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66 cited suspicions that his coadjutor had some secret warrant for his conduct. When a man is laid low by fever, some extra vexation is not unfavorable—to the disease.

If it be not easy to gather from the records we possess a satisfactory portrait of Tiberius, it is even more difficult to decipher the character of Sejanus. We are assured by Tacitus that the loss of Germanicus caused Tiberius no regret; on the contrary, he accounted that event among the "blessings of his reign." Fortune, he proceeds, now began to change the scene—that is, in the ninth year of his principate—and a train of disasters followed. The emperor began to throw off the mask—either by tyrannising himself, or encouraging and supporting others in tyrannical proceedings.

"The origin and cause of this change," he says, "are attributable to Ælius Sejanus, commander of the Prætorian Guards. He was born at Bolsena [Vulsinii]; his father was Seius Strabo, a Roman knight; in early youth he attached himself to Caius Cæsar, grandson of the deified Augustus. By various acts he subsequently gained such an ascendancy over Tiberius, that though he was close and mysterious in his intercourse with others, he threw off all restraint and reserve with him. His person was hardy and equal to fatigues; his spirit daring; expert in disguising his own iniquities, prompt to spy out the failings of others; at once fawning and imperious"—this is no uncommon combination; "with an exterior of assumed modesty, his heart insatiably lusted for supreme domination." "And with this view he engaged sometimes in profusion, largesses, and luxury; but more frequently gave himself to business and watching, practices no less dangerous, when