Augustus would not give him any employment, on account of his dreadful stupidity; Tiberius, although he did not care much for him, gave him even the consulship. He was married more than once. The profligacy of the female sex at that time went beyond all bounds: Augustus had striven in vain to repress it; Tiberius promulgated some legal decisions against it, yet without any result. Claudius therefore was highly unfortunate in this respect also; he attached himself very affectionately to the women who betrayed and disgraced him. Thus Claudius, generally despised, had reached his fiftieth year when Caligula was murdered. His behaviour as emperor at first was reasonable and good; he made no one smart for the childish attempt to restore the republic, there was a general _abolitio dictorum factorumque_. A few only of the murderers of Caius he had executed, although they had deserved very well of the Roman world. He also was the first who, on entering upon his power, gave a _donativum_ to the soldiers. Caius already had undertaken the government, without repeating that farce which Tiberius still played; Claudius also forbore to do so. His reign, which lasted fourteen years, was at first truly a relief after that of Caius; people felt comforted, and cherished hopes, whilst he on his side made many good regulations. Yet he was altogether without any will of his own; had he had an honest friend whom he could have entirely relied on, his rule might have been good and praiseworthy. But he did not go beyond the walls of his palace; he only sought to amuse his ladies, and lived almost exclusively with slaves and freedmen, as he was generally despised by men of rank. He was in fact of a kind and loving temper; but he was shy and timid. Slaves now stood forth as his advisers and friends; just as Don Miguel’s most intimate confidant is his barber. Very likely, Polybus, or Polybius, before whom Seneca humbled himself, was far from being altogether contemptible;—the Greek slaves received a very good education in the Roman houses; if they had good abilities, they were very accomplished. Pallas and Narcissus, on the other hand, were men of a different stamp; thoroughly bad, and of insatiable rapacity, they plundered the empire. By the influence of these men, and owing to his unhappy marriage with Agrippina, his own brother’s daughter, who was very beautiful, but who had not a trace of the virtues of her parents, he was ruled with absolute sway. She, being without virtue and shame, by her intrigues succeeded in getting him to adopt Nero, her son by her first marriage, although Claudius had a son of his own, Britannicus. Hence it was that his reign became so disgraceful and disastrous; a large number of innocent men were also put to death under his rule, though not so many as under other emperors. Whenever Narcissus demanded a victim, Claudius was his tool; so that his life was one continual degradation.