Next he restored Commagene to Antiochus, for Gaius, though he had himself given him the district, had taken it away again; and Mithridates the Iberian, whom Gaius had summoned only to imprison, he sent home again to resume his sovereignty.  To another Mithridates, a lineal descendant of Mithridates the Great, he granted Bosporus, giving to Polemon some land in Cilicia in place of it.  He enlarged the domain of Agrippa of Palestine (who, happening to be in Rome, had helped him become emperor), and bestowed on him consular honors.  To the latter’s brother Herod he gave pretorial dignities and some authority.  They were allowed to enter the senate and to express their thanks to him in Greek.—­Now these were the acts of Claudius himself, and they were lauded by all.

But certain other deeds were done at this time of an entirely different nature by his freedmen and by his wife, Valeria Messalina.  She became enraged at her niece Julia because the latter neither paid her honor nor flattered her; and she was also jealous because the girl was extremely beautiful and had been the only one to enjoy the favor of Claudius several times.  Accordingly, she had her banished by bringing against her among other complaints that of adultery (for which Annius Seneca was also exiled) and after a while she succeeded in procuring Julia’s death.  As for the freedmen, it was they who persuaded Claudius to accept triumphal honors for his deeds in Mauretania, though he had not been successful and had not yet attained imperial power when the end of the war came.  This same year, however, Sulpicius Galba overcame the Chatti, and Publius Gabinius conquered the Cauchi[4] beside winning fame in other ways; for instance, he recovered a military eagle, the only one left among the enemy from the catastrophe of Varus.  Through the exploits of both of these men Claudius received a title of imperator that had some foundation in fact.

[A.D. 42 (a. u. 795)]

[-9-] The next year the same Moors were again subdued in fighting with him.  Suetonius Paulinus, one of the ex-praetors, overran their country as far as the Atlantic.  Gnaeus Hosidius Geta, one of the peers, making a subsequent campaign, advanced at once against their general Salabus and conquered him two separate times.  And when the latter after leaving a few soldiers near the frontier to hold back any who might pursue took refuge in the sandy part of the country, Geta ventured to follow him.  First stationing a part of his army opposite the hostile detachment that was awaiting him he provided himself with as much water as was feasible, and pushed forward.  When this supply gave out and no more could be found, he was caught in an exceedingly unpleasant position.  The barbarians, especially since through habit they can endure thirst an exceedingly long time, and through knowledge of the country can always get some water, had no trouble in maintaining themselves.  The Romans, for the opposite reasons, found it impossible