[-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 prætors 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 heroüm 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.