“To rest neither day nor night until the letter was in thy hands,” replied the messenger.
“What can she wish that orders so urgent should be given?” he asked himself, as he broke the seal and hastily read the first few lines. When he reached the middle of the letter, he smiled. “Antonia thinks she has discovered a plot against me,” he said to himself. “She thinks that Sejanus is aspiring to the throne! This joke is better than any my Greeks have invented!” He read further. When he learned that Drusus had been killed at the instigation of Sejanus, when he further learned that the people in Rome regarded him, the emperor, as a prisoner, he became serious. He turned to the messenger and said, “Who gave thee this letter?”
“Macro, my lord,” replied the messenger.
“The sub-prefect gave thee thy passport?” asked the emperor.
“Ay, my lord,” was the reply.
“But how didst thou pass the different posts?”
“The seal of Sejanus passes everywhere.”
“But how came the seal of Sejanus in the possession of Macro?” asked Tiberius, suspiciously.
“The minister has a duplicate that Macro uses for small commissions,” replied the messenger.
“When didst thou leave Rome?”