[Sidenote:--15--] His hatred for the senate was so fierce that he took
particular pleasure in Vatinius, who kept always saying to him: "I hate
you, Caesar, for being of senatorial rank."--I have used the exact
expression that he uttered.--Both the senators and all others were
constantly subjected to the closest scrutiny in their entrances, their
exits, their attitudes, their gestures, their outcries. The men that stuck
constantly by Nero, listened attentively, made their applause distinct,
were commended and honored: the rest were both degraded and punished, so
that some, when they could endure it no longer (for they were frequently
expected to be on the _qui vive_ from early morning until evening),
would feign to swoon and would be carried out of the theatres as if dead.

[Sidenote:--16--] As an incidental labor connected with his sojourn in
Greece he conceived a desire to dig a canal across the isthmus of the
Peloponnesus, and he did begin the task. Men shrank from it, however,
because, when the first workers touched the earth, blood spouted from it,
groans and bellowings were heard, and many phantoms appeared. Nero himself
thereupon grasped a mattock and by throwing up some of the soil fairly
compelled the rest to imitate him. For this work he sent for a large
number of men from other nations as well.

[Sidenote:--17--] For this and other purposes he needed great sums of
money; and as he was a promoter of great enterprises and a liberal giver
and at the same time feared an attack from the persons of most influence
while he was thus engaged, he destroyed many excellent men. Of most of
these I shall omit any mention, merely saying that the stock complaint
under which all of them were brought before him was uprightness, wealth,
and family: all of them either killed themselves or were slaughtered by
others. I shall pause to consider only Corbulo and (of the Sulpicii