Dio's Rome, Volume 4: An Historical Narrative Originally Composed in Greek During the Reigns of Septimius Severus, Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus: and Now Presented in English FormCassius Dio Cocceianus
History
Dio's Rome, Volume 4: An Historical Narrative Originally Composed in Greek During the Reigns of Septimius Severus, Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus: and Now Presented in English Form
Cassius Dio Cocceianus
Rome -- History
[-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 prætor 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 prætors, 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
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