DE VITA CAESARUM

LIBER V

DIVUS CLAUDIUS

I. PATREM Claudi Caesaris Drusum, olim Decimum mox Neronem praenomine, Livia, cum Augusto gravida nupsisset, intra mensem tertium peperit, fuitque suspicio ex vitrico per adulterii consuetudinem procreatum. Statim certe vulgatus est versus :

Τοῖς εὐτυχοῦσι καὶ τρίμηνα παιδία.

2- Is Drusus in quaesturae praeturaeque honore dux Raetici, deinde Germanici belli Oceanum septemtrionalem primus Romanorum ducum navigavit transque Rhenum fossas navi et immensi operis effecit, quae nunc adhuc Drusinae vocantur. Hostem etiam frequenter caesum ac penitus in intimas solitudines actum non prius destitit insequi, quam species barbarae mulieris humana amplior victorem tendere

a See Aug. lxii. 2.

Literally, the blest," those on whom fortune smiles. • The fossae Drusinae, two miles long, connecting the Rhine with the Yssel, to furnish a passage to the North Sea.

THE LIVES OF THE CAESARS

BOOK V

THE DEIFIED CLAUDIUS

I. THE father of Claudius Caesar, Drusus, who at first had the forename Decimus and later that of Nero, was born of Livia within three months after 38 B.C. her marriage to Augustus" (for she was with child at the time) and there was a suspicion that he was begotten by his stepfather in adulterous intercourse. Certain it is that this verse at once became current:

"In three months' time come children to the great.”

15 B.C.

This Drusus, while holding the offices of quaestor and praetor, was in charge of the war in Raetia and later of that in Germany. He was the first of Roman generals to sail the northern Ocean, and beyond the Rhine with prodigious labour he constructed the 12-11 B.C huge canals which to this very day are called by his

name.c

Even after he had defeated the enemy in many battles and driven them far into the wilds of the interior, he did not cease his pursuit until the apparition of a barbarian woman of greater than

3

3 ultra sermone Latino prohibuisset. Quas ob res ovandi ius et triumphalia ornamenta percepit; ac post praeturam confestim inito consulatu atque expeditione repetita supremum diem morbo obiit in aestivis castris, quae ex eo Scelerata sunt appellata. Corpus eius per municipiorum coloniarumque primores suscipientibus obviis scribarum decuriis ad urbem devectum sepultumque est in campo Martio. Ceterum exercitus honorarium ei tumulum excitavit, circa quem deinceps stato die quotannis miles decurreret Galliarumque civitates publice supplicarent. Praeterea senatus inter alia complura marmoreum arcum cum tropaeis via Appia decrevit et Germanici cognomen 4 ipsi posterisque eius. Fuisse autem creditur non minus gloriosi quam civilis animi; nam ex hoste super victorias opima quoque spolia captasse summoque saepius discrimine duces Germanorum tota acie insectatus; nec dissimulasse umquam pristinum se rei p. statum, quandoque posset, restituturum. Unde existimo nonnullos tradere ausos, suspectum eum Augusto revocatumque ex provincia et quia cunc5 taretur, interceptum veneno. Quod equidem magis

The reference is probably to the scribae quaestorii, the quaestor's clerks, who were the most important of the attendants upon the magistrates. They formed a guild composed of six decuriae, or divisions of ten, presided over by six officers called sex primi curatorum.

a A decursus or decursio. Dio, 56. 42, describes the one about the funeral pyre of Augustus. After running around it in full armour, the soldiers cast into the fire the military prizes which they had received from the emperor; cf. Jul. Ixxxiv. 4.