le
government under him, and moderate times, while he should only be their
ruler in name, but the authority should be equally common to them all;
and since he had passed through many and various scenes of life before
their eyes, it would be good for them not to distrust him. So the
ambassadors, upon their hearing this his answer, were dismissed. But
Claudius discoursed with the army which was there gathered together, who
took oaths that they would persist in their fidelity to him; Upon which
he gave the guards every man five thousand [13] drachmae a-piece, and a
proportionable quantity to their captains, and promised to give the same
to the rest of the armies wheresoever they were.

3. And now the consuls called the senate together into the temple of
Jupiter the Conqueror, while it was still night; but some of those
senators concealed themselves in the city, being uncertain what to do,
upon the hearing of this summons; and some of them went out of the city
to their own farms, as foreseeing whither the public affairs were going,
and despairing of liberty; nay, these supposed it much better for
them to be slaves without danger to themselves, and to live a lazy and
inactive life, than by claiming the dignity of their forefathers, to
run the hazard of their own safety. However, a hundred and no more were
gotten together; and as they were in consultation about the present
posture of affairs, a sudden clamor was made by the soldiers that were
on their side, desiring that the senate would choose them an emperor,
and not bring the government into ruin by setting up a multitude of
rulers. So they fully declared themselves to be for the giving the
government not to all, but to one; but they gave the senate leave to
look out for a person worthy to be set over them, insomuch that now the
affairs of the senate were much worse than before, because they had
not only failed in the recovery of their liberty, which they boasted
themselves of, but were in dread of Claudius also. Yet were there those
that hankered after the government, both on account of the dignity of
their families and that accruing to them by their marriages; for Marcus
Minucianus was illustrious, both by his own nobility, and by his having
married Julia, the sister of Caius, who accordingly was very ready to
claim the government, although the consuls discouraged him, and made one
delay after another in proposing it: that Minucianus also, who was one
of Caius's murderer