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, Gnæus 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 Arsacidæ, 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 prætor, 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 Cæsar. 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 Annæus 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 prætors 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 prætors 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.