to embroil them one with another by pretending to
make a confidant of each one separately and talking to him about the
rest until they obtained a notion of his designs and left him a prey
to the conspirators.

The same emperor ordered the senate to convene and affected to
grant its members amnesty, saying that there were only a very few
against whom he still retained his anger. This expression doubled the
anxiety of each one of them, for everybody was thinking of himself.

[-26-] Another person, named Protogenes, assisted the emperor in all his
projects, and carried continually on his person two books, of which he
called the one "sword" and the other "dagger." This Protogenes once
entered the senate as if on some indifferent business and when all, as
was to be expected, saluted and greeted him, he darted a kind of sinister
glance at Scribonius Proculus and said: "Do you, too, greet me, though
you hate the emperor so?" On hearing this all those present surrounded
their fellow senator and tore him to pieces and voted [some festivals
to Gains as also] that the emperor should have a high platform in the
senate-house to prevent any one's approaching him, besides enjoying the
use of a military guard even there. [They resolved further that his
statues should be guarded.

Pleased at this Gaius laid aside his anger toward them and with a buoyant
spirit promised them some money. Pomponius, who was said to have plotted
against him, he released, inasmuch as he had been betrayed by a friend.
And, as the man's mistress when tortured would not utter a word, he did
her no further harm and even gave her an honorary gift of money. Gaius
was praised for this partly through fear and partly sincerely, and] as
some called him hero and others god, he fairly went out of his head. Even
before this he was in the habit of demanding that he be given superhuman
regard and said that he had intercourse with the Moon Goddess and was
crowned by Victory. He also pretended to be Jupiter and took this as a
pretext for having carnal knowledge of various women, especially his
sisters. Again he would often figure as [Neptune, because he had bridged
so great an expanse of sea, or perhaps as] Juno and Diana and Venus.
[He would impersonate Hercules, Bacchus, Apollo, and all the other
divinities, not merely males but also females.] As fast as he changed the
names he would assume all the rest of the attributes that belonged to
them, [so that he