SKETCH OF THE LIFE, &c. OF

Claudius (k). He lived about eight years in exile, with great courage; nay, (as he says himself) and happily too, always intent upon the best of studies and salutary meditations. For thus he writes to his mother (chapter 4): "I am even happy in those things which are wont to make others miserable." He concludes: "Learn now what opinion you should entertain of me: that I am light-hearted and cheerful, as if all my affairs were in the best state in the world. And so, indeed, they are: when the mind, discharged of all cares, has leisure to attend those notions that are proper for it; and sometimes delights itself with more pleasing studies (l); and sometimes, thirsting after truth, still rises in the contemplation of her own nature and the disposition of the whole world (m)."

(k) The crime laid to his charge was adultery with Julia (the daughter of Germanicus), who was likewise banished upon the accusation of Messalina. Tacitus therefore calls it an "enquiry," for who knows not the many other accusations of that most profligate harlot, Messalina, among the Roman nobility, or the condemnations of that loathsome beast, Claudius? As they seldom practiced mischief but upon the good and innocent, to be accused by such persons is praise, as to be praised by them would create a suspicion of guilt.
(l) Scilicet (namely) poetry; and particularly the Medea, which, says Lipsius, I am half assured was written in his exile, at such a time as Claudius conquered Britain; and therefore Seneca made choice of the argument of Jason on his having subdued the ocean, for it is impossible those lines in the chorus should have relation to any but Claudius.
"Spare him, O gods, we pray; may he live in safety, who forced his way through the seas; enough, O gods, you have avenged the sea; spare the adventurous god."
This, under a poetical piece of adulation, he applied to Claudius while living.
(m) Thus writes the author of the tragedy of Octavia (for I am persuaded, says Lipsius, it is not the philosopher himself) under the character of Seneca:
"Safer I sojourned on the Corsic shore, removed from Envy's ever-hateful power, with earnest zeal to learned lore inclined, fixed on the studies of the laboring mind: with what content, with what heart-felt delight, did Nature's wonders charm the ravished sight! When I beheld the sun, or moon, on high, and all the beauties of the starry sky!"