not at his house.  The populace, believing him to be really ignorant of what was going on, was grieved to think that he alone was not cognizant of what was being done in the imperial apartments,—­behavior so conspicuous that news of it had already traveled to the enemy.  They were unwilling, however, to reveal to him the state of affairs, partly through awe of Messalina and partly to spare Mnester.  For he pleased the people as much by his skill as he did the empress by his beauty.  With his abilities in dancing he combined great cleverness of repartee, so that once when the crowd with mighty enthusiasm begged him to perform a famous pantomime, he dared to come to the front of the stage and say: 

  “To do this, friends, I may not try;
  Orestes’ bedfellow am I.”

This, then, was the relation of Claudius to these matters.

As the number of lawsuits was now beyond reckoning and persons summoned would now no longer put in an appearance because they expected to be defeated, he gave written notice that by a given day he should decide the case against them, by default, so that they would lose it even if absent.  And there was no deviation from this rule.

Mithridates king of the Iberians[8] undertook to rebel and was engaged in preparations for a war against the Romans.  His mother, however, opposed him and since she could not win him over by persuasion, determined to take to flight:  he then became anxious to conceal his project, and so, while himself continuing preparations, he sent his brother Cotys on an embassy to convey a friendly message to Claudius.  But Cotys proved a treacherous ambassador and told the emperor all, and he was made king of Iberia in place of Mithridates.

[A.D. 47, (a. u. 800)]

[-29-]The following year, the eight hundredth anniversary of the founding of the city of Rome, Claudius became consul for the fourth and Lucius Vitellius for the third time.  Claudius now ejected some members of the senate, the majority of whom were not sorry to be driven out but willingly stood aside on account of their poverty.  Likewise he brought in a number to fill their places.  Among these he summoned with haste one Surdinius Gallus, qualified to be a senator, who had emigrated to Carthage, and said to him:  “I will bind you with golden fetters.”  Gallus, therefore, fettered by his rank, remained at home.

Although Claudius visited dire punishment upon the freedmen of others, in case he caught them in any crime, he was very lenient with his own.  One day an actor in the theatre uttered this well-worn saying: 

  “A knave who prospers scarce can be endured,"[9]

whereupon the whole assemblage looked at Polybius, the emperor’s freedman.  He, undismayed, shouted out:  “The same poet, however, says:—­

  ‘Who once were goatherds now have royal power.’” [9]

and suffered no harm for his behavior.