which we could hardly find a parallel in the most democratic community in modern times. Claudius, a Smyrniote slave,(653) in the household of Tiberius, was emancipated and promoted by that Emperor. He followed the train of Caligula to Gaul,(654) rose to higher rank under Claudius, and, probably in Nero’s reign, on the retirement of Pallas, was appointed to that financial office of which the world-wide cares are pompously described by the poet biographer.(655) The gold of Iberian mines, the harvests of Egypt, the fleeces of Tarentine flocks, pearls from the depths of Eastern seas, the ivory tribute of the Indies, all the wealth wafted to Rome by every wind, are committed to his keeping. He had also the task of disbursing a vast revenue for the support of the populace, for roads and bulwarks against the sea, for the splendour of temples and palaces.(656) Such cares left space only for brief slumber and hasty meals; there was none for pleasure. Yet Claudius had the supreme satisfaction of wielding enormous power, and he occasionally shared in its splendour. The poor slave from the Hermus had a place in the “Idumaean triumph” of Vespasian, which his quiet labours had prepared, and he was raised by that emperor to the benches of the knights.(657) The only check in that prosperous course seems to have been a brief exile to the shores of Campania in the reign of Domitian.(658) Abascantus,(659) the secretary _ab epistulis_ of Domitian’s reign, has also been commemorated by Statius. That great office which controlled the imperial correspondence with all parts of the world, was generally held by freedmen in the first century. Narcissus, in the reign of Claudius, first made it a great ministry.(660) Down to the reign of Hadrian the despatches both in Greek and Latin were under a single superintendence. But in the reorganisation of the service in the second century, it was found necessary, from the growing complication of business, to create two departments of imperial correspondence.(661) Men of rank held the secretaryship from the end of the first century. Titinius Capito, one of Pliny’s circle, filled the office under Domitian; Suetonius was appointed by Hadrian.(662) And during the Antonine age, the secretaries were often men of literary distinction.(663) Abascantus, the freedman secretary in the Silvae, had upon his shoulders, according to the poet, the whole weight of the correspondence with both East and West.(664) He received the laurelled despatches from the Euphrates, the Danube, and the Rhine; he had to watch the distribution of military grades and commands. He must keep himself informed of a thousand things affecting the fortunes of the subject peoples. Yet this powerful minister retained his native modesty with his growing fortune. His household was distinguished by all the sobriety and frugality of an Apulian or Sabine home.(665) He could be lavish, however, at the call of love or loyalty. He gave his wife