Sublime

When Claudius became emperor in 41 CE, he rewarded with cash payment the members of the Praetorian Guard who had brought him to office, and he was on the lookout against those who might remain hostile to his rule as emperor; in the course of his reign, he suppressed at least six plots against his life, and—shockingly for the Roman elite—executed

He banished from Rome all the Jews, who were continually making disturbances at the instigation of one Chrestus

Among the excesses of Nero's reign, are to be mentioned the horrible cruelties exercised against the Christians in various parts of the empire, in which inhuman transactions the natural barbarity of the emperor was inflamed by the prejudices and interested policy of the pagan priesthood.

A firm persuasion had long prevailed through all the East 735, that it was fated for the empire of the world, at that time, to devolve on some who should go forth from Judaea. This prediction referred to a Roman emperor, as the event shewed; but the Jews, applying it to themselves, broke out into rebellion, and having defeated and slain their

The Praetorian Guard, who had a low view of the capabilities of the senate and no desire to return to the Republic, had already picked a new emperor. The story was that, terrified by the violence and commotion, Gaius’ uncle the fifty-year-old Claudius had hidden himself down another dark alley. But he was quickly discovered by the praetorians and,

They dared not take from the plebs the title of citizens, and allowed them to figure in the census.

The citizens who sat at the sacred table were clothed, for the time, with a sacerdotal character; they were called parasites.