Notwithstanding this sort of life, much respect was shown him both in public and
					private. The equestrian order twice made choice of him to intercede on their
					behalf; once to obtain from the consuls the favour of bearing on their shoulders
					the corpse of Augustus to Rome , and a
					second time to congratulate him upon the death of Sejanus. When he entered the
					theatre, they used to rise, and put Off their cloaks. The senate likewise
					decreed, that he should be added to the number of the Augustal college of
					priests, who were chosen by lot; and soon afterwards, when his house was burnt
					down, that it should be rebuilt at the public charge; and that he should have
					the privilege of giving his vote amongst the men of consular rank. This decree
					was, however, repealed; Tiberius
					insisting to have him excused on account of his imbecility, and promising to
					make good his loss at his own expense. But at his death, he named him in his
					will, amongst his third heirs, for a third part of his estate; leaving him
					besides a legacy of two millions of sesterces, and expressly recommending him to
					the armies, the senate and people of Rome , amongst his other relations. At last Caius, his brother's son, upon his advancement to the empire,
					endeavouring to gain the affections of the public by all the arts of popularity,
					Claudius also was admitted to public offices, and held the consulship jointly
					with his nephew for two months. As he was entering the Forum for the first time
					with the fasces, an eagle which was flying that way, alighted upon his right
					shoulder. A second consulship was also allotted him, to commence at the
					expiration of the fourth year. He sometimes presided at the public spectacles,
					as the representative of Caius; being always, on those occasions, complimented
					with the acclamations of the people, wishing him all happiness, sometimes under
					the title of the emperor's uncle, and sometimes under that of Germanicus's
					brother. Still he was subjected to many slights. If at any time he came in late to supper,
					he was obliged to walk round the room some time before he could get a place at
					table. When he indulged himself with sleep after eating, which was a common
					practice with him, the company used to throw olive-stones and dates at him. And
					the buffoons who attended would wake him, as if it were only in jest, with a
					cane or a whip. Sometimes they would put slippers upon his hands, as he lay
					snoring, that he might, upon awaking, rub his face with them. He was not only exposed to contempt, but sometimes likewise to considerable
					danger: first, in his consulship; for, having been too remiss in providing and
					erecting the statues of Caius's brothers, Nero and Drusus, he was very near being deprived of his office;
					and afterwards he was continually harassed with informations against him by one
					or other, sometimes even by his own domestics. When the conspiracy of Lepidus
					and Gaetulicus was discovered, being sent with some other deputies into
						 Germany , A. U.
						C. 793. Life of CALIGULA, CC. xliv., xlv., c. to congratulate the
					emperor upon the occasion, he was in danger of his life; Caius being greatly
					enraged, and loudly complaining, that his uncle was sent to him, as if he was a
					boy who wanted a governor. Some even say, that he was thrown into a river, in
					his travelling dress. From this period, he voted in the senate always the last
					of the members of consular rank; being called upon after the rest, on purpose to
					disgrace him. A charge for the forgery of a will was also allowed to be
					prosecuted, though he had only signed it as a witness. At last, being obliged to
					pay eight millions of sesterces on entering upon a new office of priesthood, he
					was reduced to such straits in his private affairs, that in order to discharge
					his bond to the treasury, he was under the necessity of exposing to sale his
					whole estate, by an order of the prefects. Having spent the greater part of his life under these and the like circumstances,
					he came at last to the empire in the fiftieth year of his age, A.U.C. 794 by a very surprising turn of fortune.
					Being, as well as the rest, prevented from approaching Caius by the
					conspirators, who dispersed the crowd, under the pretext of his desiring to be
					private, he retired into an apartment called the Hermaeum; The chanber of Mercury, the names of deities being given to different
						apartments, as those "of Isis," "of the Muses," etc. and soon
					afterwards, terrified by the report of Caius being slain, he crept into an
					adjoining balcony, where he hid himself behind the hangings of the door. A
					common soldier, who happened to pass that way, spying his feet, and desirous to
					discover who he was, pulled him out; when immediately recognizing him, he threw
					himself in a great fright at his feet, and saluted him by the title of emperor.
					He then conducted him to his fellow-soldiers, who were all in a great rage, and
					irresolute what they should do. They put him into a litter, and as the slaves of
					the palace had all fled, took their turns in carrying him on their shoulders,
					and brought him into the camp, sad and trembling; the people who met him
					lamenting his situation, as if the poor innocent was being carried to execution.
					Being received within the ramparts, See the note, page 259.
					 he continued all night with the sentries on guard, recovered somewhat
					from his fright, but in no great hopes of the succession. For the consuls, with
					the senate and civic troops, had possessed themselves of the Forum and Capitol,
					with the determination to assert the public liberty; and he being sent for
					likewise, by a tribune of the people, to the senate-house, to give his advice
					upon the present juncture of affairs, returned answer, "I am under constraint,
					and cannot possibly come." The day afterwards, the senate being dilatory in
					their proceedings, and worn out by divisions amongst themselves, while the
					people who surrounded the senate-house shouted that they would have one master,
					naming Claudius, he suffered the soldiers assembled under arms to swear
					allegiance to him, promising them fifteen thousand sesterces a man; he being the
					first of the Caesars who purchased the submission of the soldiers with
						money. The attentive reader will have marked the
						gradual growth of the power of the pretorian guard, who now, and on so many
						future occasions, ruled the destinies of the empire.