“Ay; he has openly said he would abandon Rome so as to be free from the despot and his informers.”
“I have always hated Piso. Are there any more traitors?” bitterly asked the emperor.
“Here is a list of them,” said Sejanus, handing a scroll to his master. “Serenus is the most important after Piso. Thinkest thou not, O Tiberius, that our attack against Sosius and Sabinus will quiet the others?”
“The others shall be marked men,” was the significant reply of the emperor.
“If thou hadst the time to read these reports, thou wouldst fear this seditious movement. These men quickly seek notoriety amongst the people by slyly whispering words of sympathy for Agrippina and her children.”
“Sympathy for the she-wolf and her cubs,” cried the emperor, “while the emperor receives condemnation? For what? Is not the country prosperous? Are not the poor fed? What does Agrippina wish? Of a truth, O vigilant Sejanus, is sedition spreading in the city?”
“Ay, more! I have learned that Agrippina is encouraging her sons to form alliances with the legions.”
“By Hercules! And through whom?” thundered Tiberius.
“Sabinus.”
“By the infernal deities!” roared Tiberius, as he clutched the arms of his curule chair. “She is leaguing with the friends of Germanicus? Can she not wait for my death? What greater honor could she wish than my bestowing the hand of my granddaughter Julia on her son Nero?”