enteen years of age at the death of that prince,[151] and as
soon as that event was made public, he went out to the cohort on guard
between the hours of six and seven; for the omens were so disastrous,
that no earlier time of the day was judged proper. On the steps before
the palace gate, he was unanimously saluted by the soldiers as their
emperor, and then carried in a litter to the camp; thence, after
making a short speech to the troops, into the senate-house, where he
continued until the evening; of all the immense honors which were
heaped upon him, refusing none but the title of FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY,
on account of his youth.

He began his reign with an ostentation of dutiful regard to the memory
of Claudius, whom he buried with the utmost pomp and magnificence,
pronouncing the funeral oration himself, and then had him enrolled
among the gods. He paid likewise the highest honors to the memory of
his father Domitius. He left the management of affairs, both public
and private, to his mother. The word which he gave the first day of
his reign to the tribune on guard was, "The Best of Mothers," and
afterward he frequently appeared with her in the streets of Rome in
her litter. He settled a colony at Antium,[152] in which he placed
the veteran soldiers belonging to the guards; and obliged several of
the richest centurions of the first rank to transfer their residence
to that place; where he likewise made a noble harbor at a prodigious
expense.

To establish still further his character, he declared, "that he
designed to govern according to the model of Augustus"; and omitted no
opportunity of showing his generosity, clemency, and complaisance. The
more burdensome taxes he either entirely took off, or diminished. The
rewards appointed for informers by the Papian law, he reduced to a
fourth part, and distributed to the people four hundred sesterces a
man. To the noblest of the senators who were much reduced in their
circumstances, he granted annual allowances, in some cases as much as
five hundred thousand sesterces; and to the praetorian cohorts a
monthly allowance of corn gratis. When called upon to subscribe the
sentence, according to custom, of a criminal condemned to die, "I
wish," said he, "I had never learned to read and write." He
continually saluted people of the several orders by name, without a
prompter. When the senate returned him their thanks for his good
government, he replied to them, "It will be time enoug