[-35-] In such fashion did Claudius meet his end. It seemed that indications of this event were given in advance by the comet star, which was seen over a wide expanse of territory, by the shower of blood, by the bolt that descended upon the standards of the Pretorians, by the opening of its own accord of the temple of Jupiter Victor, by the swarming of bees in the camp, and by the fact that one representative of each political office died. The emperor received the state burial and all the other honors obtained by Augustus. Agrippina and Nero feigned sorrow for the man whom they had killed, and elevated to heaven him whom they had carried out in a state of collapse from the banquet. On this point Lucius Junius Gallic, brother of Seneca, was the author of a most witty saying. Seneca himself had composed a work that he called Gourdification,--a word made on the analogy of "deification"; and his brother is credited with expressing a great deal in one short sentence. For whereas the public executioners were accustomed to drag the bodies of those killed in prison to the Forum with large hooks, and thence hauled them to the river, he said that Claudius must have been raised to heaven with a hook. Nero has also left us a remark not unworthy of record. He declared mushrooms to be the food of the gods, because Claudius by means of a mushroom had become a god. [Footnote:1 A reference to Book Forty-four, chapter 26 (the Return of the "Party of the Peiræus").] [Footnote 2: Adopting Canter's emendation. [Greek: eithismenou] for the unintelligible [Greek: ois men oute] of the MSS.] [Footnote 3: The drinking of warm water ranked among the ancients as a luxurious practice. (Compare the end of chapter 14, Book Fifty-seven, and the end of chapter 11, Book Fifty-nine.)] [Footnote 4: An emendation by Leunclavius, based on Suetonius, Life of Claudius, chapter 24 (fin.).] [Footnote 5: A small gap in the MS. is here filled according to Oddey.] [Footnote 6: A line of Homer's occurring in the Iliad once (XXIV, 369) and in the Odyssey twice (XVI, 72, and XXI, 133).] [Footnote 7: Because monopolies of selling them had been conceded for huge sums to avaricious tradesmen.] [Footnote 8: This is an error. Mithridates of Bosporus is the person actually meant.] [Footnotes 9: These two quotations are to be found in Kock (_Fragmenta Comicorum Græcorum_) Vol. III, p. 499. They are Nos. 487 and 488 of the [Greek: Adespota Opoteras]. Kock sees no reason for assigning them specifically to the New Comedy (as Meineke has done).] [Footnote 10: For a further discussion of this isolated statement (from Suidas) see Mommsen, _Staatsrecht_, III, p. 912, note 1.] [Footnote 11: From an examination of Suetonius, Life of Claudius, chapter 25, it seems likely that Dio wrote "cities" (plural), referring to all the Italian towns.] [Footnote 12: "Of charioteers" is undoubtedly the sense.] [Footnote 13: The same _locus Fucinus_ that is presently mentioned again.]