n, he never pronounced a severe
sentence without prefacing it (489) with words which gave hopes of mercy;
so that, at last, there was not a more certain token of a fatal
conclusion, than a mild commencement. He brought before the senate some
persona accused of treason, declaring, "that he should prove that day how
dear he was to the senate;" and so influenced them, that they condemned
the accused to be punished according to the ancient usage [821]. Then,
as if alarmed at the extreme severity of their punishment, to lessen the
odiousness of the proceeding, he interposed in these words; for it is not
foreign to the purpose to give them precisely as they were delivered:
"Permit me, Conscript Fathers, so far to prevail upon your affection for
me, however extraordinary the request may seem, as to grant the condemned
criminals the favour of dying in the manner they choose. For by so
doing, ye will spare your own eyes, and the world will understand that I
interceded with the senate on their behalf."

XII. Having exhausted the exchequer by the expense of his buildings and
public spectacles, with the augmentation of pay lately granted to the
troops, he made an attempt at the reduction of the army, in order to
lessen the military charges. But reflecting, that he should, by this
measure, expose himself to the insults of the barbarians, while it would
not suffice to extricate him from his embarrassments, he had recourse to
plundering his subjects by every mode of exaction. The estates of the
living and the dead were sequestered upon any accusation, by whomsoever
preferred. The unsupported allegation of any one person, relative to a
word or action construed to affect the dignity of the emperor, was
sufficient. Inheritances, to which he had not the slightest pretension,
were confiscated, if there was found so much as one person to say, he had
heard from the deceased when living, "that he had made the emperor his
heir." Besides the exactions from others, the poll-tax on the Jews was
levied with extreme rigour, both on those who lived after the manner of
Jews in the city, without publicly professing themselves to be such
[822], and on those who, by (490) concealing their origin, avoided paying
the tribute imposed upon that people. I remember, when I was a youth, to
have been present [823], when an old man, ninety years of age, had his
person exposed to view in a very crowded court, in order that, on
inspection, the procurator