The companions whom Tiberius took to share his retirement were such men as a man with literary and scientific tastes would naturally select; his old friend and companion Thrasyllus the “mathematician” was one; there were also professors of literature; for the purposes of public business a small staff of Equestrians and freedmen. The few Senators who were invited to attend were private friends, a fact which caused displeasure in high circles at Rome, where it was not understood, or if understood was resented, that one object of the Emperor’s retirement was to avoid the distractions of an official court and the trammels of etiquette. We may dismiss once and for all as unfounded, and indeed absurd, the stories of unmentionable obscenities and hideous cruelties practised by the Emperor upon his lonely island. No man after reaching the age of sixty-eight could suddenly fling himself into such an orgy of lust as is described by Suetonius, and then live for nine years, the thing is a physical impossibility. Again, Tiberius, though always stern, had never been cruel. Instances of his humanity are not wanting during his residence at Capreæ; he again gave lavish assistance to the sufferers from a fire on the Aventine, and was at considerable pains to relieve the distress of poor debtors, though the measures which he adopted were not such as would commend themselves to rigid political economists. Again, as has been observed in an earlier portion of this narrative, up to the time of the retirement to Capreæ Tiberius is known to us only as an absolutely chaste man, as chaste as Agrippina herself. There is no record, no insinuation even, of the presence of sensual favourites in his camp or at his Court; he is not even accused of that politic amorousness which is ascribed to the sainted Augustus, or of the warmer amours which invest the life of the great Julius Cæsar with an atmosphere of romance. That a man close on seventy should suddenly change his habits is incredible, unless we are to assume the existence of a hideous form of senile dementia, whose victim is to be pitied rather than condemned. There are such cases, but the patients are most commonly those who have continuously led impure lives, not those who have been distinguished by self-restraint. We may be asked, how then did such stories originate? It is impossible to track these falsehoods back to their source; a reason for one of them may, however, be suggested. Among the scandals of Capreæ was said to be the presence of a large number of young people of both sexes who were sacrificed to the Emperor’s lusts; they were of the noblest blood of Rome, a fact which was supposed to have constituted their chief attraction. Now the two grandchildren of Tiberius were quite young when the Emperor went to Capreæ. Owing to his position he was guardian to many other such children, and it would have been entirely in accordance with Roman practice to educate all these young children together. We know that the