readily conjecture to have taken place through divine means was that a
thunderbolt descended upon his dinner and consumed it all as it was being
brought to him, like some tremendous harpy snatching away his food.

[Sidenote:--17--] [In spite of this he killed by poison also his aunt
Domitia, whom likewise he used to say he revered like a mother. He would
not even wait a few days for her to die a natural death of old age, but
was eager to destroy her also. His haste to do this was inspired by her
possessions at Baiae and Ravenna, which included magnificent amusement
pavilions that she had erected and] are in fine condition even now. In
honor of his mother he celebrated a very great and costly festival, events
taking place for several days in five or six theatres at once. It was then
that an elephant was led to the very top of the vault of the theatre and
walked down from that point on ropes, carrying a rider. There was another
exhibition at once most disgraceful and shocking. Men and women not only
of equestrian but even of senatorial rank appeared in the orchestra, the
hippodrome, and even the hunting-theatre, like the veriest outcasts. Some
of them played the flute and danced or acted tragedies and comedies or
sang to the lyre. They drove horses, killed beasts, fought as gladiators,
some willingly, others with a very bad grace. Men of that day beheld the
great families,--the Furii, the Horatii, the Fabii, Poreii, Valerii, and
all the rest whose trophies, whose temples were to be seen,--standing down
below the level of the spectators and doing some things to which no common
citizen even would stoop. So they would point them out to one another and
make remarks, Macedonians saying: "That is the descendant of Paulus";
Greeks, "Yonder the offspring of Mummius"; Sicilians, "Look at Claudius";
the Epirots, "Look at Appius"; Asiatics, "There's Lucius"; Iberians,
"There's Publius"; Carthaginians, "There's Africanus"; Romans, "There they
all are". Such was the expiation that the emperor chose to offer for his
own indecency.