The dancers he drove out of Rome and would allow them no place in which to practice their profession, because they kept debauching the women and stirring up tumults.
He honored many men, and numbers of those who died, with statues and public funerals. A bronze statue of Sejanus was erected in the theatre during the life of the model. As a result, numerous images of this minister were made by many persons and many encomiuma were spoken both in the assembly and in the senate. The consuls themselves, besides the other prominent citizens, regularly had recourse to his house just at dawn, and communicated to him both all the private requests that any of them wished to make of Tiberius and the public business which had to be taken up. In brief, henceforth nothing of the kind was considered without his knowledge.
About this time one of the largest porticos in Rome began to lean to one side and was set upright in a remarkable way by a certain architect whose name no one knows, because Tiberius, jealous of his wonderful achievement, would not permit it to be entered in the records. This architect, accordingly, however he was called after strengthening the foundations all about, so that they could not move out of position, and surrounding all the rest of the arcade with thick fleeces and cloths, ran ropes all over it and through it and by the pushing of many men and machines brought it once more into its previous position. At the time Tiberius both admired him and felt envious of him; for the former reason he honored him with a present of money and for the latter he expelled him from the city. Later, the exile approached him to make supplication during the course of which he purposely let fall a crystal goblet, which fell apart somehow or was broken, and then by passing his hands over it showed it straightway intact; for this the suppliant hoped to have obtained pardon, but instead the emperor put him to death.
[-22-] Drusus, son of Tiberius, perished by poison. Sejanus, puffed up by power and rank, in addition to his other overweening behavior finally turned against Drusus and once struck him a blow with his fist. As this gave the assailant reason to fear both Drusus and Tiberius, and inasmuch as he felt sure that, if he could get the young man out of the way, he could handle the elder very easily, he administered poison to the former through the agency of those in attendance upon him and of Drusus's wife, whom some name Livilla. [5] Sejanus was her paramour.—The guilt was imputed to Tiberius because he altered none of his accustomed habits either during the illness of Drusus or at his death and would not allow others to alter theirs. But the story is not credible. This was his regular behavior, as a matter of principle, in every case alike, and furthermore he was attached to his son, the only one he had and legitimate. Those that engineered his death he punished, some at once and some later. At the time he entered the senate, delivered the appropriate eulogy over his child, and departed homeward.
Thus perished Sejanus's victim. Tiberius took his way to the senate-house, where he lamented him publicly, put Nero and Drusus (children of Germanicus) in charge of the senate, and exposed the body of Drusus upon the rostra; and Nero, being his son-in-law, pronounced an eulogy over him. This man's death proved a cause of death to many persons, who were taxed with being pleased at his demise. Among the large number of people who lost their lives was Agrippina, together with her children, the youngest excepted. Sejanus had incensed Tiberius greatly against her, anticipating that, when she and her children were disposed of, he might have for his spouse Livia, wife of Drusus, for whom he entertained a passion, and might wield supreme power, since no successor would be found for Tiberius. The latter detested his nephew as a bastard. Many others also did he banish or destroy for different and ever different causes, for the most part fictitious.
Tiberius forbade those debarred from fire and water to make any will,—a custom still observed. Ælius Saturninus he brought before the senate for trial on the charge of having recited some improper verses about him, and the culprit having been found guilty was hurled from the Capitol. [-23-]I might narrate many other such occurrences, if I were to go into all in detail. But the general statement may suffice that many were slain by him for such offences. And also this,—that he investigated carefully, case by case, all the slighting remarks that any persons were accused of uttering against him and then called himself all the ill names that other men invented. Even if a person made some statement secretly and to a single companion, he would publish this too, and actually had it entered on the official records. Often he falsely added, from his own consciousness of defects, what no one had even said as really spoken, in order that it might be thought he had juster cause for his wrath. Consequently it came to pass that he himself committed against himself all those outrages for which he was wont to chastise other people on the ground of impiety; and he likewise became subject to no little ridicule. For, if persons denied having spoken certain phrases, he, by asserting and taking oath that it had been said, wronged himself with greater show of reality. For this reason some suspected that he was bereft of his senses. Yet he was not generally believed to be insane simply for this behavior. All other business he managed in a way quite beyond criticism. For instance, he appointed a guardian over a certain senator that lived licentiously, as he might have done for a child. Again, he brought Capito, procurator of Asia, before the senate, and, after charging him with using soldiers and acting in some other ways as if he had supreme command, he banished him. In those days officials administering the imperial funds were allowed to do nothing more than to levy the customary tribute, and they were compelled, in the case of disputes, to stand trial in the Forum and according to the laws, on an equal footing with private persons.—So great were the contrasts in Tiberius's conduct.
[A.D. 24 (a. u. 777)]
[-24-] When the ten years of his office had expired, he did not ask any vote for its resumption, for he had no wish to receive it piecemeal, as Augustus had done. The decennial festival, however, was held.
[A.D. 25 (a. u. 778)]
Cremutius Cordus was forced to lay violent hands upon himself, because he had come into collision with Sejanus. He was at the gates of old age and had lived most irreproachably, so much so that no sufficient complaint could be found against him and he was tried for the history which he had long before composed regarding the deeds of Augustus and the latter himself had read. The ground of censure was that he had praised Cassius and Brutus and had attacked the people and the senate. Of Cæsar and Augustus he had spoken no ill, but at the same time had shown no excessive respect for them. This was the complaint against him, and this it was that caused his death as well as the burning of his works,—those found in the city at this time being destroyed by the ædiles, and those abroad by the officials of each place. Later they were published again, for his daughter Marcia in particular, as well as others, had hidden copies, and they attracted much greater attention by reason of the unhappy end of Cordus.