138 BRITAIN IN THE ROMAN POETS 



Claudius' funeral, heard with delight by Claudius himself 

 on his way to the scene of deification : — 



Ille Britannos ultra noti 

 litora ponti 



et caeruleos scuta Brigantas 

 dare Romuleis colla catenis 

 iussit et ipsum noua Romanae 

 iura securis tremere Oceanum/" 



(Then the Britons who dwell in the land that's beyond 



The shores of the sea that we know, 



The Brigantes with blue-painted shields he compelled 



To bear on their necks the fetters of Rome ; 



And the Ocean itself he commanded to fear 



The executive power of the code of the Roman.) 



Seneca intended this for an exaggerated description of 

 the campaign. But is it so very much exaggerated? 

 Claudius' triumphal pomp was inhuman, excessive and 

 absurd, but the country was at least temporarily sub- 

 jugated as far as the Hiimber.^'^ 



Claudius had conquered the ocean and a new world 

 beyond it. The Court poets rose to the occasion. As 

 there is not much variety of thought or expression in 

 their effusions, we quote only a few typical lines : — 



Qui finis mundo est non erat imperio. 

 (The limits of our empire are beyond the limits of the world.) 



The free and independent Britons, whose home had been 

 a storied island hidden in the middle of the sea, were 

 subdued (icta tuo, Caesar, fulmine). 



Fabula uisa diu, medioque recondita ponto, 

 Libera uictori quam cito colla dedit. 



Happy country to have come under Caesar's sway I 



50. Chap. 12. He refers in chap. 8 to the temple dedicated to Claudius 

 in his lifetime in Britain. Cf. Tac. Ann. xiv., 31. 



51. Mommsen, Pro v. Bom. Em'p., chap. v. 



