like an heirloom, from father to son. When a Claudius was carrieil 

 to the family vault under the capitol, and his bier was followed by 

 the long procession of mourners, who, according to the solemn and 

 impressive custom of the Roman people, represented by dress and 

 mask the line of noble ancestors of the house, then among the numerous 

 dictators, consuls, censors, and triumphators, the wondering people 

 would not fail to point out to one another the sullen figure of the De- 

 cemvir Appius Claudius, stained with the blood of poor innocent Virginia 

 and with bis own ; they would note the blind Appius, who, with genuine 

 Roman stubbornness, had counselled to refuse the proffered peace of 

 the victorious Pyrrhus, unless he previously left the soil of Italy ; and 

 P. Claudius Pulcher, whose overbearing spirit defied not only the 

 authority of human laws, but the revered institutions of the national 

 religion. They would relate to their children how this man, in com- 

 mand of a Roman army and fleet, was routed with terrible loss, because 

 he had engaged the enemy in defiance of unlucky omens, and had added 

 insult to sacrilege by saying, " If the sacred birds would not eat, they 

 should be thrown into the sea that they might drink." And this man's 

 sister, when her chariot was once delayed by a crowd in a narrow street, 

 uttered the impious prayer, that her brother might return to life and 

 lose another battle to rid the city of the too numerous rabble. There 

 were, it is true, great statesmen and great warriors in the illustrious 

 Claudian house, but none of amiable virtue or kind disposition, none 

 popular with the great mass and happy in the sympathy of their humble 

 fellow-citizens. The stern countenances of all these men wore some- 

 thing of the " Claudian scowl and sneer," and with some truth the 

 Romans might say — 



" That brow of hate, that mouth of scorn, marks all the kindred still, 

 For never was there Claudius yet, hut wished the commons ill." 



If such was the spirit that entered into the composition of Tiberius' 

 character, his education and the scenes that surrounded the boy did 

 not tend to soften a temper naturally hard and sullen. He became, by 

 the second marriage of his mother, the stepson of the Lord of Rome. 

 The boy was keen enough to see through all the hypocrisy of Augustus, 

 and the never-ceasing intrigues of his mother. Unfortunately 

 Augustus had no children by Livia, but he had a daughter by Scribonia, 

 his first wife. Upon her his paternal affection was concentrated. Slie 

 was married to Agrippa, the friend and most faithful servant of Augustus. 

 Tiberius and his brother Drusus were visibly neglected and shut out 

 from all hopes of succession, more especially when three sons of Julia 

 seemed to promise perpetuity to the house of the emperor. But an 



