heiress of all his possessions, and commanded that she should succeed him in the Roman empire. She died A. D. 38, in the twenty-third year of her age, and was deified by her brother Caligula.

URGULANIA, a Roman lady, was a favourite of the empress Livia. So insolent did she grow upon this, that she refused to go to the senate to give in her evidence, and therefore the prætor was obliged to go to her house to examine her. Lucius Piso, notwithstanding her pride and interest, sued her for a debt, but she refused to appear, and withdrew to the emperor's palace; but Piso proceeded in the suit. Tiberius would not concern himself in this cause any farther than by promising his mother that he would solicit the judges in favour of Urgulania. The result of the affair was, Livia caused the sum, which Piso claimed, to be paid down to him.

CESONIA, wife to the emperor Caligula, was killed by Lupus, as she was weeping over her husband's body, after he was murdered.

JULIUS GRÆCINUS, a Roman senator, was a native of Forum Julii, now Frejus. He was distinguished by his eloquence and virtue, and was put to death by Caligula, for refusing to be the accuser of Marcus Silanus. He was the father of Julius Agricola, and wrote a book on agriculture.

MEMMIUS REGULUS, a Roman, made governor of Greece by Caligula. While Regulus was in his province, the emperor wished to bring the celebrated statue of Jupiter Olympius, by Phidias, to Rome, but this was supernaturally prevented, according to ancient authors, the ship which was to convey it being destroyed by lightning.

CLAUDIUS, the fifth emperor of Rome, whose name at length was Tiberius Claudius Drusus Germanicus, the son of Nero Claudius Drusus, and Antonia Minor, brother of Germanicus, and nephew of the emperor Tiberius, was born at Lyons. The complicated diseases of his infancy had affected all the faculties of his body and mind. The commencement of his reign gave the most promising hopes of a happy continuance. He began by passing an act of oblivion for all former words and actions, and disannulled all the cruel edicts of Caligula. He forbade all persons, under severe penalties, to sacrifice to him as they had done to Caligula; was assiduous in hearing and examining complaints, and frequently administered justice in person; tempering by his mildness the severity of the law. He took a more than ordinary care that Rome should be continually supplied with corn and provisions, securing the merchants against pirates. He was not less assiduous in his buildings, in which he excelled almost all that went before him. He constructed a wonderful aqueduct, called after his own name, much surpassing any other in Rome, either for workmanship or plentiful supply. It brought

water from forty miles distance, through great mountains, and over deep valleys; being built on stately arches, and furnishing the highest parts of the city. He made also an haven at Ostia; a work of such immense expence, that his successors were unable to maintain it. But his greatest work was the draining of the lake Fucinus, which was the largest in Italy, and bringing its water into the Tiber, to strengthen the current of that river. For effecting this, among other vast difficulties, he mined through a mountain of stone three miles broad, and kept thirty thousand men employed for eleven years together. To this solicitude for the internal advantages of the state, he added that of a watchful guardianship over the provinces. He even undertook to gratify the people by foreign conquest. The Britons, who had, for near one hundred years, been left in sole possession of their own island, began to seek the mediation of Rome, to quell their intestine commotions. The principal man who had desired to subject his native country to the Roman dominion, was one Bericus, who persuaded the emperor to make a descent upon the island, magnifying the advantages that would attend the conquest of it. Plautius the prætor, was accordingly ordered to pass over into Gaul, and make preparations for this expedition; and the Britons, under their king Cynobelinus, were several times overthrown. These successes soon after induced Claudius to go into Britain in person, under pretence that the natives were still seditious, and had not delivered up some Roman fugitives who had taken shelter among them. But Claudius soon began to lessen his care for the public, and to commit to his favourites all the concerns of the empire. The chief of his directors was his wife Messalina, whose name is almost become a common appellation to women of abandoned characters. However she was not less remarkable for her cruelties than her lusts; and destroyed many of the most illustrious families of Rome. Subordinate to her were the emperor's freedmen; Pallas, the treasurer; Narcissus, the secretary of state; and Callistus, the master of the requests. These entirely governed Claudius; so that he was only left the fatigues of ceremony, while they possessed all the power of the state. It would be tedious to enumerate the various cruelties which these insidious advisers obliged the feeble emperor to commit; those against his own family will suffice. Appius Silanus, a person of great merit, who had been married to the emperor's mother-in-law, was put to death upon the suggestions of Messalina. After him he slew both his sons-in-law, Silanus and Pompey, and his two nieces the Livias, one the daughter of Drusus, the other of Germanicus; without permitting them to plead in their defence, or even without assigning any cause. Great numbers of others fell sacrifices to the jealousy of Messalina and her minions; who bore so great a sway in the state,

that all offices, dignities, and governments were entirely at their disposal. Every thing was put to sale; they took money for pardons and penalties; and accumulated, by these means, enormous sums. These disorders in the ministers produced conspiracies against the emperor. Statius Corvinus and Gallus Asinius formed a conspiracy against him. Two knights privately combined to assassinate him. But the revolt which gave him the greatest uneasiness, and which was punished with the most unrelenting severity, was that of Camillus, his lieutenantgeneral in Dalmatia. This general, incited by many of the principal men of Rome, openly rebelled, and assumed the title of emperor. Nothing could exceed the terrors of Claudius, upon being informed of this revolt, so that when Camillus informed him by letters to relinquish the empire, he seemed inclined to give obedience. However, his fears were soon removed; for the legions which had declared for Camillus, being terrified by some prodigies, soon after killed him. The cruelty of Messalina and her minions upon this occasion seemed to have no bounds. They so wrought upon the emperor's fears and suspicions, that numbers were executed without trial or proof; and scarcely any who were suspected, escaped, unless by ransoming their lives with their fortunes. By such cruelties as these, his favourites endeavoured to establish his and their own authority. He now became a prey to jealousy and disquietude, in consequence of which he seemed delighted with inflicting tortures. Suetonius says, that there were no less than thirty-five senators, and above three hundred knights, executed in his reign. In this manner was Claudius urged on by Messalina to commit cruelties, while she put no bounds to her enormities.

The most extraordinary domestic event in the reign of Claudius, and one indeed, which would be incredible, were it not for the concurrent testimony of historians, was the public marriage of Messalina to her lover Silius, a young nobleman of singular beauty, and the designated consul. That abandoned woman, not content with the most undisguised display of her fondness for her paramour, had resolved to show her contempt for all decency, and her utter disregard for her husband, by publicly marrying Silius while the emperor was living. It appears indeed that this was a desperate measure proposed by Silius, who was sensible that the notoriety of his amour with the empress, must at length become his ruin, if not prevented by the death of Claudius, which was doubtless a part of the design. They were actually united in sight of the whole city with all the accustomed nuptial ceremonies. Claudius was at Ostia when the event took place, and he remained ignorant of it after it was the common discourse of all Rome. At length the freedman Narcissus undertook to inform him of his dishonour

and danger. Struck with consternation and trembling at the news, he exclaimed, " Am I still emperor?" They dispelled his fears; and Silius, Muester, the pantomime, and a number of other accomplices in the lewdness of his wife, were put to death. She was preparing to appease his anger, and probably would have succeeded, if Narcissus had not given orders to kill her. Claudius neither testified joy nor sorrow; and when he was informed of her death he had not the curiosity to enquire by what means it happened. He had already married three wives, and his domestics, who might more properly be called his masters, determined him to marry a fourth. His niece, Agrippina, the daughter of Germanicus, and widow of Domitius, was preferred to be empress, through the influence of Pallas, who was one of her gallants. She was another Messalina; though her behaviour was not so openly scandalous yet her ambition was as violent and criminal as that of the former. Claudius at length being made sensible of some of the enormities of his wife, he unguardedly dropped some threatening expressions against her. Agrippina informed of these by her spies, resolved to be beforehand with him; and accordingly took advantage of his gluttonous voracity, to administer poison to him in a dish of mushrooms. He struggled a short time against its effects, and then expired in the sixty-fourth year of his age, and fourteenth of his reign.

URGULANILLA, grand-daughter of Urgulania, was married to the emperor Claudius, before he was raised to the empire. He had by her a son and a daughter. The son's name was Drusus, who died before the age of puberty by an odd accident; he threw up a pear, and endeavouring to catch it in his mouth, it happened to fall in such a manner, that it choked him. Claudius repudiated Urgulanilla, on account of her bad reputation, and of her being suspected of murder.

VALERIA MESSALINA, a daughter of Messala Barbatus, married the emperor Claudius, and disgraced herself by her cruelties and scandalous incontinence. See Claudius.

BRITANNICUS, a son of Claudius Cæsar and Messalina. Nero was raised to the throne in preference to him by means of Agrippina, who caused him to be poisoned. His corpse was buried in the night; but it is said a shower of rain washed away the white paint which the murderer had put over his face, so that it appeared quite black, and discovered the effects of poison.

OCTAVIA, daughter of the emperor Claudius and Messalina. She was betrothed to Silanus, but by the intrigues of Agrippina, she was married to the emperor Nero in the sixteenth year of her age. She was soon after divorced under pretence of barrenness; and Nero married Poppaa, who exercised her enmity upon Octavia by procuring her to be banished into Campania; she was afterwards recalled by the people, but

Poppaa, who was determined on her ruin, caused her again to be banished to an island, where she was ordered to kill herself by opening her veins. Her head was cut off and carried to Poppæa.

THRASEA PÆTUS, a Roman senator, who deserves to be recorded for his integrity and patriotism, was a native of Padua; educated in stoical tenets, and a great admirer of Cato of Utica, whose life he composed. As a senator, he was a strenuous asserter of the liberty that remained under imperial despotism, and on this account he exposed himself to the obloquy of all the sycophants of power. His integrity commanded the acknowledgment of Nero, the execrable tyrant who put him to death, and many instances occur of his undaunted fortitude in maintaining it. We can only select the following: after Nero had committed the detestable crime of matricide, when the servile senate was decreeing solemn thanks, and giving annual festivals to commemorate the event, Thrasea, who we are told had been accustomed to suffer other adulations to pass in silence, or with a slight assent, marked the profligacy of these motions by walking out of the senate-house, thus openly exposing his life to a danger which he contemned; for, conformably to the stoical principles, he was used to say, "Nero may kill me, but he cannot hurt me." But though Thrasea often escaped the brutal vengeance of this imperial tyrant, his fate was at length decreed. In the year A. D. 66, and the thirteenth of Nero, this monster, having imbrued his hands in the blood of many of the most illustrious Romans, now resolved, says Tacitus, to extirpate virtue itself, by the destruction of Thrasea Pætus and Barcas Soranus. The amount of the charges against Thrasea only evinced his contempt of the base adulation of the senate, and his displeasure with the vices and enormities of the reign. No defence could be of any avail, and therefore Thrasea prepared in silence to submit to his fate. When the determination of the senate was announced to him, he was in his garden surrounded by a number of illustrious persons of both sexes, and attentively listening to Demetrius, a Cynic philosopher, who was discoursing on the nature of the soul and its separation from the body. Having received the decree of the senate, he retired into his bed-chamber, and laid bare the veins of both arms, and then bled to death.

ARRIA, wife of Cœcinna Pætus, a consul under the emperor Claudius, is immortalized for her heroism and conjugal affection. Her son and husband were both sick of a dangerous illness at the same time; the former died; and she was convinced, that, in his present weak state, Pætus could not survive a knowledge of the fatal event. She therefore fulfilled every mournful duty to the remains of her child, whom she bitterly bewailed in secret; but, when she entered the chamber of his