Domitian (21-22)

"The lot of princes," he remarked, "was very miserable, for no one-believed them when they discovered a conspiracy, until they were murdered." When he had leisure, he amused himself with dice, even on days that were not festivals, and in the morning. He went to the bath early, and made a plentiful dinner, insomuch that he seldom ate more at supper than a .Martian apple,[*] to which he added a draught of wine, out of a small flask. He gave frequent and splendid entertainments, but they were soon over, for he never prolonged them after sunset, and indulged in no revel after. For, till bed-time, he did nothing else but walk by himself in private.

He was insatiable in his lusts, calling frequent commerce with women, as if it was a sort of exercise, κλινοπάλην, bed-wrestling, and it was reported that he swam about in company with the lowest prostitutes. His brother's daughter[*] was offered him in marriage when she was a virgin; but being at that time enamoured of Domitia, he obstinately refused her. Yet not long afterwards, when she was given to another, he was ready enough to debauch her, and that even while Titus was living. But after she had lost both her father and her husband, he loved her most passionately, and without disguise; insomuch that he was the occasion of her death, by obliging her to procure a miscarriage when she was with child by him.