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24When the ten years of his rule had expired, he did not ask any vote for its renewal, for he had no desire to receive it piecemeal, as Augustus had done; nevertheless, the decennial festival was held.
2Cremutius Cordus was forced to take his own life because he had come into collision with Sejanus. He was on the threshold of old age and had lived most irreproachably, so much so, in fact, that no serious charge could be brought against him, and he was therefore tried for his history 3of the achievements of Augustus which he had written long before, and which Augustus himself had read. He was accused of having praised Cassius and Brutus, and of having assailed the people and the senate; as regarded Caesar and Augustus, while he had spoken no ill of them, he had not, on the other hand, shown any unusual respect for them. 4This was the complaint made against him, and this it was that caused his death as well as the burning of his writings; those found in the city at the time were destroyed by the aediles, and those elsewhere by the magistrates of each place. Later they were republished, for his daughter Marcia as well as others had hidden some copies; and they aroused much greater interest by very reason of Cordus’ unhappy fate.
5About this time Tiberius gave to the senators an exhibition of the pretorian guard at drill, as if they were ignorant of the power of these troops; his purpose was to make them more afraid of him, when they saw his defenders to be so numerous and so strong. 6There were other events, also, at this time worthy of a place in history. The people of Cyzicus were once more deprived of their freedom, because they had imprisoned some Romans and because they had not completed the shrine to Augustus which they had begun to build. 7A man who had sold the emperor’s statue along with his house was brought to trial for doing this, and would certainly have been put to death by Tiberius, had not the consul called upon the emperor himself to give his vote first; for in this way Tiberius, being ashamed to appear to be favouring himself, cast his vote for acquittal. 8A senator, also, Lentulus, a man of mild disposition and now far advanced in years, was accused of having plotted against the emperor. Lentulus himself was present and burst out laughing. At this the senate was in an uproar, and Tiberius declared: “I am no longer worthy to live, if Lentulus, too, hates me.”
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