Dio's Rome, Volume 4 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 411 pages of information about Dio's Rome, Volume 4.

Dio's Rome, Volume 4 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 411 pages of information about Dio's Rome, Volume 4.

[-3-] Gallus, who married the wife of Tiberius and spoke his mind regarding the empire, was the next object of the emperor’s attack, for which the right moment had been carefully selected. [Whether he really believed that Sejanus would be emperor or whether it was out of fear of Tiberius, he paid court to the former.  It may indeed, have been a kind of plot, to make the minister irksome to Tiberius and so accomplish his ruin:  but at any rate Gallus transacted the greater and more important part of his business with him and made efforts to be one of the envoys.  Therefore the emperor sent a report about him to the senate, making among other statements one to the effect that this man was jealous of his friendship for Sejanus, although Gallus himself treated Syriacus as an intimate friend.  He did not make this known to Gallus, entertaining him most hospitably instead.] Hence something most unusual befell him that never happened to any one else.  On the very same day he was banqueted at the house of Tiberius, pledging him in the cup of friendship, and was condemned before the senate.  Indeed, a praetor was sent to imprison him and lead him away for punishment.  Yet Tiberius, though he had acted so, did not permit his victim to die, in spite of the latter’s wish for death as soon as he learned the decree.  Instead, he bade Gallus (in order to make his lot still more dismal) to be of good cheer and instructed the senate[1] that he should be guarded without bonds until the emperor should reach the City; his object, as I said, was to make the prisoner suffer for the longest possible time both from deprivation of his civic rights and from terror.  So it turned out.  He was kept under the eyes of the consuls of each year except when Tiberius held the office, in that case he was guarded by the praetors, not to prevent his escape, but to prevent his death.  He had no companion or servant as associate, spoke to no one, saw no one, except when he was compelled to take food.  And what he got was of such a quality and amount as neither to afford him any pleasure or strength nor yet to allow him to die.  This was the worst feature of it.  Tiberius did the same thing in the case of many others.  For instance, he had imprisoned one of his companions, and when there was later talk about executing him, he said:  “I have not yet made my peace with him.”  Some one else, again, he had tortured very severely, and then on ascertaining that the victim had been unjustly accused he had him killed with all speed, remarking that he had been too terribly outraged to find any satisfaction in living.  Syriacus, who had neither committed nor been charged with any wrong, but was renowned for his education, was slain merely for the reason that Tiberius said he was a friend of Gallus. [Sejanus brought false accusation also against Drusus, through the medium of his wife.  For, by maintaining illicit relations with practically all the wives of the distinguished men, he learned what their husbands said and did, and further made them his assistants by promises of marriage.  Now when Tiberius without discussion sent Drusus to Rome, Sejanus, fearing that his position might be injured, persuaded Cassius [2] to busy himself against him.]

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Dio's Rome, Volume 4 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.