137 ([return])
[ Suetonius relates that Civica Cerealis was put to death in his proconsulate of Asia, on the charge of meditating a revolt. (Life of Domitian, s. 10.)]
138 ([return])
[ Obliging persons to return thanks for an injury was a refinement in tyranny frequently practised by the worst of the Roman emperors. Thus Seneca informs us, that "Caligula was thanked by those whose children had been put to death, and whose property had been confiscated." (De Tranquil, xiv.) And again;—"The reply of a person who had grown old in his attendance on kings, when he was asked how he had attained a thing so uncommon in courts as old age? is well known. It was, said he, by receiving injuries, and returning thanks."—De Ira, ii. 33.]
139 ([return])
[ From a passage in Dio, lxxviii. p. 899, this sum appears to have been decies sestertium, about 9,000l. sterling.]
140 ([return])
[ Thus Seneca: "Little souls rendered insolent by prosperity have this worst property, that they hate those whom they have injured."—De Ira, ii. 33.]
141 ([return])
[ Several who suffered under Nero and Domitian erred, though nobly, in this respect.]