Antiquities of the Jews — Book 19, Chapter 2

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 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:

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 Cæsar 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
[Cæsar]; 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." 8

3. And this was the purport of Sentius's oration, 9 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 insolence 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; 10 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 11 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.