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1. 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 Sentins Saturninns, 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:
2. "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."
3. And this was the purport of Sentius's oration, 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.
4. 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.
5. 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; 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 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.
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