§26Petulantiam, libidinem, luxuriam, auaritiam, crudelitatem sensim quidem primo et occulte et uelut iuuenili errore exercuit, sed ut tunc quoque dubium nemini foret naturae illa uitia, non aetatis esse.
His insolence, lust, luxury, avarice, and cruelty he exercised indeed at first gradually and secretly, and as it were as a youthful error, but so that even then it was doubtful to no one that those vices belonged to his nature, not to his age.
post crepusculum statim adrepto pilleo uel galero popinas inibat circumque uicos uagabatur ludibundus nec sine pernicie tamen, siquidem redeuntis a cena uerberare ac repugnantes uulnerare cloacisque demergere assuerat, tabernas etiam effringere et expilare; quintana domi constituta, ubi partae et ad licitationem diuidendae praedae pretium absumeretur.
Immediately after twilight, having snatched up a felt cap or a wig, he would enter taverns and wander about the streets in play, yet not without mischief, since he had become accustomed to beat those returning from dinner, to wound those who resisted, and to plunge them into the sewers, and also to break into and plunder shops; having established a market at home, where the value of the booty obtained and to be divided by auction was consumed.
ac saepe in eius modi rixis oculorum et uitae periculum adiit, a quodam laticlauio, cuius uxorem adtrectauerat, prope ad necem caesus.
And often in brawls of this kind he ran the risk of his eyes and his life, being beaten almost to death by a certain senator whose wife he had touched.
quare numquam postea publico se illud horae sine tribunis commisit procul et occulte subsequentibus.
Therefore, he never afterwards committed himself to the public at that hour of the night without tribunes following at a distance and secretly.
interdiu quoque clam gestatoria sella delatus in theatrum seditionibus pantomimorum e parte proscaeni superiore signifer simul ac spectator aderat; et cum ad manus uentum esset lapidibusque et subselliorum fragminibus decerneretur, multa et ipse iecit in populum atque etiam praetoris caput consauciauit.
By day also, having been carried secretly in a litter into the theater, he was present at the riots of the pantomimes from the upper part of the proscenium as both a leader and a spectator; and when it came to blows and they fought with stones and fragments of benches, he himself also threw many things into the crowd and even wounded the head of a praetor.
§27paulatim uero inualescentibus uitiis iocularia et latebras omisit nullaque dissimulandi cura ad maiora palam erupit.
But as his vices gradually grew stronger, he omitted his playful pranks and secret places, and broke out openly into greater crimes with no care for concealment.
Epulas a medio die ad mediam noctem protrahebat, refotus saepius calidis piscinis ac tempore aestiuo niuatis; cenitabatque nonnumquam et in publico, naumachia praeclusa uel Martio campo uel circo maximo, inter scortorum totius urbis et ambubaiarum ministeria.
He prolonged his banquets from midday to midnight, being refreshed often in warm baths, and in summer time in baths cooled with snow; and he dined sometimes even in public, with the naumachia closed off, or in the Campus Martius, or in the Circus Maximus, amidst the service of prostitutes of the whole city and flute-girls.
quotiens Ostiam Tiberi deflueret aut Baianum sinum praeternauigaret, dispositae per litora et ripas deuersoriae tabernae parabantur insignes ganea et matronarum institorio copas imitantium atque hinc inde hortantium ut appelleret.
Whenever he floated down the Tiber to Ostia or sailed along the Bay of Baiae, temporary inns set up along the shores and banks were prepared, conspicuous for their brothels and the soliciting of matrons imitating hostesses and encouraging him from all sides to land.
indicebat et familiaribus cenas, quorum uni mitellita quadragies sestertium constitit, alteri pluris aliquanto rosaria.
He also imposed dinners on his friends, one of whom spent forty million sesterces on a turbaned feast, and another somewhat more on a feast of roses.
§28Super ingenuorum paedagogia et nuptarum concubinatus Vestali uirgini Rubriae uim intulit.
Beyond the abuse of freeborn boys and the concubinage of married women, he offered violence to the Vestal virgin Rubria.
Acten libertam paulum afuit quin iusto sibi matrimonio coniungeret, summissis consularibus uiris qui regio genere ortam peierarent.
He was on the verge of joining the freedwoman Acte to himself in a lawful marriage, having suborned men of consular rank to swear falsely that she was descended from royal stock.
puerum Sporum exectis testibus etiam in muliebrem naturam transfigurare conatus cum dote et flammeo per sollemnia nuptiarum celeberrimo officio deductum ad se pro uxore habuit; extatque cuiusdam non inscitus iocus
"bene agi potuisse cum rebus humanis, si Domitius pater talem habuisset uxorem. "
hunc Sporum, Augustarum ornamentis excultum lecticaque uectum, et circa conuentus mercatusque Graeciae ac mox Romae circa Sigillaria comitatus est identidem exosculans.
Having castrated the boy Sporus and attempted to transform him even into a female nature, he took him as a wife with a dowry and a bridal veil amid the ceremonies of a highly celebrated wedding; and there is an extant not unskilful joke of someone: "that it would have gone well with human affairs if his father Domitius had had such a wife." This Sporus, adorned with the ornaments of the Augustae and carried in a litter, he accompanied around the assemblies and markets of Greece, and soon after in Rome around the Sigillaria, kissing him repeatedly.
nam matris concubitum appetisse et ab obtrectatoribus eius, ne ferox atque impotens mulier et hoc genere gratiae praeualeret, deterritum nemo dubitauit, utique postquam meretricem, quam fama erat Agrippinae simillimam, inter concubinas recepit.
For that he had desired the embrace of his mother, and was deterred by her detractors, lest a fierce and powerless woman should prevail by this kind of favor, no one doubted, especially after he received among his concubines a prostitute who rumor said was very similar to Agrippina.
olim etiam quotiens lectica cum matre ueheretur, libidinatum inceste ac maculis uestis proditum affirmant.
They assert that formerly, whenever he was carried in a litter with his mother, he indulged in incestuous lust, which was betrayed by the stains on his clothing.
§29Suam quidem pudicitiam usque adeo prostituit, ut contaminatis paene omnibus membris nouissime quasi genus lusus excogitaret, quo ferae pelle contectus emitteretur e cauea uirorumque ac feminarum ad stipitem deligatorum inguina inuaderet et, cum affatim desaeuisset, conficeretur a Doryphoro liberto; cui etiam, sicut ipsi Sporus, ita ipse denupsit, uoces quoque et heiulatus uim patientium uirginum imitatus.
Indeed, he so far prostituted his own chastity that, having defiled almost all his members, he newly devised a kind of game, in which, covered with the skin of a wild beast, he would be let out from a cage and attack the private parts of men and women bound to a stake, and, when he had raged to his fill, would be finished off by his freedman Doryphorus; to whom indeed, just as Sporus had married him, so he himself married him, even imitating the voices and wailings of virgins suffering violence.
ex nonnullis comperi persuasissimum habuisse eum
"neminem hominem pudicum aut ulla corporis parte purum esse, uerum plerosque dissimulare uitium et callide optegere"
; ideoque professis apud se obscaenitatem cetera quoque concessisse delicta.
I have learned from some that he had a firm conviction: "that no man was chaste or pure in any part of his body, but that most people concealed their vice and cunningly covered it up"; and therefore to those who confessed their obscenity to him, he also pardoned all their other offenses.