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he had lived. And having shown much piety towards his mother and sisters and his grandmother Antonia, after this he drove his grandmother, for having rebuked him for something, to the necessity of a voluntary death, and after corrupting all his sisters, he shut up two of them on an island; for the third had died previously. And he did many other such things. And he would slander Tiberius as licentious and bloodthirsty, so that others, thinking that they would please him by this, used a rather rash frankness; then he would both praise and glorify him, so as to punish some for what they had said against him; and he reviled those who blasphemed 3.14 him, and hated those who praised him as his friends; and he killed a vast number of those who had provoked Tiberius against his father and mother and his brothers, even though he said he had remitted his anger against them and had burned their letters. And he ordered that temples and sacrifices be made to him as to a god. And when asked for something he would get angry, and again he would be furious for not being asked; and he rushed into some actions sharply, and handled some most sluggishly; and he spent money most unsparingly, and collected it most sordidly; and he was equally annoyed and pleased by those who flattered him and those who spoke frankly. And he punished many who had committed great wrongs, but he killed many who had done no wrong at all. And of his companions, some he flattered excessively, others he insulted excessively. To such an emperor, in sum, were the Romans then delivered, that the deeds of Tiberius, although they seemed most grievous, were surpassed by those of Gaius to the same extent that the deeds of Augustus were thought to be better than his. For Tiberius ruled and used others as servants for his own will, but Gaius was ruled by the charioteers and by the gladiators, and was a slave to the dancers and the other stage performers. At any rate, he always had with him Apelles, the most famous of the tragedians of that time, even appearing with him in public, and that man separately, and the others separately, did with impunity all that such men, having gotten the power, would dare. And at first he was a spectator and listener to them, joining in their rivalries and taking sides with some; then he also drove chariots and fought as a gladiator, and took to dancing and acted in tragedy. And once, having summoned the leading men 3.15 of the senate at night as if for some urgent matter, he danced. So in the year in which Tiberius died, he flattered the senators and the knights and the people, being in his twenty-fifth year, and he released those in prison and abolished the charges of impiety and burned the letters of Tiberius concerning them, as he said, and he was praised for these things; then he also became consul, taking his uncle Claudius as his colleague. For he, being a knight at the time, then for the first time both served as consul and became a senator, being forty-six years old. But his father-in-law, Marcus Silanus, since he was burdensome to him because of both his virtue and his kinship, being insulted and outrageously abused, killed himself, although he had been greatly honored by Tiberius. And he, having cast out his daughter, married Cornelia Orestina, whom he snatched away right at the wedding which he was celebrating with the man betrothed to her, Gaius Calpurnius Piso. And yet, being such a man, he also did some things worthy of praise. For having extinguished a fire with the help of soldiers, he assisted those who had suffered loss, and when the order of knights was short of men, he summoned the leading men from every province and enrolled them, and he restored the elections to the people, and did some other such things. But he committed many more reprehensible acts. And he killed many; and it was not the number of the dead that was so terrible, although it was terrible, but that he took excessive joy in their murders and had an insatiable desire for the sight of blood. At any rate, out of cruelty, when once 3.16 the supply of those given to the beasts by condemnation failed, he ordered some to be seized from the crowd that was clinging to the railings and thrown to them. And so that they could neither cry out nor make any accusation, their tongues

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ἐβεβιώκει. καὶ ἐς τὴν μητέρα καὶ τὰς ἀδελφὰς τήν τε τήθην τὴν ̓Αντωνίαν πολλὰ εὐσεβῶς ἐνδειξάμενος, μετὰ ταῦτα τὴν μὲν τήθην ἐπιτιμήσασάν τι αὐτῷ εἰς ἀνάγκην ἑκουσίου θανάτου κατέστησε, τὰς ἀδελφὰς δὲ διαφθείρας ἁπάσας εἰς νῆσον τὰς δύο κατέκλεισεν· ἡ γὰρ τρίτη προετεθνήκει. καὶ αλλα πολλὰ τοιαῦτα ἐποίησε. καὶ τὸν Τιβέριον ὡς ἀσελγῆ καὶ μιαιφόνον διέβαλλεν, ωστε καὶ αλλους ἐκ τούτου χαριεῖσθαί οἱ νομίσαντας προπετεστέρᾳ παρρησίᾳ χρήσασθαι· ειτα ἐπῄνει τε καὶ ἐσέμνυνεν, ωστε καὶ κολάσαι τινὰς ἐφ' οις κατ' ἐκείνου εἰρήκεσαν· καὶ τοὺς βλασφημοῦντας 3.14 ἐκεῖνον ἐκάκιζεν, καὶ τοὺς ἐπαινοῦντας ὡς φίλους ἐκείνου ἐμίσει· καὶ παμπληθεῖς ἀπέκτεινε τῶν κατὰ τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τῆς μητρὸς καὶ τῶν ἀδελφῶν αὐτοῦ τὸν Τιβέριον ἐρεθισάντων, καίτοι τὴν ὀργὴν αὐτοῖς ἀφεῖναι λέγων καὶ τὰ γράμματα καταφλέξαι αὐτῶν. καὶ ναοὺς δὲ ἑαυτῷ καὶ θυσίας ὡς θεῷ γίνεσθαι ἐκέλευσεν. αἰτούμενός τέ τι ὠργίζετο, καὶ αυθις ἐμηνία ὡς μὴ αἰτούμενος· ὀξύς τ' ἐπί τινας πράξεις ἐφέρετο, καὶ νωθέστατα ἐνίας μετακεχείριστο· τά τε χρήματα καὶ ἀφειδέστατα ἀνήλισκε, καὶ ῥυπαρώτατα ἠργυρολόγει· τοῖς τε θωπεύουσιν αὐτὸν καὶ τοῖς παρρησιαζομένοις καὶ ηχθετο ὁμοίως καὶ ηδετο. καὶ πολλοὺς μὲν μεγάλα ἀδικήσαντας ἐκόλασε, πολλοὺς δὲ μηδὲν ἠδικηκότας ἀπέκτεινε. καὶ τῶν ἑταίρων τοὺς μὲν ὑπερεκολάκευε, τοὺς δὲ ὑπερύβριζε. τοιούτῳ δὲ τὸ σύμπαν οἱ ̔Ρωμαῖοι τότε παρεδόθησαν αὐτοκράτορι ωστε τὰ τοῦ Τιβερίου εργα, καίτοι δοκοῦντα παγχάλεπα, τοσοῦτον τὰ τοῦ Γαΐου παρενεγκεῖν οσον κρείττω ἐκείνων τὰ τοῦ Αὐγούστου ειναι ἐδόκουν. Τιβέριος μὲν γὰρ ηρχε καὶ τοῖς αλλοις ὑπηρέταις πρὸς τὸ αὐτοῦ ἐκέχρητο βούλημα, Γάιος δὲ ηρχετο μὲν ὑπὸ τῶν ἁρματηλατούντων καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν ὁπλομαχούντων, ἐδούλευε δὲ καὶ τοῖς ὀρχησταῖς καὶ τοῖς λοιποῖς τοῖς περὶ τὴν σκηνήν. τὸν γοῦν ̓Απελλῆν τῶν τότε τραγῳδῶν τὸν εὐδοκιμώτατον καὶ δημοσιεύων συνόντα αὐτῷ ειχεν ἀεί, καὶ χωρὶς μὲν ἐκεῖνος, χωρὶς δ' οἱ λοιποὶ πάνθ' οσα αν τοιοῦτοι δυνηθέντες τολμήσειαν, ἐπ' ἐξουσίας ἐποίουν. καὶ αὐτῶν τὰ μὲν πρῶτα θεατὴς καὶ ἀκροατὴς ἐγίνετο, συσπουδάζων καὶ ἀντιστασιάζων τισίν· ειτα καὶ αρματα ηλασε καὶ ἐμονομάχησεν, ὀρχήσει τε ἐκέχρητο καὶ τραγῳδίαν ὑπεκρίνετο. απαξ δὲ τοὺς πρώτους 3.15 τῆς γερουσίας νυκτὸς ὡς ἐπί τι ἀναγκαῖον μεταπεμψάμενος ὠρχήσατο. ̓Εν μὲν ουν τῷ ετει, ἐν ῳ ὁ Τιβέριος ἐτελεύτησε, τούς τε βουλευτὰς καὶ τοὺς ἱππέας καὶ τὸν δῆμον ἐκολάκευε, πέμπτον καὶ εἰκοστὸν ἀνύων ἐνιαυτόν, καὶ τοὺς ἐν δεσμωτηρίοις ἀπέλυσε τά τε ἐγκλήματα τῆς ἀσεβείας κατέλυσε καὶ τὰ περὶ αὐτῶν τοῦ Τιβερίου γράμματα, ὡς ελεγεν, εκαυσεν, ἐπῃνεῖτό τε ἐπὶ τούτοις· ειτα καὶ ὑπάτευσε, τὸν θεῖον τὸν Κλαύδιον προσλαβών. ουτος γὰρ ἱππεὺς ων τότε πρῶτον καὶ ὑπάτευσε καὶ ἐβούλευσεν, εξ καὶ τεσσαράκοντα ἐτῶν γεγονώς. ὁ δὲ δὴ πενθερὸς αὐτοῦ Μάρκος Σιλανός, ἐπειδὴ βαρὺς αὐτῷ ὑπό τε τῆς ἀρετῆς καὶ ὑπὸ τῆς συγγενείας ην, προπηλακιζόμενός τε καὶ περιυβριζόμενος, διεχειρίσατο ἑαυτόν, καίτοι παρὰ τοῦ Τιβερίου σφόδρα τιμώμενος. ὁ δὲ καὶ τὴν θυγατέρα αὐτοῦ ἐκβαλὼν εγημε Κορνηλίαν ̓Ορεστίναν, ην καὶ ἐν αὐτοῖς τοῖς γάμοις ἀφήρπασεν ους συνεώρταζε τῷ ἐγγεγυημένῳ αὐτὴν Γαΐῳ Καλπουρνίῳ Πείσωνι. καίτοι δὲ τοιοῦτος ων επραξέ τινα καὶ ἐπαίνου αξια. ἐμπρησμὸν γὰρ μετὰ τῶν στρατιωτῶν κατασβέσας ἐπήρκεσε τοῖς ζημιωθεῖσι, τοῦ τε τῶν ἱππέων τέλους ὀλιγανδροῦντος ἐξ ἁπάσης ἀρχῆς τοὺς πρώτους μεταπεμψάμενος κατελέξατο, καὶ τὰς ἀρχαιρεσίας τῷ δήμῳ ἀπέδωκε, καὶ αλλα τινὰ τοιαῦτα ἐποίησεν. ὑπαίτια δὲ εἰργάσατο πολλαπλάσια. καὶ πολλοὺς ἀπέκτεινεν· ην δὲ οὐ τὸ πλῆθος τῶν ἀπολλυμένων ουτω δεινόν, καίτοι δεινὸν ον, ἀλλ' οτι τοῖς τε φόνοις αὐτῶν ὑπερέχαιρε καὶ ἀπλήστως ειχε τῆς θέας τοῦ αιματος. ὑπὸ γοῦν ὠμότητος ἐπιλιπόντων ποτὲ 3.16 τῶν τοῖς θηρίοις ἐκ καταδίκης διδομένων, ἐκέλευσεν ἐκ τοῦ οχλου τοῦ τοῖς ἰκρίοις προστετηκότος συναρπασθῆναί τινας καὶ παραβληθῆναι αὐτοῖς. καὶ οπως μήτε ἐπιβοήσασθαι μήτε τι αἰτιάσασθαι δυνηθῶσι, τὰς γλώσσας