not likewise offered him a large crab which he had also taken, he ordered
his face to be farther lacerated with its claws. He put to death one of
the pretorian guards, for having stolen a peacock out of his orchard. In
one of his journeys, his litter being obstructed by some bushes, he
ordered the officer whose duty it was to ride on and examine the road, a
centurion of the first cohorts, to be laid on his face upon the ground,
and scourged almost to death.

LXI. Soon afterwards, he abandoned himself to every species of cruelty,
never wanting occasions of one kind or another, to serve as a pretext.
He first fell upon the friends and acquaintance of his mother, then those
of his grandsons, and his daughter-in-law, and lastly those of Sejanus;
after whose death he became cruel in the extreme. From this it appeared,
that he had not been so much instigated by Sejanus, as supplied with
occasions of gratifying his savage temper, when he wanted them. Though
in a short memoir which he composed of his own life, he had the
effrontery to write, "I have punished Sejanus, because I found him bent
upon the destruction of the children of my son Germanicus," one of these
he put to death, when he began to suspect Sejanus; and another, after he
was taken off. It would be tedious to relate all the numerous instances
of his cruelty: suffice it to give a few examples, in their different
kinds. Not a day passed without the punishment of some person or other,
not excepting holidays, or those appropriated to the worship of the gods.
Some were tried even on New-Year's-Day. Of many who were condemned,
their wives and children shared the same fate; and for those who were
sentenced to death, the relations were forbid to put on mourning.
Considerable rewards were voted for the prosecutors, and sometimes for
the witnesses also. The information of any person, without exception,
was taken; and all offences were capital, even speaking (230) a few
words, though without any ill intention. A poet was charged with abusing