The Lives Of The Twelve Caesars, Complete - C. Suetonius Tranquillus
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[Footnote 787: The Colosseum: it had been four years in building. See
VESPAS. c. ix.]
[Footnote 788: The Baths of Titus stood on the Esquiline Hill, on part of
the ground which had been the gardens of Mecaenas. Considerable remains
of them are still found among the vineyards; vaulted chambers of vast
dimensions, some of which were decorated with arabesque paintings, still
in good preservation. Titus appears to have erected a palace for himself
adjoining; for the Laocoon, which is mentioned by Pliny as standing in
this palace, was found in the neighbouring ruins.]
[Footnote 789: If the statements were not well attested, we might be
incredulous as to the number of wild beasts collected for the spectacles
to which the people of Rome were so passionately devoted. The earliest
account we have of such an exhibition, was A.U.C. 502, when one hundred
and forty-two elephants, taken in Sicily, were produced. Pliny, who gives
this information, states that lions first appeared in any number, A.U.C.
652; but these were probably not turned loose. In 661, Sylla, when he was
praetor, brought forward one hundred. In 696, besides lions, elephants,
and bears, one hundred and fifty panthers were shown for the first time.
At the dedication of Pompey's Theatre, there was the greatest exhibition
of beasts ever then known; including seventeen elephants, six hundred
lions, which were killed in the course of five days, four hundred and ten
panthers, etc. A rhinoceros also appeared for the first time. This was
A.U.C. 701. The art of taming these beasts was carried to such
perfection, that Mark Antony actually yoked them to his carriage. Julius
Caesar, in his third dictatorship, A.U.C. 708, showed a vast number of
wild beasts, among which were four hundred lions and a cameleopard. A
tiger was exhibited for the first time at the dedication of the Theatre of
Marcellus, A.U.C. 743. It was kept in a cage. Claudius afterwards
exhibited four together. The exhibition of Titus, at the dedication of
the Colosseum, here mentioned by Suetonius, seems to have been the largest
ever made; Xiphilinus even adds to the number, and says, that including
wild-boars, cranes, and other animals, no less than nine thousand were
killed. In the reigns of succeeding emperors, a new feature was given to
these spectacles, the Circus being converted into a temporary forest, by
planting large trees, in which wild animals were turned loose, and the
people were allowed to enter the wood and take what they pleased. In this
instance, the game consisted principally of beasts of chase; and, on one
occasion, one thousand stags, as many of the ibex, wild sheep (mouflions
from Sardinia?), and other grazing animals, besides one thousand wild
boars, and as many ostriches, were turned loose by the emperor Gordian.]
[Footnote 790: "Diem perdidi." This memorable speech is recorded by
several other historians, and praised by Eusebius in his Chronicles.]
[Footnote 791: A.U.C. 832, A.D. 79. It is hardly necessary to refer to
the well-known Epistles of Pliny the younger, vi. 16 and 20, giving an
account of the first eruption of Vesuvius, in which Pliny, the historian,
perished. And see hereafter, p. 475.]
[Footnote 792: The great fire at Rome happened in the second year of the
reign of Titus. It consumed a large portion of the city, and among the
public buildings destroyed were the temples of Serapis and Isis, that of
Neptune, the baths of Agrippa, the Septa, the theatres of Balbus and
Pompey, the buildings and library of Augustus on the Palatine, and the
temple of Jupiter in the Capitol.]
[Footnote 793: See VESPASIAN, cc. i. and xxiv. The love of this emperor
and his son Titus for the rural retirement of their paternal acres in the
Sabine country, forms a striking contrast to the vicious attachment of
such tyrants as Tiberius and Caligula for the luxurious scenes of Baiae,
or the libidinous orgies of Capri.]
[Footnote 794: A.U.C. 834, A.D. 82.]
[Footnote 795: A.U.C. 804.]
[Footnote 796: A street, in the sixth region of Rome, so called,
probably, from a remarkable specimen of this beautiful shrub which had
made free growth on the spot.]
[Footnote 797: VITELLIUS, c. xv.]
[Footnote 798: Tacitus (Hist. iii.) differs from Suetonius, saying that
Domitian took refuge with a client of his father's near the Velabrum.
Perhaps he found it more safe afterwards to cross the Tiber.]
[Footnote 799: One of Domitian's coins bears on the reverse a captive
female and soldier, with GERMANIA DEVICTA.]
[Footnote 800: VESPASIAN, c. xii; TITUS, c. vi.]
[Footnote 801: Such excavations had been made by Julius and by Augustus
(AUG. xliii.), and the seats for the spectators fitted up with timber in a
rude way. That was on the other side of the Tiber. The Naumachia of
Domitian occupies the site of the present Piazza d'Espagna, and was larger
and more ornamented.]
[Footnote 802: A.U.C. 841. See AUGUSTUS, c. xxxi.]
[Footnote 803: This feast was held in December. Plutarch informs us that
it was instituted in commemoration of the seventh hill being included in
the city bounds.]
[Footnote 804: The Capitol had been burnt, for the third time, in the
great fire mentioned TITUS, c. viii. The first fire happened in the
Marian war, after which it was rebuilt by Pompey, the second in the reign
of Vitellius.]
[Footnote 805: This forum, commenced by Domitian and completed by Nerva,
adjoined the Roman Forum and that of Augustus, mentioned in c. xxix. of
his life. From its communicating with the two others, it was called
Transitorium. Part of the wall which bounded it still remains, of a great
height, and 144 paces long. It is composed of square masses of freestone,
very large, and without any cement; and it is not carried in a straight
line, but makes three or four angles, as if some buildings had interfered
with its direction.]
[Footnote 806: The residence of the Flavian family was converted into a
temple. See c. i. of the present book.]
[Footnote 807: The Stadium was in the shape of a circus, and used for
races both of men and horses.]
[Footnote 808: The Odeum was a building intended for musical
performances. There were four of them at Rome.]
[Footnote 809: See before, c. iv.]
[Footnote 810: See VESPASIAN, c. xiv.]
[Footnote 811: See NERD, c. xvi.]
[Footnote 812: This absurd edict was speedily revoked. See afterwards c.
xiv.]
[Footnote 813: This was an ancient law levelled against adultery and
other pollutions, named from its author Caius Scatinius, a tribune of the
people. There was a Julian law, with the same object. See AUGUSTUS, c.
xxxiv.]
[Footnote 814: Geor. xi. 537.]
[Footnote 815: See Livy, xxi. 63, and Cicero against Verres, v. 18.]
[Footnote 816: See VESPASIAN, c. iii.]
[Footnote 817: Cant names for gladiators.]
[Footnote 818: The faction which favoured the "Thrax" party.]
[Footnote 819: DOMITIAN, c. i.]
[Footnote 820: See VESPASIAN, c. xiv.]
[Footnote 821: This cruel punishment is described in NERO, c. xlix.]
[Footnote 822: Gentiles who were proselytes to the Jewish religion; or,
perhaps, members of the Christian sect, who were confounded with them.
See the note to TIBERIUS, c. xxxvi. The tax levied on the Jews was two
drachmas per head. It was general throughout the empire.]
[Footnote 823: We have had Suetonius's reminiscences, derived through his
grandfather and father successively, CALIGULA, c. xix.; OTHO, c. x. We
now come to his own, commencing from an early age.]
[Footnote 824: This is what Martial calls, "Mentula tributis damnata."]
[Footnote 825: The imperial liveries were white and gold.]
[Footnote 826: See CALIGULA, c. xxi., where the rest of the line is
quoted; eis koiranos esto.]
[Footnote 827: An assumption of divinity, as the pulvinar was the
consecrated bed, on which the images of the gods reposed.]
[Footnote 828: The pun turns on the similar sound of the Greek word for
"enough," and the Latin word for "an arch."]
[Footnote 829: Domitia, who had been repudiated for an intrigue with
Paris, the actor, and afterwards taken back.]
[Footnote 830: The lines, with a slight accommodation, are borrowed from
the poet Evenus, Anthol. i. vi. i., who applies them to a goat, the great
enemy of vineyards. Ovid, Fasti, i. 357, thus paraphrases them:
Rode caper vitem, tamen hinc, cum staris ad aram,
In tua quod spargi cornua possit erit.]
[Footnote 831: Pliny describes this stone as being brought from
Cappadocia, and says that it was as hard as marble, white and translucent,
cxxiv. c. 22.]
[Footnote 832: See note to c. xvii.]
[Footnote 833: The guilt imputed to them was atheism and Jewish
(Christian?) manners. Dion, lxvii. 1112.]
[Footnote 834: See VESPASIAN, c. v.]
[Footnote 835: Columella (R. R. xi. 2.) enumerates dates among the
foreign fruits cultivated in Italy, cherries, dates, apricots, and
almonds; and Pliny, xv. 14, informs us that Sextus Papinius was the first
who introduced the date tree, having brought it from Africa, in the latter
days of Augustus.]
[Footnote 836: Some suppose that Domitilla was the wife of Flavius
Clemens (c. xv.), both of whom were condemned by Domitian for their
"impiety," by which it is probably meant that they were suspected of
favouring Christianity. Eusebius makes Flavia Domitilla the niece of
Flavius Clemens, and says that she was banished to Ponza, for having
become a Christian. Clemens Romanus, the second bishop of Rome, is said
to have been of this family.]
[Footnote 837: A.U.C. 849.]
[Footnote 838: See c. v.]
[Footnote 839: The famous library of Alexandria collected by Ptolemy
Philadelphus had been burnt by accident in the wars. But we find from
this passage in Suetonius that part of it was saved, or fresh collections
had been made. Seneca (de Tranquill. c. ix. 7) informs us that forty
thousand volumes were burnt; and Gellius states that in his time the
number of volumes amounted to nearly seventy thousand.]
[Footnote 840: This favourite apple, mentioned by Columella and Pliny,
took its name from C. Matius, a Roman knight, and friend of Augustus, who
first introduced it. Pliny tells us that Matius was also the first who
brought into vogue the practice of clipping groves.]
[Footnote 841: Julia, the daughter of Titus.]
[Footnote 842: It will be understood that the terms Grammar and
Grammarian have here a more extended sense than that which they convey in
modern use. See the beginning of c. iv.]
[Footnote 843: Suetonius's account of the rude and unlettered state of
society in the early times of Rome, is consistent with what we might
infer, and with the accounts which have come down to us, of a community
composed of the most daring and adventurous spirits thrown off by the
neighbouring tribes, and whose sole occupations were rapine and war. But
Cicero discovers the germs of mental cultivation among the Romans long
before the period assigned to it by Suetonius, tracing them to the
teaching of Pythagoras, who visited the Greek cities on the coast of Italy
in the reign of Tarquinius Superbus.--Tusc. Quaest. iv. 1.]
[Footnote 844: Livius, whose cognomen Andronicus, intimates his
extraction, was born of Greek parents. He began to teach at Rome in the
consulship of Claudius Cento, the son of Appius Caecus, and Sempronius
Tuditanus, A.U.C. 514. He must not be confounded with Titus Livius, the
historian, who flourished in the Augustan age.]
[Footnote 845: Ennius was a native of Calabria. He was born the year
after the consulship mentioned in the preceding note, and lived to see at
least his seventy-sixth year, for Gellius informs us that at that age he
wrote the twelfth book of his Annals.]
[Footnote 846: Porcius Cato found Ennius in Sardinia, when he conquered
that island during his praetorship. He learnt Greek from Ennius there,
and brought him to Rome on his return. Ennius taught Greek at Rome for a
long course of years, having M. Cato among his pupils.]
[Footnote 847: Mallos was near Tarsus, in Cilicia. Crates was the son of
Timocrates, a Stoic philosopher, who for his critical skill had the
surname of Homericus.]
[Footnote 848: Aristarchus flourished at Alexandria, in the reign of
Ptolemy Philometer, whose son he educated.]
[Footnote 849: A.U.C. 535-602 or 605.]
[Footnote 850: Cicero (De Clar. Orat. c. xx., De Senect. c. v. 1)
places the death of Ennius A.U.C. 584, for which there are other
authorities; but this differs from the account given in a former note.]
[Footnote 851: The History of the first Punic War by Naevius is mentioned
by Cicero, De Senect, c. 14.]
[Footnote 852: Lucilius, the poet, was born about A.U.C. 605.]
[Footnote 853: Q. Metellus obtained the surname of Numidicus, on his
triumph over Jugurtha, A.U.C. 644. Aelius, who was Varro's tutor,
accompanied him to Rhodes or Smyrna, when he was unjustly banished, A.U.C.
653.]
[Footnote 854: Servius Claudius (also called Clodius) is commended by
Cicero, Fam. Epist. ix. 16, and his singular death mentioned by Pliny,
xxv. 4.]
[Footnote 855: Daphnis, a shepherd, the son of Mercury, was said to have
been brought up by Pan. The humorous turn given by Lenaeus to Lutatius's
cognomen is not very clear. Daphnides is the plural of Daphnis; therefore
the herd or company, agaema; and Pan was the god of rustics, and the
inventor of the rude music of the reed.]
[Footnote 856: Oppius Cares is said by Macrobius to have written a book
on Forest Trees.]
[Footnote 857: Quintilian enumerates Bibaculus among the Roman poets in
the same line with Catullus and Horace, Institut. x. 1. Of Sigida we know
nothing; even the name is supposed to be incorrectly given. Apuleius
mentions a Ticida, who is also noticed by Suetonius hereafter in c. xi.,
where likewise he gives an account of Valerius Cato.]
[Footnote 858: Probably Suevius, of whom Macrobius informs us that he was
the learned author of an Idyll, which had the title of the Mulberry Grove;
observing, that "the peach which Suevius reckons as a species of the nuts,
rather belongs to the tribe of apples."]
[Footnote 859: Aurelius Opilius is mentioned by Symmachus and Gellius.
His cotemporary and friend, Rutilius Rufus, having been a military tribune
under Scipio in the Numantine war, wrote a history of it. He was consul
A.U.C. 648, and unjustly banished, to the general grief of the people,
A.U.C. 659.]
[Footnote 860: Quintilian mentions Gnipho, Instit. i. 6. We find that
Cicero was among his pupils. The date of his praetorship, given below,
fixes the time when Gnipho flourished.]
[Footnote 861: This strange cognomen is supposed to have been derived
from a cork arm, which supplied the place of one Dionysius had lost. He
was a poet of Mitylene.]
[Footnote 862: See before, JULIUS, c. xlvi.]
[Footnote 863: A.U.C. 687.]
[Footnote 864: Suetonius gives his life in c. x.]
[Footnote 865: A grade of inferior officers in the Roman armies, of which
we have no very exact idea.]
[Footnote 866: Horace speaks feelingly on the subject:
Memini quae plagosum mihi parvo
Orbilium tractare. Epist. xi. i. 70.
I remember well when I was young,
How old Orbilius thwacked me at my tasks.]
[Footnote 867: Domitius Marsus wrote epigrams. He is mentioned by Ovid
and Martial.]
[Footnote 868: This is not the only instance mentioned by Suetonius of
statues erected to learned men in the place of their birth or celebrity.
Orbilius, as a schoolmaster, was represented in a sitting posture, and
with the gown of the Greek philosophers.]
[Footnote 869: Tacitus (Annal. cxi. 75) gives the character of
Atteius Capito. He was consul A.U.C. 758.]
[Footnote 870: Asinius Pollio; see JULIUS, c. xxx.]
[Footnote 871: Whether Hermas was the son or scholar of Gnipho, does not
appear,]
[Footnote 872: Eratosthenes, an Athenian philosopher, flourished in
Egypt, under three of the Ptolemies successively. Strabo often mentions
him. See xvii. p. 576.]
[Footnote 873: Cornelius Helvius Cinna was an epigrammatic poet, of the
same age as Catullus. Ovid mentions him, Tristia, xi. 435.]
[Footnote 874: Priapus was worshipped as the protector of gardens.]
[Footnote 875: Zenodotus, the grammarian, was librarian to the first
Ptolemy at Alexandria, and tutor to his sons.]
[Footnote 876: For Crates, see before, p. 507.]
[Footnote 877: We find from Plutarch that Sylla was employed two days
before his death, in completing the twenty-second book of his
Commentaries; and, foreseeing his fate, entrusted them to the care of
Lucullus, who, with the assistance of Epicadius, corrected and arranged
them. Epicadius also wrote on Heroic verse, and Cognomina.]
[Footnote 878: Plutarch, in his Life of Caesar, speaks of the loose
conduct of Mucia, Pompey's wife, during her husband's absence.]
[Footnote 879: Fam. Epist. 9.]
[Footnote 880: Cicero ad Att. xii. 36.]
[Footnote 881: See before, AUGUSTUS, c. v.]
[Footnote 882: Lenaeus was not singular in his censure of Sallust.
Lactantius, 11. 12, gives him an infamous character; and Horace says of
him,
Libertinarum dico;
Sallustius in quas
Non minus insanit; quam qui moechatur.--Sat. i. 2. 48.]
[Footnote 883: The name of the well known Roman knight, to whom Cicero
addressed his Epistles, was Titus Pomponius Atticus. Although Satrius was
the name of a family at Rome, no connection between it and Atticus can be
found, so that the text is supposed to be corrupt. Quintus Caecilius was
an uncle of Atticus, and adopted him. The freedman mentioned in this
chapter probably assumed his name, he having been the property of
Caecilius; as it was the custom for freedmen to adopt the names of their
patrons.]
[Footnote 884: Suetonius, TIBERIUS, c. viii. Her name was Pomponia.]
[Footnote 885: See AUGUSTUS, c. lxvi.]
[Footnote 886: He is mentioned before, c. ix.]
[Footnote 887: Verrius Flaccus is mentioned by St. Jerome, in conjunction
with Athenodorus of Tarsus, a Stoic philosopher, to have flourished A.M.C.
2024, which is A.U.C. 759; A.D. 9. He is also praised by Gellius,
Macrobius, Pliny, and Priscian.]
[Footnote 888: Cinna wrote a poem, which he called "Smyrna," and was nine
years in composing, as Catullus informs us, 93. 1.]
[Footnote 889: See AUGUSTUS, cc. lxii. lxix.]
[Footnote 890: Cornelius Alexander, who had also the name of Polyhistor,
was born at Miletus, and being taken prisoner, and bought by Cornelius,
was brought to Rome, and becoming his teacher, had his freedom given him,
with the name of his patron. He flourished in the time of Sylla, and
composed a great number of works; amongst which were five books on Rome.
Suetonius has already told us (AUGUSTUS, xxix.) that he had the
care of the Palatine Library.]
[Footnote 891: No such consul as Caius Licinius appears in the Fasti; and
it is supposed to be a mistake for C. Atinius, who was the colleague of
Cn. Domitius Calvinus, A.U.C. 713, and wrote a book on the Civil War.]
[Footnote 892: Julius Modestus, in whom the name of the Julian family was
still preserved, is mentioned with approbation by Gellius, Martial,
Quintilian, and others.]
[Footnote 893: Melissus is mentioned by Ovid, De Pontif. iv 16-30.]
[Footnote 894: See AUGUSTUS, c. xxix. p. 93, and note.]
[Footnote 895: The trabea was a white robe, with a purple border, of a
different fashion from the toga.]
[Footnote 896: See before, c. x.]
[Footnote 897: See CLAUDIUS, c. x1i. and note.]
[Footnote 898: Remmius Palaemon appears to have been cotemporary with
Pliny and Quintilian, who speak highly of him.]
[Footnote 899: Now Vicenza.]
[Footnote 900: "Audiat haec tantum vel qui venit, ecce, Palaemon."--Eccl.
iii. 50.]
[Footnote 901: All the editions have the word vitem; but we might
conjecture, from the large produce, that it is a mistake for vineam, a
vineyard: in which case the word vasa might be rendered, not bottles, but
casks. The amphora held about nine gallons. Pliny mentions that Remmius
bought a farm near the turning on the Nomentan road, at the tenth
mile-stone from Rome.]
[Footnote 902: "Usque ad infamiam oris."--See TIBERIUS, p. 220, and the
notes.]
[Footnote 903: Now Beyrout, on the coast of Syria. It was one of the
colonies founded by Julius Caesar when he transported 80,000 Roman
citizens to foreign parts.--JULIUS, xlii.]
[Footnote 904: This senatus consultum was made A.U.C. 592.]
[Footnote 905: Hirtius and Pansa were consuls A.U.C. 710.]
[Footnote 906: See NERO, c. x.]
[Footnote 907: As to the Bullum, see before, JULIUS, c. lxxxiv.]
[Footnote 908: This extract given by Suetonius is all we know of any
epistle addressed by Cicero to Marcus Titinnius.]
[Footnote 909: See Cicero's Oration, pro Caelio, where Atracinus is
frequently mentioned, especially cc. i. and iii.]
[Footnote 910: "Hordearium rhetorem."]
[Footnote 911: From the manner in which Suetonius speaks of the old
custom of chaining one of the lowest slaves to the outer gate, to supply
the place of a watch-dog, it would appear to have been disused in his
time.]
[Footnote 912: The work in which Cornelius Nepos made this statement is
lost.]
[Footnote 913: Pliny mentions with approbation C. Epidius, who wrote some
treatises in which trees are represented as speaking; and the period in
which he flourished, agrees with that assigned to the rhetorician here
named by Suetonius. Plin. xvii. 25.]
[Footnote 914: Isauricus was consul with Julius Caesar II., A.U.C. 705,
and again with L. Antony, A.U.C. 712.]
[Footnote 915: A river in the ancient Campania, now called the Sarno,
which discharges itself into the bay of Naples.]
[Footnote 916: Epidius attributes the injury received by his eyes to the
corrupt habits he contracted in the society of M. Antony.]
[Footnote 917: The direct allusion is to the "style" or probe used by
surgeons in opening tumours.]
[Footnote 918: Mark Antony was consul with Julius Caesar, A.U.C. 709.
See before, JULIUS, c. lxxix.]
[Footnote 919: Philipp. xi. 17.]
[Footnote 920: Leontium, now called Lentini, was a town in Sicily, the
foundation of which is related by Thucydides, vi. p. 412. Polybius
describes the Leontine fields as the most fertile part of Sicily. Polyb.
vii. 1. And see Cicero, contra Verrem, iii. 46, 47.]
[Footnote 921: Novara, a town of the Milanese.]
[Footnote 922: St. Jerom in Chron. Euseb. describes Lucius Munatius
Plancus as the disciple of Cicero, and a celebrated orator. He founded
Lyons during the time he governed that part of the Roman provinces in
Gaul.]
[Footnote 923: See AUGUSTUS, c. xxxvi.]
[Footnote 924: He meant to speak of Cisalpine Gaul, which, though
geographically a part of Italy, did not till a late period enjoy the
privileges of the other territories united to Rome, and was administered
by a praetor under the forms of a dependent province. It was admitted to
equal rights by the triumvirs, after the death of Julius Caesar. Albutius
intimated that those rights were now in danger.]
[Footnote 925: Lucius Fenestella, an historical writer, is mentioned by
Lactantius, Seneca, and Pliny, who says, that he died towards the close of
the reign of Tiberius.]
[Footnote 926: The second Punic war ended A.U.C. 552, and the third began
A.U.C. 605. Terence was probably born about 560.]
[Footnote 927: Carthage was laid in ruins A.U.C. 606 or 607, six hundred
and sixty seven years after its foundation.]
[Footnote 928: These entertainments were given by the aediles M. Fulvius
Nobilior and M. Acilius Glabrio, A.U.C. 587.]
[Footnote 929: St. Jerom also states that Terence read the "Andria" to
Caecilius who was a comic poet at Rome; but it is clearly an anachronism,
as he died two years before this period. It is proposed, therefore, to
amend the text by substituting Acilius, the aedile; a correction
recommended by all the circumstances, and approved by Pitiscus and
Ernesti.]
[Footnote 930: The "Hecyra," The Mother-in-law, is one of Terence's
plays.]
[Footnote 931: The "Eunuch" was not brought out till five years after the
Andria, A.U.C. 592.]
[Footnote 932: About 80 pounds sterling; the price paid for the two
performances. What further right of authorship is meant by the words
following, is not very clear.]
[Footnote 933: The "Adelphi" was first acted A.U.C. 593.]
[Footnote 934: This report is mentioned by Cicero (Ad Attic, vii. 3), who
applies it to the younger Laelius. The Scipio here mentioned is Scipio
Africanus, who was at this time about twenty-one years of age.]
[Footnote 935: The calends of March was the festival of married women.
See before, VESPASIAN, c. xix.]
[Footnote 936: Santra, who wrote biographies of celebrated characters, is
mentioned as "a man of learning," by St. Jerom, in his preface to the book
on the Ecclesiastical Writers.]
[Footnote 937: The idea seems to have prevailed that Terence, originally
an African slave, could not have attained that purity of style in Latin
composition which is found in his plays, without some assistance. The
style of Phaedrus, however; who was a slave from Thrace, and lived in the
reign of Tiberius, is equally pure, although no such suspicion attaches to
his work.]