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his table ; pretending that me in effect charged him vii tha design to polson her; whereas the whole was a Contriv-ance of his own. He was to offer the fruit, and siue tobe privately cautioned against it, as what would infalliblybe her death. At last, charging her, Without any foundation, with a design to By to the statue of Augustus, orthe ariny, he bani med her to Pandataria. Upon her reviling him for it, he, by means os a Centurion, beat out
ing in her resolution, and dying on after, he persecuted her memory with the basest aspersions, and ad viled the Senate to put her birth ay amongs f the number of un-luchy days in the Calendar. He likewise accounted it a favor that he had not thrown her botly upon the Scalae Gemoniae, and suffered a vote of the ho use to passe, tothank him for his clemency, and a present in gold to bemade to Jupiter Capitolinus upon the occasion. LIV. He had by Germanicus three grandi Ons, Nero, Drusus, and Caius, and by his son Drusus, o ne named Tiberius. Os these, after the lose of his sons, he re mmended Nero and Drusus to the Senate ; and at their be-ing solemnly introduced into me Forum , he distributed money among the people. But when he found that vowshad been offered: up by the magistrates in the beginning of the year for their health, he tol l the Senate, Such
trayed his secret disposition towards them, he occasionediheir being persecuted with a variety of information against them; and after praeti fing many artifices to provol e
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Upon their being declared enenates by the Senate, he staru-ed them to death ; Nero in the isand of Pontia, and Drusus in the lower part of the Palatium. It is thought by sonae, that Nero mas put upon mahing away with himself, by the executioner 's 1hewing him se me haltersand hooks, as is sent to him by the order of the Senate. Drusus, it is seid, was se rabid with hunger, that he attempted to eas the siussing of his bed. The relics of both were so dispersed, that it was with dissiculty they were collected.
LV. Besides his old friends, and intimate acquaintance, he demanded the assistance of twenty of the mosi eminent persons in the city, as counsellors in the administration ofpublic a Tairs. Out os ali this number, scarcely two Orthree escaped the fury of his savage disposition. All the
nister to the highest pitch of grande ur, not so much stomany reat regard for hina, as that by his base and sinister
contrivances, he might ruin the child ren os Germanicus, and thereby secure the succession to his own grandson
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TIBERIUS NERO CAESAR. 289. rmer residence at Rhodes, where the Dorso dialest ista sed . It being his custo in to stari questions at supper, lachas the authors he had been reading in the day furnissae lsim with, ane finding that Seleucus the graminari an used
to enquire of those who attended him, what authors hexead every day, and so came prepared for his interroga tortes ; he fit si turned him out of his family, and thendi ove hi in to the extremity of laying violent hands upontii inself. LVII. His cruei and stillen temper appeared in himwhen he was a boy ; whicli Theodorus os Gadara, his master in Rhetoric, frst dis overed; and expressed by a very apposite simile, calling him no and then, in reprimanding him, Diri mixed with blo d. V But his disposition appeared stili more evidently upon his attaining to the imperiat power, and even in the beginning of his administration, whilst he was endeavoring to gain the favor of the people, by affecting moderation. Upon a funerat passing by, a wag called out to the dead man.
Teli Augustus, that the legacies he lest to the common alty are not yet paid. ' This man he ordered to bebrought be re him, to receive what was due to him, and then to be led to execution, that he might deli ver the mesia sage to his sa ther himself. Not long after, When One
name, and the ili fortune os the party. LVIII. Abo ut the same time, when the Praetor Consult-ed him, whether it was his pleas ure that the couris should sit up On accusations of treason against his person, he re
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plied, I he laws ought to be put in execution and he did put them in eXecution most severely. Some person had talion Osf the head of Augustus from a statue ofhim, and put another upon it. The assair was brought bes ore the Senate; and because the Case was not Clear,some were eXamined by torture concerning it. The partyaccused being found guilly, and condemned, this hind of process grew to lach a height, that it hecame capital fora mari to beat his fave, or Change his Cloaths, near thestatue of Augus us ; to carry his head stamped, upon thecoin, or cui in the stone os a ring, into a necessary house, or the stews ; or to refleet upon any thing that had beeneither said or done by him. In fine, a person waS ςOndem ned to death, for suffering me honors to be decreedio him in the colony where he lived, upon the fame dayon whicli they had formerly been decreed to Augustus. LIX. He was besides guit ty of many barbaroUS actions, Under the pretence of siridinesse and reformationos manners, but more to grati sy his own sa vage disposition. In verses in whicli his crueities were lampooned, the authors displayed the present calamities of his re ign, and anticipaled the future.
Asper et immitis, breviter vis omnia dicam 'Dispeream sit te mater amare potest. Non es eques. quare non sunt tibi millia centum romnia si quaeras, et Rhodos exsilium est. Aurea mutasti Saturni saecula, Caesar :Incolumi nam te, ferrca emper erunt. Fastidit vinum, quia jam sitit iste cruorem rTam bibit hunc avide, quam bibit ante merum. Adspice felicem sibi non tibi, Romule, Sullam :Et Marium, si vis, adspice, s d reducem. Nec non Antoni civilia bella moventis Nec semel infectas adspice caede manus.
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reflexions procee led froin the resentinent of those who vere impatient under the discipline os reformation, ratherthan their real sentirnenis; and he would frequently say, Let them ha te me, /so long as they do but approVe myconduct.' ' At tengili however, his bellavi our mowed, that he was sensible they Were too weli s unded. LX. A se days after his arrivat at Capreae, a filmer man Coming up to him uneXpectedly as he was alone,
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Froni this it appeared, that he had not been se much infligated by Sejanus, as supplied with occasions os grati-wing his lavage temper, When he wanted them. Thoughin a mort me moir which he composed of his own life he had the es ontery to vetite, I have punissaed Sejanus, hecause Ι und him hent upon the destruction of the children of my son Germanicus,' ' one of these he
elty : suffice it to give a few examples, in their different in is . Not a da y passed without the punishment of
seme Unfortunate person or other, not excepting holidays, or those appropriated to the wormis of the Gods. Some were punished in me beginning of the neW year. Many were aCCused and condemned in conjunction withtheir wives and child ren ; and for such as were sentencedio death, the relations urere forhid to mourn. Considerable re ards were voted sor the prosecutors, and so me- times for the witnesses likewisse. The information of any person, Without exception, was tahen ; and ali offences
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vere Capital, even the speahing of a sew woriis, thoughwithout any ill intention. A poet was impeached forabusing Agamemnon ; and a historian, for calling Brutus and Cassius the last os ille Romans.' ' The two authors were immediately put to death, and their writings suppressed ; though they had been weli received some years before, and read in the hearing of Augustus. Some,
a prosecution for treason, lived so long. Tiberius imme-
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diately reprimanded hi in for his perinesi ; but wrote tome Senate a ferir days after, to proceed without delay toste punishment of Ρaconius. LXII. Exaspera ted by an information about the deam of his sola Drusus, he cari ted his crueity stili farther. He imagined he had died os a dis ea se occasioned by his intemperance; but finding that he had been polsoned by the contrivance of his wise Liuilla and Sejanus, he spar-ed no person, but tortured and put to death, without mercy. He was entiret y occupied with the examination of this assair, for whole days together, that, UPOnbeing informed that a gentiem an os Rhodes, in whose house he had lodged, and whom he had by a friendlyletter invited to Rome, was arrived , he ordered him immediately to be put to the . torture, as is he had been a Party concerned in that transaction. Upon finding hismistake, he commanded hi in to be put to death, that hemight not publim the injury done him. The spot onwhich he was executed is stili sthown at Capreae, Where he ordered such as were condemne i to die, after long and CXquisite tortures, to be thrown, before his eyes, froma precipice into the se a. There a party of soldiers be- longing to the fleet, W aited for them, and brohe me irbones with potes and oars, test they should have any life lest in them. Amongst vario us kin is of torture invented by him, one was, to persuade peopte to di inh a large quantity ps wine, and then to tie up their memberstight with strings, to torment them at once by the constriC-tion of the ligature, and the stoppage of their urine. Hadnot dealli prevented him, and Thrasyllus, designedly, assonae say, prevalled with him to deser some of his cruel projedis, in hopes of longer ii se, it is belleved that hewould have destroyed many more; and not have spared
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TIBERIUS NERO CAESAR. 29seven the rest of his grandchildren : sor he was jealousos Caius, and haled Tiberius as having been conceived
apprehensive, as weli as odious and detestabie he lived, is evident from many indications. He forbid the oth- sayers to be consul ted in private, and without some wit-nesses being present. He attempted to suppress the oracles in the neighbourhood of the city; but being terri-fied by the manifest appearance of a divine authority in
that os Praeneste, he abandoned the design. For thoughthe lots were sealed up in a box, and carried to Rome, yet they were not to be found in it, untii it was returnedio the temple. Two men of Consular rank, whom hel, ad appotnted go vernors of pro vinces, he never dursi letgo upon their respective destinations, but hept them Un-til severat years after, when he nominated succesibios, be-ing then present upon the spot with him. In the meanti me, they bore the tities of their ossice ; and he frequently gave them orders, whicli they took Care to have eXe-cuted by their deputies and assistants.
LXIV. He never removed his daughtel in-law, Orgrandson, after their condemnation, to any place but in Chains, and a Close chair, with a guard to hinder ali thalmet them on the road, frona standing to gaZe at them.
LXV. Afiter Sejanus had formed his desigia againsthim, though he saw that his birth- lay was solemnly hept by the public, and goiden images of him wori lippede very here, yet it was with dissicut ty at last, and more
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THE LIFE OF artifice, than his imperiat authority, that he essected his death. In the fit si place, to remove him stom about his person, Under a pretexi of doing him honor, hema de him his colleague in his fifth Consul hip : whicli, iliough then absent froin the city, he took upon him sorthat purpose, a long time after his preceding Consulsi, ip : and having flattered hi in milli the liopes of a match witha lady of his own Lindred, and the Tribunitian autho-rity, he ali on a sudden, while Sejanus litile expectedit, charged hi in with treason, in an abject miserable ad-drest to the Senate, in Whicli, amongst other things, hebegged them To seiad one of the Consuis, to fetch himself, a poor solitary old man, with a guard of soldiers. VStili disti usi fui, however, and apprehensive of a publicinsurrection, he ordered his grandson Drusus, Whom hehept confined at Rome, to be set at liberty, is occasio urequired, to head the tro ops, and such as migbi appear in his support. He had likewise sit ips in readiness, totranspori him to any of the legions to which he mightthinh proper to apply. Meanwhile, he was upon the watch, on the top of a very hi gli roch, for the signat s which he had ordei ed to be glucia, as any thing happen- pd, test the messengers mould be tardy. But though he had now qui te deseated the desiigns of Sejanus againsthim, he was neverthelesi stili haurited as much as everwith fears and apprehensions ; in much that he neveronce stiri ed out of the Villa Jovis for nine monilis
LXVI. To the extreme anxiety os mind whicli henow experienced, he had the mortification to find superadded the most pol gnant reproaches hom ali quarters. Thola who were condomned to die, heaped upon him the most opprobrious langu age in his face, or by libels