--_Mason's Caractacus_.
1. As soon as the death of Calig'ula was made public it produced the
greatest confusion. The conspirators, who only aimed at destroying a
tyrant, without attending to the appointment of a successor, had
all sought safety by retiring to private places. 2. Some soldiers
happening to wander about the palace, discovered Clau'dius,
Calig'ula's uncle, lurking in a secret place where he had hid himself.
Of this person, who had hitherto been despised for his imbecility,
they resolved to make an emperor: and accordingly they carried him
upon their shoulders to the camp, where they proclaimed him at a time
when he expected nothing but death.
3. Clau'dius was now fifty years old. The complicated diseases of his
infancy had, in some measure, affected all the faculties of his mind
as well as body, and he seemed, both in public and domestic life,
incapable of conducting himself with propriety.[21]
4. The commencement of his reign, however, as had been the case with
all the bad emperors, gave the most promising hopes.
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