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19Up to this time, as we have seen, Tiberius had done a great many excellent things and had made but few errors; but now, when he no longer had a rival biding his chance, he changed to precisely the reverse of his previous conduct, which had included much that was good. Among other ways in which his rule became cruel, he pushed to the bitter end the trials for maiestas, in cases where complaint was made against anyone for committing any improper act, or uttering any improper speech, not only against Augustus but also against Tiberius himself and against his mother.
2Not only were slaves tortured to make them testify against their own masters, but freemen and citizens as well. Those who had accused or testified against persons divided by lot the property of the convicted and received in addition both offices and honours. 3In the case of many, he took care to ascertain the day and hour of their birth, and on the basis of their character and fortune as thus disclosed would put them to death; for if he discovered any unusual ability or promise of power in anyone, he was sure to slay him. 4In fact, so thoroughly did he investigate and understand the destiny in store for every one of the more prominent men, that on meeting Galba (the later emperor), when the latter had had a wife betrothed to him, he remarked: “You also shall one day taste of the sovereignty.” He spared him, as I conjecture, because this was settled as his fate, but, as he explained it himself, because Galba would reign only in old age and long after his own death.
5He was most enthusiastically aided and abetted in all his undertakings by Lucius Aelius Sejanus, the son of Strabo, and formerly a favourite of Marcus Gabius Apicius—that Apicius who so far surpassed all mankind in prodigality that, when he wished one day to know how much he had already spent and how much he still had left, and learned that ten millions still remained to him, became grief-stricken, feeling that he was destined to die of hunger, and took his own life. 6This Sejanus, now, had shared for a time his father’s command of the Pretorians; but when his father had been sent to Egypt and he had obtained sole command over them, he strengthened his authority in many ways, especially by bringing together into a single camp the various cohorts which had been separate and distinct from one another like those of the night-watch. In this way the entire force could receive its orders promptly, and would inspire everybody with fear because all were together in one camp. 7This was the man whom Tiberius, because of the similarity of their characters, attached to himself, elevating him to the rank of praetor, an honour that had never yet been accorded to one of like station; and he made him his adviser and assistant in all matters.
8In fine, Tiberius changed so much after the death of Germanicus that, whereas previously he had been highly praised, he now caused even greater amazement.
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