« Dio 60.4 | Dio 60.5 | Dio 60.6 | About This Work »
5Claudius, accordingly, undid the unjust acts performed by Gaius and by others at his instigation. To his father Drusus and to his mother Antonia he granted games in the Circus on their birthdays, postponing to different days the festivals which normally occurred at the same time, in order that there should not be two celebrations at once. 2His grandmother Livia he not only honoured with equestrian contests but also deified; and he set up a statue to her in the temple of Augustus, charging the Vestal Virgins with the duty of offering the proper sacrifices, and he ordered that women should use her name in taking oaths. 3But, though he paid such reverence to his ancestors, he would accept nothing for himself beyond the titles belonging to his office. It is true that on the first day of August, which was his birthday, there were equestrian contests, but they were not given on his account; it was rather because the temple of Mars had been dedicated on that day and this event had been celebrated thereafter by annual contests. 4Besides his moderation in this respect, he further forbade any one to worship him or to offer him any sacrifice; he checked the many excessive acclamations accorded him; and he accepted, at first, only one image, and that a silver one, and two statues, of bronze and marble, that had been voted to him. 5All such expenditures, he declared, were useless and furthermore caused great loss and embarrassment to the city. In fact, all the temples and all the other public buildings had become filled with statues and votive offerings, so that he said he would consider what to do even with them. 6He ordered the praetors not to give the customary gladiatorial exhibitions, and also commanded that if any one else gave them in any place whatsoever, it should at least not be recorded or reported that they were being given for the emperor’s preservation. He became so used to settling all these matters by his judgment, and not by precedent, that he arranged other affairs in this manner. 7For example, when in this same year he betrothed one of his daughters to Lucius Junius Silanus and gave the other in marriage to Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, he did nothing out of the ordinary to celebrate either event; on the contrary, he himself held court on those days and the senate met as usual. 8He ordered his sons-in -law to hold office for the time being among the Vigintiviri and later to act as prefects of the city at the Feriae; and it was not until much later that he gave them permission to stand for the other offices five years earlier than was customary. Gaius had taken away from this Pompeius his title of Magnus 9and, indeed, had come very near killing him because he was so named; yet out of contempt for him, since he was still but a boy, he did not go to that length, but merely abolished his cognomen, saying that it was not safe for him that any one should be called Magnus. Claudius now not only restored to him his former title but also gave him his daughter to wife.
« Dio 60.4 | Dio 60.5 | Dio 60.6 | About This Work »