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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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"Although it be a thing incredible, O Romans! because of the
great length of time, that so unexpected an event hath happened, yet are
we now in possession of liberty. How long indeed this will last is uncertain,
and lies at the disposal of the gods, whose grant it is; yet such it is
as is sufficient to make us rejoice, and be happy for the present, although
we may soon be deprived of it; for one hour is sufficient to those that
are exercised in virtue, wherein we may live with a mind accountable only
to ourselves, in our own country, now free, and governed by such laws as
this country once flourished under. As for myself, I cannot remember our
former time of liberty, as being born after it was gone; but I am beyond
measure filled with joy at the thoughts of our present freedom. I also
esteem those that were born and bred up in that our former liberty happy
men, and that those men are worthy of no less esteem than the gods themselves
who have given us a taste of it in this age; and I heartily wish that this
quiet enjoyment of it, which we have at present, might continue to all
ages. However, this single day may suffice for our youth, as well as for
us that are in years. It will seem an age to our old men, if they might
die during its happy duration: it may also be for the instruction of the
younger sort, what kind of virtue those men, from whose loins we are derived,
were exercised in. As for ourselves, our business is, during the space
of time, to live virtuously, than which nothing can be more to our advantage;
which course of virtue it is alone that can preserve our liberty; for as
to our ancient state, I have heard of it by the relations of others; but
as to our later state, during my lifetime, I have known it by experience,
and learned thereby what mischiefs tyrannies have brought upon this commonwealth,
discouraging all virtue, and depriving persons of magnanimity of their
liberty, and proving the teachers of flattery and slavish fear, because
it leaves the public administration not to be governed by wise laws, but
by the humor of those that govern. For since Julius Caesar took it into
his head to dissolve our democracy, and, by overbearing the regular system
of our laws, to bring disorders into our administration, and to get above
right and justice, and to be a slave to his own inclinations, there is
no kind of misery but what hath tended to the subversion of this city;
while all those that have succeeded him have striven one with another to
overthrow the ancient laws of their country, and have left it destitute
of such citizens as were of generous principles, because they thought it
tended to their safety to have vicious men to converse withal, and not
only to break the spirits of those that were best esteemed for their virtue,
but to resolve upon. their utter destruction. Of all which emperors, who
have been many in number, and who laid upon us insufferable hardships during
the times of their government, this Caius, who hath been slain today, hath
brought more terrible calamities upon us than did all the rest, not only
by exercising his ungoverned rage upon his fellow citizens, but also upon
his kindred and friends, and alike upon all others, and by inflicting still
greater miseries upon them, as punishments, which they never deserved,
he being equally furious against men and against the gods. For tyrants
are not content to gain their sweet pleasure, and this by acting injuriously,
and in the vexation they bring both upon men's estates and their wives;
but they look upon that to be their principal advantage, when they can
utterly overthrow the entire families of their enemies; while all lovers
of liberty are the enemies of tyranny. Nor can those that patiently endure
what miseries they bring on them gain their friendship; for as they are
conscious of the abundant mischiefs they have brought on these men, and
how magnanimously they have borne their hard fortunes, they cannot but
be sensible what evils they have done, and thence only depend on security
from what they are suspicious of, if it may be in their power to take them
quite out of the world. Since, then, we are now gotten clear of such great
misfortunes, and are only accountable to one another, (which form of government
affords us the best assurance of our present concord, and promises us the
best security from evil designs, and will be most for our own glory in
settling the city in good order,) you ought, every one of you in particular,
to make provision for his own, and in general for the public utility: or,
on the contrary, they may declare their dissent to such things as have
been proposed, and this without any hazard of danger to come upon them,
because they have now no lord set over them, who, without fear of punishment,
could do mischief to the city, and had an uncontrollable power to take
off those that freely declared their opinions. Nor has any thing so much
contributed to this increase of tyranny of late as sloth, and a timorous
forbearance of contradicting the emperor's will; while men had an over-great
inclination to the sweetness of peace, and had learned to live like slaves;
and as many of us as either heard of intolerable calamities that happened
at a distance from us, or saw the miseries that were near us, out of the
dread of dying virtuously, endured a death joined with the utmost infamy.
We ought, then, in the first place, to decree the greatest honors we are
able to those that have taken off the tyrant, especially to Cherea Cassius;
for this one man, with the assistance of the gods, hath, by his counsel
and by his actions, been the procurer of our liberty. Nor ought we to forget
him now we have recovered our liberty, who, under the foregoing tyranny,
took counsel beforehand, and beforehand hazarded himself for our liberties;
but ought to decree him proper honors, and thereby freely declare that
he from the beginning acted with our approbation. And certainly it is a
very excellent thing, and what becomes free-men, to requite their benefactors,
as this man hath been a benefactor to us all, though not at all like Cassius
and Brutus, who slew Caius Julius [Caesar]; for those men laid the foundations
of sedition and civil wars in our city; but this man, together with his
slaughter of the tyrant, hath set our city free from all those sad miseries
which arose from the tyranny."
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And this was the purport of Sentius's oration,
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which was received with pleasure by the senators, and by as many of the
equestrian order as were present. And now one Trebellius Maximus rose up
hastily, and took off Sentius's finger a ring, which had a stone, with
the image of Caius engraven upon it, and which, in his zeal in speaking,
and his earnestness in doing what he was about, as it was supposed, he
had forgotten to take off himself. This sculpture was broken immediately.
But as it was now far in the night, Cherea demanded of the consuls the
watchword, who gave him this word, Liberty. These facts were the subjects
of admiration to themselves, and almost incredible; for it was a hundred
years since the democracy had been laid aside, when this giving the watchword
returned to the consuls; for before the city was subject to tyrants, they
were the commanders of the soldiers. But when Cherea had received that
watchword, he delivered it to those who were on the senate's side, which
were four regiments, who esteemed the government without emperors to be
preferable to tyranny. So these went away with their tribunes. The people
also now departed very joyful, full of hope and of courage, as having recovered
their former democracy, and were no longer under an emperor; and Cherea
was in very great esteem with them.
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And now Cherea was very uneasy that Caius's daughter and wife were
still alive, and that all his family did not perish with him, since whosoever
was left of them must be left for the ruin of the city and of the laws.
Moreover, in order to finish this matter with the utmost zeal, and in order
to satisfy his hatred of Caius, he sent Julius Lupus, one of the tribunes,
to kill Caius's wife and daughter. They proposed this office to Lupus as
to a kinsman of Clement, that he might be so far a partaker of this murder
of the tyrant, and might rejoice in the virtue of having assisted his fellow
citizens, and that he might appear to have been a partaker with those that
were first in their designs against him. Yet did this action appear to
some of the conspirators to be too cruel, as to this using such severity
to a woman, because Caius did more indulge his own ill-nature than use
her advice in all that he did; from which ill-nature it was that the city
was in so desperate a condition with the miseries that were brought on
it, and the flower of the city was destroyed. But others accused her of
giving her consent to these things; nay, they ascribed all that Caius had
done to her as the cause of it, and said she had given a potion to Caius,
which had made him obnoxious to her, and had tied him down to love her
by such evil methods; insomuch that she, having rendered him distracted,
was become the author of all the mischiefs that had befallen the Romans,
and that habitable world which was subject to them. So that at length it
was determined that she must die; nor could those of the contrary opinion
at all prevail to have her saved; and Lupus was sent accordingly. Nor was
there any delay made in executing what he went about, but he was subservient
to those that sent him on the first opportunity, as desirous to be no way
blameable in what might be done for the advantage of the people. So when
he was come into the palace, he found Cesonia, who was Caius's wife, lying
by her husband's dead body, which also lay down on the ground, and destitute
of all such things as the law allows to the dead, and all over herself
besmeared with the blood of her husband's wounds, and bewailing the great
affliction she was under, her daughter lying by her also; and nothing else
was heard in these her circumstances but her complaint of Caius, as if
he had not regarded what she had often told him of beforehand; which words
of hers were taken in a different sense even at that time, and are now
esteemed equally ambiguous by those that hear of them, and are still interpreted
according to the different inclinations of people. Now some said that the
words denoted that she had advised him to leave off his mad behavior and
his barbarous cruelty to the citizens, and to govern the public with moderation
and virtue, lest he should perish by the same way, upon their using him
as he had used them. But some said, that as certain words had passed concerning
the conspirators, she desired Caius to make no delay, but immediately to
put them all to death, and this whether they were guilty or not, and that
thereby he would be out of the fear of any danger; and that this was what
she reproached him for, when she advised him so to do, but he was too slow
and tender in the matter. And this was what Cesonia said, and what the
opinions of men were about it. But when she saw Lupus approach, she showed
him Caius's dead body, and persuaded him to come nearer, with lamentation
and tears; and as she perceived that Lupus was in disorder, and approached
her in order to execute some design disagreeable to himself, she was well
aware for what purpose he came, and stretched out her naked throat, and
that very cheerfully to him, bewailing her case, like one that utterly
despaired of her life, and bidding him not to boggle at finishing the tragedy
they had resolved upon relating to her. So she boldly received her death's
wound at the hand of Lupus, as did the daughter after her. So Lupus made
haste to inform Cherea of what he had done.
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This was the end of Caius, after he had reigned four years, within
four months. He was, even before he came to be emperor, ill-natured, and
one that had arrived at the utmost pitch of wickedness; a slave to his
pleasures, and a lover of calumny; greatly affected by every terrible accident,
and on that account of a very murderous disposition where he durst show
it. He enjoyed his exorbitant power to this only purpose, to injure those
who least deserved it, with unreasonable insolene and got his wealth by
murder and injustice. He labored to appear above regarding either what
was divine or agreeable to the laws, but was a slave to the commendations
of the populace; and whatsoever the laws determined to be shameful, and
punished, that he esteemed more honorable than what was virtuous. He was
unmindful of his friends, how intimate soever, and though they were persons
of the highest character; and if he was once angry at any of them, he would
inflict punishment upon them on the smallest occasions, and esteemed every
man that endeavored to lead a virtuous life his enemy. And whatsoever he
commanded, he would not admit of any contradiction to his inclinations;
whence it was that he had criminal conversation with his own sister;
4
from which occasion chiefly it was also that a bitter hatred first sprang
up against him among the citizens, that sort of incest not having been
known of a long time; and so this provoked men to distrust him, and to
hate him that was guilty of it. And for any great or royal work that he
ever did, which might be for the present and for future ages, nobody can
name any such, but only the haven that he made about Rhegium and Sicily,
for the reception of the ships that brought corn from Egypt; which was
indeed a work without dispute very great in itself, and of very great advantage
to the navigation. Yet was not this work brought to perfection by him,
but was the one half of it left imperfect, by reason of his want of application
to it; the cause of which was this, that he employed his studies about
useless matters, and that by spending his money upon such pleasures as
concerned no one's benefit but his own, he could not exert his liberality
in things that were undeniably of great consequence. Otherwise he was an
excellent orator, and thoroughly acquainted with the Greek tongue, as well
as with his own country or Roman language. He was also able, off-hand and
readily, to give answers to compositions made by others, of considerable
length and accuracy. He was also more skillful in persuading others to
very great things than any one else, and this from a natural affability
of temper, which had been improved by much exercise and pains-taking; for
as he was the grandson
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of the brother of Tiberius, whose successor he was, this was a strong inducement
to his acquiring of learning, because Tiberius aspired after the highest
pitch of that sort of reputation; and Caius aspired after the like glory
for eloquence, being induced thereto by the letters of his kinsman and
his emperor. He was also among the first rank of his own citizens. But
the advantages he received from his learning did not countervail the mischief
he brought upon himself in the exercise of his authority; so difficult
it is for those to obtain the virtue that is necessary for a wise man,
who have the absolute power to do what they please without control. At
the first he got himself such friends as were in all respects the most
worthy, and was greatly beloved by them, while he imitated their zealous
application to the learning and to the glorious actions of the best men;
but when he became insolent towards them, they laid aside the kindness
they had for him, and began to hate him; from which hatred came that plot
which they raised against him, and wherein he perished.