When he learned that his enemy was dead, he rejoiced, as was natural, yet would not receive the embassy sent to congratulate him, though many members of the senate and many of the knights and of the populace had been despatched, as before. Indeed he even rebuffed the consul Regulus, who had always been devoted to his interests and had come in accordance with the emperor's own commands to see about his being conveyed in safety to the City.

[-14-] Thus perished Sejanus, who had attained greater power than those who obtained his office before or after him (save Plautianus). His relatives, his associates, and all the rest who had paid court to him and had moved that honors be granted him were brought to trial. The majority of them were convicted for the acts that had previously made them objects of envy; and their fellow-citizens condemned them for the measures which they themselves had previously voted. Numbers of men who had been tried on various charges and acquitted were again accused and convicted on the ground that they had been saved the first time as a favor to the deceased. Accordingly, if no other complaint could be brought against a person, the statement that he had been a friend of Sejanus served to convict him,—as if, forsooth, Tiberius himself had not been friendly with him, and caused others to become interested for his sake. Among those who laid information in this way were the men who were wont to pay court to Sejanus. Inasmuch as they knew thoroughly those who were in the same position, they had no great trouble either in finding them out or securing their conviction. So they, expecting to save themselves by doing this, and to obtain honors and money besides, accused others or else bore witness against them. But it proved that none of their hopes was realized. They found themselves liable to the same charges on which they had prosecuted others, and partly as a result of them and partly on account of the general detestation of traitors perished along with their companions. [-15-] Of those against whom charges were brought many were present in person to hear their accusation and make their defence, and some employed great frankness in so doing. Still, the majority made away with themselves prior to their conviction. They did this chiefly to avoid suffering insult and outrage. (For all who had incurred any such charge, senators as well as knights, women as well as men, were crowded together into the prison. After their condemnation some underwent the penalty there and others were hurled from the Capitol by the tribunes or the consuls. The bodies of all of them were cast into the Forum and subsequently were thrown into the river.) But their object was partly that their children might inherit their property. Very few estates of such as voluntarily took themselves off before their trial were confiscated, Tiberius in this way inviting men to become their own murderers, that he might avoid the reputation of having killed them; as if it were not far more fearful to compel a man to die by his own hand than to deliver him to the executioner. [-16-] Most of the estates of such as failed to die in this way were confiscated, only a little or nothing at all even being given to their accusers. For he was now giving far more[7] accurate attention to money. After this Tiberius increased to one per cent. a tax which was already one-half of one per cent. and proceeded to accept every inheritance left to him. And in fact nearly every one left him something,—even those who made away with themselves,—as they had to Sejanus while the latter lived.

Also, with that same intention which had led him not to take possession of the wealth of those who perished voluntarily, he made the senate sponsor for every official summons, to the end that he might be free from blame himself (for so he thought) and the senate pass sentence upon itself as a wrongdoer.[8] By this means people came to be thoroughly aware, during the time that they were being destroyed through one another's agency, that their former troubles had emanated no more from Sejanus than from Tiberius. For not only were the accusers of various persons brought to trial, but those who had condemned them were in turn sentenced. So it was that Tiberius spared no one, but kept using up all the citizens one against another; no firm friendships existed any longer[9]; but the unjust and the guiltless, the fearful and the fearless stood on the same footing as regarded the investigation made into the complaints about Sejanus. At length he saw fit to propose a kind of amnesty for the sufferers, and so he gave permission to those who wished to go into mourning for the deceased; and in addition he forbade that any one should in any way be hindered from showing this respect to the memory of any person,—for such prohibitory votes were frequently passed. Yet he did not in fact confirm this edict, but after a brief space he punished numbers on account of Sejanus and on other complaints: they were generally charged with having outraged and murdered their nearest female relatives.

[A.D. 32(a. u. 785)]

[-17-] Such was the state of affairs at this time, and there was not a soul that could deny that he would be glad to feast on the emperor's flesh. Now the next year, when Gnaeus Domitius and Camillus Scribonianus became consuls, a very laughable thing happened. It had now long been the custom for the members of the senate on the first of the year to take the oath not man by man, but for one (as I have stated)[10] to take the oath for them and the rest to express their acquiescence. This time, however, they did not do so, but of their own motion, without any compulsion, they were separately and individually pledged, as though this would make them any more regardful of their oath. Previously for many years the emperor had allowed matters to go on without a single person's swearing allegiance to his acts of government: this I have mentioned. [11]—At this time also there occurred something else still more laughable.

[-18-] They voted that he should select as many of their number as he liked and should employ twenty of them,—whomsoever the lot should designate,—as guards with daggers as often as he entered the senate-chamber. Of course, as the exterior of the building was watched by the soldiers and no private citizen could come inside, their resolution that a guard be given him amounted to a precaution against no one but themselves, thus indicating that they were hostile. Naturally Tiberius expressed his obligations to them and thanked them for their good intentions, but he rejected their offer as being too much out of the ordinary. He was not so simple as to give swords to the very men whom he hated and by whom he was hated. Yet, as a result of this very measure he began to grow suspicious of them,—for every act in contravention of sincerity which one undertakes for the purpose of flattery breeds suspicion,—and bidding a long adieu to their decrees he began to honor the Pretorians both by addresses and with money, in spite of his knowledge that they had been on the side of Sejanus, so that he might find them more disposed to be employed against the senators. On occasion, to be sure, he in turn commended the latter, when they voted that funds from the public treasury be bestowed on the guardsmen. He kept alternately deceiving the one party by his talk and winning over the other party by his acts in a most effective way. For instance, Junius Gallic had moved that a spectacle be provided in the meeting place of the knights for those of the body-guard who had finished their term of service: Tiberius did not merely banish him when the man was brought up on this very charge of giving an impression that he was persuading the soldiers to show good-will to the government rather than to the emperor; no, but when he found that Junius was setting sail for Lesbos he deprived him of a safe and comfortable existence there and delivered him to the custody of the magistrates, as he had once done with Gallus. And in order to assure the two classes still more fully how he felt toward both of them he not long after asked the senate that Macro and some military tribunes be deemed sufficient to conduct him to the senate-chamber. He had no need of those persons, for he had no idea of ever entering the city again, but what he wanted was to display his hatred of the senators and show the latter the friendliness of the soldiers. The senators actually granted this request. However, they attached to the decree a clause that the escort should be searched on entering to make sure that no one had a dagger hidden beneath his arm.—This resolution was passed in the following year.

[-19-] At this time he spared among some others who had been intimate with Sejanus Lucius Caesianus,[12] a praetor, and Marcus Terentius, a knight. He overlooked the behavior of the former, who at the Floralia to ridicule Tiberius had had everything up to midnight done by baldheaded men (because the emperor himself was also baldheaded) and had furnished light to those leaving the theatre by the hands of five thousand boys with shaven pates. Tiberius was so far from becoming angry at him that he pretended not to have heard about it at all, though all baldheaded persons were from then on called Caesiani, after this man. Terentius he spared because when on trial for his friendship with Sejanus he not only did not deny it but affirmed that he had worked for him and paid court to him to the greatest possible extent for the reason that the minister was so highly honored by Tiberius himself. "Consequently," he said, "if the emperor did rightly in having such a friend, neither have I done any wrong: and if my sovereign, who knows all things accurately, erred, what wonder is it that I shared his deception? Our duty is to cherish all whom he honors without concerning ourselves overmuch about the kind of men they are, but making one thing determine our friendship for them,—the fact that they please the emperor." The senate for these reasons acquitted him and in addition rebuked his accusers. Tiberius concurred with them. When Piso, the praefectus urbi, died, he honored him with a public funeral,—a distinction granted also to others. In his place he chose Lucius Lamia, whom he had long ago put in charge of Syria[13] and was keeping at Rome. He took similar action, too, in the case of many others, really caring nothing at all for them, but making an outward show of honoring them.—Meantime Vitrasius Pollio, governor of Egypt died, and he entrusted the province for a time to one Hiberus, a Caesarian.

[A.D. 33 (a. u. 786)]

[-20-] Now of the consuls Domitius held office the whole year through,—for he was husband of Agrippina, the daughter of Germanicus,—but the rest adapted themselves to the whims of Tiberius. Some he elevated for a longer time and some for a shorter: some he stopped before the end of their appointed term and others he allowed to hold office beyond the limits designated. Not infrequently he would appoint a man for an entire year and then depose him, setting up another and still another in his place. Sometimes, after choosing certain substitutes for third place, he would then have others become consuls before them in the place of still others. These irregularities in the case of the consuls occurred through practically his entire reign. Of the candidates for the other offices he selected as many as he wished and sent their names to the senate, recommending some to that body,—and these were chosen, by acclamation,—but making others depend upon their own claims or the assent of the senate or the decision of the lot. After that, in order to follow out ancient precedent, such as belonged to the people and the plebs went before one of these two bodies and were announced: this is the same practice that is followed at present, intended to produce at least an appearance of valid election. In case there was ever a deficiency of candidates or they became involved in irreconcilable strife, a smaller number was chosen.—The following year, in which Servius Galba (that later became emperor) and Lucius Cornelius held the consular title, fifteen praetors held office. This went on for many years, so that sometimes sixteen and sometimes one or two less were chosen.

[-21-] The next move of Tiberius was to approach the capital and sojourn in its environs; he did not, however, go within the walls, although he was but thirty stades distant, so that he bestowed in marriage the remaining daughters of Germanicus and also Julia, the daughter of Drusus. Hence the city did not make a festival of their marriages, but everything went on as usual: the senators met and decided judicial cases. For Tiberius made an important point of their assembling as often as he would have convened them, and insisted on their not arriving later or departing earlier than the time fixed. He sent to the consuls many injunctions on this head and once ordered certain statements to be read aloud by them. He behaved in the same way in regard to certain other matters (just as if he could not write directly to the senate!). To that body he sent in not only the documents given him by the informers but also the confessions under torture which Macro obtained, so that nothing was left in the hands of the senators save the vote of condemnation. About this time, however, a certain Vibullius Agrippa, a knight, swallowed poison from a ring and died in the senate-house itself, and Nerva, who could no longer endure the emperor's society, starved himself to death, his chief reason for doing so being that Tiberius had reaffirmed the laws on contracts, enacted by Caesar, which were sure to result in great loss of confidence and upheaval; and although his chief repeatedly urged him to utter some word,[14] he refused to answer. These events seemed to make some impression on the emperor and he modified the situation, so far as it pertained to loans, by giving two thousand five hundred myriads to the public treasury under the arrangement that this money could be lent out by the senatorial party without interest for three years to such as desired it. He further commanded that the most notorious of those who had steadily acted as accusers should be put to death on one day. And when a man who belonged to the centurions wished to lodge information against some one, he forbade that any person who had served in the army should do so, although he allowed the privilege to knights and senators.

[-22-] There is no denying that he received praise for his behavior in these matters, and most of all because he would not accept a number of honors that were voted to him for it. But the sensual orgies which he carried on shamelessly with the individuals of highest rank, male and female alike, caused ill to be spoken of him. For example, there was the case of his friend Sextus Marius. Imperial favor had made this man so rich and so powerful that when he was once at odds with a neighbor he invited him to dine for two successive days. On the first he razed his guest's dwelling entirely to the ground and on the next he rebuilt it on a larger scale and in more elaborate style. The victim of his treatment declared his ignorance of the perpetrators, whereupon Marius admitted being responsible for both occurrences and added significantly: "This shows you that I have both the knowledge and the power to repel attacks and also to requite a kindness." This friend, then, who had sent his daughter, a strikingly beautiful girl, to a place of refuge to prevent her being outraged by Tiberius, was charged with having criminal relations with her and for that reason destroyed both his daughter and himself. All this covered the emperor with disgrace, and his connection with the death of Drusus and Agrippina gave him a reputation for cruelty. Men had been thinking all along that the whole of the previous action against these two was due to Sejanus, and had been hoping that now their lives would be spared; so, when they learned that they had been actually murdered, they were exceedingly grieved, partly for the reasons mentioned and partly because, so far from depositing their bones in the imperial tomb, Tiberius ordered their remains to be hidden so carefully in the earth that they might never be found. In addition to Agrippina, Munatia Plancina was slain. Previous to this time, though he hated her (not on account of Germanicus but for another reason), he yet allowed her to live to prevent Agrippina from rejoicing at her death.

[-23-] Besides doing this he appointed Gaius quaestor, though not of first rank, promising him, however, that he would advance him to the other office five years earlier than was customary. At the same time he requested the senate not to make the young man conceited by numerous or extraordinary honors, for fear the latter might go astray in one way or another. He had, indeed, a descendant in the person of Tiberius, but him he disregarded both on account of age (he was a mere child as yet) and on account of the prevailing suspicion that this boy was not the son of Drusus. He therefore clove to Gaius as the most eligible candidate for sole ruler, especially as he felt sure that Tiberius would live but a short time and would be murdered by that very man. There was no detail of the character of Gaius of which he was in ignorance; indeed, he once remarked to his successor, who was quarreling with Tiberius: "You will kill him, and others will kill you." The emperor knew of no one else that suited him so entirely, and at the same time he was well aware that the man would be a thorough knave; yet the story obtains that he was glad to give him the empire in order that his own crimes might find concealment in the enormity of Gaius's offences and that the largest and the noblest portion of what was left of the senate might perish after him. At all events he is said to have often uttered the ancient saying:

"When I am dead, let fire o'erwhelm the earth."[15]

Often, also, he declared Priam fortunate, because that king involved his country and his throne in his own utter ruin. These records about him are given a semblance of reality by what took place in those days. Such a multitude of the senators and of others lost their lives that out of the officials chosen by lot the ex-praetors held the governorship of the provinces for three years and the ex-consuls for six, owing to the lack of persons to succeed them. And what name could one properly give to the elected magistrates, whom from the first he allowed to hold office for an unusually long time?

Now among those who died at this time was also Gallus. Tiberius himself said that only then (and scarcely even so) did he become reconciled with him. Thus it was that contrary to the usual custom he inflicted upon some life as a punishment and bestowed upon others death as a kindness.

[A.D. 34 (a. u. 787)]

[-24-] The twentieth year of the emperor's reign now came in, and he himself though he sojourned in the vicinity of Albanum and Tusculum did not enter the City; the consuls, Lucius Vitellius and Fabius Persicus, celebrated the second ten-year period. The senators so termed it in preference to "twenty-year period" to signify that they were granting him the leadership of the State again, as had been done in the case of Augustus. Punishment overtook them at the same time that they were celebrating the appropriate festival. This time none of those accused was acquitted, but all were convicted,—the majority from documents contributed by Tiberius and the statements under torture obtained by Macro, the rest by what these two suspected they were planning. It was rumored that the real reason why Tiberius did not come to Rome was to avoid being disgraced while present by the sentences of condemnation. Among various persons who perished either at the hands of the executioners or by their own acts was Pomponius Labeo. He, who had once governed Moesia for eight years after his praetorship, was, with his wife, indicted for receiving bribes and voluntarily destroyed both her and himself. Mamercus AEmilius Scaurus, on the other hand, who had never governed anybody nor received bribes, was convicted because of a tragedy and fell a victim to a worse fate than any he had depicted. Atreus was the name of the composition, and in the manner of Euripides[16] it advised some one of the subjects of that monarch to endure the folly of the ruling prince. Tiberius, when he heard of it, declared that the verse had been composed against him at this juncture and that "Atreus" was merely a pretence used on account of that monarch's bloodthirstiness. And adding quietly "I will have him play the part of Ajax," he brought pressure to bear to make him commit suicide. The above was not the accusation made against him; instead, he was charged with having kept up a liaison with Livilla. Many others had been punished on her account, some with good reason and some as the result of blackmail.

[-25-] While matters at Rome were in this condition, the subject territory was not quiet either. The very moment a certain youth who declared he was Drusus appeared in the region of Greece and Ionia, the cities both received him enthusiastically and supported his cause. He would have proceeded to Syria and taken possession of the legions, had not some one recognized him and putting an end to his success taken him to Tiberius.

[A.D. 35 (a. u. 788)] After this Gaius Gallus and Marcus Servilius became consuls. Tiberius was at Antium holding fete in honor of the nuptials of Gaius. Not even for such a purpose would he enter Rome, because of the case of one Fulcinius Trio. The latter, who had been a friend of Sejanus but had stood high in the favor of Tiberius on account of his readiness at blackmail, was, when accused, delivered up for punishment; and through fear he slew himself beforehand after abusing roundly both the emperor and Macro in his testament. His children did not dare to publish it, but Tiberius, learning what had been written, ordered it to be presented before the senate. Little did he trouble himself about such matters. Sometimes he would voluntarily give to the public denunciations of his conduct that were being kept secret, as another man would eulogies. Indeed, he took all that Drusus had uttered in distress and misfortune, and this, too, he sent in to the senate.—So much, then, for the death of Trio. Poppaeus Sabinus, who had governed both the Mysias and Macedonia besides during almost all the reign of Tiberius up to this time, withdrew from life with the greatest good-will before any charge could be brought against him. He was succeeded by Regulus with equal authority. For, according to some reports, Macedonia and Achaea were both assigned to the new ruler without lots being cast for them.

[A.D. 36 (a. u. 789)]

[-26-] About the same period Artabanus the Parthian after the death of Artaxias bestowed Armenia upon his son Arsaces. When no vengeance fell upon him from Tiberius for this move, he made an attempt upon Cappadocia and treated the Parthians, too, rather haughtily. Consequently some revolted from him and went on an embassy to Tiberius, asking a king for themselves from among those serving as hostages. He sent them at once Phraates, son of Phraates, and at the death of the latter (which occurred on the way) Tiridates, who was himself also of the royal race. To insure his securing the throne as easily as possible the emperor wrote orders to Mithridates the Iberian to invade Armenia, so that Artabanus should leave home and assist his son. Things turned out as planned, but the reign of Tiridates lasted only a short time, for Artabanus got the Scythians on his side and had no great difficulty in expelling him. So much for the Parthian affairs.—Armenia fell into the hands of Mithridates, son of Mithridates the Iberian, of course, and a brother of Pharasmanes, who became king of the Iberians after him.—When Sextus Papinius became consul with Quintus Plautius, the Tiber inundated a large part of the City so that it remained under water, and a much more extensive section in the vicinity of the hippodrome and the Aventine was devastated by fire. In view of these disasters Tiberius gave two thousand five hundred myriads to those who had suffered any loss.

[A.D. 37 (a. u. 790)]

And if Egyptian affairs also touch Roman interests at all, it might be mentioned that that year the phoenix was seen. All these events were thought to foreshadow the death of Tiberius. Thrasyllus died at this very time and the emperor himself in the following spring, in the consulship of Gnaeus Proculus and Pontius Nigrinus. It chanced that Macro had plotted against Domitius and numerous others and had devised complaints and tortures against them. Not all that were accused, however, were put to death, because Thrasyllus handled Tiberius very cleverly. Concerning himself he stated very accurately both the day and the hour in which he should die, but he falsely declared that the emperor would live ten more years, in order that the latter, feeling he had a moderately long time to live, might be in no hurry to kill them. The issue justified the plan. Thinking that it would be possible for him later to do whatever he liked at his leisure, he made no haste in any way and showed no anger when the senate, in consideration of the opposition to the tortures expressed by the magistrates, postponed the sentencing of the prisoners. Yet pitiable scenes were not wanting. One woman wounded herself, was carried into the senate and from there to prison, where she died. Lucius Arruntius, distinguished both for his age and for his education, destroyed himself voluntarily when Tiberius was already sick and was not thought likely to recover. The man was aware of the evil character of Gaius and desired to depart before he should taste of it, saying: "I can not in my old age become the slave of a new master like him." Still others were saved,—some who had actually been condemned but were not permitted to die before the expiration of ten days, and others because their trial was again put off when the judges learned that Tiberius was seriously ailing.

[-28-] He passed away at Misenum before he could learn anything of this. He had been sick for a considerable time, but expecting to live, as Thrasyllus had foretold, he neither consulted physicians nor changed his way of life; wasting away gradually as he was, in old age and subject to a sickness that was not severe, he would often all but expire and then recover strength again. These changes would cause Gaius and the rest first great pleasure, when they thought he was going to die, and then great fear, when they thought he would live. His successor, therefore, fearing that his health might actually be restored, refused his requests for anything to eat, on the ground that he would be injured, and pretending that he needed warmth wrapped many thick cloths about him. In this way he smothered him, with a certain amount of help, to be sure, from Macro. The latter, as Tiberius was already seriously ill, was paying his court to the young man, particularly as he had before this succeeded in making him fall in love with his own wife, Ennia Thrasylla. Tiberius suspecting this had once said: "You understand well when to abandon the setting, and hasten to the rising sun."

So Tiberius, who possessed the most varied virtues, the most varied vices, and followed each set in turn as if the other did not exist, passed away in this fashion on the twenty-sixth day of March.[17] He had lived seventy-seven years, four months, nine days, of which he had spent as ruler twenty-two years, seven months and seven days. A public funeral was accorded him and a eulogy, delivered by Gaius.

[Footnote 1: Supplying here (as did Sylburgius, to fill a gap in the sense) ... [GREEK: echeleuse chahi tae boulae]....]

[Footnote 2: The consul of A.D. 30, either C. Cassius Longinus or his brother L. Cassius Longinus.]

[Footnote 3: A gap in the MS. exists, as indicated.]

[Footnote 4: A corrupt reading for which no wholly satisfactory substitute has been offered.]

[Footnote 5: The predicate of this clause has fallen out in the MS., and the restoration is on lines suggested by Bekker.]

[Footnote 6: Reading (with Mommsen) [Greek: outo] for [Greek: auto].]

[Footnote 7: Reading [Greek: aedae polu] (Stephanus, Boissevain).]

[Footnote 8: Using Boissevain's reading [Greek: adikousaes] (from Reiske) in preference to the MS. [Greek: diadikousaes].]

[Footnote 9: A small gap. The text filled and context amended by Kuiper.]

[Footnote 10: Evidently the previous reference was in a passage now lost, between Bk. 57, ch. 17, sect. 8, and Bk. 58, ch. 7, sect. 2 of the Codex Marcianus (Boissevain).]

[Footnote 11: Compare Book Fifty-seven, chapter eight.]

[Footnote 12: Caesianus and Caesiani are conjectures of Boissevain, the MS. being corrupt. The person meant is L. Apronius Caesianus (consul A.D. 39).]

[Footnote 13: A correction of Casaubon's for "the army" (MS.), which seems senseless.]

[Footnote 14: The phrase yields no particular sense and is probably corrupt, but a correction is not easy. "To state his reasons" has been suggested; and a very slight change in the Greek produces "to eat something" another conjecture.]

[Footnote 15: Probably from the Bellerophon of Euripides.]

[Footnote 16: Compare Euripides, Phoenician Maidens, verse 393.]

[Footnote 17: Dio is in error. The date was really about ten days earlier.]



DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY

59

The following is contained in the Fifty-ninth of Dio's Rome.

About Gaius Caesar, called also Caligula (chapters 1-6). How the Herouem of Augustus was sanctified (chapter 7). How the Mauritanias began to be governed by Romans (chapter 25). How Gaius Caesar died (chapters 29, 30).

Duration of time, the remainder of the consulship of Gnaeus Acerronius and Pontius Nigrinus, together with three additional years, in which there were the following magistrates here enumerated.

M. Aquilius C. F. Iulianus, and P. Nonius M. F. Asprenas. (A.D. 38 = a. u. 791 = Second of Gaius.)

C. Caesar Germanicus (II), L. Apronius L. F. Caesianus. (A.D. 39 = a. u. 792 = Third of Gaius, from March 26th.)

C. Caesar (III). (A.D. 40 = a. u. 793 = Fourth of Gaius.)

C. Caesar (IV), Cn. Sentius Cn. F. Saturninus. (A.D. 41 = a. u. 794 = Fifth of Gaius, to Jan. 24th.)

This last year is not counted, because most of the events in it are recorded in the sixtieth book.

(BOOK 59, BOISSEVAIN)

[A.D. 37 (a. u. 790)]

[-1-] This, then, is the tradition about Tiberius. His successor was Gaius, son of Germanicus and Agrippina, who was known also, as I have stated, by the nicknames of Germanicus and Caligula. Tiberius had left the empire partly in charge of his grandson Tiberius; but Gaius had his will carried to the senate by Macro and caused it to be declared null and void by the consuls and the rest (with whom he had made previous arrangements) on the ground that the author of the document had not been of sound mind. This was evidenced by his allowing a mere boy to rule them, who had not yet the right even to enter the senate. Thus did Gaius at this time separate the lad from imperial office, and later in spite of having adopted him he slew him. Of no avail was the fact that Tiberius in his testament, still extant, had written the same words over in a number of ways, as if this would lend them some force, nor yet that all of it had been at this time read aloud by Macro before the senatorial body. For no injunction can have weight against the intentional misunderstanding or the power of one's successors. Tiberius suffered the same treatment he had accorded to his mother's wishes, save that he discharged none of the obligations imposed by her will in the case of any person, whereas all his bequests were paid to all the beneficiaries, save to his grandson. This, of course, made it perfectly plain that the whole fault found with the will had been invented on account of the lad. Gaius need not have published it, since he was not unacquainted with the contents, but inasmuch as many knew what was in it and it seemed likely that he himself on the one hand or the senate on the other would be blamed for its suppression, he chose rather to have the latter body overthrow it than to conceal the document.

[-2-] At the same time by paying all the bequests of the dead emperor, as if they were his own, to every one concerned he gained among the many a certain reputation for nobility of character. In company with the senate he inspected the Pretorians while they were busy with exercises and distributed to them the two hundred and fifty denarii apiece that had been bequeathed, and he added as a gift as many more. To the people he paid the one thousand one hundred and twenty-five myriads (this was the amount bequeathed to them) and in addition the sixty denarii per man which they had failed to receive on the occasion of his enrollment among the iuvenes,—this with interest amounting to fifteen denarii more. He also settled the bequests to the citizen force, to the night-watchmen, to those of the regular army outside Italy, and to any other army of native Romans in the smaller forts,—that is, the citizens proper received one hundred twenty-five denarii each, and all the rest seventy-five.

He behaved in this same way also in regard to Livia's will, executing all the provisions of it. If he had spent the rest of his money with equal propriety, he would nave been thought prudent and munificent. Sometimes, through fear of the people and the soldiers, he did so act, but it was mostly through whims. At such times he discharged not only the obligations of Tiberius but those of his great-grandmother, and debts owing to private individuals as well as to others. As it was, he lavished boundless sums upon dancers (whose recall he at once effected), upon horses, upon gladiators and everything of that sort; and so in an inconceivably short time he had exhausted the treasures, which had grown so great, and at the same time convicted himself of having done it through a sort of easy-going temper and indecision. He had found accumulated five myriad myriads, seven thousand five hundred denarii, or (according to others) eight myriad myriads, two thousand five hundred, and yet could not keep any part of it to the third year, but actually in the second season fell in need of a great deal besides.

[-3-] He went through the same process of deterioration, too, in almost all other respects. At first he seemed a most democratic person and would send no letters either to the people or to the senate nor assume any of the titles of sovereignty; yet he became most dictatorial, so that he took in one day all those honors which Augustus had with difficulty secured, voted one by one, during the long extent of his reign, some of which Tiberius had refused to accept at all. He postponed nothing except the title of Father, and that he acquired after no long time. Though he had proved himself the most libidinous of men, had seduced one woman already betrothed and had dragged others from their husbands, he afterward hated them all save one. And he would certainly have detested her, had he lived any longer. Toward his mother, his sisters, and his grandmother Antonia he conducted himself in the most dutiful manner possible. The last named he immediately saluted as Augusta and appointed her priestess of Augustus, giving her at once all the privileges pertaining to the vestal virgins. To his sisters he assigned these honors of the vestal virgins, the right to witness horse-races in the same section of seats with him, and the right to have uttered in their behalf as well the prayers which were annually offered by the magistrates and the priests for his welfare and that of the State, and the oaths of allegiance sworn to his empire. He set sail himself and with his own hands collected and brought back the bones of his mother and of his brothers that had died: wearing the purple-bordered toga and attended by some lictors, as at a triumph, he deposited these in the monument of Augustus. All measures voted against them he canceled, all who had plotted against them he chastised, and recalled such as were in exile on their account.—Now, though he had done all this, he showed himself the most impious of men in the case both of his grandmother and of his sisters. The former, because she had rebuked him for something, he forced to seek death by her own hand; and after ravishing all his sisters he shut two of them up on an island: the third had previously died. Again in the matter of Tiberius (whom he also termed "grandfather"), he asked that he might receive from the senate the same honors as Augustus; but these were not immediately voted, for the senators could not endure to honor that tyrant, nor did they make bold to dishonor him because they were not yet clearly acquainted with the character of their young lord, and consequently postponed everything until the latter should be present: so then Gaius bestowed upon him no mark of notice other than a public funeral, after bringing the body into the City by night and having it laid out at daybreak. And though he did make a speech over it, he did not say so much in praise of Tiberius as he did to remind the people of Augustus and Germanicus, comparing himself meanwhile with them.

[-4-] Gaius inevitably went so by contraries in every matter that he not only emulated but even surpassed his predecessor's licentiousness and bloodthirstiness, for which he had censured him; but of the qualities he had praised in him he imitated not one. Though he had been the first to insult him, the first to abuse him, so that others thinking to please him in this way made use of rather heedless freedom of speech, he later lauded and magnified Tiberius, going to the point of punishing some for what they had said. These, as enemies of the former emperor, he hated for their injurious remarks, and he hated equally those who in way praised Tiberius, as being the latter's friends.

Though he had put an end to complaints arising from maiestas, he made these the cause of many persons' downfall. Though according to his own account he dismissed the anger that he felt toward those who had united against his father and his mother and his brothers (and burned their letters), he yet put to death great numbers of them on the basis of evidence contained in such documents. He did, to be sure, really destroy some papers, but not those which held definite incontrovertible proof; of these he made copies. Besides, though he at first forbade any one to set up his images, he went on to manufacture the statues himself. Whereas once he requested the annulment of a decree that sacrifice should be offered to his Fortune, and had this action of his inscribed on a tablet, he afterward ordered temples and sacrifices to be prepared for him as for some god. He delighted by turns in vast throngs of men and in solitude; he grew angry if requests were preferred, or if they were not preferred. He would start out on enterprises with the greatest amount of dash, and then carry them through in the most sluggish manner. He both spent money most unsparingly and showed a thoroughly sordid spirit in exacting it. He was alike irritated and pleased both at those who flattered him and at those who spoke their own minds. Many who were guilty of great crimes he neglected to punish and many who had done no wrong he ruthlessly slaughtered. Among his associates he made some the recipients of excessive adulation and others of excessive insult. Consequently, no one knew either what to say or how to act toward him, but all who met with success obtained it as the result of chance rather than of rational calculation.

[-5-] That was the kind of emperor into whose hands the Romans had now fallen. Hence the deeds of Tiberius, though they were felt to have been most grievous, were still as far superior to those of Gaius as the deeds of Augustus were to those of his successor. For Tiberius always held the power in his own hands and used other people to help him carry out his wishes: Gaius, on the other hand, was ruled by charioteers and by gladiators; he was the slave of dancers and other theatrical performers. Indeed, he always kept Apelles, the most famous of the tragedians of that day, with him even in public. Thus he by himself and they by themselves did without let or hindrance all that such persons when given power would naturally dare to do. Everything that could help theatrical productions he arranged and settled on the slightest pretext in the most expensive manner, and compelled praetors and consuls to do the same, so that almost every day some performance of the kind was sure to be given. Originally he was but a spectator and listener at these and would take sides for and against various performers like one of the mob; and sometimes, if he were irritated at his opponents, he would not visit the spectacle. But as time went on he came to imitate and contend in many events, driving chariots, fighting duels, giving exhibitions of dancing, and acting in tragedy. This became his regular practice. And one night he urgently summoned the leaders of the senate as if to some important deliberation and then danced before them.

[-6-] Now in that year that Tiberius died and Gaius entered upon office in his stead he first began to show great deference to the senators on an occasion when knights were present at the meeting and also some of the populace. He promised to share his power with them and do whatever would please them, calling himself meanwhile their son and nursling. He was then twenty-five years old, lacking five months, four days. After this he freed those who were in prison, among whom was Quintus Pomponius, who for seven whole years after his consulship had been kept in a cell suffering abuse. Gaius did away with the complaints for maiestas, on account of which he saw that most of the prisoners were suffering, and heaped up (or so he pretended) and burned the documents pertaining to their cases that Tiberius had left behind. He also declared: "I have done this, that no matter how much I might wish to bear malice toward any one; for my mother's and my brothers' sake, I might still be unable to punish him." For this he was commended because it was expected that he at all events would speak the truth; by reason of his youth it was not thought possible that he could be guilty of duplicity in thought or speech. And he still further increased their hopes by ordering that the celebration of the Saturnalia extend over five days, and by taking from each of those enjoying an allowance of grain only an as instead of the denarius which they were wont to give an emperor for the manufacture of images.

It was voted that he should at once become consul by the removal of Proculus and Nigrinus, who were holding office at the time, and that he should thereafter be consul annually. However, he did not accept the offer, but instead waited until the two officials completed the six months' term for which they had been appointed, and then became consul himself, taking his uncle Claudius as a colleague. The latter, who had previously been ranked among the knights and after the death of Tiberius had been sent as an envoy to Gaius in behalf of that order, now for the first time after living forty-six years became both consul and senator at once. The behavior of Gaius in these matters appeared satisfactory and to his actions corresponded the speech which he delivered in the senate-house on entering upon his consulship. In it he denounced Tiberius for each of the crimes of which he was commonly accused and made many announcements about his own line of conduct; and the senate, fearing that he might change, issued a decree that his statements should be read annually.

[-7-] Soon after, clad in the triumphal garb, he dedicated the herouem of Augustus. Boys of the noblest families, both of whose parents had to be living, together with maidens similarly circumstanced, sang the hymn, and the senators with their wives as well as the people were banqueted. Entertainments of all sorts were given. There were exhibitions involving music, and horseraces took place on two days,—twenty heats the first day and forty [1] more the second, because the former was the emperor's birthday and the latter that of Augustus. He had a similar number of events on many other occasions, as seemed good to him. Hitherto not more than ten[2] events had been usual, but this time he finished four hundred bears together with an equal number of beasts from Libya. The boys of noble birth performed "Troy" on horseback, and six horses drew the triumphal car on which he was borne. This was an innovation.

In the races he did not give the signals to the charioteers in person, but viewed the spectacle from a front seat with his brothers and his fellow-priests of the Augustan order. He was always greatly displeased if any one was absent from the theatre or left in the middle of the performance, and so, in order that no one might have an excuse for not attending, he postponed all lawsuits and suspended all periods of mourning. Thus, women bereft of their husbands were allowed to marry even before the appointed time, unless, indeed, they were pregnant. In order to enable people to come without formality and to save them the trouble of greeting him (for previously those who met the emperor on the streets always saluted him), he forbade any one's doing this again. Those who chose might come barefoot to the spectacles. It had been from very ancient times the custom for persons to do this who held court in the summer; the practice had been frequently followed by Augustus at the summer festivals but had been abandoned by Tiberius.

It was at this period that the senators first began sitting upon cushions instead of the bare boards, and that they were allowed to wear caps to the theatre, Thessalian fashion, to avoid distress from the sun's rays. And whenever the sun was particularly severe, they used instead of the theatre the Diribitorium, which was furnished with benches.—This was what Gaius did in his consulship, which he held two months and twelve days. The remainder of the six months' term he surrendered to the men previously appointed for it. [-8-] It was after this that he fell sick, but instead of dying himself he managed to cause the death of Tiberius, who had been registered among the iuvenes, had been given the title of Princeps Iuventutis, and finally had been adopted into his family.[3] The complaint brought against the lad was that he had prayed and expected that Gaius might die. This charge proved the destruction of many others, too. The same ruler who gave to Antiochus son of Antiochus the district of Commagene, which his father had held, and likewise the coast districts of Cilicia, and had freed Agrippa (grandson of Herod, who had been imprisoned by Tiberius), and had put him in charge of his grandfather's domain, not only deprived Agrippa's brother (or else his son) of his paternal fortune but furthermore had him murdered, without making any communication about him to the senate. Later he took similar action in a number of other cases.

Now the young Tiberius perished on suspicion of having utilized the emperor's illness as an occasion for conspiracy. On the other hand, there were Publius Afranius Potitus, a plebeian, who in a burst of foolish servility had promised not only of his own free will but under oath that he would give his life to have Gaius recover, and a certain Atanius Secundus, a knight, who announced that in the event of a favorable outcome he would fight as a gladiator. These, instead of the money which they hoped to receive from him in return for offering to die in exchange for his life, were compelled to keep their promises so as not to perjure themselves. That was the cause of these men's death. Again, his father-in-law Marcus Silanus, though he had made no promise and taken no oath, nevertheless, because his virtue and his relationship made him displeasing to the emperor and subjected him to extreme insults, for this reason committed suicide. Tiberius had held him in such honor as to refuse always to try a case that was appealed from his jurisdiction and to refer all such disputes back to him again. But Gaius abused him in every way and had such a high opinion of him that he called him "the golden sheep." Now Silanus on account of his age and his reputation was accorded by all the consuls the honor of casting his vote first; and to prevent his doing so any longer Gaius had abolished the custom of having some of the ex-consuls vote first or second according to the pleasure of those who put the vote. He arranged that such persons should cast their votes on the same footing as the rest and in the same order as they had held the office. Moreover, he put aside his victim's daughter to marry Cornelia Orestilla, whom he had actually seized during the marriage festival which she was celebrating with her betrothed, Gaius Calpurnius Piso. Before two months had elapsed he banished both of them on the ground that they had carnal knowledge of each other. He allowed Piso to take with him ten slaves, and then when the latter asked for more he let him employ as many as he liked, saying: "You will have just so many soldiers."

[A.D. 38 (a. u. 791)]

[-9-] The next year Marcus Julianus and Publius Nonius, regularly appointed, became consuls. Oaths pertaining to the acts of Tiberius were not introduced and for this reason are not used nowadays either. No one numbers Tiberius among the emperors in the list of members of his house.[4] But in regard to Augustus and Gaius they took the oaths which had regularly been the custom and others to the effect that they would hold Gaius and his sisters in greater respect than themselves and their children, and they offered prayers for all of them alike.

On the very first day of the new year one Machaon, a slave, climbed upon the couch of Jupiter Capitolinus and after uttering from that place many dire prophecies killed a little dog which he had brought in with him and slew himself.

The following good deeds must be set down to the credit of Gaius. He published, as Augustus had done, all the accounts of public funds, which had not been made known during the time Tiberius was out of the city. He helped the soldiers extinguish a conflagration and assisted those who suffered loss by it. As the equestrian order pined from lack of men he summoned the foremost men from every office, even abroad, and enrolled them with due regard to their relatives and their wealth. Some of them he allowed to wear the senatorial costume occasionally even before they had held any office through which we enter the senate, on the strength of their hopes to secure admission to that body. Previously it would seem that only those who had been born in the senatorial order were allowed to do this. These deeds caused pleasure to all. But this action in restoring the elections to the populus and the plebs, rescinding the decisions of Tiberius about these matters, and in abolishing the one per cent. tax, and again in scattering at some gymnastic contest tickets and distributing very large gifts to such as secured them,—these actions, though they delighted the lower classes, grieved the sensible, who reflected that even if the offices fell once more into the hands of the general public, still, in case the existing funds should be exhausted and private sources of income fail, many dreadful disasters would result.

[-10-] The performances of his next to be enumerated elicited the censure of all without distinction. He caused very great numbers of men to fight as gladiators, forcing them to contend both separately and in groups, drawn up in a kind of military formation: he requested permission from the senate to do this, and again,—something quite contrary to the spirit of the enacted law that he might do whatsoever he pleased,—he asked leave to put to death a number of persons, among them twenty-six knights, some of whom had already devoured their living, while others had merely practiced gladiatorial combat. It was not the number of those who perished that was so bad (though it was bad enough) but his frenzied delight in their slaughter and his never satisfied gazing at the scene of blood. The same trait of cruelty led him once, when there was a shortage of condemned criminals to be given to the beasts, to order some of the mob that stood near the benches to be seized and thrown to them. And to prevent the possibility of their making an outcry or attacking him orally he had their tongues cut out first of all. One of the prominent knights, too, he compelled to fight in single combat on the charge of insult offered to his mother Agrippina, and when the man proved victorious handed him over to the accusers and had him slain. The same person's father, though guilty of no wrong, he confined in a cage (as he had confined numerous others), and there put an end to him.—These contests he at first conducted in the Saepta, after excavating [5] the entire site and filling it with water, to enable him to bring in one ship. Later he transferred his operations to another place, where he tore down a large number of massive buildings and set up benches. The theatre of Taurus he held in contempt. All this behavior, expenditures and murders alike, subjected him to criticism.

He was further blamed for compelling Macro together with Ennia to cause their own death, remembering neither the latter's affection nor the former's benefits, which had gained for him among other advantages the sole possession of the empire. The fact that he had appointed Macro to govern Egypt had not the slightest influence. He even involved him in a scandal (of which the greatest share belonged to Gaius himself), by bringing against him besides all the rest a complaint that he had played the pander. Before long many others were condemned and executed, and some were executed prior to their conviction. Nominally they suffered on account of some wrong done to his parents or his brothers or the rest who had perished with those relatives as an excuse, but really on account of their property. For the treasury had been exhausted and he had no resources. Such persons were convicted by witnesses against them and by the documents which he once declared he had burned. Again, the disease which had attacked him the previous year and the death of his sister Drusilla brought about the ruin of others, since,—to omit graver cases,—whoever had entertained or had greeted any one or had bathed on the days in question incurred punishment.

[-11-] The nominal spouse of Drusilla was Marcus Lepidus, at once the favorite and lover of the emperor, but Gaius also treated her as a concubine. When her death occurred at this time, her husband delivered the eulogy but it was her brother who accorded her a public funeral. The Pretorians with their commander and the equestrian order by itself ran about the pyre [6] and the boys of noble birth performed the Troy exercise about her tomb; all the honors that had been given to Livia were voted to her, and it was further decreed that she should be declared immortal, that a figure in gold representing her be set up in the senate-house, and that in the temple of Venus in the Forum there should be dedicated with equal honors a statue of her as large as that of the goddess. Moreover, a separate shrine should be built for her and twenty priests [7] not only men but also women should do her honor. Women, as often as they gave testimony, should swear by her and on her birthday a festival equal to the Megalensia should be celebrated and the senate and the knights should hold a banquet. She straightway received the name Panthea and was declared worthy of divine honors in all the cities. A certain Livius Geminus, a senator, stated on oath, invoking destruction upon himself and his children if he spoke falsely, that he had seen her ascending into heaven and holding converse with the gods; and he called all the other gods and Panthea herself to witness. For his declaration he received twenty-five myriads. Besides all this Gaius showed her honor in not having the festivals which were then due to take place celebrated either at their appointed time (except as mere formalities) or at any later date. All persons incurred equal censure whether they showed pleasure at anything, as being grieved, or behaved as if they were glad.[9] They were charged with malice either in failing to mourn her (this was disrespect to her as a mortal) or in bewailing her (this was disrespect to her as a goddess). One single occurrence gives the key to all the transactions of that time. The emperor charged with impiety and put to death a man who had sold warm water. [-12-] Having allowed a few days to elapse he married Lollia Paulina and he compelled no less a person than her husband, Memmius Regulus, to betroth her to him so that he might not break the law in taking her without a betrothal. But almost in a trice he had driven her away, too.

Meantime he granted to Soaimus the land of the Arabian Ituraeans, to Cotys Lesser Armenia and later parts of Arabia, to Rhoemetalces the possessions of Cotys, and to Polemon son of Polemon his ancestral domain,—all these upon the vote of the senate. The ceremony took place in the Forum, where he sat upon the rostra in a chair between the consuls; some say he used silken awnings. Soon after he caught sight of a lot of mud in an alley and ordered that it be cast into the toga of Flavius Vespasian, who was aedile at the time and had charge of keeping alleys clean. This event was regarded at the moment as of no particular importance, but later, when Vespasian, who took charge of a state in confusion and turmoil, had reduced the same to order, it seemed to have been due to some divine prompting and to have signified that Gaius had entrusted the city to him unconditionally for its amelioration.

[A.D. 39 (a. u. 792)]

[-13-] He now became consul again, and though he prevented the priest of Jupiter from taking the oath in the senate (for at this time they regularly did so privately, as in the days of Tiberius), he himself both when he entered upon office and when he relinquished it took the oath like the rest upon the rostra, which had been made larger than before. Thirty days was the duration of his tenure (whereas he let his colleague Lucius Apronius hold office for six months), and his successor was Sanguinius Maximus, praefectus urbi. During this and the following period numbers of the foremost men perished in fulfillment of a sentence of condemnation (for many who had been released from prison were punished for the very reasons that had led to their imprisonment by Tiberius), and many others in gladiatorial combats. There was nothing happening but slaughter. The emperor no longer made any concessions to the populace, opposing instead absolutely everything it wished, and consequently the people, too, resisted all his desires. The talk and actions usual at such a juncture with an angry ruler on one side and a hostile folk on the other were plainly in evidence. The contest between them, however, was not an equal one. The people could do nothing outside of discussion and showing their feelings by their demeanor, whereas Gaius dragged many of his opponents away while they were witnessing performances at the theatre and arrested many more after they had left the building. The chief causes for his rage were first that they did not show enthusiasm in attending; he made his appearance at a different hour on different occasions, sometimes not till nightfall, and they were worn out waiting for him: second, that they did not always applaud the performances that pleased him and sometimes even showed favor to objects of his dislike. Again, it vexed him mightily to have them cry out in their efforts to extol him: "Young Augustus!" He felt that he was not being congratulated upon being emperor while so young, but was being censured for holding at his age so great a domain. His regular conduct was as described. Once he said threateningly to the whole people: "How I wish you had one neck!" At another time, when he was showing some of his usual irritation, the populace in displeasure ceased to notice the spectacle, and turned against the informers, and with loud shouts demanded their surrender. Gaius, indignant, vouchsafed them no answer, but committing to others the conduct of the games withdrew into Campania. Later he returned to celebrate the birthday of Drusilla, brought into the hippodrome on a wagon her statue drawn by[10] elephants and gave the people a free show for two days. The first day, besides the equestrian contests, he had five hundred bears slaughtered, and on the second a like number of Libyan beasts was used up. Athletes struggled in the pancratium at many different points in the city. The populace was feasted and presents were given to the senators and their wives.

* * * * *

[-14-] At the same time that he authorized these murders, apparently because he was so very poor, he devised another kind of transaction. He took the surviving combatants and sold them at an excessive valuation to the consuls, the praetors, and the rest, meeting with acquiescence from some and compelling others, who objected strenuously, to carry out his wishes at the horse-races; and most of all he imposed upon the ones especially selected by lot for this purpose, for he had ordered that two praetors, just as it might happen, should be allotted to take charge of the gladiatorial games. He himself sat on the auctioneer's platform and kept outbidding them. Many also came from outside to bid against them, particularly because he allowed such as wished to employ a greater number of gladiators than the law permitted and because he often had recourse to them himself. So people bought them for large sums, some through need of the men, others thinking they should gratify him, and the largest number (in case they were reputed to be property-holders) out of a wish to avail themselves of this pretext for spending some of their substance and thus by becoming poorer save their lives.

Yet, in spite of this action of his, he afterward put out of the way by poison the best and most famous of these slaves. He did the same also in the case of rival horses and charioteers, being greatly devoted to the party that wore the frog green and from this color was called the Party of the Leek. Even now the place where the chariots practiced is called Galanum. One of the horses, that he named Incitatus, he invited to dinner, offered him golden barley, and drank his health in wine from gold goblets. He took oaths by the same beast's Guardian Spirit and Presiding Fortune and promised besides that he would appoint him consul. This he would certainly have done, too, if he had lived longer.

[-15-] Now formerly for the purpose of providing funds it had been voted that all those persons who had wished to leave anything to Tiberius and were alive should at their death bestow the same upon Gaius. The publication of a decree was deemed necessary to prevent its seeming that he could break the laws in securing by inheritance such gifts; for he had at the time neither wife nor children. But at the time of which I am speaking he proceeded to levy for himself without any vote absolutely all the property of men who had served among the centurions and had after the triumph which his father celebrated left it to somebody other than the emperor. When not even this sufficed, he hit upon the following third means of raising money. There was a senator, Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo, who had noticed that the roads during the reign of Tiberius were in bad condition and was always nagging the road commissioners about it and furthermore kept making a nuisance of himself before the senate regarding the matter. Gaius took him as a confederate and through him attacked all those, alive or dead, who had ever been road commissioners and had received money for repairing the highways. He fined both them and the men who had secured any contracts from them, on the pretence that they had spent nothing. For this help Corbulo was at the time made consul, but later, in the reign of Claudius, he was accused and his conduct investigated. Claudius made no further demands for any sums still owing and after collecting what had been paid in, partly from the treasury and partly from Corbulo, he returned it to the persons who had been fined. All that was later. At this time these unfortunates one by one and practically everybody else in the City were, as one might say, despoiled. Of those who possessed anything there was no one,—not a man nor a woman,—who got off scot free. Though he allowed some of the more elderly persons to live, yet by calling them his fathers, grandfathers, mothers, and grandmothers, he got revenue from them during their lifetime and inherited their property when they died.

[-16-] Up to this time he was always speaking ill of Tiberius before everybody, and so far from rebuking others who criticised him privately or publicly he enjoyed their language. But now he entered the senate-house and eulogized his predecessor at length, besides severely rebuking the senate and the people, saying that they did wrong in finding fault with him. "I may do even this," he said, "in my capacity as emperor, but you are not only unjust but also guilty of impiety[11] to take such an attitude toward one who ruled you." Thereupon he considered separately the case of each man who had lost his life and showed to his own satisfaction that the senators had been responsible for the death of most of them; some, he alleged, they had killed by accusation, some by damning evidence, and all by sentence of condemnation. This he proved by having some freedmen read it from those very documents which he once declared he had burned. And he told them besides: "In case Tiberius really did do wrong, you ought not to have honored him while he lived, and at any rate, by Jupiter, you ought not to repudiate what you often said and voted. But you both behaved toward him with fickleness and again after filling Sejanus with conceit and spoiling him you put him to death, and therefore I ought not either to expect any decent treatment from you." After some such remarks he represented in his speech Tiberius himself as saying to him: "All this that you have said has been good and true. Therefore have no affection nor mercy for any one of them. They all hate you: they all pray for your death. They will murder you if they can. Hence do not stop to consider what acts of yours will please them and heed none of their talk. Rather, have regard to your own pleasure and safety solely, since that has the most just claim. In this way you will suffer no harm and will enjoy all supremest pleasures. You will, moreover, be honored by them whether they so desire or not. If you follow a different course, it will be useless, and beyond an empty reputation you will gain no advantage, but become the victim of plots and perish ingloriously. No man living is ruled of his own free will, but the element which is kept in fear, whatever its size, waits upon the stronger element, whereas if it attains to courage, it always wreaks vengeance upon the other, which has now become the weaker."

At the close of this address Gaius reintroduced the complaints for maiestas, ordered his commands to be inscribed upon a bronze tablet and rushing hastily from the senate-house proceeded the same day to the suburbs of the capital. The senate and the people were filled with great fear as they thought of the denunciations against Tiberius, which they had often uttered, and of the many surprises his speech had had in store for them. Temporarily their alarm and dejection prevented them from saying a word or transacting any business. Next day they assembled again, praised Gaius unstintedly as a most sincere and pious ruler, and thanked him profusely that they had not perished like others. Accordingly, they voted annually to sacrifice cattle to the Spirit of Kindness that animated him both on the anniversary of the day he had read this matter just mentioned and on those belonging to the Palatium[12]: on such occasions his image in gold was to be conducted to the Capitol and hymns sung in its honor by the boys of noblest birth. They granted him also the right to celebrate a lesser triumph, as though he had defeated some enemies. This was what they voted at that meeting: later they added to it extensively on almost every pretext.

[-17-] Gaius took no heed of the celebration mentioned; it seemed to him to be no great thing to drive a horse on land: but he had a desire to ride horseback through the sea in a way, by bridging over the water between Puteoli and Bauli. This locality is opposite the City, twenty-six stades distant. Boats for the bridge were partly brought together and partly built new for the purpose. For the number it had proved possible to collect in a brief space of time was insufficient, although all feasible vessels had been gathered, and it was principally this fact that caused a serious famine in Italy and Rome. In joining these boats not merely a passageway was constructed but resting places and waiting rooms were built along in it, and these had running water fit for drinking. When it was ready, he put on the breastplate of Alexander (or so he said), and over it a purple silk chlamys, containing much gold and many precious stones from India. He furthermore girt on a sword, took a shield, and donned a garland of oak leaves. Next he offered sacrifice to Neptune and some other gods and to Envy (in order, he said, that no jealousy might attend him), and entered the passage from the end at Bauli, taking with him great numbers of armed horsemen and foot soldiers; and he made a fierce dash into the city as if he were after some enemies. There he rested the following day, as though seeking respite from battle, and wearing a gold-spangled tunic he returned on a chariot over the same bridge. He was drawn by race-horses that were most competent to gain victories. A long train of what was apparently spoils accompanied him, among them Darius, one of the Arsacidae, belonging to the group of Parthians then serving as hostages. His friends and associates in beflowered robes followed him on vehicles, as did the army and the rest of the throng, which was decked out according to individual taste. Of course, in the midst of such a campaign and after so magnificent a victory he had to deliver a bit of an harangue: so he ascended a platform which had likewise been erected at about the center of the bridge. First he extolled himself as one who had undertaken a great enterprise; next he praised the soldiers as men exhausted by the dangers they had faced, adding the significant statement that they had traversed the sea on foot. For this gallantry he gave them money and afterward for the rest of the day and all through the night they enjoyed a banquet,—he on the bridge, as though some island, and they at anchor on other boats. Light in abundance shone upon them from the place itself and abundant light besides from the mountains. For since the place was crescent-shaped, fire was exhibited from all sides, as might be done in a theatre, so that no one could notice the darkness. It was his wish to make the night day, as he had made the sea land. When he had become full to excess of food and strong drink, he threw numbers of his companions off the bridge into the sea and sank many of the rest by making a circuitous attack upon them in boats that had rams. Some perished, but the majority though drunk managed to save themselves. The reason was that the sea showed itself extremely smooth and tranquil both while the bridge was being put together and while the other events were taking place. This, too, caused the emperor some elation, and he said that even Neptune was afraid of him. As for Darius and Xerxes, he made all manner of fun of them, inasmuch as he had bridged over a far vaster expanse of sea than they.

[-18-] The final episode in the career of that bridge, which I shall now relate, proved another source of death to many. Inasmuch as the emperor had exhausted his revenues in the construction he fell to plotting against many more persons because of their property. He presided at trials both privately and in company with the entire senate. That body also tried some cases by itself, yet it had not full powers and there were many appeals from its decisions. The decisions of the senate were merely made public, but when any men were condemned by Gaius their names were bulletined, as though he feared they might not learn their fate. These met their punishment some in prison and others by being hurled from the Capitoline. Still others killed themselves beforehand. There was no safety even for such as left the country, but many of them, too, lost their lives either on the road or while in banishment It is not worth while to burden my readers unduly by going into the details of most of these cases, but I may stop to notice Calvisius Sabinus, one of the foremost men in the senate. He had recently come from governing Pannonia, and he and his wife Cornelia were both indicted. The charge against her was that she had visited some military posts and had watched some soldiers practicing. These two did not stand trial but despatched themselves before the time set. The same is to be recorded of Titius Rufus, against whom a complaint was lodged that he had said the senate had one thing in their minds but uttered something different. Also one Junius Priscus, a praetor, was accused on various charges, but his death was really due to the supposition that he was wealthy. Gaius, on learning that he possessed nothing worth causing his death for, made this remarkable statement: "He fooled me and perished uselessly when he might as well have lived."

[-19-] Among these men put on trial at this time Domitius Afer encountered danger from an unexpected source and secured his preservation in a still more remarkable way. Gaius was incensed against him (if for no other reason) because in the reign of Tiberius he had accused a woman who was related to the emperor's mother Agrippina. Later the woman had met Afer and as she saw that out of embarrassment he stood aside from her path she called to him and said (referring to the matter): "Never mind, Domitius: it wasn't you, but Agamemnon, that caused me these troubles." [13] Just about this time Afer had set up an image of the emperor and had placed upon it an inscription showing that Gaius in his twenty-seventh year was already consul for the second time. This vexed the latter, who felt that undue notice was being given to his youth and his transgression of the law. So for this action, for which Afer had looked to be honored, he brought him before the senate and read a long speech against him. Gaius always maintained that he surpassed all living orators, and knowing that his adversary was an extremely gifted speaker he strove on this occasion to excel him. He would certainly have put Afer to death, if the latter had entered into the least competition with him. As it was, the man made no answer or defence, but pretended to be astonished and overcome by the cleverness of Gaius, and repeating the accusation point by point he praised it as though he were some listener and not on trial. When opportunity was given him to speak, he took to supplicating and bewailing his lot; finally he threw himself on the earth and lying there prostrate he besought his accuser, apparently fearing him as an orator rather than as Caesar. In this way the latter when he saw and heard what I have described was melted, for he thought that he had really overwhelmed Domitius by the eloquence of his address. For this reason, then, and on account of Callistus the freedman, whom he was wont to honor and whose favor Domitius had courted, he ceased his anger. And when Callistus later blamed him for having accused the man in the first place, the emperor answered: "It would not have been right for me to hide such a speech." So Domitius was saved by being convicted of no longer being a skillful speaker.

On the other hand Lucius Annaeus Seneca, who was superior in wisdom to all the Romans of his day and to many other great men, came very near being ruined, though he had done no wrong and there was no suspicion of such a thing, but just because he pled a case well in the senate while his sovereign was present. Gaius ordered him to be put to death, but let him go because he believed what one of his female associates said, that Seneca had a bad case of consumption and would die before a great while.

[-20-] Directly he appointed Domitius consul and removed those who held the office at the time: this he did because they had not proclaimed a thanksgiving on the occasion of his birthday (the praetors had held a horse-race and had slaughtered some beasts, but that happened every year) whereas they had celebrated a festival to commemorate the victory of Augustus over Antony. In order to find an accusation against them he chose to figure as a descendant of Antony rather than of Augustus. He had beforehand told those who shared his secrets that whichever the consuls did they would certainly get into trouble, whether they offered sacrifice as a mark of joy over Antony's disaster or whether they went without sacrificing on such an occasion as the victory of Augustus. It was for these reasons, then, that he summarily dismissed these officials and broke to pieces their fasces. One of them took it so much to heart that he killed himself.

Domitius was chosen as the emperor's colleague nominally by the people but actually by Gaius himself. The latter had, to be sure, restored the elections to the populace, but they had become rather lax in the performance of their duties because for a long time now they had enjoyed none of the privileges of freemen; and as a rule no more office-seekers presented themselves than were needed to fill vacant places, or if ever there was an excessive number the outcome had been all arranged among themselves. Thus the appearance of a democracy was preserved but none of the proper results was secured; and this led Gaius himself to abolish the elections again. After this things went on precisely as in the reign of Tiberius. Sometimes fifteen praetors were chosen and again one more or less, as it might happen.

Such was the action he took regarding the elections. In general he maintained a malignant and suspicious attitude toward quite everything that went on, as witness his banishing Carrina Secundus the orator because the latter had delivered in a gymnasium a speech against tyrants. Also, when Lucius Piso, son of Plancina and Gnaeus Piso, chanced to become governor of Africa, the emperor feared that pride might lead him to revolt, particularly since he was to have a large force made up of both citizens and foreigners. Hence the province was divided in two and the military force together with the Nomads in the immediate vicinity was assigned to a different official. That arrangement lasts to this day.

[-21-] Gaius had now spent practically all the money in Rome and the rest of Italy, gathered from every source from which he could in any way get it, and as no resource that was of any value or practicable could be found there, his expenses became a source of great annoyance to him. Therefore he set out for Gaul, declaring hostilities against the Celtae on the ground that they were showing some uneasiness, but in reality his purpose was to get money from that region and Spain, where wealth was also abundant. However, he did not make an outright declaration of his destination, but went first to one of the suburbs and then suddenly started on his journey, taking with him many dancers, gladiators, horses, women, and the rest of the rout. When he reached the section he had in view he did no damage to any of the enemy;—as soon as he had proceeded a short distance beyond the Rhine he turned back, and next he started apparently to conduct a campaign against Britain, but turned back from the ocean's edge, showing no little vexation at his lieutenants because they won some slight success;—among the subject peoples, however, and among the allies and the citizens he wrought the greatest imaginable havoc. In the first place he despoiled property holders on any and every excuse, and second, individuals and cities brought him "voluntarily" large gifts. He kept on murdering victims, alleging that some were rebelling and others conspiring. The general complaint against them all was that they were rich. The fact that he attended to the selling of their possessions in person enabled him to obtain far greater sums than would otherwise have been the case. Everybody was compelled to buy them, under all sorts of conditions and for much more than their value, for the reasons I have mentioned. Accordingly, he sent also for the finest and most precious heirlooms of the government and auctioned them off, selling with them the fame of the persons who had once used them. He would make some comment on each one, such as "This belonged to my father," "this to my mother," "this to my grandfather," "this to my great-grandfather," "this Egyptian piece belonged to Antony—became a prize of Augustus." Meantime he incidentally showed the necessity of selling them, so that no one dared to appear to be indigent, and he sold with each article some valuable association.

[-22-] In spite of all this he did not secure any surplus. He kept up his expenditures both for the objects that regularly interested him, producing some spectacles at Lugdunum, and also for the army. For the number of soldiers he had gathered amounted to twenty myriads, or, as some say, to twenty-five myriads. Seven times was he named imperator by them (just as pleased him), though he had won no battle and slain no enemy. To be sure, he did once by a ruse seize and make prisoners a few of the latter, but it was his own people whom he wasted most, striking some of them down individually and butchering others en masse. Once he saw a crowd either of prisoners or some other persons and gave orders (in the cant phrase) that they should all be slain from baldhead to baldhead. Another time he was playing dice and, finding that he had no money, called for the census of the Gauls and ordered the wealthiest of them to be put to death. Then he returned to his fellow gamblers and said: "Here you are playing for a few denarii, while I have collected nearly fifteen thousand myriads." So these men perished without consideration. Indeed, one of them, Julius Sacerdos, who was fairly well off but not so extremely wealthy as naturally to become the object of attack, nevertheless fell a victim because of a similarity of names. This shows how carelessly everything went.

Others who perished I need not cite by name, simply mentioning enough to satisfy the requirements of my record. One, then, that he killed was Gastulicus Lentulus, a man of good reputation in every way, who had been governor of Germany for ten years; his death was due to the fact that the soldiers liked him. Another that he murdered was Lepidus, that lover and favorite of his, husband of Drusilla, the man who together with Gaius had maintained criminal relations with the emperor's other sisters Agrippina and Julia, the man whom he had permitted to stand for office five years earlier than the laws allowed, whom he also declared he should leave to succeed him as emperor. To celebrate the event he gave the soldiers money, as though he had worsted some hostile force, and sent three daggers to Mars the Avenger in Rome. His sisters for their connection with Lepidus he deported to the Portian islands, having first written to the senate a great deal of outrageous and brutal comment upon them. Agrippina was given the victim's bones in a jar and ordered to keep it in her bosom throughout the entire journey and bring it back to Rome again. Also, since many honors had been voted to these women on the emperor's account, the emperor forbade any distinction being awarded to any of his relatives again.

[-23-] He sent to the senate at the time a report of the matter as if he had escaped some great plot, for he was always pretending to be in danger and to be leading a miserable existence. The senators on being apprised of the facts passed several complimentary votes and granted him a lesser triumph; they sent envoys to announce this, some of whom were chosen by lot, but Claudius by election. That also displeased the emperor to such an extent that he again forbade anything approaching praise or honor being given to his relatives. He felt, too, that he had not been honored as he deserved, and indeed he never made any account of the honors granted him. It irritated him to have small distinctions voted, since that implied a slight, and greater distinctions irritated him because then he was deprived of the possibility of winning still higher prizes. He did not wish it to seem that anything that brought him honors was in the senators' power,—that would make them stronger than he,—nor again that they should have the right to grant such a thing to him, as if they had power and he was inferior to them. For this reason he ofttimes found fault with various gifts, on the ground that they did not increase his splendor but rather diminished his power. Being of this mind he used to become angry at those who did him honor if in any case it seemed that they had voted him less than he deserved. So capricious was he that no one could easily suit him.

Accordingly, for the reasons mentioned he would not receive all of those ambassadors, affecting to mistrust that they were spies, but chose out a few and sent the rest back before they reached Gaul. Those that he admitted to his presence were not accorded any august reception; indeed, he would have killed Claudius, had he not entertained a contempt for him, since the latter partly by nature and partly with intention gave the impression of great stupidity. Others were again sent, more in number (for he had complained among other points of the smallness of the first embassy), and they made the announcement that many marks of distinction had been voted to him: these he received gladly, even going out to meet them, for which action he received fresh honors at their hands. This, however, was somewhat later.

At the time under discussion Gaius divorced Paulina on the pretext that she was barren, but really because he had had enough of her, and married Milonia Caesonia. She had formerly been his mistress, but now as she was pregnant he chose to make her his wife and have her bear him a child a month later. The people of Rome were disturbed by this behavior and were still further disturbed because a number of trials were hanging over their heads as a result of the friendship they had shown for his sisters and for the men who had been murdered: even some aediles and praetors were compelled to resign their offices and stand trial.—Meantime they also suffered from the excessive heat. This grew so extremely severe that curtains were stretched across the Forum.—Among the men exiled at this time Ofonius Tigillinus was banished on the charge of having had a liaison with Agrippina.

[-24-] All this, however, did not distress the people so much as their expectation that the cruelty and licentiousness of Gaius would go to still greater lengths. They were particularly troubled on ascertaining that King Agrippa and King Antiochus were with him, like two tyrant-trainers.

[A.D. 40 (a. u. 793)]

As a consequence, while he was consul for the third time no tribune nor praetor dared to convene the senate. For he had no colleague; though this, as some think, was not intentional, but the regular appointee died and no one else in so short a period of time as was available could be brought forward in the comitia to fill his place. Moreover, the praetors who attend to the affairs of the consuls, whenever the latter are out of town, ought to have administered all business pending. But at this period, in order not to appear to have acted for the emperor, they performed none of their duties. The senators in a body ascended the Capitoline, offered their sacrifices, and did obeisance to the chair of Gaius located in the temple. Furthermore, according to a custom prevailing in the time of Augustus, they deposited money, [14] making a show of giving it to the emperor himself. Their practice was similar also in the following year. At the time of the events just narrated they came together in the senate-house after these proceedings, without any person having convened them, but accomplished nothing, wasting the whole day in laudations of Gaius and prayers in his behalf. Since they had no love for him nor any wish that he should survive, they simulated both these feelings to all the greater extent, as if hoping in this way to disguise their real sentiments. On the third day devoted to prayers they came together in response to an announcement of a meeting made by all the praetors in a written notice: still, they transacted no business on this day nor again on the next until on the twelfth day word was brought that Gaius had resigned his office. Then at last the men who had been elected for subsequent service succeeded to the position and administered the business that fell to them. It was voted among other measures that the same honors should be given to the birthdays of Tiberius and of Drusilla as to that of Augustus. The actor folk also celebrated a festival, provided a spectacle, and set up and dedicated images of Gaius and Drusilla.—This was in accordance with a letter of Gaius. Whenever he wished any business brought up he communicated in writing a small portion of it to all the senators, but most of it to the consuls, and then sometimes ordered this to be read in the senate.—So much for the transactions of the senate.

[-25-] Meanwhile Gaius sent for Ptolemaeus, the son of Juba, and on ascertaining that he was wealthy put him to death and a number of others with him. Also when he reached the ocean and was to all appearances about to conduct a campaign in Britain and had drawn up all the soldiers on the beach, he embarked on the triremes but after putting out a little from the land he sailed back again. Next he took his seat on a high platform and gave his soldiers the watchword as if for battle, while the trumpeters urged them on. All of a sudden, however, he ordered them to gather the shells. Having secured these "spoils" (you see he needed booty for the celebration of his triumph) he became immensely elated, assuming that he had enslaved the ocean itself; and he gave his soldiers many presents. The shells he took back to Rome for the purpose of exhibiting the spoils to the people there as well. The senate did not see how it could remain inactive in the face of this procedure, inasmuch as it learned he was in an exalted frame of mind, nor yet again how it could praise him. For, when anybody bestows great praise or extraordinary honors for a small success or none at all, that person becomes suspected of making a mock and jest of the affair. Still, for all that, when Gaius entered the City he came very near devoting the whole senate to destruction because it had not voted him divine honors. But he contented himself with assembling the populace, upon whom he showered from a raised position quantities of silver and gold. Many perished in the effort to seize it; for, as some say, he had mixed small knife-blades in with the coin.

As a result of his adulteries he repeatedly received the titles of imperator and Germanicus and Britannicus no less than if he had subdued Gaul and Britain entire.

Since this was his manner of life, he was destined inevitably to be plotted against. He was on the lookout for an attack and arrested Anicius Cerealius and his son Sextus Papinius, whom he put to the torture. And inasmuch as the former would not utter a word, he persuaded Papinius (by promising him safety and immunity) to denounce certain persons (whether truly or falsely); he then straightway put to death both Cerealius and the rest before his very eyes. There was a Betilienus Bassus whom he had ordered killed, and he compelled Capito, the man's father, to be present at his son's execution, though Capito was not guilty of any crime and had received no court summons. When the father enquired if he would allow him to shut his eyes, Gaius ordered him to be slain likewise. He, finding himself in danger, pretended to have been one of the plotters and promised that he would disclose the names of all the rest; and he named the companions of Gaius and those who abetted his licentiousness and cruelty. He would have brought destruction upon many persons, had he not by laying further information against the prefects, and Callistus and Caesonia, aroused distrust. So he was put to death, but this very act paved the way for the ruin of Gaius. For the emperor privately summoned the prefects and Callistus and said to them: "I am but one and you are three; and I am defenceless, whereas you are armed: hence, if you hate and desire to kill me, slay me at once." The general consequences were that he came to regard himself as an object of hatred, and believing that they were vexed at his behavior he harbored suspicion against them and wore a sword at his side when in the City; and to forestall any harmony of action on their part he attempted to embroil them one with another by pretending to make a confidant of each one separately and talking to him about the rest until they obtained a notion of his designs and left him a prey to the conspirators.

The same emperor ordered the senate to convene and affected to grant its members amnesty, saying that there were only a very few against whom he still retained his anger. This expression doubled the anxiety of each one of them, for everybody was thinking of himself.

[-26-] Another person, named Protogenes, assisted the emperor in all his projects, and carried continually on his person two books, of which he called the one "sword" and the other "dagger." This Protogenes once entered the senate as if on some indifferent business and when all, as was to be expected, saluted and greeted him, he darted a kind of sinister glance at Scribonius Proculus and said: "Do you, too, greet me, though you hate the emperor so?" On hearing this all those present surrounded their fellow senator and tore him to pieces and voted [some festivals to Gains as also] that the emperor should have a high platform in the senate-house to prevent any one's approaching him, besides enjoying the use of a military guard even there. [They resolved further that his statues should be guarded.

Pleased at this Gaius laid aside his anger toward them and with a buoyant spirit promised them some money. Pomponius, who was said to have plotted against him, he released, inasmuch as he had been betrayed by a friend. And, as the man's mistress when tortured would not utter a word, he did her no further harm and even gave her an honorary gift of money. Gaius was praised for this partly through fear and partly sincerely, and] as some called him hero and others god, he fairly went out of his head. Even before this he was in the habit of demanding that he be given superhuman regard and said that he had intercourse with the Moon Goddess and was crowned by Victory. He also pretended to be Jupiter and took this as a pretext for having carnal knowledge of various women, especially his sisters. Again he would often figure as [Neptune, because he had bridged so great an expanse of sea, or perhaps as] Juno and Diana and Venus. [He would impersonate Hercules, Bacchus, Apollo, and all the other divinities, not merely males but also females.] As fast as he changed the names he would assume all the rest of the attributes that belonged to them, [so that he might seem to resemble them]. Now he would be seen in feminine guise, holding a wine-cup and thyrsus, again with masculine trappings he would carry a club and lion-skin: [or perhaps a helmet and shield]. He would make up first with smooth chin and later on as a bearded man. Sometimes he wielded a trident and on other occasions he brandished the thunderbolt. He would array himself like a maiden equipped for [hunting or] war, and after a brief interval would come forth as a woman. Thus he could make changes with careful attention to details by the variety of his dress and by what he attached to or threw over it, and he was anxious to appear to be anything rather than a human being [and an emperor]. Once a certain Gaul, espying him on a, high platform transacting business in the guise of Jupiter, laughed aloud. Gaius called to him and asked: "What do I seem to you to be?" And the other answered—I shall tell his exact words—: "A big pack of foolishness." Yet the man met no dire fate, for he was a shoemaker. Persons of such rank as Gaius can bear the frankness of the common herd more easily than that of those who hold high position.—Now this was the attire he would assume whenever he pretended to be some god; and there were suitable supplications, prayers, and sacrifices offered to it. [-27-] Otherwise, he usually appeared in public in silk and triumphal dress. Very few were those whom he would kiss. To most of the senators even he extended his hand or foot for homage. Consequently the men who were kissed by him thanked him for it even in the senate, though all might see him kissing dancers every day. [And these divine honors paid him came not only from the many, accustomed at all times to flatter, but from those who really pretended to be something.]