A. Licinius Nerva Silanus, M. Vestinus Atticus. (A.D. 65 = a.u. 818 =
Twelfth of Nero).


[Sidenote: A.D. 61 (a.u. 814)] [Sidenote:--1--] While this sport was going
on at Rome, a terrible disaster had taken place in Britain. Two cities had
been sacked, eight myriads of Romans and of their allies had perished, and
the island had been lost. Moreover, all this ruin was brought upon them by
a woman, a fact which in itself caused them the greatest shame. Heaven
evidently gave them in advance an indication of the catastrophe. At night
there was heard to issue from the senate-house foreign jargon mingled with
laughter and from the theatre outcries with wailing: yet no mortal man had
uttered the speeches or the groans. Houses under water came to view in the
river Thames, [Footnote: Compare Tacitus, Annals, XIV, 32 ("visamque
speciem in aestuario Tamesae subversae Coloniae").] and the ocean between
the island and Gaul sometimes grew bloody at flood-tide.

[Sidenote:--2--] The _casus belli_ lay in the confiscation of the
money which Claudius had given to the foremost Britons,--Decianus Catus,
governor of the island, announcing that this must now be sent back. This
was one reason [Lacuna] [Footnote: It would seem natural to supply "for the
uprising," as does Reiske.] and another was that Seneca had lent them on
excellent terms as regards interest a thousand myriads that they did not
want, [Footnote: The meaning of this phrase ( [Greek: achousin]) is not
wholly clear. Naber purposes to substitute [Greek: aitousin] ("that they
were asking for").] and had afterward called in this loan all at once and
levied on them for it with severity. But the person who most stirred their
spirits and persuaded them to fight the Romans, who was deemed worthy to
stand at their head and to have the conduct of the entire war, was a