THE year when Caius Asinius and Caius Antistius were consuls was
the ninth of Tiberius's reign, a period of tranquillity for the State and
prosperity for his own house, for he counted Germanicus's death a happy
incident. Suddenly fortune deranged everything; the emperor became a cruel
tyrant, as well as an abettor of cruelty in others. Of this the cause and
origin was lius Sejanus, commander of the prtorian cohorts, of
whose influence I have already spoken. I will now fully describe his
extraction, his character, and the daring wickedness by which he grasped at
power.
Born at Vulsinii, the son of Seius
Strabo, a Roman knight, he attached himself in his early youth to Caius
Csar, grandson of the Divine Augustus, and the story went that he had
sold his person to Apicius, a rich debauchee. Soon afterwards he won the
heart of Tiberius so effectually by various artifices that the emperor, ever
dark and mysterious towards others, was with Sejanus alone careless and
freespoken. It was not through his craft, for it was by this very weapon
that he was overthrown; it was rather from heaven's wrath against Rome, to whose welfare his elevation and his fall were
alike disastrous. He had a body which could endure hardships, and a daring
spirit. He was one who screened himself, while he was attacking others; he
was as cringing as he was imperious; before the world he affected humility;
in his heart he lusted after supremacy, for the sake of which he was
sometimes lavish and luxurious, but oftener energetic and watchful,
qualities quite as mischievous when hypocritically assumed for the
attainment of sovereignty.
