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20He immediately appointed Domitius consul, after removing those who were then in office because they had failed to proclaim a thanksgiving on his birthday (the praetors, it is true, had held a horse-race and had slaughtered some wild beasts, but this happened every year) and because they had celebrated a festival to commemorate the victories of Augustus over Antony, as was customary; 2for, in order to invent some ground of complaint against them, he chose to pose as a descendant of Antony rather than of Augustus. Indeed, he had announced beforehand to those with whom he regularly shared his secrets, that whichever course the consuls followed they would certainly make a mistake, whether, that is, they offered sacrifices to celebrate Antony’s overthrow or refrained from sacrificing in honour of Augustus’ victory. 3These were the reasons, then, why he summarily dismissed these officials, first breaking in pieces their fasces; whereupon one of them took it so much to heart that he killed himself. As for Domitius, he was chosen as the emperor’s colleague, nominally by the people, but actually by Gaius himself. The latter had, to be sure, restored the elections to the people, 4but they had become rather lax in the performance of their duties because for a long time they had not transacted any business in the manner of freemen; and as a rule no more candidates presented themselves than the number to be chosen, or, if ever there were more than were required, the outcome was arranged among themselves. Thus the democracy was preserved in appearance, but there was no democracy in fact; 5and this led Gaius himself to abolish the elections once more. After this matters went on in general as in the reign of Tiberius; but as regards the praetors, sometimes fifteen were chosen and sometimes one more or one less, just as it happened. Such was the action he took regarding the elections.
6In general his attitude was one of envy and suspicion toward everything alike. Thus he banished Carrinas Secundus, an orator, for delivering a speech against tyrants as a rhetorical exercise. 7Again, when the lot fell upon Lucius Piso, the son of Plancina and Gnaeus Piso, to become governor of Africa, he feared that arrogance might lead him to revolt, especially as he was to have a large force made up of both citizens and foreigners; hence he divided the province into two parts, assigning the military force together with the Numidians in its vicinity to another official, an arrangement that has continued from that time down to the present.
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