informed against him.[Footnote: Conjecture, on the basis of Reiske and
Bekker.] For this he was at the time imprisoned to await execution, but
later was released, as the emperor died before he did.] This maiden of
whom I speak was named Clodia Læta. She, crying out loudly, "Antoninus
himself knows that I am a virgin, [he himself knows that I am pure,]"
was buried alive. [Three others shared her sentence. Two of them,
Aurelia Severa and Pomponia Rufina, met a similar death, but Cannutia
Crescentina threw herself from the top of the house.

And in the case of adulterers he did the same. For though he showed
himself the most adulterous of men (so far, at least, as he was
physically able) he both detested others who bore the same charge and
killed them contrary to established laws.--Though displeased at all good
men, he affected to honor some few of them after their death.--

¶Antoninus censured and rebuked them all because they asked nothing of
him. And he said, in the presence of all: "It is evident from the fact
that you ask nothing of me that you lack confidence in me. And if you
lack confidence, you are suspicious of me; and if you are suspicious of
me, you fear me; and if you fear me, you hate me." He made this an
excuse for severe measures.

¶Antoninus being about to cause Cornificia to take leave of earth bade
her (as a token of honor) choose what death she wished to die. She,
after many lamentations, inspired by the memory of her father, Marcus,
her grandfather, Antoninus, and her brother, Commodus, ended with this
speech: "Pining, unhappy soul of mine, shut in a vile body, make forth,
be free, show them that you are Marcus's daughter, whether they will or
no!" Then she laid aside all the adornment in which she was arrayed,
and having composed her limbs in seemly fashion severed her veins and