Page:The Satire of Seneca on the Apotheosis of Claudius.djvu/13



Claudius Caesar died, his official deification was punctiliously secured by the prudent piety of the wife and adopted son who had been interested in his taking off. Among the solemnities preceding the sanctificatio, came the laudatio funebris, pronounced by the young Nero under the tutelage of his mother and Seneca. Tacitus (Ann. xiii. 3) tells us this much of the occasion: Princeps exorsus est, dum antiquitatem generis, consulatus ac triumphos maiorum enumerabat, intentus ipse et ceteri; liberalium quoque artium commemoratio et nihil regente eo triste rei publicae ab externis accidisse pronis animis audita: postquam ad providentiam sapientiamque flexit, nemo risui temperare, quamquam oratio a Seneca composita multum cultus praeferret, ut fuit illi viro ingenium amoenum et temporis eius auribus adcommodatum.

It is regrettable that we have not this imperial eulogy to read, though probably its absence is due Rh