Thus the man who had possessed the greatest influence of all my contemporaries, so that everybody both feared and trembled before him more than before the very emperors, [Footnote:  Reading [Greek:  autokratoron] (emendation of H. Stephanus).] the man who had hung poised upon greater hopes than they, was slain by his son-in-law and thrown from the top of the palace into some street.  Later, at the order of Severus, he was taken up and buried.

[Sidenote:—­5—­] Severus next called a meeting of the senate in the senate-house.  He uttered no accusation against Plautianus, but himself deplored the weakness of human nature, which was not able to endure excessive honors, and blamed himself that he had so honored and loved the man.  Those, however, who had informed him of the victim’s plot he bade tell us everything; but first he expelled from the senate-chamber some whose presence was not necessary, and by revealing nothing to them intimated that he did not altogether trust them.

Many were brought into danger by the Plautianus episode and some actually lost their lives.  But Coeranus was accustomed to declare (what most people are given to pretending with reference to the fortunate) that he was his associate.  As often as these friends of the prefect were wont to be called in before the others desiring to greet the great man, it was his custom to accompany them as far as the bars.  So he did not share his secrets, but remained in the space midway, giving Plautianus the impression that he was outside and those outside the idea that he was within.  This caused him to be the object of greater suspicion,—­a feeling which was strengthened by the fact that Plautianus once in a dream saw fishes issue from the Tiber and fall at his feet, whereupon he declared that Coeranus should rule the land and water.  This man, after being confined to an island for seven years, was later recalled, was the first Egyptian to be enrolled in the senate, and became consul, like Pompey, without holding any previous office.  Caecilius Agricola, however, numbered among the deceased’s foremost flatterers and second to no man on earth in rascality and licentiousness, was sentenced to death.  He went home, and after drinking his fill of chilled wine, shattered the cup which had cost him five myriads, and cutting his veins fell dead upon the fragments. [Sidenote:—­6—­] As for Saturninus and Euodus, they were honored at the time but were later executed by Antoninus.  While we were engaged in voting eulogies to Euodus, Severus restrained us by saying:  “It is disgraceful that in one of your decrees there should be inscribed such a statement respecting a man that is a Caesarian.”  It was not the only instance of such an attitude, but he also refused to allow all the other imperial freedmen either to be insolent or to swagger; for this he was commended.  The senate once, while chanting his praises, uttered without reserve no less a sentiment than this:  “All do all things well since you rule well!”