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28He died at Misenum before learning anything about the trials. He had been ill for a good while, but expecting to live because of Thrasyllus’ prophecy, he neither consulted his physicians nor changed his manner of life; and so, wasting away gradually, 2as he was well stricken in years and subject to a sickness that was not severe, he would often all but expire and then recover again. These changes would alternately cause Gaius and the rest great pleasure, when they thought he was going to die, and great fear, when they thought he would live. 3Gaius, therefore, fearing that his health might actually be restored, refused his requests for something to eat, on the ground that it would hurt him, and pretending that he needed warmth, wrapped him up in many thick clothes and so smothered him, being aided to a certain extent by Macro. 4For the latter, now that Tiberius was seriously ill, was paying court to the young man, particularly as he had already succeeded in making him fall in love with his own wife, Ennia Thrasylla. Tiberius, suspecting this, had once said: “You do well, indeed, to abandon the setting and hasten to the rising sun.”
5Thus Tiberius, who possessed a great many virtues and a great many vices, and followed each set in turn as if the other did not exist, passed away in this fashion on the twenty-sixth day of March. He had lived seventy-seven years, four months, and nine days, of which time he had been emperor twenty-two years, seven months, and seven days. A public funeral was accorded him and a eulogy, delivered by Gaius.
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