190
KEIGN OF CLAUDIUS.
But Pallas and Narcissus, with whom Claudius was perhaps
connected before he ascended the throne, were men of a
different cast; they were downright wicked, and in their
insatiable avarice they plundered the empire.
Through the influence of these persons and his wife Agrip-
pina11, the daughter of his brother, he was induced to adopt
Domitius Nero, the son of Agrippina by her former husband,
although Claudius himself had a son Britannicus, who might
have become his successor. It was the influence of the same
persons also that made his reign so disgraceful and unhappy.
If we compare the number of innocent persons who fell as vic-
tims in this reign with the number executed under other rulers,
it is not large indeed ; but still, viewed absolutely, it is con-
siderable, and the reign of Claudius was unhappy for Rome ;
for whenever Narcissus demanded a victim, Claudius was his
ready tool, whence his life was an uninterrupted series of acts
of degradation. On the other hand, however, works were ex-
ecuted in his reign, which would have done honour to a better
age. I need only mention the great aqueduct, the aqua Clau-
dia, the finest of all, which supplied Rome with water through-
out the middle ages, and was built in the grand antique style.
During the restoration of Rome in the 15th century, this aque-
duct may have been restored. There is no doubt that the
two largest arches known under the name of Porta maggiore,
are his work. Another gigantic structure, which Augustus had
thought impracticable, was the emissary or canal which carried
the water of lake Fucinus into the river Liris. At first, a fault
was committed in levelling, but it was soon remedied. Ruins
of the vaults of this emissary still remain.
With regard to the wars of this reign, Claudius himself un-
dertook an expedition against Britain ; and he actually extended
the Roman dominion. No one had been concerned about
Britain since the expeditions of Julius Caesar; but Claudius
himselfled an army into the island and forɪneda Roman province
there, which consisted of the south-eastern part of Britain,
where colonies and municipia were soon established. From that
part, Vespasian and his sons afterwards effected the Conquestof
England and Caledonia.
,1 She was a woman of the most dissolute character, and without a trace of
modesty. She was very beautiful, but delighted in nothing so much as in intrigues»
she had not inherited one of the virtues of her parents.—N.
STATE OF ROMAN LITERATURE. 191
The death of Claudius was unquestionably caused by poison,
administered to him by Agrippina, who wanted to secure the
succession for her son Nero; for she knew that Claudius re-
pented of having adopted him, and would therefore appoint his
own son Britannicus to succeed him. Claudius died scorned
and despised. The unhappy man is seen in all his wretchedness
in Seneca’s work, “ Ludus demorte Claudi Caesaris,” erroneously
called aιroκoλ,oκvvθωσι<!.
LECTURE CXIV.
Even the time of Augustus is the beginning of an almost
complete barrenness in Roman literature, which presents a great
contrast to the abundance of poets belonging to the time of the
dictator Caesar. Poetry became altogether extinct; and we
cannot mention a single poet who was a young man in the
latter part of the reign of Augustus. I cannot undertake to
account for the fact, but the same phenomenon has very often
occurred in modern times, and we have witnessed it in the
most recent period of the poetry of our own literature. The
influence of Greek rhetoricians is visible even in the best age
of Roman literature ; and how little the most eminent writers
after the time of Cicero, Caesar and Sallust, were free from it,
is manifest in the history of Livy, which contains many pas-
sages which he would not have written, had he not studied in
the school of the deciaimers. But about the time of Augustus’
death, and in the reign of Tiberius, the rhetoricians exercised
a paramount influence upon all branches of literature, as we
may see most distinctly in the “ Suasoriae" and “ Controver-
siae” of the elder Seneca. That period saw the full develop-
ment of what is described in Tacitus’ excellent dialogue, “ De
Oratoribus." The only object of that school was to produce
effect by sophistical niceties, a bombastic phraseology, and
high-flown words; thoughts and substance were considered as
of secondary importance. The age of Seneca, among whose
productions we still possess specimens of the hollow declama-
tions of the time, was the fruit of those rhetorical schools.