A strong party was now in favor of returning to a republican form of
government; but while the Senate was considering this question, the
Praetorian Guard settled it by proclaiming CLAUDIUS Emperor.

Claudius was the uncle of Caligula and the nephew of Tiberius. He was a
man of learning and good parts, but a glutton, and the slave of his
two wives, who were both bad women. His first wife, MESSALINA, was so
notorious that her name has became almost a synonym for wickedness. His
second wife, his niece AGRIPPINA, sister of Caligula, was nearly as bad.
This woman had by her former husband, Domitius, a son, whom she induced
the Emperor to adopt under the name of NERO. The faithless wife then
caused her husband to be poisoned, and her son to be proclaimed Emperor.

At Rome the rule of Claudius was mild, and on the whole beneficial. In
the government of the provinces he was rigorous and severe. He undertook
the CONQUEST OF BRITAIN, and in a campaign of sixteen days he laid the
foundation of its final subjugation, which occurred about forty years
later, under the noted general AGRICOLA: It remained a Roman province
for four hundred years, but the people never assimilated Roman customs,
as did the Gauls, and when the Roman garrisons were withdrawn, they
quickly returned to their former condition. However, many remains of
Roman buildings in the island show that it was for the time well under
subjection.

The public works of Claudius were on a grand scale. He constructed a new
harbor at the mouth of the Tiber, and built the great aqueduct called
the AQUA CLAUDIA, the ruined arches of which can be seen to this day.
He also reclaimed for agriculture a large tract of land by draining the
Fucine Lake.

NERO (54-68).

NERO was but sixteen years old when he began to reign. For two or three
years he was under the influence of his tutor, SENECA, the author, and
BURRHUS, the Praefect of the Praetorian Guard, and his government
was during this period the most respectable of any since the time of
Augustus. His masters kept the young Emperor amused, and removed from
the cares of state. But he soon became infatuated with an unscrupulous
woman, POPPAEA SABINA, for whom he neglected and finally killed his
wife, Octavia.

It would be useless to follow in detail the crimes of Nero from this
time. A freedman, TIGELLINUS, became his adviser, and was the real ruler
of the Empire. He encouraged his master in all his vices and wickedness.
Poppa