was
finished, all with one voice both denounced him and uttered threats, some
because they had been wronged, others through fear, some to disguise
their friendship for him and others out of joy at his downfall. Regulus
did not give all of them, however, a chance to vote, nor did he put the
question to any one regarding the man's death, for fear there should be
come opposition and a consequent disturbance; for Sejanus had numerous
relatives and friends. Hence, after asking one person's opinion and
obtaining a supporting vote in favor of imprisonment, he conducted
the former favorite out of the senate-chamber, and in company with the
other officials and with Laco led him down to the prison.

[-11-] Then might one have obtained a clear and searching
insight into the weakness of man, so that self-conceit would have been
never again, under any conditions possible. Him whom at dawn they had
escorted to the senate-halls as one superior to themselves they were now
dragging to a cell as if no better than the worst. On him whom they once
deemed worthy of crowns they now heaped bonds. Him whom they were wont to
protect as a master they now guarded like a runaway slave, and
uncovered while he wore a headdress. Him whom they had adorned with the
purple-bordered toga they struck in the face. Whom they were wont to
adore and sacrifice to as to a god they were now leading to execution.
The crowd also assailed him, reproaching him violently for the lives he
had destroyed and jeering loudly at what had been hoped of him. All of
his images they hurled down, beat down, and pulled down, seeming to
feel that they were maltreating the man himself, and he thus became a
spectator of what he was destined to suffer. For the moment he was merely
cast into prison; but not much later,--that very day, in fact,--the
senate assembled in the temple of Concord not far from his cell, and
seeing the attitude of the populace and that none of the Pretorians was
near by it condemned him to death. On these orders he was executed and
his body cast down the Scalae Gemoniae, where the rabble abused it for
three whole days and afterward threw it into the river. His children
were put to death by special decree, the girl (whom he had betrothed
to the son of Claudius) having been first outraged by the public
executioner on the principle that it was unlawful for a virgin to meet
death in prison. His wife Apicata was not condemned, to be sure, but
on learning that her