Venice, that a copy of the speech of the Emperor Claudius, which
had long been lost, was found again buried within the earth at
Lyons, and as so discovered is still preserved, engraved on two
brass plates in the vestibule of the Town Hall of Lyons, a lasting
memento of the modern fabrication of the Annals.

VI. The author of the Annals ascribes to Brutus the creation of
the second class of nobility, which Brutus no more created than
(as Famianus Strada observes,) "Pythagoras originated the idea of
the transmigration of souls." The statement that "few were left of
the families to which Romulus gave the title, the 'gentes
majores,' or 'old clans,' and Lucius Brutus the 'gentes minores,'
or 'young clans'":--"paucis jam reliquis familiarum, quas Romulus
'majorum,' et Lucius Brutus 'minorum gentium' adpellaverant"
(XI.25):--could never have been written by a Roman; because, in the
first place, it was not Romulus who created the whole patrician
body known as the "majores gentes"; the only senators whom he
created were the "decuriones," or heads of the various "gentes" of
the united Romans and Sabines; to these Tullus Hostilius added the
most distinguished citizens of the Albans, when they were removed
to Rome in his reign;--and it was the united descendants of these
two sets of patricians who were called by subsequent generations
"patricii majorum gentium": in the second place, it was Tarquinius
Priscus who enlarged the patrician body by creating the 100
representatives of the Luceres, or Etruscans, senators, and it was
the descendants of these who were "called," by way of distinction
from the others, "patricii minorum gentium." The new sort of
nobility which originated with Brutus was a very different kind of
thing: the new eminence or dignity conferred on the senators
elected by Brutus was confined to themselves only, being strictly