§27Saeuitiam ingenii per haec maxime ostendit.
He showed the cruelty of his disposition chiefly by the following acts.
cum ad saginam ferarum muneri praeparatarum carius pecudes compararentur, ex noxiis laniandos adnotauit, et custodiarum seriem recognoscens, nullius inspecto elogio, stans tantum modo intra porticum mediam, 'a caluo ad caluum' duci imperauit. uotum exegit ab eo, qui pro salute sua gladiatoriam operam promiserat, spectauitque ferro dimicantem nec dimisit nisi uictorem et post multas preces.
When cattle for the food of the wild beasts prepared for his shows were purchased at too high a price, he marked out from among the criminals those who were to be torn to pieces; and reviewing the line of prisoners, without examining the charge against anyone, standing only in the middle of a portico, he ordered them to be dragged away "from baldhead to baldhead." He demanded the fulfillment of a vow from a man who had promised to fight as a gladiator for his recovery, and watched him fighting with real weapons, nor did he dismiss him until he was victorious and after many entreaties.
alterum, qui se periturum ea de causa uouerat, cunctantem pueris tradidit, uerbenatum infulatumque uotum reposcentes per uicos agerent, quoad praecipitaretur ex aggere.
Another, who had vowed that he would die for the same cause, but hesitated, he delivered to some slave boys to drive through the streets, crowned with sacred leaves and girt with sacred wool, demanding the fulfillment of his vow, until he was thrown headlong from the rampart.
multos honesti ordinis deformatos prius stigmatum notis ad metalla et munitiones uiarum aut ad bestias condemnauit aut bestiarum more quadripedes cauea coercuit aut medios serra dissecuit, nec omnes grauibus ex causis, uerum male de munere suo opinatos, uel quod numquam per genium suum deierassent.
Many of respectable rank, having first been disfigured with the marks of branding irons, he condemned to the mines, to the construction of roads, or to the wild beasts; or he shut them up in cages on all fours like beasts, or sawed them asunder in the middle; and not all for serious causes, but merely for speaking ill of his shows, or because they had never sworn by his Genius.
parentes supplicio filiorum interesse cogebat; quorum uni ualitudinem excusanti lecticam misit, alium a spectaculo poenae epulis statim adhibuit atque omni comitate ad hilaritatem et iocos prouocauit.
He compelled parents to be present at the execution of their sons; to one of whom, who excused himself on account of ill health, he sent a litter; another he invited to his table immediately after witnessing the execution, and by every kind of familiarity provoked him to cheerfulness and jesting.
curatorem munerum ac uenationum per continuos dies in conspectu suo catenis uerberatum non prius occidit quam offensus putrefacti cerebri odore.
The manager of his shows and wild-beast hunts, after having him beaten with chains in his presence for several successive days, he did not put to death until he was offended by the smell of his putrefied brain.
Atellanae poetam ob ambigui ioci uersiculum media amphitheatri harena igni cremauit.
A poet of Atellan farces, on account of a line of ambiguous wit, he burned alive in the middle of the arena of the amphitheater.
equitem R. obiectum feris, cum se innocentem proclamasset, reduxit abscisaque lingua rursus induxit.
A Roman knight who was thrown to the beasts, when he cried out that he was innocent, he ordered to be brought back, and having cut out his tongue, sent him in again.
§28reuocatum quendam a uetere exilio sciscitatus, quidnam ibi facere consuesset, respondente eo per adulationem: 'deos semper oraui ut, quod euenit, periret Tiberius et tu imperares,' opinans sibi quoque exules suos mortem imprecari, misit circum insulas, qui uniuersos contrucidarent.
Asking a certain person who had been recalled from a long banishment what he used to do there, and the man replying in flattery, "I always prayed to the gods that, what has actually happened, Tiberius might die and you might reign," Caligula, thinking that his own exiles were also praying for his death, sent officers through the islands to massacre them all.
cum discerpi senatorem concupisset, subornauit qui ingredientem curiam repente hostem publicum appellantes inuaderent, graphisque confossum lacerandum ceteris traderent; nec ante satiatus est quam membra et artus et uiscera hominis tracta per uicos atque ante se congesta uidisset.
Having desired that a senator should be torn to pieces, he suborned people to rush upon him suddenly as he entered the senate house, calling him a public enemy, to stab him with their writing styluses, and to deliver him to the rest to be torn to pieces; nor was he satisfied until he saw the limbs, joints, and entrails of the man dragged through the streets and piled up before him.
§29immanissima facta augebat atrocitate uerborum.
He enhanced his most monstrous deeds by the atrocity of his words.
nihil magis in natura sua laudare se ac probare dicebat quam, ut ipsius uerbo utar, ἀδιατρεψίαν, hoc est inuerecundiam.
He used to say that there was nothing in his nature he commended and approved of more than, to use his own word, ἀδιατρεψία, that is, shamelessness.
monenti Antoniae auiae tamquam parum esset non oboedire: 'memento,' ait, 'omnia mihi et in omnis licere. ' trucidaturus fratrem, quem metu uenenorum praemuniri medicamentis suspicabatur: 'antidotum,' inquit, 'aduersus Caesarem?' relegatis sororibus non solum insulas habere se, sed etiam gladios minabatur.
When his grandmother Antonia warned him, as if it were not enough for him merely to disobey, "Remember," he said, "that everything is permitted to me and against everyone." When he was about to murder his brother, whom he suspected of securing himself by medicines against the fear of poison, he said, "An antidote against Caesar?" When his sisters were banished, he threatened them not only with the islands, but also with swords.
praetorium uirum ex secessu Anticyrae, quam ualitudinis causa petierat, propagari sibi commeatum saepius desiderantem cum mandasset interimi, adiecit necessariam esse sanguinis missionem, cui tam diu non prodesset elleborum.
When he had ordered a man of praetorian rank to be put to death, who from his retirement at Anticyra, which he had visited for his health, had frequently requested an extension of his leave, he added that bloodletting was necessary for one to whom hellebore had been of no benefit for so long.
decimo quoque die numerum puniendorum ex custodia subscribens rationem se purgare dicebat.
Every tenth day, when signing the list of those to be punished from custody, he said that he was balancing his accounts.
Gallis Graecisque aliquot uno tempore condemnatis gloriabatur Gallograeciam se subegisse.
Having condemned a number of Gauls and Greeks at one time, he boasted that he had subjugated Gallograecia.
§30non temere in quemquam nisi crebris et minutis ictibus animaduerti passus est, perpetuo notoque iam praecepto: 'ita feri ut se mori sentiat. ' punito per errorem nominis alio quam quem destinauerat, ipsum quoque paria meruisse dixit.
He did not allow anyone to be punished except by frequent and small blows, with his constant and now well-known precept: "Strike so that he may feel himself dying." When another person than the one he had intended was punished through a mistake in name, he said that he too had deserved the same.
tragicum illud subinde iactabat:
oderint, dum metuant. saepe in cunctos pariter senatores ut Seiani clientis, ut matris ac fratrum suorum delatores, inuectus est prolatis libellis, quos crematos simulauerat, defensaque Tiberi saeuitia quasi necessaria, cum tot criminantibus credendum esset.
He frequently quoted that tragic line: "Let them hate, provided they fear." He often inveighed against all the senators equally as the clients of Sejanus and the betrayers of his mother and brothers, producing the papers which he had pretended to burn, and defending the cruelty of Tiberius as necessary, since credit had to be given to so many accusers.
equestrem ordinem ut scaenae harenaeque deuotum assidue proscidit.
He continuously assailed the equestrian order as devoted to the stage and the arena.
infensus turbae fauenti aduersus studium suum exclamauit: 'utinam p. R. unam ceruicem haberet!' cumque Tetrinius latro postularetur, et qui postularent, Tetrinios esse ait.
Being enraged at the crowd for favoring the party opposed to his own, he cried out: "Would that the Roman people had but one neck!" And when the robber Tetrinius was demanded, he said that those who demanded him were Tetriniuses themselves.
retiari tunicati quinque numero gregatim dimicantes sine certamine ullo totidem secutoribus succubuerant;
Five tunic-wearing retiarii, fighting in a group, had yielded without any contest to the same number of secutores; when they were ordered to be put to death, one of them, taking up his trident again, killed all the victors.
cum occidi iuberentur, unus resumpta fuscina omnes uictores interemit: hanc ut crudelissimam caedem et defleuit edicto et eos, qui spectare sustinuissent, execratus est.
This, as a most cruel massacre, he both lamented in a public edict and cursed those who had been able to look on it.