He likewise assumed the censorship, A.U.C. 798 or 800 
					which had been discontinued since the time that Paulus and Plancus had jointly
					held it. But this also he administered very unequally, and with a strange
					variety of humour and conduct. In his review of the knights, he passed over,
					without any mark of disgrace, a profligate young man, only because his father
					spoke of him in the highest terms; "for," said lie, "his father is his proper
					censor." Another, who was infamous for debauching youths and for adultery, he
					only admonished " to indulge his youthful inclinations more sparingly, or at
					least more cautiously;" There was a proverb to the same
						effect: "Si non caste, saltem caute." 
					 adding, "why must I know what mistress you keep?" When, at the request
					of his friends, he had taken off a mark of infamy which he had set upon one
					knight's name, he said, "Let the blot, however, remain." He not only struck out
					of the list of judges, but likewise deprived of the freedom of Rome , an illustrious man of the highest
					provincial rank in Greece , only because
					he was ignorant of the Latin language. Nor in this review did he suffer any one
					to give an account of his conduct by an advocate, but obliged each man to speak
					for himself in the best way he could. He disgraced many, and some that little
					expected it, and for a reason entirely new, namely, for going out of Italy without his license; and one likewise,
					for having in his province, been the familiar companion of a king; observing,
					that, in former times, Rabirius Posthumus had been prosecuted for treason,
					although he only went after Ptolemy to Alexandria for the purpose of securing payment of a debt. Ptolemy appointed him to an office which led him to assume a
						foreign dress. Rabirius was defended by Cicero in one of his orations, which
						is extant. Having tried to brand with disgrace several others, he, to
					his own greater shame, found them generally innocent, through the negligence of
					the persons employed to inquire into their characters; those whom he charged
					with living in celibacy, with want of children, or estate, proving themselves to
					be husbands, parents, and in affluent circumstances. One of the knights who was
					charged with stabbing himself, laid his bosom bare, to show that there was not
					the least mark of violence upon his body. The following incidents were
					remarkable in his censorship. He ordered a car, plated with silver, and of very
					sumptuous workmanship, which was exposed for sale in the Sigillaria, The Sigillaria was a street in Rome , where a fair was held after the Saturnalia, which
						lasted seven days; and toys, consisting of little images and dolls, which
						gave their names to the street and festival, were sold. It appears from the
						text, that other articles were exposed for sale in this street. Among these
						were included elegant vases of silver and bronze. There appears also to have
						been a bookseller's shop, for an ancient writer tells us that a friend of
						his showed him a copy of the Second Book of the Aeneid, which he had
						purchased there. to be purchased, and broken in pieces before his
					eyes. He published twenty proclamations in one day, in one of which he advised
					the people, "Since the vintage was very plentiful, to have their casks well
					secured at the bung with pitch:" and in another, he told them, " that nothing
					would sooner cure the bite of a viper, than the sap of the yew-tree." He undertook only one expedition, and that was of short duration. The triumphal
					ornaments decreed him by the senate, he considered as beneath the imperial
					dignity, and was therefore resolved to have the honour of a real triumph. For
					this purpose, he selected Britain ,
					which had never been attempted by any one since Julius Caesar, Opposed to this statement there is a passage in Servius
						Georgius, iii. 33, asserting that he had heard (accipimus) that Augustus,
						besides his victories in the east, triumphed over the Britons in the west;
						and Horace says:- Augustus adjectis Britannis Imperio gravibusque Persis. Ode iii. 5, 1. Strabo likewise informs us, that in his time, the petty British kings
						sent embassies to cultivate the alliance of Augustus, and make offerings in
						the Capitol: and that nearly the whole island was on terms of amity with the
						Romans, and, as well as the Gauls, paid a light tribute.-Strabo, B. iv. p.
						138. That Augustus contemplated a descent on the island, but was prevented
						from attempting it by his being recalled from Gaul by the disturbances in Dalmatia , is very probable. Horace offers his vows for its
						success: Serves iturum, Caesarum in ultimos Orbis Britannos. Ode i. 35. But the word iturus shews that the
						scheme was only projected, and the lines previously quoted are mere poetical
						flattery. Strabo's statement of the communications kept up with the petty
						kings of Britain, who were perhaps divided by intestine wars, are, to a
						certain extent, probably correct, as such a policy would be a prelude to the
						intended expedition. and was then chafing with rage, because the
					Romans would not give up some deserters. Accordingly, he set sail from
						 Ostia , but was twice very near
					being wrecked by the boisterous wind called Circius, Circius. Aulus Gellius, Seneca ,
						and Pliny, mention under this name the strong southerly gales which prevail
						in the gulf of Genoa and the
						neighbouring seas. upon the coast of Liguria , near the islands called Stoechades. The Stoechades were the islands now called Hieres, off
							 Toulon . Having marched
					by land from Marseilles to Gessoriacum , Claudius
						must have expended more time in his march from Marseilles to Gessoriacum , as Boulogne was then called, than in his vaunted conquest of
							 Britain . he thence
					passed over to Britain , and part of the
					island submitting to him, within a few days after his arrival, without battle or
					bloodshed, he returned to Rome in less
					than six months from the time of his departure, and triumphed in the most solemn
						manner; In point of fact, he was only sixteen days
							in the island, receiving the submission of some tribes in the
							south-eastern districts. But the way had been prepared for him by his
							able general, Aulus Plautius, who defeated Cunobeline, and made himself
							master of his capital, Camulodunum , or Colchester . These successes were followed up by
							Ostorius, who conquered Caractacus and sent him to Rome . It is singular that Suetonius has supplied us with no particulars of
							these events. Some account of them is given in the disquisition appended
							to this life of Caligula. The expedition of Plautius took place A. U. C. 796, A D.
								44 . to witness which, he not only gave leave to governors of provinces to
					come to Rome , but even to some of the
					exiles. Among the spoils taken from the enemy, he fixed upon the pediment of his
					house in the Palatium, a naval crown, in token of his having passed, and, as it
					were, conquered the Ocean, and had it suspended near the civic crown which was
					there before. Messalina, his wife, followed his chariot in a covered litter.
						 Carpentum: see note in CALIGULA, c. xv. Those
					who had attained the honour of triumphal ornaments in the same war, rode behind;
					the rest followed on foot, wearing the robe with the broad stripes. Crassus
					Frugi was mounted upon a horse richly caparisoned, in a robe embroidered with
					palm leaves, because this was the second time of his obtaining that honour. He paid particular attention to the care of the city, and to have it well
					supplied with provisions. A dreadful fire happening in the Aemiliana, The Aemiliana, so called because it contained the monuments
						of the family of that name, was a suburb of Rome , on the Via Lata, outside the gate. which
					lasted some time, he passed two nights in the Diribitorium, The Diribitorium was a house in the Flaminian Circus, begun
						by Agrippa, and finished by Augustus, in which soldiers were mustered and
						their pay distributed; from whence it derived its name. When the Romans went
						to give their votes at the election of magistrates, they were conducted by
						officers named Diribitores. It is possible that one and the same building
						may have been used for both purposes. The Flaminian Circus was without the
						city walls, in the Campus Martius .
						The Roman college now stands on its site. and the soldiers and
					gladiators not being in sufficient numbers to extinguish it, he caused the
					magistrates to summon the people out of all the streets in the city, to their
					assistance. Placing bags of money before him, he encouraged them to do their
					utmost, declaring, that he would reward every one on the spot, according to
					their exertions. During a scarcity of provisions, occasioned by bad crops for several successive
					years, he was stopped in the middle of the forum by the mob, who so abused him,
					at the same time pelting him with fragments of bread, that he had some
					difficulty in escaping into the palace by a back door. He therefore used all
					possible means to bring provisions to the city, even in winter. He proposed to
					the merchants a sure profit, by indemnifying them against any loss that might
					befall them by storms at sea; and granted great privileges to those who built
					ships for that traffic. To a citizen of Rome he gave an exemption from the penalty of the
					Papia-Poppaean law; A law brought in by the consuls Papius
						Mutilus and Quintus Poppaeus; respecting which, see AUGUSTUS, c. xxxiv.
					 to one who had only the privilege of Latium , the freedom of the city; and to women the rights which
					by law belonged to those who had four children: which enactments are in force to
					this day. He completed some important public works, which, though, not numerous, were very
					useful. The principal were an aqueduct, which had been begun by Caius; an
					emissary for the discharge of the waters of the Fucine lake, The Fucine Lake is now called Lago di Celano , in
						the Farther Abruzzi. It is very extensive, but shallow, so that the
						difficulty of constructing the Claudian emissary, can scarcely be compared
						to that encountered in a similar work for lowering the level of the waters
						in the Alban lake, completed A. U. C. 359. and the harbour of
						 Ostia ; although he knew that
					Augustus had refused to comply with the repeated application of the Marsians for
					one of these; and that the other had been several times intended by Julius
					Caesar, but as often abandoned on account of the difficulty of its execution. He
					brought to the city the cool and plentiful springs of the Claudian water, one of
					which is called Caeruleus. and the other Curtius and Albudinus, as likewise the
					river of the New Anio, in a stone canal: and distributed them into many
					magnificent reservoirs. The canal from the Fucine lake was undertaken as much
					for the sake of profit, as for the honour of the enterprise; for there were
					parties who offered to drain it at their own expense, on condition of their
					having a grant of the land laid dry. With great difficulty he completed a canal
					three miles in length, partly by cutting through, and partly by tunnelling, a
					mountain; thirty thousand men being constantly employed in the work for eleven
						years. Respecting the Claudian aqueduct, see CALIGULA,
						c. xxi. He formed the harbour at Ostia , by carrying out circular piers on the right and on the
					left, with a mole protecting, in deep water, the entrance of the port. Ostia is referred
						to in a note, TIBERIUS, c. xi. To secure the foundation of this mole,
					he sunk the vessel in which the great obelisk Suetonius
						calls this " the great obelisk " in comparison with those which Augustus had
						placed in the Circus Maximus and Campus
							Martius . The one here mentioned was erected by Caligula in
						his Circus, afterwards called the Circus of Nero. It stood at Heliopolis , having been dedicated to the
						sun, as Herodotus informs us, by Phero, son of Sesostris, in acknowledgment
						of his recovery from blindness. It was removed by Pope Sixtus V. in 1586 , under the celebrated architect, Fontana, to
						the centre of the area before St. Peter's, in the Vatican , not far from its former position.
						This obelisk is a solid piece of red granite, without hieroglyphics, and,
						with the pedestal and ornaments at the top, is 182 feet high. The height of
						the obelisk itself is 113 palms, or 84 feet. had been brought from
						 Egypt ; Pliny
						relates some curious particulars of this ship:-"A fir tree of prodigious
						size was used in the vessel which, by the command of Caligula, brought the
						obelisk from Egypt , which stands in
						the Vatican Circus, and four blocks of the same sort of stone to support it.
						Nothing certainly ever appeared on the sea more astonishing than this
						vessel; 120,000 bushels of lentiles served for its ballast; the length of it
						nearly equalled all the left side of the port of Ostia ; for it was sent there by the
						emperor Claudius. The thickness of the tree was as much as four men could
						embrace with their arms."-B. xvi. c. 76. and built upon piles a very
					lofty tower, in imitation of the Pharos at Alexandria , on which lights were burnt to direct mariners in
					the night.