I have related in sequence the events of two summer-campaigns, as
a relief to the reader’s mind from our miseries at home. Though three
years had elapsed since the destruction of Sejanus, neither time,
intreaties, nor sated gratification, all which have a soothing effect
on others, softened Tiberius, or kept him from punishing doubtful
or forgotten offenses as most flagrant and recent crimes. Under this
dread, Fulcinius Trio, unwilling to face an onslaught of accusers,
inserted in his will several terrible imputations on Macro and on
the emperor’s principal freedmen, while he taunted the emperor himself
with the mental decay of old age, and the virtual exile of continuous
retirement. Tiberius ordered these insults, which Trio’s heirs had
suppressed, to be publicly read, thus showing his tolerance of free
speech in others and despising his own shame, or, possibly, because
he had long been ignorant of the villanies of Sejanus, and now wished
any remarks, however reckless, to published, and so to ascertain,
through invective, if it must be so, the truth, which flattery obscures.
About the same time Granius Marcianus, a senator, who was accused
of treason by Caius Gracchus, laid hands on himself. Tarius Gratianus
too, an ex-praetor, was condemned under the same law to capital punishment.

A similar fate befell Trebellienus Rufus and Sextius Paconianus. Trebellienus
perished by his own hand; Paconianus was strangled in prison for having
there written some lampoons on the emperor. Tiberius received the
news, no longer parted by the sea, as he had been once, or through
messengers from a distance, but in close proximity to Rome, so that
on the same day, or after the interval of a single night, he could
reply to the despatches of the consuls, and almost behold the bloodshed
as it streamed from house to house, and the strokes of the executioner.

At the year’s close Poppaeus Sabinus died, a man of somewhat humble
extraction, who had risen by his friendship with two emperors to the
consulship and the honours of a triumph. During twenty-four years
he had the charge of the most important provinces, not for any remarkable
ability, but because he was equal to business and was not too great
for it.

Quintus Plautius and Sextus Papinius were the next consuls. The fact
that that year Lucius Aruseius was put to death did not strike men
as anything horrible, from their familiarity with evil deeds. But
there was a panic when Vibulenus Agrippa, a Roman knight, as soon
as his accusers had finished their case, took from his robe, in the
very Senate-house, a dose of poison, drank it off, and, as he fell
expiring, was hurried away to prison by the prompt hands of lictors,
where the neck of the now lifeless man was crushed with the halter.
Even Tigranes, who had once ruled Armenia and was now impeached, did
not escape the punishment of an ordinary citizen on the strength of
his royal title.

Caius Galba meanwhile and the Blaesi perished by a voluntary death;
Galba, because a harsh letter from the emperor forbade him to have
a province allotted to him; while, as for the Blaesi, the priesthoods
intended for them during the prosperity of their house, Tiberius had
withheld, when that prosperity was shaken, and now conferred, as vacant
offices, on others. This they understood as a signal of their doom,
and acted on it.

Aemilia Lepida too, whose marriage with the younger Drusus I have
already related, who, though she had pursued her husband with ceaseless
accusations, remained unpunished, infamous as she was, as long as
her father Lepidus lived, subsequently fell a victim to the informers
for adultery with a slave. There was no question about her guilt,
and so without an attempt at defence she put an end to her life.

At this same time the Clitae, a tribe subject to the Cappadocian Archelaus,
retreated to the heights of Mount Taurus, because they were compelled
in Roman fashion to render an account of their revenue and submit
to tribute. There they defended themselves by means of the nature
of the country against the king’s unwarlike troops, till Marcus Trebellius,
whom Vitellius, the governor of Syria, sent as his lieutenant with
four thousand legionaries and some picked auxiliaries, surrounded
with his lines two hills occupied by the barbarians, the lesser of
which was named Cadra, the other Davara. Those who dared to sally
out, he reduced to surrender by the sword, the rest by drought.
The Annals by Tacitus