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19One of these men tried at this time, Domitius Afer, came near losing his life for an extraordinary reason, and was saved in a still more remarkable manner. Gaius hated him in any case, because in the reign of Tiberius he had accused a woman who was related to his mother Agrippina. 2Hence Agrippina, when she afterwards met Domitius and perceived that out of embarrassment he stood aside from her path, called to him and said: “Fear not, Domitius; it isn’t you that I hold to blame, but Agamemnon.” At the time in question, Afer had set up an image of the emperor and had written an inscription for it to the effect that Gaius in his twenty-seventh year was already consul for the second time. 3This vexed Gaius, who felt that the other was reproaching him for his youth and for his illegal conduct. Hence for this action, for which Afer had looked to be honoured, the emperor brought him at once before the senate and read a long speech against him. For Gaius always claimed to surpass all the orators, and knowing that his adversary was an extremely gifted speaker, he strove on this occasion to excel him. 4And he would certainly have put Afer to death, if the latter had entered into the least competition with him. As it was, the man made no answer or defence, but pretended to be astonished and overcome by the ability of Gaius, and repeating the accusation point by point, praised it as if he were a mere listener and not himself on trial. 5When the opportunity was given him to speak, he had recourse to entreaties and lamentations; and finally he threw himself on the ground and lying there prostrate played the suppliant to his accuser, pretending to fear him more as an orator than as Caesar. Gaius, accordingly, when he saw and heard all this, was melted, believing that he had really overwhelmed Domitius by the eloquence of his speech. 6For this reason, then, as well as for the sake of Callistus, the freedman, whom he was wont to honour and whose favour Domitius had courted, he gave up his resentment. And when Callistus later blamed him for having accused the man in the first place, he answered: “It would not have been right for me to keep such a speech to myself.” 7Thus Domitius was saved by being convicted of being no longer a skilful orator. On the other hand, Lucius Annaeus Seneca, who was superior in wisdom to all the Romans of his day and to many others as well, came near being destroyed, though he had neither done any wrong nor had the appearance of doing so, but merely because he pleaded a case well in the senate while the emperor was present. 8Gaius ordered him to be put to death, but afterwards let him off because he believed the statement of one of his female associates, to the effect that Seneca had consumption in an advanced stage and would die before a great while.
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