Now he was openly spurned by those who had been accustomed to do him reverence even when absent. His blood was spilled by persons who were wont to speak and to write of him as "Jove" and "god." His statues and his images were dragged from their pedestals, for the people in particular retained a lively remembrance of the distress they had endured.
All the soldiers in the Germanic division raised an outcry and their remonstrance extended to the point of indulging in slaughter.
Those who stood by remembered the words once spoken by him to the populace: "How I wish you had but one neck!" and made it plain to him that it was he who had but one neck, whereas they had many hands. And when the pretorian guard, filled with consternation, began running about and demanding who had slain Gaius, Valerius Asiaticus, an ex-consul, took a remarkable mode of bringing them to their senses, in that he climbed up to a conspicuous place and cried out: "I only wish I had killed him!" This alarmed them so that they stopped their outcry.
All such persons as in any way acknowledged the authority of the senate obeyed their oaths and became once more quiet.—While the overthrow of Gaius was thus being accomplished, the consuls Sentius and Secundus forthwith transferred the funds from the treasure-chambers to the Capitol. They stationed most of the senators and plenty of soldiers as guards over it to prevent any plundering being done by the populace. So these men in company with the prefects and the circle of Sabinus and Chairea deliberated as to what should be done.
[Footnote 1: Emended by Boissevain from the "four" of the MS.]
[Footnote 2: Boissevain restores the MS. "ten" in place of the "twelve" of Robert Estienne.]
[Footnote 3: Compare Suetonius, Life of Gaius, chapter 15.]
[Footnote 4: This sentence is unintelligible and doubtless the MS. is corrupt. No editor has offered a wholly satisfactory emendation, though by comparing Book Sixty, chapter 4, the sense would seem to require: "no one, in taking the oath, mentions the name of Tiberius in the number of the emperors.">[
[Footnote 5: Reading (with Boissevain) [Greek: exoruxas] for [Greek: dioruxas].]
[Footnote 6: This predicate is supplied on the suggestion of Boissevain.
In the MS. an evident gap of a few words exists.]