§44Maiore adhuc ac turpiore infamia flagrauit, uix ut referri audiriue, nedum credi fas sit, quasi pueros primae teneritudinis, quos pisciculos uocabat, institueret, ut natanti sibi inter femina uersarentur ac luderent lingua morsuque sensim adpetentes; atque etiam quasi infantes firmiores, necdum tamen lacte depulsos, inguini ceu papillae admoueret, pronior sane ad id genus libidinis et natura et aetate.
He burned with a still greater and more shameful infamy, which can scarcely be related or heard, let alone believed, namely that he trained young boys of tenderest age, whom he called "little fish," to play between his thighs while he was swimming, and to fondle him and gently solicit him with tongue and teeth; and also that he applied stronger infants, but not yet weaned from the breast, to his groin like a nipple, being indeed rather prone to that kind of lust by both nature and age.
quare Parrasi quoque tabulam, in qua Meleagro Atalanta ore morigeratur, legatam sibi sub condicione, ut si argumento offenderetur decies pro ea sestertium acciperet, non modo praetulit, sed et in cubiculo dedicauit.
For this reason, when the painting by Parrhasius, in which Atalanta performs oral acts upon Meleager, was bequeathed to him under the condition that, if he were offended by the subject matter, he should receive one million sesterces instead of it, he not only preferred to keep the picture, but even dedicated it in his bedchamber.
fertur etiam in sacrificando quondam captus facie ministri acerram praeferentis nequisse abstinere, quin paene uixdum re diuina peracta ibidem statim seductum constupraret simulque fratrem eius tibicinem; atque utrique mox, quod mutuo flagitium exprobrarant, crura fregisse.
It is also said that once, while sacrificing, being captivated by the face of an acolyte who carried the incense-box, he could not refrain from immediately leading him aside and debauching him almost before the sacred rites were completed, and his brother the flute-player as well; and shortly afterwards he broke the legs of both because they had mutually reproached him with the outrage.
§45feminarum quoque, et quidem illustrium, capitibus quanto opere solitus sit inludere, euidentissime apparuit Malloniae cuiusdam exitu, quam perductam nec quicquam amplius pati constantissime recusantem delatoribus obiecit ac ne ream quidem interpellare desiit, 'ecquid paeniteret';
How much he was accustomed to sport with the lives and honor of women, and indeed illustrious ones, appeared most clearly by the death of a certain Mallonia.
donec ea relicto iudicio domum se abripuit ferroque transegit, obscaenitate oris hirsuto atque olido seni clare exprobrata.
Having been brought to him and most resolutely refusing to submit to anything further, he exposed her to informants, and did not cease to harass her, even when she was on trial, by asking "whether she regretted anything"; until she left the court, hurried home, and ran herself through with a sword, openly reproaching the hairy and smelly old man for the obscenity of his mouth.
unde mora in Atellanico exhodio proximis ludis adsensu maximo excepta percrebruit, 'hircum uetulum capreis naturam ligurire. ' §46Pecuniae parcus ac tenax comites peregrinationum expeditionumque numquam salario, cibariis tantum sustentauit, una modo liberalitate ex indulgentia uitrici prosecutus, cum tribus classibus factis pro dignitate cuiusque, primae sescenta sestertia, secundae quadringenta distribuit, ducenta tertiae, quam non amicorum sed Graecorum appellabat.
From this arose a jest in an Atellan farce, which was received with the greatest applause at the next games and became widely circulated, namely: "the old he-goat licks the parts of the she-goats at Capri." Being sparing and tight-fisted with money, he never supported the companions of his travels and expeditions with a salary, but only with provisions; he honored them with only one instance of liberality through the indulgence of his stepfather, when, having formed three classes according to the rank of each, he distributed six hundred thousand sesterces to the first, four hundred thousand to the second, and two hundred thousand to the third, which he called the class not of friends but of Greeks.
§47Princeps neque opera ulla magnifica fecit—nam et quae sola susceperat, Augusti templum restitutionemque Pompeiani theatri, imperfecta post tot annos reliquit —neque spectacula omnino edidit; et iis, quae ab aliquo ederentur, rarissime interfuit, ne quid exposceretur, utique postquam comoedum Actium coactus est manumittere.
As princeps, he neither constructed any magnificent public works—for even those which he alone had undertaken, the temple of Augustus and the restoration of Pompey's theater, he left unfinished after so many years—nor did he exhibit any spectacles at all; and he very rarely attended those given by others, lest anything should be demanded of him, especially after he was forced to manumit the actor Actius.
paucorum senatorum inopia sustentata, ne pluribus opem ferret, negauit se aliis subuenturum, nisi senatui iustas necessitatium causas probassent.
Having relieved the poverty of only a few senators, in order not to extend aid to more, he declared that he would not assist others unless they proved to the senate the just causes of their necessity.
quo pacto plerosque modestia et pudore deterruit, in quibus Hortalum, Quinti Hortensi oratoris nepotem, qui permodica re familiari auctore Augusto quattuor liberos tulerat.
By this means, he deterred most of them by modesty and shame, among whom was Hortalus, the grandson of the orator Quintus Hortensius, who, with a very moderate fortune, had raised four children at the encouragement of Augustus.
§48Publice munificentiam bis omnino exhibuit, pro posito milies sestertium gratuito in trienni tempus et rursus quibusdam dominis insularum, quae in monte Caelio deflagrarant, pretio restituto.
Publicly, he displayed munificence only twice in all: by offering a hundred million sesterces as a free loan for a period of three years, and again by restoring the value of their property to certain owners of insulae which had burned down on the Caelian hill.
quorum alterum magna difficultate nummaria populo auxilium flagitante coactus est facere, cum per senatus consultum sanxisset, ut faeneratores duas patrimonii partes in solo collocarent, debitores totidem aeris alieni statim soluerent, nec res expediretur; alterum ad mitigandam temporum atrocitatem.
Of these, he was forced to do the former owing to a great financial crisis when the people clamored for aid, after he had decreed by a senatus consultum that moneylenders should invest two-thirds of their estate in Italian land, and debtors should immediately pay off an equal portion of their debt, and the matter was not resolved; the latter was to mitigate the calamity of the times.
quod tamen beneficium tanti aestimauit, ut montem Caelium appellatione mutata uocari Augustum iusserit.
Yet he valued this benefit so highly that he ordered the Caelian hill to be called the Augustan hill, its name being changed.
militi post duplicata ex Augusti testamento legata nihil umquam largitus est, praeterquam singula milia denariorum praetorianis, quod Seiano se non accommodassent, et quaedam munera Syriacis legionibus, quod solae nullam Seiani imaginem inter signa coluissent.
To the soldiers, after doubling the legacies from Augustus's will, he never bestowed anything, except one thousand denarii to each of the praetorians because they had not allied themselves with Sejanus, and certain gifts to the Syrian legions because they alone had worshipped no image of Sejanus among their standards.
atque etiam missiones ueteranorum rarissimas fecit, ex senio mortem, ex morte compendium captans.
He also made the discharges of veterans extremely rare, looking for death from old age, and for financial saving from death.
ne prouincias quidem liberalitate ulla subleuauit, excepta Asia, disiectis terrae motu ciuitatibus.
He did not relieve the provinces by any liberality either, with the exception of Asia, when its cities were shattered by an earthquake.