them twenty-six knights,
some of whom had already devoured their living, while others had merely
practiced gladiatorial combat. It was not the number of those who
perished that was so bad (though it was bad enough) but his frenzied
delight in their slaughter and his never satisfied gazing at the scene of
blood. The same trait of cruelty led him once, when there was a shortage
of condemned criminals to be given to the beasts, to order some of the
mob that stood near the benches to be seized and thrown to them. And to
prevent the possibility of their making an outcry or attacking him orally
he had their tongues cut out first of all. One of the prominent knights,
too, he compelled to fight in single combat on the charge of insult
offered to his mother Agrippina, and when the man proved victorious
handed him over to the accusers and had him slain. The same person's
father, though guilty of no wrong, he confined in a cage (as he had
confined numerous others), and there put an end to him.--These contests
he at first conducted in the Saepta, after excavating [5] the entire site
and filling it with water, to enable him to bring in one ship. Later he
transferred his operations to another place, where he tore down a large
number of massive buildings and set up benches. The theatre of Taurus
he held in contempt. All this behavior, expenditures and murders alike,
subjected him to criticism.

He was further blamed for compelling Macro together with Ennia to cause
their own death, remembering neither the latter's affection nor the
former's benefits, which had gained for him among other advantages the
sole possession of the empire. The fact that he had appointed Macro to
govern Egypt had not the slightest influence. He even involved him in
a scandal (of which the greatest share belonged to Gaius himself), by
bringing against him besides all the rest a complaint that he had played
the pander. Before long many others were condemned and executed, and
some were executed prior to their conviction. Nominally they suffered on
account of some wrong done to his parents or his brothers or the rest who
had perished with those relatives as an excuse, but really on account
of their property. For the treasury had been exhausted and he had no
resources. Such persons were convicted by witnesses against them and by
the documents which he once declared he had burned. Again, the disease
which had attacked him the previous year and the death of his sister