Lust and luxury, from the licence which had long prevailed, had also grown to an
					enormous height. He, therefore, obtained a decree of the senate, that a woman
					who formed an union with the slave of another person, should be considered a
					bondwoman herself; and that usurers should not be allowed to take proceedings at
					law for the recovery of money lent to young men whilst they lived in their
					father's family, not even after their fathers were dead. In other affairs, from the beginning to the end of his government, he conduct
					himself-wihgreatmedeation and clemency. He was so far from disseriibling the
					obscurity of his extraction, that he frequently made mention of it himself. When
					some affected to trace his pedigree to the founders of Reate, and a companion of
						Hercules, Hercules is said, after conquering Geryon in
						Spain, to have come into this part of Italy. One of his companions, the
						supposed founder of Reate, may have had the name of Flavus. whose
					monument is still to be seen on the Salarian road, he laughed at them for it.
					And he was so little fond of external and adventitious ornaments, that, on the
					day of his triumph,' being quite tired of the length and tediousness of the
					procession, he could not forbear saying, "he was rightly served, for having in
					his old age. been so silly as to desire a triumph; as if it was either due to
					his ancestors, or had ever been expected by himself." Nor would he for a long
					time accept of the tribunitian authority, or the title of Father of his Country.
					And in regard to the custom of searching those who came to salute him, he
					dropped it even in the time of the civil war. He bore with great mildness the freedom used by his friends, the satirical
					allusions of advocates, and the petulance of philosophers. Licinius Mucianus,
					who had been guilty of notorious acts of lewdness, but, presuming upon his great
					services, treated him very rudely, he re- proved only in private; and when
					complaining of his con- duct to a common friend of theirs, he concluded with
					these words, "However, I am a man." Salvius Liberalis, in pleading the. cause of
					a rich man under prosecution, presuming to say, "What is it to Caesar, if
					Hipparchus possesses a hundred millions of sesterces?" he com- mended him for
					it. Demetrius, the Cynic philosopher, Demetrius, who was
						born at Corinth, seems to have been a close imitator of Diogenes, the
						founder of the sect. Having come to Rome to study under Apollonius, he was
						banished to the islands, with other philosophers, by Vespasian. who
					had been sentenced to banishment, meeting him on the road, and refusing to rise
					up or salute him, nay, snarling at him in scurrilous language, he only called
					him a cur. He was little disposed to keep up the memory of affronts or quarrels, nor did he
					harbour any resentment on account of them. He made a very splendid marriage for
					the daughter of his enemy Vitellius, and gave her, besides, a suitable fortune
					and equipage. Being in a great consternation after he was forbidden the court in
					the time of Nero, and asking those about him, what he should do? or, whither he
					should g ? one of those whose office it was to introduce people to the emperor,
					thrusting him out, bid him go to Morbonia. There being no
						such place as Morbonia, and the supposed name being derived ftom morbus,
						disease, some critics have supposed that Anticyra, the asylum of the
						incurables, (see CALIGULA, C. xxix) is meant; but the probability is, that
						the expression used by the imperial chamberlain was only a courtly version
						of a phrase not very commonly adopted in the present day. But when
					this same person came afterwards to beg his pardon, he only vented his
					resentment in nearly the same words. He was so far from being influenced by
					suspicion or fear to seek the destruction of any one, that, when his friends
					advised him to beware of Metius Pomposianus, because it was commonly believed,
					on his nativity being cast, that he was destined by fate to the empire, he made
					him consul, promising for him, that he would not forget the benefit
					conferred. It will scarcely be found, that so much as one innocent person suffered in his
					reign, unless in his absence, and without his knowledge, or, at least, contrary
					to his inclination, and when he was imposed upon. Although Helvidius Priscus
						 Helvidius Priscus, a person of some celebrity as a
						philosopher and public man, is mentioned by Tacitus, Xiphilinus, and
						Arrian. was the only man who presumed to salute him on his return
					from Syria by his private name of Vespasian, and, when he came to be praetor,
					omitted any mark of honour to him, or even any mention of him in his edicts, yet
					he was not angry, until Helvidius proceeded to inveigh against him with the most
					scurrilous language. Though he did indeed banish him, and afterwards ordered him
					to be put to death, yet he would gladly have saved him notwithstanding, and
					accordingly dispatched messengers to fetch back the executioners; and he would
					have saved him, had he not been deceived by a false account brought, that he had
					already perished. He never ejroiced at the death of any man; nay, he would shed
					tears, and sigh, atthe just punishment of the guilty.