[-22-] The senate on learning of his achievement gave him the title of Britannicus and allowed him to celebrate a triumph. [A.D. 44 (_a. u._ 796)] They voted also that there should be an animal festival commemorating the event and that an arch bearing a trophy should be erected in the City and a second in Gaul, because it was from that district that he had set sail in crossing over to Britain. They bestowed on his son the same honorific title as upon him, so that Claudius was known in a way as Britannicus Proper. Messalina was granted the same privilege of front seats as Livia had enjoyed and also the use of the carpentum. These were the honors bestowed upon the imperial family. The memory of Gaius disgusted the senators so much that they resolved that all the bronze coinage which had his image stamped upon it should be melted down. Though this was done, yet the bronze was converted to no better use, for Messalina made statues of Mnester the dancer out of it. Inasmuch as the latter had once been on intimate terms with Gaius, she made this offering as a mark of gratitude for his consenting to a _liaison_ with her. She had been madly enamored of him, and when she found herself unable in any way either by promises or by frightening him to persuade him to have intercourse with her, she had a talk with her husband and asked him that the man might be forced to obey her, pretending that she wanted his help for some different purpose. Claudius accordingly told him to do whatsoever he should be ordered by Messalina. On these terms he agreed to enjoy her, alleging that he had been commanded to do so by her husband. Messalina adopted this same method with numerous other men, and committed adultery feigning that Claudius knew what was taking place and countenanced her unchastity.