Soon afterwards, he abandoned himself to every species of cruelty, never wanting
					occasions of one kind or another, to serve as a pretext. He first fell upon the
					friends and acquaintances of his mother, then those of his grandsons, and his
					daughter-in-law, and lastly those of Sejanus; after whose death he became cruel
					in the extreme. From this it appeared, that he had not been so much instigated
					by Sejanus, as supplied with occasions of gratifying his savage temper, when he
					wanted them. Though in a short memoir which he composed of his own life, he had
					the effrontery to write, "I have punished Sejanus, because I found him bent upon
					the destruction of the children of my son Germanicus," one of these he put to
					death, when he began to suspect Sejanus; and another, after he was taken off. It
					would be tedious to relate all the numerous instances of his cruelty: suffice it
					to give a few examples, in their different kinds. Not a day passed without the
					punishment of some person or other, not excepting holidays, or those
					appropriated to the worship of the gods. Some were tried even on NewYear's-Day.
					Of many who were condemned, their wives and children shared the same fate; and
					for those who Were sentenced to death, the relations were forbid to put on
					mourning. Considerable rewards were voted for the prosecutors, and sometimes for
					the witnesses also. The information of any person, without exception, was taken;
					and all offences were capital, even speaking a few words, though without any ill
					intention. A poet was charged with abusing Agamemnon; and a historian, A. U. C. 778. Tacit. Annal. iv. The historian's name was A.
						Cremutius Cordo. Dio has preserved the passage, xlvii. p. 6I9. Brutus had already called Cassius "The
						last of the Romans," in his lamentation over his dead body. for
					calling Brutus and Cassius " the last of the Romans." The two authors were
					immediately called to account, and their writings suppressed; though they had
					been well received some years before, and read in the hearing of Augustus. Some,
					who were thrown into prison, were not only denied the solace of study, but
					debarred from all company and conversation. Many persons, when summoned to
					trial, stabbed themselves at home, to avoid the distress and ignominy of a
					public condemnation, which they were certain would ensue. Others took poison in
					the senate-house. The wounds were bound up, and all who had not expired, were
					carried, half-dead, and panting for life, to prison. Those who were put to
					death, were thrown down the Gemonian stairs, and then dragged into the
						 Tiber . In one day, twenty were
					treated in this manner; and amongst them women and boys. Because, according to
					an ancient custom, it was not lawful to strangle virgins, the young girls were
					first deflowered by the executioner, and afterwards strangled. Those who were
					desirous to die, were forced to live. For he thought death so slight a
					punishment, that upon hearing that Carnulius, one of the accused, who was under
					prosecution, had killed himself," he exclaimed, "Carnulius has escaped me." In
					calling over his prisoners, when one of them requested the favour of a speedy
					death, he replied, " You are not yet restored to favour." A man of consular rank
					writes in his annals, that at table, where he himself was present with a large
					company, he was suddenly asked aloud by a dwarf who stood by amongst the
					buffoons, why Paconius, who was under prosecution for treason, lived so long.
					Tiberius immediately reprimanded him for his pertness; but wrote to the senate a
					few days after, to proceed without delay to the punishment of Paconius. Exasperated by information he received respect ing the death of his son Drusus,
					he carried his cruelty still farther. He imagined that he had died of a disease
					occasioned by his intemperance; but finding that he had been poisoned by the
					contrivance of his wife Livilla, She was the sister of
						Germanicus, and Tacitus calls her Livia ; but Suetonius is in the habit of giving a fondling
						or diminutive term to the names of women, as Claudilla, for Claudia,
						Plautilla, etc. and Sejanus, he spared no one from torture and
					death. He was so entirely occupied with the examination of this affair, for
					whole days together, that, upon being informed that the person in whose house he
					had lodged at Rhodes , and whom he had
					by a friendly letter invited to Rome ,
					was arrived, he ordered him immediately to be put to the torture, as a party
					concerned in the enquiry. Upon finding his mistake, he commanded him to be put
					to death, that he might not publish the injury done him. The place of execution
					is still shown at Capri , where he
					ordered those who were condemned to die, after long and exquisite tortures, to
					be thrown, before his eyes, from a precipice into the sea. There a party of
					soldiers belonging to the fleet waited for them, and broke their bones with
					poles and oars, lest they should have any life left in them. * * * Thomson omits material here * *
						* Had not death prevented him, and Thrasyllus, designedly, as some
					say, prevailed with him to defer some of his cruelties, in hopes of longer life,
					it is believed that he would have destroyed many more; and not have spared even
					the rest of his grand-children: for he was jealous of Caius, and hated Tiberius
					as having been conceived in adultery. This conjecture is indeed highly probable;
					for he used often to say, "Happy Priam, who survived all his children!" Priam is said to have had no less than fifty sons and
						daughters; some of the latter, however, survived him, as Hecuba, Helena , Polyxena, and others. Amidst these enormities, in how much fear and apprehension, as well as odium and
					detestation, he lived, is evident from many indications. He forbade the
					soothsayers to be consulted in private, and without some witnesses being
					present. He attempted to suppress the oracles in the neighbourhood of the city;
					but being terrified by the divine authority of the Praenestine Lots, There were oracles at Antium and Tibur . The " Pranestine Lots" are described by Cicero, De
						Divin. xi. 41. he abandoned the design. For though they were sealed
					up in a box, and carried to Rome , yet
					they were not to be found in it until it was returned to the temple. More than
					one person of consular rank, appointed governors of provinces, he never ventured
					to dismiss to their respective destinations, but kept them until several years
					after, when he nominated their successors, while they still remained present
					with him. In the meantime they bore the title of their office; and he frequently
					gave them orders, which they took care to have executed by their deputies and
					assistants. He never removed his daughter-in-law or grandsons, Agrippina, and Nero and Drusus. after their condemnation, to any
					place, but in fetters and in a covered litter, with a guard to hinder all who
					met them on the road, and travellers, from stopping to gaze at them. After Sejanus had plotted against him, though he saw that his birth-day was
					solemnly kept by the public, and divine honours paid to golden images of him in
					every quarter, yet it was with difficulty at last, and more by artifice than his
					imperial power, that he accomplished his death. In the first place, to remove
					him from about his person, under the pretext of doing him honour, he made him
					his colleague in his fifth consulship; which, although then absent from the
					city, he took upon him for that purpose, long after his preceding consulship.
					Then, having flattered him with the hope of an alliance by marriage with one of
					his own kindred, and the prospect of the tribunitian authority, he suddenly,
					while Sejanus little expected it, charged him with treason, in an abject and
					pitiful address to the senate; in which, among other things, he begged them "to
					send one of the consuls, to conduct himself, a poor solitary old man, with a
					guard of soldiers, into their presence." Still distrustful, however, and
					apprehensive of an insurrection, he ordered his grandson, Drusus, whom he still
					kept in confinement at Rome , to be set
					at liberty, and if occasion required, to head the troops. He had likewise ships
					in readiness to transport him to any of the legions to which he might consider
					it expedient to make his escape. Meanwhile, he was upon the watch, from the
					summit of a lofty cliff, for the signals which he had ordered to be made if any
					thing occurred, lest the messengers should be tardy. Even when he had quite
					foiled the conspiracy of Sejanus, he was still haunted as much as ever with
					fears and apprehensions, insomuch that he never once stirred out of the Villa
					Jovis for nine months after.