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I.
THE patrician branch of the CIaudian family (for there was, besides, a
plebeian branch of no less influence and prestige) originated at
Regilli, a town of the Sabines. From there it moved to Rome shortly
after the founding of the city with a large band of dependents, through
the influence of Titus Tatius, who shared the kingly power with Romulus
(or, according to the generally accepted view, of Atta Claudius, the
head of the family) about six years after the expulsion of the kings
[504 B.C.]. It was admitted among the patrician families,
receiving, besides, from the State a piece of land on the farther side
of the Anio for its dependents, and a burial-site for the family at the
foot of the Capitoline hill.
Then
as time went on it was honoured with twenty-eight consulships, five
dictatorships, seven censorships, six triumphs, and two ovations. While
the members of the family were known by various forenames and surnames,
they discarded the forename "Lucius" by common consent after two of the
family who bore it had been found guilty, the one of highway robbery,
and the other of murder. To their surnames, on the other hand, they
added that of Nero, which in the Sabine tongue means "strong and
valiant."
II..
There are on record many distinguished services of the Claudii to their
country, as well as many deeds of the opposite character. But to
mention only the principal instances, Appius Caecus [ "the Blind"]
advised [280 B.C.] against forming an alliance with King Pyrrhus as not
at all expedient. Claudius Caudex was the first to cross the straits
with a fleet [264 B.C.], and drove the Carthaginians from Sicily.
Tiberius Nero crushed Hasdrubal, on his arrival from Spain with a vast
army [207 B.C.] before he could unite with his brother Hannibal. On the
other hand, Claudius Regillianus, decemvir for codifying the laws,
through his lawless attempt to enslave a freeborn maid, to gratify his
passion for her, was the cause of the second secession of the plebeians
from the patricians [449 B.C.]. Claudius Russus, having set up his
statue at Forum Appi with a crown upon its head, tried to take
possession of Italy through his dependents. Claudius Pulcher began a
sea-fight off Sicily [249 B.C.], though the sacred chickens would not
eat when he took the auspices, throwing them into the sea in defiance
of the omen, and saying that they might drink, since they would not
eat. He was defeated, and on being bidden by the Senate to appoint a
dictator, he appointed his messenger Glycias, as if again making a jest
of his country's peril. The women also have records equally diverse,
since both the famous Claudias belonged to that family: the one who
drew the ship with the sacred properties of the Idaean Magna Mater from
the shoal in the Tiber on which it was stranded, after first publicly
praying that it might yield to her efforts only if her chastity were
beyond question [204 B.C.]; and the one who was tried by the people for
treason [246 B.C.], an unprecedented thing in the case of a woman,
because when her carriage made but slow progress through the throng,
she openly gave vent to the wish that her brother Pulcher might come to
life and lose another fleet, to make less of a crowd in Rome. It is
notorious besides that all the Claudii were aristocrats and staunch
upholders of the prestige and influence of the patricians, with the
sole exception of Publius Clodius, who for the sake of driving Cicero
from the city had himself adopted by a plebeian [60 B.C.] and one too
who was younger than himself. Their attitude towards the commons was so
headstrong and stubborn that not even when on trial for his life before
the people did any one of them deign to put on mourning or beg for
mercy; and some of them during bickerings and disputes struck the
tribunes of the commons. Even a Vestal virgin mounted her brother's
chariot with him [143 B.C.], when he was celebrating a triumph without
the sanction of the people, and attended him all the way to the
Capitol, in order to make it an act of sacrilege for any one of the
tribunes to forbid him or interpose his veto. |
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