ng first written
to the senate a great deal of outrageous and brutal comment upon them.
Agrippina was given the victim's bones in a jar and ordered to keep it in
her bosom throughout the entire journey and bring it back to Rome again.
Also, since many honors had been voted to these women on the emperor's
account, the emperor forbade any distinction being awarded to any of his
relatives again.

[-23-] He sent to the senate at the time a report of the matter as if he
had escaped some great plot, for he was always pretending to be in danger
and to be leading a miserable existence. The senators on being apprised
of the facts passed several complimentary votes and granted him a lesser
triumph; they sent envoys to announce this, some of whom were chosen by
lot, but Claudius by election. That also displeased the emperor to such
an extent that he again forbade anything approaching praise or honor
being given to his relatives. He felt, too, that he had not been honored
as he deserved, and indeed he never made any account of the honors
granted him. It irritated him to have small distinctions voted, since
that implied a slight, and greater distinctions irritated him because
then he was deprived of the possibility of winning still higher prizes.
He did not wish it to seem that anything that brought him honors was in
the senators' power,--that would make them stronger than he,--nor again
that they should have the right to grant such a thing to him, as if they
had power and he was inferior to them. For this reason he ofttimes found
fault with various gifts, on the ground that they did not increase his
splendor but rather diminished his power. Being of this mind he used to
become angry at those who did him honor if in any case it seemed that
they had voted him less than he deserved. So capricious was he that no
one could easily suit him.

Accordingly, for the reasons mentioned he would not receive all of those
ambassadors, affecting to mistrust that they were spies, but chose out
a few and sent the rest back before they reached Gaul. Those that he
admitted to his presence were not accorded any august reception; indeed,
he would have killed Claudius, had he not entertained a contempt for him,
since the latter partly by nature and partly with intention gave the
impression of great stupidity. Others were again sent, more in number
(for he had complained among other points of the smallness of the first
embassy), and they made the announc