XXIV. When Caesar was besieging Corfinium, Domitius, who was shut
up in the city, ordered a slave of his own, who was also a
physician, to give him poison. Observing the man's hesitation, he
said, "Why do you delay, as though the whole business was in your
power? I ask for death with arms in my hands." Then the slave
assented, and gave him a harmless drug to drink. When Domitius fell
asleep after drinking this, the slave went to his son, and said,
"Give orders for my being kept in custody until you learn from the
result whether I have given your father poison or no." Domitius
lived, and Caesar saved his life; but his slave had saved it
before.

XXV. During the civil war, a slave hid his master, who had been
proscribed, put on his rings and clothes, met the soldiers who were
searching for him, and, after declaring that he would not stoop to
entreat them not to carry out their orders, offered his neck to
their swords. What a noble spirit it shows in a slave to have been
willing to die for his master, at a time when few were faithful
enough to wish their master to live! to be found kind when the
state was cruel, faithful when it was treacherous! to be eager for
the reward of fidelity, though it was death, at a time when such
rich rewards were offered for treachery!

XXVI. I will not pass over the instances which our own age affords.
In the reign of Tiberius Caesar, there was a common and almost
universal frenzy for informing, which was more ruinous to the
citizens of Rome than the whole civil war; the talk of drunkards,
the frankness of jesters, was alike reported to the government;
nothing was safe; every opportunity of ferocious punishment was