specially terrified because
a strong force of Gallic soldiers had come to the defence of Illyricum.

17. While these events were agitating the empire, and while Claudius was
prefect of the Eternal City, the Tiber, which intersects its walls, and
which, after receiving the waters of many drains and copious streams,
falls into the Tyrrhenian Sea, overflowed its banks, in consequence of
an abundance of rain, and extending to a size beyond that of a river,
overwhelmed almost everything with its flood.

18. All those parts of the city which lie in the plain were under water,
and nothing reared its head above but the hills and other spots of
rising ground, which seemed like islands, out of the reach of present
danger. And, as the vastness of the inundation permitted of no departure
in any direction to save the multitude from dying of famine, great
quantities of provisions were brought in barges and boats. But when the
bad weather abated, and the river which had burst its bounds returned to
its accustomed channel, the citizens discarded all fear, and apprehended
no inconvenience for the future.

19. Claudius, as a prefect, conducted himself very quietly, nor was any
sedition in his time provoked by any real grievance. He also repaired
many ancient buildings; and among his improvements he built a large
colonnade contiguous to the bath of Agrippa, and gave it the name of The
Colonnade of Success, because a temple bearing that title is close to
it.

[176] For an account of this incantation, see Gibbon, Bohn's edition
vol. iii., p. 75, note.

[177] The lines of Theognis are--

"+Andr' agathon penie panton damnesi malista
Kai geros poliou Kyrne, kai epialou
Hen de chre pheugonta kai es megaketea ponton
Rhiptein, kai petron Kyrne, kat' elibaton.+"

Which may be thus translated:--

"Want crushes a brave man far worse than age,
O Cyrnus! or than fever's fiery rage;
Flee, should thy flight beneath the greedy wave,
Or from steep rocks but ope a milder grave."

[178] For the purposes of divination.

[179] This sentence is so mutilated as to be unintelligible, but is
filled up by conjecture, founded on a knowledge of the facts, thus: "who
was executed because he had not given up Octavian, who had been formerly
proconsul of Africa, and who had taken refuge in his house when accused
of some crime."

[180] The end of this chapter also is lost, as are one or two passages
in the beginning of Chapter IV.