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29As he continued to play the madman in every way, a plot was formed against him by Cassius Chaerea and Cornelius Sabinus, though they were tribunes in the pretorian guard. There were a good many, of course, in the conspiracy and privy to what was being done, among them Callistus and the prefect.
2But the men who actually killed Gaius were those I have named. Chaerea was an old-fashioned sort of man to begin with, and he had his own special cause for resentment. For Gaius was in the habit of calling him a wench, though he was the hardiest of men, and whenever it was Chaerea’s turn to command the guard, would give him some such watchword as “Love” or “Venus.” 3Now an oracle had come to Gaius a short time before warning him to beware of Cassius, and, supposing that it had reference to Gaius Cassius, governor of Asia at the time, because he was a descendant of the Gaius Cassius who had slain Caesar, he caused him to be brought back as a prisoner; but the man whom Heaven was really indicating to Gaius was this Cassius Chaerea. 4Likewise an Egyptian, Apollonius, foretold in his native land the actual fate of Gaius; for this he was sent to Rome and was brought before the emperor the very day on which the latter was destined to die, but his punishment was postponed until a little later, and in this way his life was saved.
The deed was done on this wise. Gaius was celebrating a festival in the palace and was producing a spectacle. 5In the course of this he was both eating and drinking himself and was feasting the rest of the company. Even Pomponius Secundus, consul at the time, was taking his fill of food as he sat by the emperor’s feet, and at the same time kept bending over continually to shower kisses upon them.
For Chaerea and Sabinus, pained as they were by the disgraceful proceedings, nevertheless restrained themselves for five days. 6But when Gaius himself wished to dance and act a tragedy and for this purpose announced three more days of the entertainment, the followers of Chaerea could endure it no longer, but waiting merely till he went out of the theatre to see the boys of exalted birth whom he had summoned from Greece and Ionia ostensibly to sing the hymn composed in his honour, they intercepted him in a narrow passage and killed him. 7When he had fallen, none of the men present kept hands off him, but all fell to stabbing him savagely, even though he was dead; and some even tasted of his flesh. His wife and daughter were also promptly slain.
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