from them three ounces which were wanting in the weight. This report of
him was confirmed and increased, as soon as he entered the town. For
some seamen who had been taken from the fleet, and enlisted (409) among
the troops by Nero, he obliged to return to their former condition; but
they refusing to comply, and obstinately clinging to the more honourable
service under their eagles and standards, he not only dispersed them by a
body of horse, but likewise decimated them. He also disbanded a cohort
of Germans, which had been formed by the preceding emperors, for their
body-guard, and upon many occasions found very faithful; and sent them
back into their own country, without giving them any gratuity, pretending
that they were more inclined to favour the advancement of Cneius
Dolabella, near whose gardens they encamped, than his own. The following
ridiculous stories were also related of him; but whether with or without
foundation, I know not; such as, that when a more sumptuous entertainment
than usual was served up, he fetched a deep groan: that when one of the
stewards presented him with an account of his expenses, he reached him a
dish of legumes from his table as a reward for his care and diligence;
and when Canus, the piper, had played much to his satisfaction, he
presented him, with his own hand, five denarii taken out of his pocket.

XIII. His arrival, therefore, in town was not very agreeable to the
people; and this appeared at the next public spectacle. For when the
actors in a farce began a well-known song,

Venit, io, Simus [665] a villa:
Lo! Clodpate from his village comes;

all the spectators, with one voice, went on with the rest, repeating and
acting the first verse several times over.