Page:The Satire of Seneca on the Apotheosis of Claudius.djvu/161

 Gay-coated Medes turned their backs to disaster. Conqueror he of Britons beyond the Shores of the known sea: Even the dark-blue-shielded Brigantes Forced he to bend their necks to the fetters That Romulus forged, and Ocean himself To tremble before the Roman dominion. Mourn for the man than whom no one more quickly Was able to see the right in a lawsuit, Only at hearing one side of the quarrel,— Often not either. Where is the judge now Willing to listen to cases the year through? Thou shalt be given the office resigned thee By him who presides in the court of the shades, The lord of a hundred cities Cretaean. Smite on your breasts, ye shysters forsaken, With hands of despair, O bribe-taking crew; Ye too, half-fledged poets, now should bewail; And ye above all, who lately were able To gather great gains by shaking the dice-box.”

Claudius was delighted with his praises, and desired to stay longer to look on. But the Talthybius of the gods laid a hand on him and pulled him away, with his head covered so that nobody could recognize him, across the Campus Martius, and between the Tiber and the Arcade went down to the lower world. The freedman Narcissus had already gone ahead by a short cut to be ready to receive his patron, and as the latter was approaching