As for all other citizens who had openly shown their eagerness for a democracy or had been regarded as eligible for the supreme power. Claudius so far from bearing malice toward them gave them honors and offices. In plainer terms than any ruler that ever lived he promised them immunity,—therein imitating the example of the Athenians,[1] as he said,—and it was no mere promise, but he afforded it in fact. He abolished complaints of maiestas alike for things written and things done and punished no one on any such charge for either earlier or later offences. He invented no complaint for the sake of persecuting those who had wronged or insulted him when he was a private citizen; and there were many who had done this, particularly as he was deemed of no importance, and to please either Tiberius or Gaius. If, however, he found them guilty of some other crime, he would take vengeance on them also for their former abuse. [-4-] The taxes introduced in the reign of Gaius and whatever other measures had led to denunciation of the latter's acts were done away with by Claudius, not all at once but as opportunity offered. He also brought back such persons as Gaius had unjustly exiled,—-among others the latter's sisters Agrippina and Julia,—and restored to them, their property. Of those imprisoned,—and a very great number were in this predicament,—he liberated such as were suffering for maiestas or any similar complaints, but real criminals he punished.
He investigated the cases very carefully, in order that those who had committed crimes should not be released on account of the victims of blackmail, nor yet the latter be ruined on account of the former. Nearly every day either in company with the entire senate or alone he would sit on a platform trying cases, generally in the Forum, but occasionally elsewhere. In fact, he renewed the custom of having men sit as his colleagues, which had been abandoned ever since Tiberius withdrew to the island. Very often he joined the consuls and the prætors and especially those having charge of the finances in their investigations, and some few matters he turned over entirely to the various courts. He destroyed the poisons (which were found in great variety among the effects of Gaius); and the books of Protogenes (who was put to death) together with the documents which Gaius pretended to have burned but which were actually found in the imperial archives he showed to the senators and gave them to the latter, to the very men who had written them, no less than to those against whom they had been written, to read: afterward he burned them up. Yet, when the senate manifested a desire to dishonor Gaius, he personally prevented such a measure from being voted, but on his own responsibility caused all of his predecessor's images to disappear by night. Hence the name of Gaius does not occur in the list of emperors whom we mention in oaths and prayers any more than that of Tiberius. Neither of them, however, suffered any official disgrace.
[-5-] Accordingly, the unjust institutions set up by Gaius and by others on his account Claudius overturned. To Drusus his father and Antonia his mother he offered horse-races on their birthdays, putting off to different days the festivals which would occur on the same dates, in order that there should not be two celebrations at once. His grandmother Livia was not only honored by equestrian contests, but was deified, and he set up a statue to her in the temple of Augustus, charging the vestal virgins with the duty of offering sacrifice in proper form. He also ordered that women should use her name in taking oaths.
Though he paid such reverence to his ancestors, he himself would accept nothing beyond the names pertaining to his office. On the first day of August, to be sure,—his birthday,—there were equestrian contests, but not on his account: it was because the temple of Mars had been dedicated on that day, which had consequently been distinguished thereafter by annual contests.
Beside moderation in this respect he further forbade any one's worshiping him or offering him any sacrifice; he checked the many excessive acclamations accorded him; and he accepted only one image,—of silver,—and two statues, of bronze and stone, that had been voted to him at the start. All such expenditures, he declared, were useless and furthermore inflicted great loss and great annoyance upon the city. All the temples and all the rest of the public works had been filled with statues and votive offerings, so that he said he should have to make it a matter of thought what to do with them. He forbade the prætors' giving gladiatorial games and ordained that any one else who superintended them in any place whatsoever should not allow to be written or reported the statement that such games were being held for the emperor's preservation. He became so used to settling all these matters by considering the merits of each case rather than according to the dictates of custom that he adopted the same attitude toward other departments of life. For instance, when this year he betrothed one of his daughters to Lucius Junius Silanus and gave the other in marriage to Gnæus Pompeius Magnus, he did nothing out of the common to commemorate the occasion, but attended the courts in person on those days and convened the senate as usual. He ordered his sons-in-law temporarily to hold office among the viginti viri, and later to act as prefects of the city at the Feriæ. After a long interval he gave them the right to stand for the other offices five years sooner than was customary.
Gaius had despoiled this Pompeius of his title Magnus and came very near killing him because he was so named. Yet out of contempt for him, since he was still but a boy, he did not go to such extremes, and merely abolished the offending epithet, saying that it was not safe for any one to be called Magnus. Claudius now restored to him this title and gave him his daughter to wife.
[-6-] These were certainly commendable actions. In addition, when at one time in the senate the consuls came down from their seats to talk with him, he rose in turn and went to meet them. In Naples he lived entirely like a private citizen. He and his associates while there adopted the Greek manner of life invariably; at the musical entertainments he would wear cloak and military boots, and at the gymnastic exercises a purple robe and golden crown. His action, moreover, in regard to money was remarkable, for he forbade any one to bring him contributions, as had been customary in the reigns of Augustus and of Gaius, and he refused to allow any person to name him as heir if such person possessed any relatives whatever. Indeed, the funds that had been confiscated by government order during the period of Tiberius and Gaius he gave back either to the victims themselves, if they still survived, or otherwise to their children.
It had been the custom[2] that if any slightest detail were carried out contrary to precedent on the occasion of the games these should be given over again, as I have stated. But since such occasions were frequent, occurring a third, fourth, fifth, and sometimes tenth time, and this partly by accident but generally by intention on the part of those benefited by these happenings, he enacted a law that on only one day should the equestrian contests take place a second time; in fact, however, he usually abrogated this privilege also. The schemers henceforth easily avoided falling into irregularities, as they gained very little by so doing.
In the matter of the Jews, who had again increased so greatly that by reason of their multitude it would have been hard without raising a tumult to bar them from the City, he decided not to drive them out, but ordered them to follow that mode of life prescribed by their ancestral custom and not to assemble in numbers.—The clubs instituted by Gaius he disbanded.—Also, seeing that there was no use in forbidding the populace to do certain things unless their daily life should be reorganized, he abolished the taverns where they were wont to gather and drink and commanded that no dressed meat nor warm water[3] should be sold. Some who disobeyed this ordinance were punished.
He restored to the various cities the statues which Gaius was in the habit of requiring them to send, restored also to the Dioscuri their temple and to Pompey the right of naming the theatre. On the stage-building of the latter he inscribed also the name of Tiberius, because that emperor had rebuilt the structure when it was burned. His own name he had chiseled there likewise (not because he had reared it but because he had dedicated it), but on no other part of the edifice. Likewise he did not wear the triumphal garb the entire time of the games, though permission was voted to him, but appeared in it merely to offer sacrifice; the rest of the festival he superintended in the purple-bordered garment.