§9Orsus hinc a pietatis ostentatione Claudium apparatissimo funere elatum laudauit et consecrauit.
Beginning from this point with an ostentation of filial piety, he buried Claudius with a most lavish funeral, praised him, and deified him.
memoriae Domiti patris honores maximos habuit.
He paid the greatest honors to the memory of his father Domitius.
matri summam omnium rerum priuatarum publicarumque permisit.
To his mother he committed the supreme control of all affairs, both private and public.
primo etiam imperii die signum excubanti tribuno dedit 'optimam matrem' ac deinceps eiusdem saepe lectica per publicum simul uectus est.
On the very first day of his reign, he gave the watchword "The Best of Mothers" to the tribune on guard, and thereafter he was often carried with her in the same litter through public places.
Antium coloniam deduxit ascriptis ueteranis e praetorio additisque per domicilii translationem ditissimis primipilarium; ubi et portum operis sumptuosissimi fecit.
He led a colony to Antium, enrolling veterans from the praetorian guard and adding, by transfer of domicile, the richest of the chief centurions; there he also constructed a harbor of most costly workmanship.
§10Atque ut certiorem adhuc indolem ostenderet, ex Augusti praescripto imperaturum se professus, neque liberalitatis neque clementiae, ne comitatis quidem exhibendae ullam occasionem omisit.
And to show his character to be still more reliable, declaring that he would rule according to the principles of Augustus, he omitted no opportunity of displaying liberality, clemency, or even friendliness.
grauiora uectigalia aut aboleuit aut minuit.
He either abolished or reduced the heavier taxes.
praemia delatorum Papiae legis ad quartas redegit.
He reduced the rewards for informers under the Papian law to one-fourth.
diuisis populo uiritim quadringenis nummis senatorum nobilissimo cuique, sed a re familiari destituto annua salaria et quibusdam quingena constituit, item praetorianis cohortibus frumentum menstruum gratuitum.
Having distributed four hundred sesterces a man to the people, he established annual salaries for each of the most noble senators who was impoverished, to some as much as five hundred thousand sesterces, and likewise a free monthly allowance of grain for the praetorian cohorts.
et cum de supplicio cuiusdam capite damnati ut ex more subscriberet admoneretur: 'quam uellem,' inquit, 'nescire litteras. ' omnis ordines subinde ac memoriter salutauit.
And when he was asked to sign, according to custom, the warrant for the execution of a man condemned to death, he said: "How I wish I did not know how to write!" He saluted all classes of people one after another, and from memory.
agenti senatui gratias respondit: 'cum meruero. ' ad campestres exercitationes suas admisit et plebem declamauitque saepius publice; recitauit et carmina, non modo domi sed et in theatro, tanta uniuersorum laetitia, ut ob recitationem supplicatio decreta sit eaque pars carminum aureis litteris Ioui Capitolino dicata.
To the senate returning thanks he replied: "When I shall have deserved it." He admitted even the common people to his exercises in the Campus Martius and declaimed quite frequently in public; he also recited poems, not only at home but also in the theater, to such universal joy that a thanksgiving was decreed because of his recitation, and that part of his poems was dedicated in golden letters to Jupiter of the Capitol.
§11Spectaculorum plurima et uaria genera edidit: iuuenales, circenses, scaenicos ludos, gladiatorium munus.
He exhibited many spectacles of various kinds: the Youth Games, circus games, theatrical plays, and a gladiatorial show.
iuuenalibus senes quoque consulares anusque matronas recepit ad lusum.
At the Youth Games, he admitted even elderly men of consular rank and aged matrons to take part in the play.
circensibus loca equiti secreta a ceteris tribuit commisitque etiam camelorum quadrigas.
At the circus games, he assigned separate seats for the knights apart from the rest, and even matched four-horse chariots of camels.
ludis, quos pro aeternitate imperii susceptos appellari 'maximos' uoluit, ex utroque ordine et sexu plerique ludicras partes sustinuerunt; notissimus eques R. elephanto supersidens per catadromum decucurrit; inducta Afrani togata, quae Incendium inscribitur, concessumque ut scaenici ardentis domus supellectilem diriperent ac sibi haberent; sparsa et populo missilia omnium rerum per omnes dies: singula cotidie milia auium cuiusque generis, multiplex penus, tesserae frumentariae, uestis, aurum, argentum, gemmae, margaritae, tabulae pictae, mancipia, iumenta atque etiam mansuetae ferae, nouissime naues, insulae, agri.
At the games which he wished to be called "the Greatest," undertaken for the eternity of the empire, many individuals of both orders and sexes sustained theatrical parts; a very well-known Roman knight, seated on an elephant, ran down a tightrope; a Roman comedy by Afranius, entitled "The Fire," was introduced, and it was permitted that the actors should plunder the furniture of the burning house and keep it for themselves; scatter-gifts of all kinds of things were also thrown to the people every day: a thousand birds of every kind daily, various provisions, grain tickets, clothing, gold, silver, jewels, pearls, paintings, slaves, beasts of burden and even tame wild beasts, and lastly ships, apartment blocks, and lands.
§12hos ludos spectauit e proscaeni fastigio.
He watched these games from the top of the proscenium.
munere, quod in amphitheatro ligneo regione Martii campi intra anni spatium fabricato dedit, neminem occidit, ne noxiorum quidem.
At the gladiatorial show which he gave in a wooden amphitheater built within the space of a year in the district of the Campus Martius, he put no one to death, not even of the criminals.
exhibuit autem ad ferrum etiam quadringentos senatores sescentosque equites Romanos et quosdam fortunae atque existimationis integrae, ex isdem ordinibus confectores quoque ferarum et uaria harenae ministeria.
Moreover, he exhibited for combat even four hundred senators and six hundred Roman knights, some of whom were of unimpaired fortune and reputation, and from the same orders he also produced wild-beast fighters and various arena assistants.
exhibuit et naumachiam marina aqua innantibus beluis; item pyrrichas quasdam e numero epheborum, quibus post editam operam diplomata ciuitatis Romanae singulis optulit.
He also exhibited a mock naval battle with sea water, with monsters swimming in it; likewise certain pyrrhic dances by a number of youths, to each of whom, after their performance, he presented certificates of Roman citizenship.
inter pyrricharum argumenta taurus Pasiphaam ligneo iuuencae simulacro abditam iniit, ut multi spectantium crediderunt; Icarus primo statim conatu iuxta cubiculum eius decidit ipsumque cruore respersit.
Among the subjects of the pyrrhic dances, a bull mounted Pasiphae, who was concealed in a wooden image of a heifer, as many of the spectators believed; Icarus, at his very first attempt, fell close to his box and splattered him with blood.
nam perraro praesidere, ceterum accubans, paruis primum foraminibus, deinde toto podio adaperto spectare consueuerat.
For he had been accustomed to preside very rarely, but rather to watch while reclining, at first through small apertures, and then with the whole balcony opened.
Instituit et quinquennale certamen primus omnium Romae more Graeco triplex, musicum gymnicum equestre, quod appellauit Neronia; dedicatisque thermis atque gymnasio senatui quoque et equiti oleum praebuit.
He also instituted, first of all at Rome, a three-part contest held every five years after the Greek fashion, in music, gymnastics, and horsemanship, which he called the Neronia; and having dedicated public baths and a gymnasium, he provided oil for the senate and the knights as well.
magistros toto certamini praeposuit consulares sorte, sede praetorum.
As directors of the whole contest he appointed, by lot, men of consular rank, who occupied the seats of the praetors.
deinde in orchestram senatumque descendit et orationis quidem carminisque Latini coronam, de qua honestissimus quisque contenderat, ipsorum consensu concessam sibi recepit, citharae autem a iudicibus ad se delatam adorauit ferrique ad Augusti statuam iussit.
Then he descended into the orchestra and the senate seats, and received the crown for Latin oratory and poetry, for which all the most honorable men had contended, conceded to him by their common consent, but he worshiped the crown for lyre-playing, brought to him by the judges, and ordered it to be carried to the statue of Augustus.
gymnico, quod in Saeptis edebat, inter buthysiae apparatum barbam primam posuit conditamque in auream pyxidem et pretiosissimis margaritis adornatam Capitolio consecrauit.
At the gymnastic contest which he held in the Saepta, during the preparation for the sacrifice of oxen, he shaved his beard for the first time, enclosed it in a golden box adorned with most precious pearls, and consecrated it in the Capitol.
ad athletarum spectaculum inuitauit et uirgines Vestales, quia Olympiae quoque Cereris sacerdotibus spectare conceditur.
He also invited the Vestal Virgins to the exhibition of the athletes, because at Olympia also the priestesses of Ceres are allowed to watch.