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76 Julian law, borrowed by the first Cæsar from Sulla's legislation, but considerably modified, was confirmed and extended by his successor: but neither the popular Julius nor the prudent Augustus availed themselves of it, except under extreme provocation. It was not so with Tiberius. He was, out of a camp, a timid man; and after he had reigned several years, and his age was in the sere and yellow leaf, the consciousness of his own unpopularity, and the knowledge of machinations against him, exaggerated his fears into cruelty. The history of the public informers accordingly opens with this portion of the 'Annals,' and does not close until Domitian fell under the blows of a few conspirators whose own lives depended on their taking his.

It is creditable to Tiberius that he at first struggled against the informers. He rebuked their officious zeal: he would not permit a charge of high treason (majestas) to be mixed up with one of misgovernment of a province or scandal in private life. He met such accusations in a spirit worthy of a great monarch: he was, in these respects, less timid than our James I., less vindictive than either Philip II. of Spain or Louis XIV. In his better moods he commended liberty of speech. "In a free State," he was wont to say, "both mind and tongue should be free." But he was borne down by the current of the time. He was wearied by the servility of the senate: he was irritated by his own unpopularity, by pasquinades, by the rumour, if not by the reality, of plots against himself. He became, as he grew older, more and more distrustful of all about him, and when he discovered that even his own familiar friend, the man whom he had taken to his bosom and