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[162]
WHEN the public affairs were in this posture, Claudius was on the
sudden hurried away out of his house; for the soldiers had a meeting together;
and when they had debated about what was to be done, they saw that a democracy
was incapable of managing such a vast weight of public affairs; and that
if it should be set up, it would not be for their advantage; and in case
any one of those already in the government should obtain the supreme power,
it would in all respects be to their grief, if they were not assisting
to him in this advancement; that it would therefore be right for them,
while the public affairs were unsettled, to choose Claudius emperor, who
was uncle to the deceased Caius, and of a superior dignity and worth to
every one of those that were assembled together in the senate, both on
account of the virtues of his ancestors, and of the learning he had acquired
in his education; and who, if once settled in the empire, would reward
them according to their deserts, and bestow largesses upon them. These
were their consultations, and they executed the same immediately. Claudius
was therefore seized upon suddenly by the soldiery. But Cneas Sentius Saturninus,
although he understood that Claudius was seized, and that he intended to
claim the government, unwillingly indeed in appearance, but in reality
by his own free consent, stood up in the senate, and, without being dismayed,
made an exhortatory oration to them, and such a one indeed as was fit for
men of freedom and generosity, and spake thus:
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