From this moment, the domination waxed completely outrageous and devouring: for while she lived, some refuge still remained, as the observance of Tiberius towards his mother was ever inviolate; nor durst Sejanus arrogate precedence of the authority of a parent: but now, as let loose from all restraint, they broke out with unbridled fury: so that letters were despatched avowedly against Agrippina and Nero; and as they were read in the Senate soon after the death of Augusta, the people believed them to have been sent before and by her suppressed. The expressions were elaborately bitter; and yet by them no hostile purpose of taking arms, no endeavour to change the State, was objected to the youth; but only "the love of boys, and other impure pleasures:" against Agrippina he durst not even feign so much; and therefore arraigned "her haughty looks, her impetuous and stubborn spirit." The Senate were struck with deep silence and affright: but, as particular men will always be drawing personal favour from public miseries, there were some who, having no hopes founded upon uprightness, demanded that "they should proceed upon the letters:" amongst these the foremost in zeal was Cotta Messalinus, with a terrible motion: but, the other leading men, and chiefly the magistrates, were embarrassed by fear: for Tiberius, though he had sent them a flaming invective, left all the rest a riddle.
In the Senate was one Junius Rusticus, appointed by the Emperor to keep a journal of their proceedings, and therefore thought well acquainted with his purposes. This man, by some fatal impulse (for he had never before shown any instance of magnanimity) or blinded by deceitful policy, while forgetful of present and impending dangers, he dreaded future possibilities, joined the party that hesitated, and even warned the Consuls "not to begin the debate:" he argued "that in a short moment the highest affairs might take a new turn: and an interval ought to be allowed to the old man to change his passion into remorse." At the same time, the people, carrying with them the images of Agrippina and Nero, gathered about the Senate, and proclaiming their good wishes for the prosperity of the Emperor, cried earnestly, "that the letters were counterfeit; and, against the consent of the Prince, the doom of his family was pursued:" so that nothing tragical was that day transacted. There were also dispersed amongst them several speeches, said to have been uttered in Senate by the Consulars, as their motions and advices against Sejanus; but all framed, and with the more petulance as the several authors exercised their satirical wit in the dark. Hence Sejanus boiled with greater rage, and hence had a handle for branding the Senate, "that by them the anguish and resentments of the Prince were despised: the people were revolted; popular and disaffected harangues were publicly read and listened to: new and arbitrary acts of Senate were passed and published: what more remained, but to arm the populace and place at their head, as leaders and Imperial commanders, those whose images they had already chosen for standards?"
Tiberius having therefore repeated his reproaches against his grandson and daughter-in-law: having chastised the people by an edict, and complained to the Senate, "that by the fraud of a single Senator the Imperial dignity should be battled and insulted, required that the whole affair should be left to himself, entire and untouched." The Senate hesitated no longer, but instantly proceeded, not now in truth to decree penalties and capital vengeance; for that was forbid them; but to testify "how ready they were to inflict just punishments, and that they were only interrupted by the power and pleasure of the Prince."...
{Here begins a lamentable chasm in this "Annal" for almost three years; and by it we have lost the detail of the most remarkable incidents in this reign, the exile of Agrippina into the Isle of Pandataria; of Nero, into that of Pontia; and the murder of both there by the orders of Tiberius: the conspiracy and execution of Sejanus, with that of all his friends and dependents: the further wickedness of Livia, and her death.}
Now though the rage of the populace was expiring, and though most men were mollified by former executions; it was determined to condemn the other children of Sejanus. They were therefore carried both to prison, the boy sensible of his impending doom; but the girl so ignorant, that she frequently asked; "For what offence? and whither did they drag her? she would do so no more; and they might take the rod and whip her." The writers of that time relate, "that as it was a thing unheard, for a virgin to suffer capital punishment, she was deflowered by the executioner just before he tied the rope; and that being both strangled, the tender bodies of these children were cast into the place where the carcasses of malefactors are exposed, before they are flung into the Tiber."...
BOOK VI. — A.D. 32-37.
Cneius Domitius and Camillus Scribonianus had begun their Consulship, when the Emperor, having crossed the channel between Capreae {Footnote: Capri.} and Surrentum, {Footnote: Sorrento.} sailed along the shore of Campania; unresolved whether he should proceed to Rome; or counterfeiting a show of coming, because he had determined not to come. He often approached to the neighbourhood of the city, and even visited the gardens upon the Tiber; but at last resumed his old retirement, the gloomy rocks and solitude of the sea, ashamed of his cruelties, and abominable lusts; in which he rioted so outrageously, that after the fashion of royal tyrants, the children of ingenuous parentage became the objects of his pollution: nor in them was he struck with a lovely face only, or the graces of their persons; but in some their amiable and childish innocence, in others their nobility and the glory of their ancestors, became the provocatives of his unnatural passion. Then likewise were devised the filthy names, till then unknown, of the Sellarii and Spintriae, expressing the odious lewdness of the place, and the manifold postures and methods of prostitution practised in it. For supplying his lust with these innocent victims, he entertained, in his service professed procurers, to look them out and carry them off. The willing they encouraged with presents, the backward they terrified with threats; and upon such parents or kindred as withheld the infants, they exercised force, seizure, and, as upon so many captives, every species of licentious rage.
At Rome in the beginning of the year, as if the iniquities of Livia had been but just discovered, and not even long since punished, furious orders were passed against her statues too, and memory; with another, "that the effects of Sejanus should be taken from the public treasury, and placed in that of the Emperor:" as if this vain translation could any wise avail the State. And yet such was the motion of these great names, the Scipios, the Silani, and the Cassii; who urged it, each almost in the same words, but all with mighty zeal and earnestness: when all on a sudden, Togonius Gallus, while he would be thrusting his own meanness amongst names so greatly illustrious, became the object of derision: for he besought the Prince "to choose a body of Senators of whom twenty, drawn by lot and under arms, should wait upon him and defend his person, as often as he entered the Senate." He had been weak enough to credit a letter from the Emperor, requiring "the guard and protection of one of the Consuls, that he might return in safety from Capreae to Rome." Tiberius however returned thanks to the Senate for such an instance of affection; but as he was wont to mix pleasantry with things serious, he asked, "How was it to be executed? what Senators were to be chosen? who to be omitted? whether always the same, or a continued succession? whether young Senators, or such as had borne dignities? whether those who were Magistrates, or those exercising no magistracy? moreover what a becoming figure they would make, grave Senators, men of the gown, under arms at the entrance of the Senate! in truth he held not his life of such importance, to have it thus protected by arms." So much in answer to Togonius, without asperity of words; nor did he farther, than this, press them to cancel the motion.