been enough for him to debauch Julia, nor had he become better as a result
of exile, but he went on to make advances to such a woman as Agrippina,
with such a son.] Not only in this instance but in others he was convicted
of doing precisely the opposite of what he taught in his philosophical
doctrines. He brought accusations against tyranny, yet he made himself a
teacher of tyrants: he denounced such of his associates as were powerful,
yet he did not hold aloof from the palace himself: he had nothing good to
say of flatterers, yet he had so fawned upon Messalina and Claudius's
freedmen [that he had sent them from the island a book containing eulogies
upon them; this latter caused him such mortification that he erased the
passage.] While finding fault with the rich, he himself possessed a
property of seven thousand five hundred myriads; and though he censured
the extravagances of others, he kept five hundred three-legged tables of
cedar wood, every one of them with identical ivory feet, and he gave
banquets on them. In mentioning these details I have at least given a hint
of their inevitable adjuncts,--the licentiousness in which he indulged at
the very time that he made a most brilliant marriage, and the delight that
he took in boys past their prime (a practice which he also taught Nero to
follow). Nevertheless, his austerity of life had earlier been so severe
that he had asked his pupil neither to kiss him nor to eat at the same
table with him. [For the latter request he had a good reason, namely, that
Nero's absence would enable him to conduct his philosophical studies at
leisure without being hindered by the young man's dinners. But as for the
kiss, I can not conceive how that tradition came about. The only
explanation which one could imagine, namely, his unwillingness to kiss
that sort of mouth, is proved to be false by the facts concerning his
favorites. For this and for his adultery some complaints were lodged
against him, but at this time he was himself released without formal
accusations and succeeded in begging off Pallas and Burrus. Later on he
did not come out so well.]