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Sunday, August 15, 2010 - 6:07 PM
In the consulship of Faustus Sulla and Salvius Otho, Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
was banished on the ground that he was consulting the astrologers about
the emperor's death. His mother, Junia, was included in the accusation,
as one who still resented the misfortune of exile which she had suffered
in the past. His father, Camillus, had raised an armed insurrection in
Dalmatia, and the emperor in again sparing a hostile family sought the
credit of clemency. But the exile did not live long after this; whether
he was cut off by a natural death, or by poison, was matter of conflicting
rumours, according to people's belief.
A decree of the Senate was then passed for the expulsion of the
astrologers from Italy, stringent but ineffectual. Next the emperor, in
a speech, commended all who, from their limited means, voluntarily retired
from the Senatorian order, while those were degraded from it who, by retaining
their seats, added effrontery to poverty.
During these proceedings he proposed to the Senate a penalty on
women who united themselves in marriage to slaves, and it was decided that
those who had thus demeaned themselves, without the knowledge of the slave's
master, should be reduced to slavery; if with his consent, should be ranked
as freedwomen. To Pallas, who, as the emperor declared, was the author
of this proposal, were offered on the motion of Barea Soranus, consul-elect,
the decorations of the praetorship and fifteen million sesterces. Cornelius
Scipio added that he deserved public thanks for thinking less of his ancient
nobility as a descendant from the kings of Arcadia, than of the welfare
of the State, and allowing himself to be numbered among the emperor's ministers.
Claudius assured them that Pallas was content with the honour, and that
he limited himself to his former poverty. A decree of the Senate was publicly
inscribed on a bronze tablet, heaping the praises of primitive frugality
on a freedman, the possessor of three hundred million
sesterces.
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