67G 



CLAUDIUS. 



honour! which the unite had decreed to him at a testi- 

 monj- of their gratitude and attachment. The hopes 

 which theie popular proceedings excited, were speedily 

 reversed. Claudius wa* too feeble and undecided, to sus- 

 tain long the virtuous and popular conduct with which his 

 reign had commenced, tie became a mere tool in the 

 hands of his empress, the infamous Messalina, and of his 

 ambitious and daring freedmen and favourites Pallas, Ca- 

 listus, and Narcissus. By these artful and wicked con- 

 federates, he was kept in constant dread of conspiracies ; 

 all the most respectable of his nobles were rendered the 

 objects of his suspicion ; and, though naturally inclined 

 to mercy, he became, under their baneful influence, a 

 cruel and oppressive tyrant. Claudius, indeed, was only 

 nominal emperor, while the imperial power was exercised, 

 in all its terrors, by the sanguinary Mcssalina, and her base 

 associates. Many ladies of the first distinction, among 

 whom was Julia, the niece of the emperor, were put to 

 death at their instigation ; and upwards of three hundred 

 Roman knights and senators fell victims to their suspi- 

 cion and their vengeance. These enormities were often 

 committed even without the knowledge of Claudius, who 

 was equally blind to the licentious conduct of his infa- 

 mous consort. Her ungovernable passions, however, im- 

 pelled her at length to her own destruction. She became 

 enamoured of Caius Silius, a young Roman of noble 

 birth, and distinguished beauty ; and, with unexampled 

 audacity and infatuation in wickedness, resolved to make 

 him her husband. By holding out to him the most flat- 

 tering prospects of aggrandisement, and even the hope of 

 elevation to the imperial throne, she induced him to di- 

 vorce his wife, and to devote himself entirely to her de- 

 testable lust. 



In relating the celebration of their marriage, which 

 took place dunng the absence of the emperor at Ostia, 

 Tacitus expresses a kind of fear lest posterity should re- 

 fuse to credit such an enormity, and therefore takes care 

 to inform us, that he had ascertained the truth from the 

 testimony of some old men, who had been witnesses of 

 these infamous transactions. The simple Claudius was 

 the last to discover his wife's baseness, and his own dis- 

 honour ; and so much was he the dupe of her artifices, 

 that he seemed willing, even after her marriage with Si- 

 lius was revealed to him, to receive her again into fa- 

 vour, had not Narcissus, afraid lest his own power should 

 be annihilated by this new union, extorted from him an 

 involuntary consent to her death. After the death 

 of Messalina, the emperor married his own niece Agrip- 

 pina, who artfully availed herself of the opportunities 

 which her near relationship afforded her, to ingratiate 

 If into his favour. The abject senate had previ us 

 ly passed a decree to recommend and justify this incestu- 

 ous union, alike revolting to human nature, and abhor- 

 rent from the Roman customs and laws. Agrippina, to 

 secure the popular favour, reversed, as the first act of 

 her power, the si-ntence of banishment which Messalina 

 had issued against Seneca, and appointed him tutor to 

 her son Domitius. The measures of government, how. 

 ever, soon convinced the Roman people, that they had 

 only rxi lian^cd one female tyrant for another. Claudius 

 became as completely the dupe of Agrippina as he had 

 been formerly < i NKv-salina. lo secure the sovereignty for 

 .vn son Domitius, to the pnjud'cc of liriunnicus, 

 the son and legitimate heir of Claudius, was the grand ob- 

 ject to which all the efforts of her craft and her influ- 

 ence were directed. Nor was she more scrupulous than 

 her predecessor in the means which she employed to pro- 

 mote her demgns. Every person whom she could con- 

 lidcr as an obstacle in her way, was speedily removed ; 



and those only were admitted to offices of trust and ho- Claudia* 

 nour, who were dependent on her favour, and devoted II 

 to her will. Herscbenvs were prosecuted with so little /_-'^ 

 reserve, that tliey were easily seen through by all, and 

 the emperor was privately apprised of the danger which 

 threatened him. In hi., first alarm, he uttered some me- 

 nacing expressions, which came to the ears of Agrip- 

 pina. She was aware of her precarious situation, and 

 resolved, by strong and speedy measures, to secure the 

 grand object of her ambition beyond the chance of op- 

 position. She therefore took an early opportunity of 

 administering poion to her husband, in a dish of mush- 

 rooms, of which he was particularly fond. The poison 

 was effectual, and terminated the life of this contempti- 

 ble emperor, A.D. 51, in the 61th year of his age, and 

 the llth of his reign. 



The reign of Claudius, though signalized by no war- 

 like achievements of the emperor in person, added some- 

 what to the extent of the Roman dominion, and the 

 glory of the Roman name. Corbuio and Gulba bustain- 

 ed in Germany the reputation of the imperial army, and 

 Plautius advanced the eagle in triumph through t>ome of 

 the finest provinces of Britain. With the view of sha- 

 ring the honour of his generals' succe^sess, Claudius him- 

 self came over into our island, and after witnessing some 

 of the victories of his troops, returned to his capital to 

 adorn his brow with the laurels which the valour ot his 

 commanders and their soldiers had eurmd. Nor was he 

 less ambitious of literary rcm.wn, to which his claim* 

 were, if not juster, at least li-ss absurd. He composed 

 several works in the Grei k and Latin languages ; and 

 we are informed by Tacitus, a very competent judge, 

 that his meditated harangues were by no me .in-, deficient 

 in elegance. Emulous ot the Line of Cadmu. and Pa- 

 lamedes, he endeavoured to improve the Roman alpha- 

 bet by the addition of three letters. Posterity, not aware 

 of the utility of this accession, refused to give it the sanc- 

 tion of custom ; though, in the lime of Tacitus, the new 

 letters were still to be seen in many of the public edicts 

 which had been issued during the reign of Claudius. He 

 conftrrcd a more essential benefit on his subjects and their 

 posterity, by forming a port at O-.ua. at the mouth of 

 the Tiber, for the purpose of providing the city with 

 foreign grain in years of scarcity ; by the grand canal, 

 which he cut, with the view of reclaiming, for agricul- 

 ture, the land inundated by the Fucine lake ; and espe- 

 cially by the completion of the stupendous aqueduct, 

 begun by Caius, by means of which the city was sup- 

 plied with the delightful waters which issued from the 

 neighbouring hills. 



On the whole, we cannot contemplate the character 

 of this weak and despicable prinee, without joining in 

 the reflection of the judicious historian above mentioned, 

 that the exaltation of such a man to the imperial throne 

 is to be regarded as an instance of that apparently ca- 

 pricious contingency in human affairs, which frequently 

 mock* all human calculations. Milii i/nant'i plura re. 

 cenliiim sen vrterum rewhn. taiilo magis lui.ihria rerun 

 nuirlulium cuuclis in ncgotiis ob^crva'dur : papptJtMMfc 

 SJK, veiifralione puliusumii's ileslinulianlin im/>crio, (jtuim 

 quern futurum /irincijtcntfortuna in ociutio ttmebat. Ta- 

 citus, Suetonius, Tillemont, &c. (k. ) 



CLADOSTYLES, a genus of plants of the class 

 Pentandna, and order Digyiua. See BOTANY, p. ITS'; 

 and Humboldt's Plants JEqitinoctiales. t >. '^Oii. 



CLAY. See AGRICULTURE a,,u ORY< THONOSY. 



CLAYTONIA, a genus or plains of >i da.,* Pen- 

 tandria, and order Monogynia. Sec BUTA.NV, page 

 15*. 



