“She asked me, ‘When will the emperor leave Rome?’ I verily believe she will rejoice when she hears that thou hast decided to go away. She said, ‘My friends can then come to see me.’ Truly, O Tiberius, she speaks too openly against thee.” “Ay; she received me proudly and talked imperiously. Bah! Sejanus, I hate the very air I breathe in this city of informers and evil-doers.” “Who will go with thee to Capri?” “Caligula and my grandchild. The pompous cubs of Agrippina can live deceived by their free conditions; but with Caligula at Capri I will hold him as a whip above his mother’s head. Let her understand that the life of her youngest son depends upon her behavior. O Sejanus, no longer can I endure the hypocrisy of the people and the Senate! The city is a festering mass of discontent, and I will purge it. At Capri the offensive odors of insults, cries, and cursings engendered by my cleansing will not be smelt. In seclusion I will work. For years I have been bound down. No freedom has been allowed me. Men abused my very name. On their ribald lips Tiberius Claudius Nero became Biberius the drunkard, Caldius the infamous, Mero the sot. Let them now tremble. How brave they were in my retirement at Rhodes! My memory is good and their names I well know. They shall be taught that Biberius Caldius Mero never forgets.” “Ay; but these are past wrongs,” said Sejanus. “There are now present ones which demand immediate attention. What shall be done with Nero and Drusus? They are being taught that they have been wronged; that their father, Germanicus, was murdered by thine orders. Ay, these sons of Agrippina are being told that the empire belongs to them. The speech thou didst make a year ago, when Nero assumed the manly robe, is now being construed as evidence of thy weakness. Mark thou, it was at thy request the Senate passed resolutions allowing him to offer himself for the quaestorship, five years before the law permitted him. That was well. Look thou now what followed. With no hint from thee, with none of thy counsel or advice, and even in thine absence, the Senate but a few weeks ago conferred those same honors and privileges upon Drusus. What means this? Has the emperor no more power over these children of Germanicus? ’Twas the wish of the Divine Augustus that Germanicus and his children should rule, but it was not his will that they should usurp that power. However, thou art above law. Thy will can change even the wishes of the Divine Augustus. Has not the time arrived when these children should be taught that they owe their positions to thee? Ah! go to Neapolis! Go to Capri! Pull the strings from a distance and make the people dance! Clean the city of intrigue. Make the bones of those who oppose thee rattle in death. The lesson will be severe; but a few deaths judiciously administered will bring the people back to the proper conception of loyalty to thee.”