Our state employs. He's gone: and being gone, Not see it, Lucius. Arr. Who should let them? Lep. Zeal, And duty; with the thought he is our prince. And having found aught worthy in their fortune, Kill, or precipitate them in the sea, And boast, he can mock fate. Nay, muse not: these t Tiberius in tenebris videret: testibus Dio. Hist. Rom. Lib. lvii. p. 691. Et Plin. Nat. Hist. Lib. ii. c. 37. " Cons. Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. p. 91. (Juv. Sat. 4.) * Vid. Suet. Tib. de secessu Caprensi, c. 43. Dio. p. 715. Juv. Sat. 10. y Tacit. Ann. Lib. vi. p. 106. Dio. Rom. Hist. Lib. lvii. p. 706. Suet. Tib. c. 62, &c. 44. Are far from ends of evil, scarce degrees. Serves to provoke his bad. Some are allured, Some threaten'd; others, by their friends detained, Are ravish'd hence, like captives, and, in sight Masters of strange and new commented lusts, He is, with all his craft, become the ward Whom he, upon our low and suffering necks, Re-enter LACO," with POMPONIUS and MINUTIUS. Lac. These letters make men doubtful what t' expect, Whether his coming, or his death. z Tacit. Ann. Lib. vi. p. 100. Suet. Tib. c. 43. a C Leg. Dio. Rom. Hist. Lib. lviii. p. 714. De Pomponio et Minutio vid. Tacit. Ann. Lib. vi. Dio. Rom. Hist. Lib. lviii. p. 716. Pom. Troth both: And which comes soonest, thank the gods for. Arr. List! Their talk is Cæsar; I would hear all voices. [Arrunt. and Lepidus stand aside. Min. One day, he's well; and will return to Rome; The next day, sick; and knows not when to hope it. Lac. True; and to-day, one of Sejanus' friends Honour'd by special writ; and on the morrow Another punish'd Pom. By more special writ. Min. This man receives his praises of Sejanus, A second but slight mention, a third none, A fourth rebukes: and thus he leaves the senate Divided and suspended, all uncertain. Lac. These forked tricks, I understand them not: Would he would tell us whom he loves or hates, That we might follow, without fear or doubt. Arr. Good Heliotrope! Is this your honest man? Let him be yours so still; he is my knave. Pom. I cannot tell,' Sejanus still goes on, And mounts, we see; new statues are advanced, Fresh leaves of titles, large inscriptions read, His fortune sworn by, himself new gone out Cæsar's colleague in the fifth consulship; More altars smoke to him than all the gods: What would we more? h • I cannot tell,] i. e. I know not what to think of it. See Vol. I. p. 125. This phrase, of which the sense is now, I presume, sufficiently established, is here noticed for the last time. & Dio. Rom. Hist. Lib. lviii. p. 716. • Dio. ibid. Leg. Tacit. Ann. Lib. iv. p. 96. • Adulationis pleni omnes ejus Fortunam jurabant. Dio. Hist. Rom. Lib. Iviii. p. 714. Dio. p. 714. Suet. Tib. c. 65. Arr. That the dear smoke would choke him, That would I more. Lep. Peace, good Arruntius. Lat. But there are letters come, they say, ev'n now, Which do forbid that last. Min. Do you hear so? Lac. Yes. Pom. By Castor that's the worst. Arr. By Pollux, best. k Min. I did not like the sign, when Regulus, Whom all we know no friend unto Sejanus, Did, by Tiberius' so precise command, Succeed a fellow in the consulship: It boded somewhat. Pom. Not a mote. His1 partner, Fulcinius Trio, is his own, and sure. Here comes Terentius. Enter TERENTIUS. He can give us more. [They whisper with Terentius. Lep. I'll ne'er believe, but Cæsar hath some scent Of bold Sejanus' footing." These cross points For having found his favourite grown too great, 1 Dio. Lib. Iviii. p. 718. Dio. ibid. "Dio. p. 726. * De Regulo cons. Dio. ibid. Suet. Tib. c. 65. Are, with their leaders, made at his devotion; And that himself hath lost much of his own, His Subtilty hath chose this doubling line, Arr. You may be a Lynceus, Lepidus: yet I See no such cause, but that a politic tyrant, Who can so well disguise it, should have ta'en A nearer way: feign'd honest, and come home To cut his throat, by law. Lep. Ay, but his fear Would ne'er be mask'd, allbe his vices were. Never in more, either of grace or power, Arr. The fiends they are, To suffer thee belie 'em. Ter. I have here His last and present letters, where he writes him, The partner of his cares, and his Sejanus. • Dio. p. 714. |