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[245]
Upon this speech of Agrippa, the senate complied with him, and he
was sent among others, and privately informed Claudius of the disorder
the senate was in, and gave him instructions to answer them in a somewhat
commanding strain, and as one invested with dignity and authority. Accordingly,
Claudius said to the ambassadors, that he did not wonder the senate had
no mind to have an emperor over them, because they had been harassed by
the barbarity of those that had formerly been at the head of their affairs;
but that they should taste of an equitable government under him, and moderate
times, while he should only he their ruler in name, but the authority should
be equally common to them all; and since he had passed through many and
various scenes of life before their eyes, it would be good for them not
to distrust him. So the ambassadors, upon their hearing this his answer,
were dismissed. But Claudius discoursed with the army which was there gathered
together, who took oaths that they would persist in their fidelity to him;
Upon which he gave the guards every man five thousand 1
drachmae a-piece, and a proportionable quantity to their captains, and
promised to give the same to the rest of the armies wheresoever they were.
1 This number of drachmae to be distributed to each private soldier, five thousand drachmae, equal to twenty thousand sesterces, or one hundred and sixty-one pounds sterling, seems much too large, and directly contradicts Suetonius, ch. 10., who makes them in all but fifteen sesterces, or two shillings and four pence. Yet might Josephus have this number from Agrippa, junior, though I doubt the thousands, or at least the hundreds, have been added by the transcribers, of which we have had several examples already in Josephus.
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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