Being cognizant of these facts Claudius undertook to build a harbor and would not be turned aside, though the architects on his enquiring how great the expense would be replied:  “You don’t want to do this.”  So sure were they that the great disbursements necessary would cause him to rein in his ambition if he should learn beforehand the exact amount.  He, however, desired a work worthy of the dignity and greatness of Rome, and he brought it to a successful conclusion.  In the first place he excavated a very considerable piece of land, constructed quays on all sides of it, and let the sea into it.  Next in the sea itself he heaped huge mounds on both sides of the entrance to this place,—­mounds that enclosed a large body of water.  Between these breakwaters he reared an island and planted on it a tower with a beacon light.—­This harbor, then, still so called in local parlance, was created by him at this period.  He had another project to make an outlet into the Liris from Lake Fucina, in the Marsian country, to the end that the land around it might be tilled and the river be rendered more navigable.  But the expenditure was all to no purpose.

He made a number of laws, most of which I have no need to mention; but here are some of the regulations that he introduced.  He had the governors who were chosen by lot set out before the first day of April; for it was their habit to delay a long time in the City.  And he would not permit those chosen by election to express any thanks to him in the senate,—­this had been a kind of custom with them,—­but he said:  “These persons ought not to thank me, as if they were so eager for office, but I them, because they cheerfully help me bear the burden of government:  and if they acquit themselves well in office, I shall praise them still more.”  Such men as by reason of insufficient means were not able to be senators he allowed to ask permission to retire, and he admitted some of the knights to tribuneships:  the rest of them, without exception, he forced to attend the senate as often as notice was sent them.  He was so severe upon those who were remiss in this matter that some killed themselves.

[-12-] In other respects he was sociable and considerate in his dealings with them.  He would visit them when sick and be a partner in their merrymakings.  A certain tribune beat a slave of his in public, but Claudius did the offender himself no harm, only depriving him of his assistants, and these he restored not long afterward.  Another of his slaves was sent to the Forum and severely scourged, because he had insulted a prominent man.  In the senate the emperor would himself regularly rise in case the rest had been standing for a long time.  On account of his ill health, as I related, he frequently remained seated and read his advice, if asked for it.  He allowed Lucius Sulla to sit on the praetors’ bench because this man, being unable by reason of age to hear anything from his own seat, had stood up.  The day on which