CLAVD [IO. CAES.] AVG [VSTO] PONTIFIC [I. MAX. TR. P. IX]
COS. VI. IM [P. XVI. PP] SENATVS. PO [PVL. Q.R. QVOD] REGES.
BRIT [ANNIAE. ABSQ] VLLA. JACTV [RA. DOMVERIT] GENTES QVE
[BARBARAS] PRIMVS. INDI [CIO. SVBEGERIT]

"To Tiberius Claudius Caesar, Augustus, Pontifex Maximus, holding
for the 9th time the authority of Tribune, Consul for the 6th time,
acclaimed Imperator for the 16th, the Senate and People of Rome [have
dedicated this arch]. Because that without the loss of a man he hath
subdued the Kings of Britain, and hath been the first to bring under
her barbarous clans under our sway." Claudius also affixed to the
walls of the imperial house on the Palatine (which was destined
to give the name of "palace" to royal abodes for all time),[153] a
"_corona navalis_"--a circlet in which the usual radiations were made
to resemble the sails, etc. of ships--in support of his proud claim
to have tamed the Ocean itself [_quasi domiti oceani_] and brought it
under Roman sway: "_Et jam Romano cingimur Oceano_."[154]

C. 6.--As usual, coins were struck to commemorate the occasion, the
earliest of the long series of Roman coins relating to Britain. They
bear on the obverse the laureated head of Claudius to the right, with
the superscription TI. CLAVD. CAESAR. AVG. P.M. TR. P. VIIII. IMP.
XVI. On the reverse is an equestrian figure, between two trophies,
surmounting a triumphal arch, over which is inscribed the legend DE.
BRITAN. This coin, being of gold, was struck not by the Senate (who
regulated the bronze issue), but by the Imperial mint, and dates from
the year 46, when Claudius was clothed for the ninth time with the
authority of Tribune. By that time the arch was doubtless completed,
and the coin may well show what it was actually like. Another coin,
also bearing the words DE. BRITAN., shows Claudius in his triumphal
chariot with an eagle on his sceptre. Even poor little Britannicus,
who never came to his father's throne, being set aside through the
intrigues of his stepmother Agrippina and finally poisoned (A.D. 55)
by Nero, had a coin of his own on this occasion issued by the
Senate and inscribed TI. CLAVD. CAESAR. AVG. F. [_Augusti Filius_]
BRITANNICVS.

C.7.--Seneca, whose own connection with Britain was that of a grinding
usurer,[155] speaks with intense disgust of the conciliatory attitude
of Claudius towards the populations, or more probably the kinglets,
who had submitted to his sway. He purposed, it