that a disorder, which happened soon after his accession to the empire, deranged his understanding. Indeed madness itself could scarcely dictate cruelties more extravagant, or inconsistencies more ridiculous, than are imputed to him. Gemellus he obliged to kill himself. Silenus, the emperor's father-in-law, was the next that was put to death upon slight suspicion; and Gerincus, a senator of noted integrity, refusing to witness falsely against him, shared his fate. After these followed a crowd of victims to the emperor's avarice or caprice. Among the number of those who were thus sacrificed was Macro, the late favorite of Tiberius, and the person to whom Caligula owed the empire. Not long after, he assumed divine honors, and gave himself the names of such divinities as he thought most agreeable to his nature. For this purpose he caused the heads of the statues of Jupiter and some other gods to be struck off, and his own to be put in their places. He frequently seated himself between Castor and Pollux, and ordered that all who came to their temple to worship should pay their adorations only to him; nay, at last, he altered their temple to the form of a portico, which he joined to his palace, that the very gods, as he said, might serve him in the quality of porters. He was not less notorious for the depravation of his appetites than for his ridiculous presumption. Neither person, place, nor sex, were obstacles to the indulgence of his lusts. There was scarcely a lady of any quality in Rome that escaped him; and, indeed, such was the degeneracy of the times, that there were very few who did not think this disgrace an honor. He is said to have committed incest with his three sisters, and at public feasts they lay with their heads upon his bosom. Of these he prostituted Livia and Agrippina to his vile companions, and then banished them as adultresses and conspirators. As for Drusilla, he took her from her husband Longius, and kept her as his wife. Her he loved so affectionately, that, being sick, he appointed her heiress of his empire and fortune; and when she happened to die before him made her a goddess. Yet to mourn for her death was a crime, as she was become a goddess; while to rejoice for her divinity was capital, because she was dead. Nay, even silence itself was an unpardonable insensibility, either of the emperor's loss, or his sister's advancement. But of all his vices, his prodigality was perhaps the most remarkable. The most notorious instance of this fruitless profusion was the vast bridge at Puteoli, which he undertook in the third year of his reign. He caused a great number of ships to be fastened to each other, so as to make a floating bridge from Baiæ to that place, across an arm of the sea three miles and a half broad. The ships being placed in two rows, in form of a crescent, were secured to each other with anchors, chains, and cables. over these were laid vast quantities of timber, and upon that earth, so as to make the whole resemble one of the streets of Rome. He next caused several houses to be built upon his new bridge, for the reception of himself and his attendants, into which fresh water was conveyed by pipes from land. At night, the number of

torches and other illuminations with which this expensive structure was adorned, cast such a gleam as illuminated the whole bay, and all the neighbouring mountains. Expenses like these would have exhausted the most unbounded wealth: in fact, after reigning about a year, Caligula found his revenues exhausted; and a treasure of about £18,000,000 of our money, which Tiberius had amassed, entirely spent in extravagance and folly. Now, therefore, his prodigality put him upon new methods of supplying the exchequer; and, as before his profusion, so now his rapacity became boundless. fle put in practice all kinds of rapine and extortion. Every thing was taxed, to the very wages of the meanest tradesmen. He had poisoned many who had named him for their heir, to have the immediate possession of their fortunes, and set up a brothel in his own palace, from which he gained considerable sums by prostitution. He also kept a public gaminghouse. On one occasion, having had a series of ill luck, he saw two rich knights passing through the court; on which he rose, and, causing both to be apprehended, confiscated their estates: then, rejoining his companions, he boasted that he had never had a better throw in his life. Another time, wanting money for a stake, he went down and caused several noblemen to be put to death; and then, returning, told the company that they sat playing for trifles while he had won 60,000 sesterces at a cast. Such insupportable and capricious cruelties produced many conspiracies against him; the issue of which was only deferred by his intended expedition in the third year of his reign against the Germans and Britons. His mighty preparations, however, ended in nothing. Instead of conquering Britain and Germany, he only gave refuge to a ba nished prince; and led his army to the sea-shore in Batavia. At last a plan for taking him off was concerted under the influence of Cassius Cherea, tribune of the prætorian bands, joined by Valerius Asiaticus, whose wife the emperor had debauched, Annius Vincianus, Clemens the prefect, and Calistus, whose riches made him obnoxious to the tyrant. While these were deliberating upon the most certain method of destroying him, an unexpected incident gave new strength to the conspiracy. Pompedius, a senator of distinction, having been accused before the emperor, of having spoken of him with disrespect, one Quintilia, an actress, was cited to confirm the accusation. Quintilia, however, was possessed of an uncommon degree of fortitude. She denied the fact, and, being put to the torture at the informer's request, bore the severest torments with unshaken constancy. After several deliberations, it was at last resolved to attack him during the continuance of the Palatine games: he was accordingly slain in a little vaulted gallery that led to the bath, in the twenty-ninth year of his age, after a reign of three years, ten months, and eight days. With him his wife and infant daughter also perished; one being stabbed by a centurion, the other having its brains dashed out again: the wali. His coin was also melted down by a decree of the senate; and such precautions were taken.

that all seemed willing that neither his features nor his fame might be transmitted to posterity.

CLAUDIUS. As soon as the death of Caligula was made public, it produced the greatest confusion in Rome. The conspirators, who only aimed a destroying a tyrant, all retired with out naming a successor, to private places. Some thought the report of the emperor's death was an artifice of his own, to see how his enemies would behave and in this interval of suspense, the German guards pillaged the city under pretence of revenging the emperor's death. All the conspirators and senators that fell in their way received no mercy. However, they grew calm by degrees, and the senate was permitted to assemble, to deliberate upon what was necessary to be done. In this deliberation, Saturninus, who was then consul, insisted much upon the benefits of liberty; and his language was highly pleasing to the senate; but the populace and the army opposed them. The former remembered the donations and public spectacles of the emperors. The latter were sensible they could have no power but in a monarchy. In this opposition of interests and opinions, chance at last decided the fate of the empire. Some soldiers, running about the palace, discovered Claudius, Caligula's uncle, concealed in a secret place. Of this personage, hitherto despised for his imbecility, they resolved to make an emperor; and accordingly carried him upon their shoulders to the camp, where they proclaimed him at a time when he expected death. The senate went soon after in a body, to render him homage: when the first who fell a sacrifice to the jealousy of this new monarch was Cherea. He met death with all the fortitude of an ancient Roman. Lupus, his friend, suffered with him; and Sabinus, one of the conspirators, laid violent hands on himself. Claudius was fifty years old when he began to reign and the complicated diseases of his infancy had affected all the faculties of his body and mind. Yet the commencement of his reign gave the most promising hopes. He began by passing an act of oblivion for all former words and actions, and disannulled the cruel edicts of Caligula. He forbade all persons, under severe penalties, to sacrifice to him as they had done to the late emperor; was assiduous in hearing and examining complaints; and frequently administered justice in person; tempering by his mildness the severity of the law. He took a more than ordinary care that Rome should be continually supplied with corn and provisions, securing the merchants against pirates. He was not less assiduous in his buildings, in which he excelled almost all that went before him, and constructed an aqueduct, called after his own name, much surpassing any other in Rome both for workmanship and its plentiful supply of water, which it brought from forty miles distance, furnishing the highest parts of the city. He made also a haven at Östia, of such immense expense that his successors were unable to maintain it. But his greatest work of all was the draining of the lake Fucinus, the largest in Italy, and bringing its water into the Tiber, to strengthen the current of that river. For effecting this, among other difficulties, he mined

through a mountain of stone three miles broad, and kept here 30,000 men employed for eleven years. To this solicitude for the internal advantages of the state, he added that of a watchful guardianship over the provinces. He even undertook to gratify the people by foreign conquest. The Britons, who had, for nearly 100 years, been left in sole possession of their own island, began to seek the mediation of Rome, to quell their intestine commotions. The principal man who desired to subject his native country to the Roman dominion was one Bericus, who persuaded the emperor to make a descent upon the island, magnifying the advantages that would attend the conquest of it. Plautius the prætor was accordingly ordered to pass over into Gaul, and made preparations for this expedition; and the Britons, under their king Cynobelinus, were several times overthrown. These successes soon after induced Claudius to go into Britain in person, upon pretence that the natives were still seditious, and had not delivered up some Roman fugitives who had taken shelter among them; but, for an account of the exploits of the Romans in this island, see ENGLAND. But Claudius soon began to lessen his care for the public, and to commit to his favorites all the concerns of the empire. The chief of his directors was his wife Messalina; whose name has hence become a common appellation for women of abandoned character. However, she was not less remarkable for her cruelties than her licentiousness; and destroyed many of the most illustrious families of Rome. Subordinate to her were the emperors' freedmen; Pallas, the treasurer; Narcissus, the secretary of state; and Callistus, the master of the requests. These entirely governed Claudius; so that he was only left the fatigues of ceremony, while they possessed all the power of the state. It would be tedious to enumerate the various cruelties which these insidious advisers obliged the feeble emperor to commit: those against his own family will suffice. Appius Silanus, a person of great merit, who had been married to the emperor's motherin-law, was put to death upon the suggestions of Messalina. After him he slew both his sons-inlaw, Silanus and Pompey, and his two nieces the Livias, one the daughter of Drusus the other of Germanicus; without permitting them to plead in their defence, or even without assigning any cause. Great numbers of others fell sacrifices to the jealousy of Messalina and her minions. Every thing was put to sale: they took money for pardons and penalties; and accumulated by these means enormous sums. These disorders in the ministers produced conspiracies against the emperor. Statius Corvinus and Gallus Assinius formed one conspiracy: two knights privately combined to assassinate him; but the revolt which gave him the greatest uneasiness, and which was punished with the most unrelenting severity, was that of Camillus, his lieutenant-general in Dalmatia. This general, incited by many of the principal men in Rome, openly rebelled, and assumed the title of emperor. Nothing could exceed the terrors of Claudius, upon being informed of this revolt; so that, when Camillus commanded him by letters to

relinquish the empire, he seemed inclined to give obedience. However, his fears were soon removed; for the legions which had declared for Camillus, being terrified by some prodigies, soon after killed him. The cruelty of Messalina and her minions upon this occasion seemed to have no bounds. They so wrought upon the emperor's fears and suspicions that numbers were executed without trial or proof; and scarcely any who were but suspected escaped. By such cruelties as these his favorites endeavoured to establish his and their own authority. He now became a prey to jealousy and disquietude, and his only relief seemed to be in inflicting tortures. Suetonius says that there were no fewer than thirty-five senators, and above 300 knights, executed in this reign. In this manner was Claudius urged on by Messalina to commit every kind of enormity. After appearing for some years insatiable in her desires, she at length fixed her own affections upon Caius Silius, the most beautiful youth in Rome. Her love for this young Roman seemed to amount to madness. She obliged him to divorce his wife Junia Syllana; she gave him immense treasures and valuable presents; the very imperial ornaments were transferred to his house; and the emperor's slaves and attendants had orders to wait upon the adulterer. Nothing was wanting to complete their insolence but their being married; and this was also effected. They relied upon the emperor's imbecility for their security, and only waited till he retired to Ostia to put their project in execution. Some time before there had been a quarrel between Messalina and Narcissus, the emperor's first freed-man, who watched for an opportunity of ruining the empress. He communicated to Claudius what had happened, and urged him to revenge without delay. Nothing could exceed the consternation of Messalina and her companions upon being told that the emperor was coming. Every one retired in the utmost confusion. Silius was taken. Messalina took shelter in some gardens which she had seized upon, having expelled Asiaticus the owner and put him to death. Thence she sent Britannicus, her only son by the emperor, with Octavia her daughter, to intercede for her. She soon after followed him; but Narcissus had fortified the emperor against her arts, and she was obliged to return in despair. Silius was instantly put to death in the emperor's presence; and Narcissus, without authority, ordered that Messalina should share the same fate. Claudius was informed of her death in the midst of his banquet without the least appearance of emotion. The emperor, being now a widower, declared publicly that he would remain single for the future, and would forfeit his life if he broke his resolution. But his resolution was but of short continuance. His freed-men, after some deliberation, fixed upon Agrippina, the daughter of his brother Germanicus, for his wife. This woman was more practised in vice than even the former empress. As the late declaration of Claudius seemed to be an obstacle to his marrying, persons were suborned to move in the senate that he should be compelled to take a wife, as a matter of great importance to the commonwealth. When this decree passed, Claudius had scarcely

patience to wait a day before the celebration for his nuptials. Having now received a new director, he submitted with more implicit obedience than in any former part of his reign. Agrippina's chief aims were to secure the succession in favor of her young son Nero, and to set aside the claims of Britannicus. For this purpose she married Nero to the emperor's daughter Octavia, a few days after her own marriage. Not long after this she urged the emperor to strengthen the succession, in imitation of his predecessors, by making a new adoption; and caused him to take in her son Nero to divide the fatigues of govern.nent. Her next care was to increase her son's popularity by giving him Seneca for a tutor. This subtle woman pretended the utmost affection for Britannicus, whom, however, she resolved o destroy; and, shortly after her accession, she procured the death of several ladies who had been her rivals. She displaced the captain of the guard; and appointed Burrhus to that command; a person of great military knowledge and strongly attached to her interests. From that time she took less pains to disguise her power. In the twelfth year of Claudius she persuaded him to restore liberty to the Rhodians, of which he had deprived them some years before; and to remit the taxes of the city Ilium, as having been the progenitors of Rome. Her design in this was to increase the popularity of Nero, who pleaded the cause of both cities with great approbation. Such an immoderate use of her power at last awakened the emperor's suspicions. Agrippina's imperious temper began to grow insupportable to him; and he declared, when heated with wine, that it was his fate to suffer the disorders of his wives and to be their executioner. This expression engaged all her faculties to prevent the blow. Her first care was to remove Narcissus, whom she hated upon many accounts. This minister at length thought fit to retire, by a voluntary exile, into Campania. The unhappy emperor seemed regardless of the dangers that threatened his destruction. His affection for Britannicus every day increased, which served also to increase the vigilance and jealousy of Agrippina. She now, therefore, resolved to poison her husband, and determined upon a poison to destroy his intellects, and yet not suddenly to terminate his life. This not having the desired effect, however, she directed a wretched physician to thrust a poisoned feather down his throat, under pretence of making him vomit, and thus despatched him.

NERO-Claudius being destroyed, Agrippina took every precaution to conceal his death from the public until she had settled her measures for securing the succession. A strong guard was placed at all the avenues of the palace, while she amused the people with various reports; at one time giving out that he was still alive, at another that he was recovering. In the meanwhile, she made sure of the person of young Britannicus, under a pretence of affection for him. At last, when all things were adjusted, the palace gates were thrown open, and Nero, accompanied by Burrhus, prefect of the prætorian guards, issued to receive the congratulations of the people and the army. The cohorts, then attending,

proclaimed him with the loudest acclamations, though not without making some enquiries after Britannicus. He was carried in a chariot to the rest of the army; wherein, having made a speech suited to the occasion, and promising them a donation, he was declared emperor by the army, the senate, and the people. Nero's first care was to show all possible respect to the deceased emperor, to cover the guilt of his death. His obsequies were performed with a pomp equal to that of Augustus; the young emperor pronounced his funeral oration, and he was canonised among the gods. The funeral oration, though spoken by Nero, was drawn up by Seneca; and this was the first time a Roman emperor needed the aid of another's eloquence. Nero, though but seventeen years of age, began his reign with general approbation. As he owed the empire to Agrippina he submitted to her directions with the most implicit obedience. On her part she seemed resolved on governing with her natural ferocity, and considered her private animosities as the only rule to guide her in public justice. Immediately after the death of Claudius she caused Silanus, the pro-consul of Asia, to be assassinated. The next object of her resentment was Narcissus, Claudius's favorite; a man notorious for the greatness of his wealth and the number of his crimes. He was obliged to put an end to his life by Agrippina's order. This bloody outset would have been followed by many more severities had not Seneca and Burrhus opposed them. These worthy men, although they owed their rise to the empress, were above being the instruments of her cruelty. They therefore combined together, and, gaining the young emperor on their side, formed a plan of power both merciful and wise. The beginning of Nero's reign, while he acted by their counsels, has always been considered as a model for princes. In fact, the young monarch knew so well how to conceal his innate depravity that his nearest friends could scarcely perceive his virtues to be assumed. He appeared just, liberal, and humane. His condescension and affability were not less than his other virtues; so that the Romans began to think that his clemency would compensate for the tyranny of his predecessors. In the mean time Agrippina, who was excluded from any share in government, attempted to recover her power. Perceiving that her son had fallen in love with a freed-woman named Acte, and dreading the influence of a concubine, she tried every art to prevent his growing passion. The gratification of his passion, therefore, in this instance, only served to increase his hatred for the empress. Nor was it long before he gave evident marks of his disobedience by displacing Pallas her chief favorite. Upon this occasion she first perceived the total declension of her authority; which threw her into the most ungovernable fury. She said that Britannicus, the real heir to the throne, was still living, and in a condition to receive his father's empire which was now possessed by an usurper. She threatened to go to the camp, and there expose his baseness and her own, invoking all the furies to her assistance. These menaces alarmed the suspicions of Nero; who had begun to give way to his natural de

pravity. He, therefore, determined upon the death of Britannicus, and contrived to have him poisoned at a public banquet. Agrippina, however, took every opportunity of obliging and flattering the tribunes and centurions; she heaped up treasures with a rapacity beyond her natural avarice; all her actions seemed calculated to raise a faction, and make herself formidable to the emperor. Whereupon Nero commanded her German guard to be taken from her, and obliged her to lodge out of the palace. He also forbid particular persons to visit her, and went himself but rarely and ceremoniously to pay her his respects. She now therefore began to find that, with the emperor's favor, she had lost the assiduity of her friends. As Nero increased in years, his crimes increased. He took pleasure in running about the city by night, disguised like a slave. In this habit he entered taverns and brothels, attended by the lewd ministers of his pleasures, attempting the lives of such as opposed him, and frequently endangering his own. After his example numbers of profligate young men infested the streets likewise; so that every night the city was filled with tumult and disorder. However the people bore all these levities with patience, having occasion every day to experience his liberality, and having also been gratified by the abolition of many of their taxes. The provinces were no way affected by these riots; for except disturbances on the side of the Parthians, which were soon suppressed, they enjoyed the most perfect tranquillity. But those sensualities, which, for the first four years of his reign, produced but few disorders, in the fifth became alarming. He first began to transgress the bounds of decency, by publicly abandoning Octavia his wife, and taking Poppaa, the wife of his favorite Otho. This was another grating circumstance to Agrippina, who vainly used all her interest to disgrace Poppæa, and reinstate herself in her son's lost favor. This last began her arts by urging him to divorce his wife and marry herself. She insinuated the dangerous designs of Agrippina; and by degrees accustomed his mind to reflect on parricide without horror. His cruelties against his mother began rather by various circumstances of petty malice than by any downright injury; but at last, finding these ineffectual to break her spirit, he resolved on putting her to death. After attempting poison and other modes ineffectually, he sent a body of soldiers to her house, who killed her with several wounds. He vindicated his conduct next day to the senate; who not only excused but applauded his impiety. Nero now gave a loose to his appetites, that were not only sordid but inhuman. There semed an odd contrast in his disposition; for, while he practised cruelties sufficient to make the mind shudder with horror, he was fond of those amusing arts that soften and refine the heart. He was particularly addicted, even fro.n childhood, to music, and not totally ignorant of poetry. But chariot-driving was his favorite pursuit. He enclosed a space in the valley of the Vatican, and exhibited his dexterity to the whole of his subjects. Their praises stimulated him still more to these pursuits; so that he now