even to falsehood
and perjury. It was whilst gambling that he conceived his most
diabolical projects; when the game was against him he would quit the
table abruptly, and then, monster as he was, satiated with rapine, would
roam about his palace venting his displeasure.

One day, in such a humour, he caught a glimpse of two Roman knights; he
had them arrested and confiscated their property. Then returning to the
gaming table, he exultingly exclaimed that he had never made a better
throw!(31) On another occasion, after having condemned to death several
Gauls of great opulence, he immediately went back to his gambling
companions and said:--'I pity you when I see you lose a few sestertii,
whilst, with a stroke of the pen, I have just won six hundred
millions.'(32)

(31) Exultans rediit, gloriansque se nunquam prosperiore alea usum.
Suet. in _Vita Calig_.

(32) Thirty millions of pounds sterling. The sestertius was worth 1_s_.
3 3/4_d_.

The Emperor Claudius played like an imbecile, and Nero like a madman.
The former would send for the persons whom he had executed the day
before, to play with him; and the latter, lavishing the treasures of the
public exchequer, would stake four hundred thousand sestertii (L20,000)
on a single throw of the dice.

Claudius played at dice on his journeys, having the interior of his
carriage so arranged as to prevent the motion from interfering with the
game.

From that period the title of courtier and gambler became synonymous.
Gaming was the means of securing preferment; it was by gambling
that Vitellius opened to himself so grand a career; gaming made him
indispensable to Claudius.(33)

(33) Claudio per aleae studium familiaris. Suet.in Vita Vitelli.

Seneca, in his Play on the death of Claudius, represents him as in the
lower regions condemned to pick up dice for ever, putting them into a
box without a bottom!(34)

(34) Nam quotiens missurus erat resonante fritillo, Utraque subducto
fugiebat tessera fundo. _Lusus de Morte Claud. Caesar_.

Caligula was reproached for having played at dice on the day of his
sister's funeral; and Domitian was blamed for gaming from morning to
night, and without excepting the festivals of the Roman calendar; but
it seems ridiculous to note such improprieties in comparison with their
habitual and atrocious crimes.

The terrible and inexorable satirist Juvenal was the contemporary of
Domitian and ten other emperors; and the following is