanets [459], dressed in a mantle and tunicreaching down to his heels. Having danced out a song, he retired. Yethe who had acquired such dexterity in other exercises, never learnt toswim. 

LV. Those for whom he once conceived a regard, he favoured even tomadness. He used to kiss Mnester, the pantomimic actor, publicly in thetheatre; and if any person made the least noise while he was dancing, hewould order him to be dragged from his seat, and scourged him with hisown hand. A Roman knight once making some bustle, he sent him, by acenturion, an order to depart forthwith for Ostia [460], and carry aletter from him to king Ptolemy in Mauritania. The letter was comprisedin these words: "Do neither good nor harm to the bearer. " He made somegladiators captains of his German guards. He deprived the gladiatorscalled Mirmillones of some of their arms. One Columbus coming off withvictory in a combat, but being slightly wounded, he ordered some poisonto be infused in the wound, which he thence called Columbinum. For thusit was certainly named with his own hand in a list of other poisons. Hewas so extravagantly fond of the party of charioteers whose colours weregreen [461], that he supped and lodged for some time constantly in thestable where their horses were kept. At a certain revel, he made apresent of two millions of sesterces to one Cythicus, a driver of achariot. The day before the Circensian games, he used to send hissoldiers to enjoin silence in the (289) neighbourhood, that the repose ofhis horse Incitatus [462] might not be disturbed. For this favouriteanimal, besides a marble stable, an ivory manger, purple housings, and ajewelled frontlet, he appointed a house, with a retinue of slaves, andfine furniture, for the reception of such as were invited in the horse'sname to sup with him. It is even said that he intended to make himconsul. 

LVI. In this frantic and savage career, numbers had formed designs forcutting him off; but one or two conspiracies being discovered, and otherspostponed for want of opportunity, at last two men concerted a plantogether, and accomplished their purpose; not without the privity of someof the greatest favourites amongst his freedmen, and the prefects of thepretorian guards; because, having been named, though falsely, asconcerned in one conspiracy against him, they perceived that they weresuspected and become objects of his hatred. For he had immediatelyendeavoured to render them obnoxious to the soldiery, drawing his sword, and declaring, "That he would kill himself if they thought him worthy ofdeath;" and ever after he was continually accusing them to one another, and setting them all mutually at variance. The conspirators havingresolved to fall upon him as he returned at noon from the Palatine games, Cassius Chaerea, tribune of the pretorian guards, claimed the part ofmaking the onset. This Chaerea was now an elderly man, and had beenoften reproached by Caius for effeminacy. When he came for thewatchword, the latter would give "Priapus, " or "Venus;" and if on anyoccasion he returned thanks, would offer him his hand to kiss, makingwith his fingers an obscene gesture. 

LVII. His approaching fate was indicated by many prodigies. The statueof Jupiter at Olympia, which he had ordered to be taken down and broughtto Rome, suddenly burst out into such a violent fit of laughter, that, the machines employed in the work giving way, the workmen took to theirheels. When this accident happened, there came up a man named Cassius, who said that he was commanded in a dream to sacrifice a bull to Jupiter. The Capitol at Capua was (290) struck with lightning upon the ides ofMarch [15th March] as was also, at Rome, the apartment of the chiefporter of the Palatium. Some construed the latter into a presage thatthe master of the place was in danger from his own guards; and the otherthey regarded as a sign, that an illustrious person would be cut off, ashad happened before on that day. Sylla, the astrologer, being, consultedby him respecting his nativity, assured him, "That death wouldunavoidably and speedily befall him. " The oracle of Fortune at Antiumlikewise forewarned him of Cassius; on which account he had given ordersfor putting to death Cassius Longinus, at that time proconsul of Asia, not considering that Chaerea bore also that name. The day preceding hisdeath he dreamt that he was standing in heaven near the throne ofJupiter, who giving him a push with the great toe of his right foot, hefell headlong upon the earth. Some things which happened the very day ofhis death, and only a little before it, were likewise considered asominous presages of that event. Whilst he was at sacrifice, he wasbespattered with the blood of a flamingo. And Mnester, the pantomimicactor, performed in a play, which the tragedian Neoptolemus had formerlyacted at the games in which Philip, the king of Macedon, was slain. Andin the piece called Laureolus, in which the principal actor, running outin a hurry, and falling, vomited blood, several of the inferior actorsvying with each other to give the best specimen of their art, made thewhole stage flow with blood. A spectacle had been purposed to beperformed that night, in which the fables of the infernal regions were tobe represented by Egyptians and Ethiopians. 

LVIII. On the ninth of the calends of February [24th January], and aboutthe seventh hour of the day, after hesitating whether he should rise todinner, as his stomach was disordered by what he had eaten the daybefore, at last, by the advice of his friends, he came forth. In thevaulted passage through which he had to pass, were some boys of nobleextraction, who had been brought from Asia to act upon the stage, waitingfor him in a private corridor, and he stopped to see and speak to them;and had not the leader of the party said that he was suffering from cold, he would have gone back, and made them act immediately. Respecting whatfollowed, (291) two different accounts are given. Some say, that, whilsthe was speaking to the boys, Chaerea came behind him, and gave him aheavy blow on the neck with his sword, first crying out, "Take this:"that then a tribune, by name Cornelius Sabinus, another of theconspirators, ran him through the breast. Others say, that the crowdbeing kept at a distance by some centurions who were in the plot, Sabinuscame, according to custom, for the word, and that Caius gave him"Jupiter, " upon which Chaerea cried out, "Be it so!" and then, on hislooking round, clove one of his jaws with a blow. As he lay on theground, crying out that he was still alive [463], the rest dispatched himwith thirty wounds. For the word agreed upon among them all was, "Strikeagain. " Some likewise ran their swords through his privy parts. Uponthe first bustle, the litter bearers came running in with their poles tohis assistance, and, immediately afterwards, his German body guards, whokilled some of the assassins, and also some senators who had no concernin the affair. 

LIX. He lived twenty-nine years, and reigned three years, ten months, and eight days. His body was carried privately into the Lamian Gardens[464], where it was half burnt upon a pile hastily raised, and then hadsome earth carelessly thrown over it. It was afterwards disinterred byhis sisters, on their return from banishment, burnt to ashes, and buried. Before this was done, it is well known that the keepers of the gardenswere greatly disturbed by apparitions; and that not a night passedwithout some terrible alarm or other in the house where he was slain, until it was destroyed by fire. His wife Caesonia was killed with him, being stabbed by a centurion; and his daughter had her brains knocked outagainst a wall. 

LX. Of the miserable condition of those times, any person (292) mayeasily form an estimate from the following circumstances. When his deathwas made public, it was not immediately credited. People entertained asuspicion that a report of his being killed had been contrived and spreadby himself, with the view of discovering how they stood affected towardshim. Nor had the conspirators fixed upon any one to succeed him. Thesenators were so unanimous in their resolution to assert the liberty oftheir country, that the consuls assembled them at first not in the usualplace of meeting, because it was named after Julius Caesar, but in theCapitol. Some proposed to abolish the memory of the Caesars, and leveltheir temples with the ground. It was particularly remarked on thisoccasion, that all the Caesars, who had the praenomen of Caius, died bythe sword, from the Caius Caesar who was slain in the times of Cinna. 

 * * * * * *

Unfortunately, a great chasm in the Annals of Tacitus, at this period, precludes all information from that historian respecting the reign ofCaligula; but from what he mentions towards the close of the precedingchapter, it is evident that Caligula was forward to seize the reins ofgovernment, upon the death of Tiberius, whom, though he rivalled him inhis vices, he was far from imitating in his dissimulation. Amongst thepeople, the remembrance of Germanicus' virtues cherished for his familyan attachment which was probably, increased by its misfortunes; and theywere anxious to see revived in the son the popularity of the father. Considering, however, that Caligula's vicious disposition was alreadyknown, and that it had even been an inducement with Tiberius to procurehis succession, in order that it might prove a foil to his own memory; itis surprising that no effort was made at this juncture to shake off thedespotism which had been so intolerable in the last reign, and restorethe ancient liberty of the republic. Since the commencement of theimperial dominion, there never had been any period so favourable for acounter-revolution as the present crisis. There existed now no Livia, toinfluence the minds of the senate and people in respect of thegovernment; nor was there any other person allied to the family ofGermanicus, whose countenance or intrigues could promote the views ofCaligula. He himself was now only in the twenty-fifth year of his age, was totally inexperienced in the administration of public affairs, hadnever performed even the smallest service to his country, and wasgenerally known to be of a character which (293) disgraced hisillustrious descent. Yet, in spite of all these circumstances, such wasthe destiny of Rome, that his accession afforded joy to the soldiers, whohad known him in his childhood, and to the populace in the capital, aswell as the people in the provinces, who were flattered with the delusiveexpectation of receiving a prince who should adorn the throne with theamiable virtues of Germanicus. 

It is difficult to say, whether weakness of understanding, or corruptionof morals, were more conspicuous in the character of Caligula. He seemsto have discovered from his earliest years an innate depravity of mind, which was undoubtedly much increased by defect of education. He had lostboth his parents at an early period of life; and from Tiberius' owncharacter, as well as his views in training the person who should succeedhim on the throne, there is reason to think, that if any attentionwhatever was paid to the education of Caligula, it was directed tovitiate all his faculties and passions, rather than to correct andimprove them. If such was really the object, it was indeed prosecutedwith success. 

The commencement, however, of his reign was such as by no meansprognosticated its subsequent transition. The sudden change of hisconduct, the astonishing mixture of imbecility and presumption, of moralturpitude and frantic extravagance, which he afterwards evinced; such asrolling himself over heaps of gold, his treatment of his horse Incitatus, and his design of making him consul, seem to justify a suspicion that hisbrain had actually been affected, either by the potion, said to have beengiven him by his wife Caesonia, or otherwise. Philtres, or love-potions, as they were called, were frequent in those times; and the peoplebelieved that they operated upon the mind by a mysterious and sympatheticpower. It is, however, beyond a doubt, that their effects were producedentirely by the action of their physical qualities upon the organs of thebody. They were usually made of the satyrion, which, according to Pliny, was a provocative. They were generally given by women to their husbandsat bed-time; and it was necessary towards their successful operation, that the parties should sleep together. This circumstance explains thewhole mystery. The philtres were nothing more than medicines of astimulating quality, which, after exciting violent, but temporaryeffects, enfeebled the constitution, and occasioned nervous disorders, bywhich the mental faculties, as well as the corporeal, might be injured. That this was really the case with Caligula, seems probable, not onlyfrom the falling sickness, to which he was subject, but from the habitualwakefulness of which he complained. 

(294) The profusion of this emperor, during his short reign of threeyears and ten months, is unexampled in history. In the midst of profoundpeace, without any extraordinary charges either civil or military, heexpended, in less than one year, besides the current revenue of theempire, the sum of 21, 796, 875 pounds sterling, which had been left byTiberius at his death. To supply the extravagance of future years, newand exorbitant taxes were imposed upon the people, and those too on thenecessaries of life. There existed now amongst the Romans every motivethat could excite a general indignation against the government; yet suchwas still the dread of imperial power, though vested in the hands of soweak and despicable a sovereign, that no insurrection was attempted, norany extensive conspiracy formed; but the obnoxious emperor fell at last asacrifice to a few centurions of his own guard. 

This reign was of too short duration to afford any new productions inliterature; but, had it been extended to a much longer period, theeffects would probably have been the same. Polite learning never couldflourish under an emperor who entertained a design of destroying thewritings of Virgil and Livy. It is fortunate that these, and othervaluable productions of antiquity, were too widely diffused over theworld, and too carefully preserved, to be in danger of perishing throughthe frenzy of this capricious barbarian. 

FOOTNOTES:

[377] A. U. C. 757. 

[378] A. U. C. 765. 

[379] A. U. C. 770. 

[380] A. U. C. 767. 

[381] A. U. C. 771. 

[382] This opinion, like some others which occur in Suetonius, mayjustly be considered as a vulgar error; and if the heart was foundentire, it must have been owing to the weakness of the fire, rather thanto any quality communicated to the organ, of resisting the power of thatelement. 

[383] The magnificent title of King of Kings has been assumed, atdifferent times, by various potentates. The person to whom it is hereapplied, is the king of Parthia. Under the kings of Persia, and evenunder the Syro-Macedonian kings, this country was of no consideration, and reckoned a part of Hyrcania. But upon the revolt of the East fromthe Syro-Macedonians, at the instigation of Arsaces, the Parthians aresaid to have conquered eighteen kingdoms. 

[384] A. U. C. 765. 

[385] It does not appear that Gaetulicus wrote any historical work, butMartial, Pliny, and others, describe him as a respectable poet. 

[386] Supra Confluentes. The German tribe here mentioned occupied thecountry between the Rhine and the Meuse, and gave their name to Treves(Treviri), its chief town. Coblentz had its ancient name of Confluentes, from its standing at the junction of the two rivers. The exact site ofthe village in which Caligula was born is not known. Cluveriusconjectures that it may be Capelle. 

[387] Chap. Vii. 

[388] The name was derived from Caliga, a kind of boot, studded withnails, used by the common soldiers in the Roman army. 

[389] According to Tacitus, who gives an interesting account of theseoccurrences, Treves was the place of refuge to which the young Caius wasconveyed. --Annal. I. 

[390] In c. Liv. Of TIBERIUS, we have seen that his brothers Drusus andNero fell a sacrifice to these artifices. 

[391] Tiberius, who was the adopted father of Germanicus. 

[392] Natriceus, a water-snake, so called from nato, to swim. Theallusion is probably to Caligula's being reared in the island of Capri. 

[393] As Phaeton is said to have set the world on fire. 

[394] See the Life of TIBERIUS, c. Lxxiii. 

[395] His name also was Tiberius. See before, TIBERIUS, c. Lxxvi. 

[396] Procida, Ischia, Capri, etc. 

[397] The eagle was the standard of the legion, each cohort of which hadits own ensign, with different devices; and there were also little imagesof the emperors, to which divine honours were paid. 

[398] See before, cc. Liii. Liv. 

[399] See TIBERIUS, c. X. ; and note. 

[400] The mausoleum built by Augustus, mentioned before in his Life, c. C. 

[401] The Carpentum was a carriage, commonly with two wheels, and anarched covering, but sometimes without a covering; used chiefly bymatrons, and named, according to Ovid, from Carmenta, the mother ofEvander. Women were prohibited the use of it in the second Punic war, bythe Oppian law, which, however, was soon after repealed. This chariotwas also used to convey the images of the illustrious women to whomdivine honours were paid, in solemn processions after their death, as inthe present instance. It is represented on some of the sestertii. 

[402] See cc. Xiv. And xxiii. Of the present History. 

[403] Ib. Cc. Vii. And xxiv. 

[404] Life of TIBERIUS, c. Xliii. 

[405] See the Life of AUGUSTUS, cc. Xxviii. And ci. 

[406] Julius Caesar had shared it with them (c. Xli. ). Augustus hadonly kept up the form (c. Xl. ). Tiberius deprived the Roman people ofthe last remains of the freedom of suffrage. 

[407] The city of Rome was founded on the twenty-first day of April, which was called Palilia, from Pales, the goddess of shepherds, and everafterwards kept as a festival. 

[408] A. U. C. 790. 

[409] A. U. C. 791. 

[410] A. U. C. 793. 

[411] A. U. C. 794. 

[412] The Saturnalia, held in honour of Saturn, was, amongst the Romans, the most celebrated festival of the whole year, and held in the month ofDecember. All orders of the people then devoted themselves to mirth andfeasting; friends sent presents to one another; and masters treated theirslaves upon a footing of equality. At first it was held only for oneday, afterwards for three days, and was now prolonged by Caligula'sorders. 

[413] See AUGUSTUS, cc. Xxix and xliii. The amphitheatre of StatiliusTaurus is supposed to have stood in the Campus Martius, and the elevationnow called the Monte Citorio, to have been formed by its ruins. 

[414] Supposed to be a house, so called, adjoining the Circus, in whichsome of the emperor's attendants resided. 

[415] Now Puzzuoli, on the shore of the bay of Naples. Every one knowswhat wealth was lavished here and at Baiae, on public works and themarine villas of the luxurious Romans, in the times of the emperors. 

[416] The original terminus of the Appian Way was at Brundusium. Thismole formed what we should call a nearer station to Rome, on the sameroad, the ruins of which are still to be seen. St. Paul landed there. 

[417] Essedis: they were light cars, on two wheels, constructed to carryonly one person; invented, it is supposed, by the Belgians, and by themintroduced into Britain, where they were used in war. The Romans, aftertheir expeditions in Gaul and Britain, adopted this useful vehicleinstead of their more cumbrous RHEDA, not only for journeys wheredispatch was required, but in solemn processions, and for ordinarypurposes. They seem to have become the fashion, for Ovid tells us thatthese little carriages were driven by young ladies, themselves holdingthe reins, Amor. Xi. 16. 49. 

[418] Suetonius flourished about seventy years after this, in the reignof Adrian, and derived many of the anecdotes which give interest to hishistory from cotemporary persons. See CLAUDIUS, c. Xv. Etc. 

[419] See TIBERIUS, c. Xlvii. And AUGUSTUS, c. Xxxi. 

[420] This aqueduct, commenced by Caligula and completed by Claudian, atruly imperial work, conveyed the waters of two streams to Rome, following the valley of the Anio from above Tivoli. The course of one ofthese rivulets was forty miles, and it was carried on arches, immediatelyafter quitting its source, for a distance of three miles. The other, theAnio Novus, also began on arches, which continued for upwards of twelvemiles. After this, both were conveyed under ground; but at the distanceof six miles from the city, they were united, and carried upon arches allthe rest of the way. This is the most perfect of all the ancientaqueducts; and it has been repaired, so as to convey the Acqua Felice, one of the three streams which now supply Rome. See CLAUDIUS, c. Xx. 

[421] By Septa, Suetonius here means the huts or barracks of thepretorian camp, which was a permanent and fortified station. It stood tothe east of the Viminal and Quirinal hills, between the present Porta Piaand S. Lorenzo, where there is a quadrangular projection in the citywalls marking the site. The remains of the Amphitheatrum Castrense standbetween the Porta Maggiore and S. Giovanni, formerly without the ancientwalls, but now included in the line. It is all of brick, even theCorinthian pillars, and seems to have been but a rude structure, suitedto the purpose for which it was built, the amusement of the soldiers, andgymnastic exercises. For this purpose they were used to constructtemporary amphitheatres near the stations in the distant provinces, whichwere not built of stone or brick, but hollow circular spots dug in theground, round which the spectators sat on the declivity, on ranges ofseats cut in the sod. Many vestiges of this kind have been traced inBritain. 

[422] The Isthmus of Corinth; an enterprize which had formerly beenattempted by Demetrius, and which was also projected by Julius Caesar, c. Xliv. , and Nero, c. Xix. ; but they all failed of accomplishing it. 

[423] On the authority of Dio Cassius and the Salmatian manuscript, thisverse from Homer is substituted for the common reading, which is, Eis gaian Danaon perao se. Into the land of Greece I will transport thee. 

[424] Alluding, in the case of Romulus, to the rape of the Sabines; andin that of Augustus to his having taken Livia from her husband. --AUGUSTUS, c. Lxii. 

[425] Selene was the daughter of Mark Antony by Cleopatra. 

[426] See c. Xii. 

[427] The vast area of the Roman amphitheatres had no roof, but theaudience were protected against the sun and bad weather by temporaryhangings stretched over it. 

[428] A proverbial expression, meaning, without distinction. 

[429] The islands off the coast of Italy, in the Tuscan sea and in theArchipelago, were the usual places of banishment. See before, c. Xv. ;and in TIBERIUS, c. Liv. , etc. 

[430] Anticyra, an island in the Archipelago, was famous for the growthof hellebore. This plant being considered a remedy for insanity, theproverb arose--Naviga in Anticyram, as much as to say, "You are mad. "

[431] Meaning the province in Asia, called Galatia, from the Gauls whoconquered it, and occupied it jointly with the Greek colonists. 

[432] A quotation from the tragedy of Atreus, by L. Attius, mentioned byCicero. Off. I. 28. 

[433] See before, AUGUSTUS, c. Lxxi. 

[434] These celebrated words are generally attributed to Nero; but Dioand Seneca agree with Suetonius in ascribing them to Caligula. 

[435] Gladiators were distinguished by their armour and manner offighting. Some were called Secutores, whose arms were a helmet, ashield, a sword, or a leaden ball. Others, the usual antagonists of theformer, were named Retiarii. A combatant of this class was dressed in ashort tunic, but wore nothing on his head. He carried in his left hand athree-pointed lance, called Tridens or Fuscina, and in his right, a net, with which he attempted to entangle his adversary, by casting it over hishead, and suddenly drawing it together; when with his trident he usuallyslew him. But if he missed his aim, by throwing the net either too shortor too far, he instantly betook himself to flight, and endeavoured toprepare his net for a second cast. His antagonist, in the mean time, pursued, to prevent his design, by dispatching him. 

[436] AUGUSTUS, c. Xxiii. 

[437] TIBERIUS, c. Xl. 

[438] See before, c. Xix. 

[439] Popae were persons who, at public sacrifices, led the victim tothe altar. They had their clothes tucked up, and were naked to thewaist. The victim was led with a slack rope, that it might not seem tohe brought by force, which was reckoned a bad omen. For the same reason, it was allowed to stand loose before the altar, and it was thought a veryunfavourable sign if it got away. 

[440] Plato de Repub. Xi. ; and Cicero and Tull. Xlviii. 

[441] The collar of gold, taken from the gigantic Gaul who was killed insingle combat by Titus Manlius, called afterwards Torquatus, was worn bythe lineal male descendants of the Manlian family. But that illustriousrace becoming extinct, the badge of honour, as well as the cognomen ofTorquatus, was revived by Augustus, in the person of Caius NoniusAsprenas, who perhaps claimed descent by the female line from the familyof Manlius. 

[442] Cincinnatus signifies one who has curled or crisped hair, fromwhich Livy informs us that Lucius Quintus derived his cognomen. But ofwhat badge of distinction Caligula deprived the family of the Cincinnati, unless the natural feature was hereditary, and he had them all shaved--apractice we find mentioned just below--history does not inform us, norare we able to conjecture. 

[443] The priest of Diana Nemorensis obtained and held his office by hisprowess in arms, having to slay his competitors, and offer humansacrifices, and was called Rex from his reigning paramount in theadjacent forest. The temple of this goddess of the chase stood among thedeep woods which clothe the declivities of the Alban Mount, at a shortdistance from Rome--nemus signifying a grove. Julius Caesar had aresidence there. See his Life, c. Lxxi. The venerable woods are stillstanding, and among them chestnut-trees, which, from their enormous girthand vast apparent age, we may suppose to have survived from the era ofthe Caesars. The melancholy and sequestered lake of Nemi, deep set in ahollow of the surrounding woods, with the village on its brink, stillpreserve the name of Nemi. 

[444] An Essedarian was one who fought from an Esseda, the lightcarriage described in a former note, p. 264. 

[445] See before, JULIUS, c. X. , and note. 

[446] Particularly at Baiae, see before, c. Xix. The practice ofencroaching on the sea on this coast, commenced before, --

 Jactis in altum molibus. --Hor. Od. B. Iii. 1. 34. 

[447] Most of the gladiators were slaves. 

[448] The part of the Palatium built or occupied by Augustus andTiberius. 

[449] Mevania, a town of Umbria. Its present name is Bevagna. TheClitumnus is a river in the same country, celebrated for the breed ofwhite cattle, which feed in the neighbouring pastures. 

[450] Caligula appears to have meditated an expedition to Britain at thetime of his pompous ovation at Puteoli, mentioned in c. Xiii. ; but ifJulius Caesar could gain no permanent footing in this island, it was veryimprobable that a prince of Caligula's character would ever seriouslyattempt it, and we shall presently see that the whole affair turned out afarce. 

[451] It seems generally agreed, that the point of the coast which wassignalized by the ridiculous bravado of Caligula, somewhat redeemed bythe erection of a lighthouse, was Itium, afterwards called Gessoriacum, and Bononia (Boulogne), a town belonging to the Gaulish tribe of theMorini; where Julius Caesar embarked on his expedition, and which becamethe usual place of departure for the transit to Britain. 

[452] The denarius was worth at this time about seven pence or eightpence of our money. 

[453] Probably to Anticyra. See before, c. Xxix. Note

[454] The Cimbri were German tribes on the Elbe, who invaded ItalyA. U. C. 640, and were defeated by Metellus. 

[455] The Senones were a tribe of Cis-Alpine Gauls, settled in Umbria, who sacked and pillaged Rome A. U. C. 363. 

[456] By the transmarine provinces, Asia, Egypt, etc. , are meant; sothat we find Caligula entertaining visions of an eastern empire, andremoving the seat of government, which were long afterwards realized inthe time of Constantine. 

[457] See AUGUSTUS, c. Xviii. 

[458] About midnight, the watches being divided into four. 

[459] Scabella: commentators are undecided as to the nature of thisinstrument. Some of them suppose it to have been either a sort of cymbalor castanet, but Pitiscus in his note gives a figure of an ancient statuepreserved at Florence, in which a dancer is represented with cymbals inhis hands, and a kind of wind instrument attached to the toe of his leftfoot, by which it is worked by pressure, something in the way of anaccordion. 

[460] The port of Rome. 

[461] The Romans, in their passionate devotion to the amusements of thecircus and the theatre, were divided into factions, who had theirfavourites among the racers and actors, the former being distinguished bythe colour of the party to which they belonged. See before, c. Xviii. , and TIBERIUS, c. Xxxvii. 

[462] In the slang of the turf, the name of Caligula's celebrated horsemight, perhaps, be translated "Go a-head. "

[463] Josephus, who supplies us with minute details of the assassinationof Caligula, says that he made no outcry, either disdaining it, orbecause an alarm would have been useless; but that he attempted to makehis escape through a corridor which led to some baths behind the palace. Among the ruins on the Palatine hill, these baths still attractattention, some of the frescos being in good preservation. See theaccount in Josephus, xix. 1, 2. 

[464] The Lamian was an ancient family, the founders of Formiae. Theyhad gardens on the Esquiline mount.