raries which had been burnt down; collecting manuscripts from all
parts, and sending scribes to Alexandria [839], either to copy or correct
them. Yet he never gave himself the trouble of reading history or
poetry, or of employing his pen even for his private purposes. He
perused nothing but the Commentaries and Acts of Tiberius Caesar. His
letters, speeches, and edicts, were all drawn up for him by others;
though he could converse with elegance, and sometimes expressed himself
in memorable sentiments. "I could wish," said he once, "that I was but
as handsome as Metius fancies himself to be." And of the head of some
one whose hair was partly reddish, and partly grey, he said, "that it was
snow sprinkled with mead."

XXI. "The lot of princes," he remarked, "was very miserable, for no one
believed them when they discovered a conspiracy, until they were
murdered." When he had leisure, he amused himself with dice, even on
days that were not festivals, and in the morning. He went to the bath
early, and made a plentiful dinner, insomuch that he seldom ate more at
supper than a Matian apple [840], to which he added a (497) draught of
wine, out of a small flask. He gave frequent and splendid
entertainments, but they were soon over, for he never prolonged them
after sun-set, and indulged in no revel after. For, till bed-time, he
did nothing else but walk by himself in private.

XXII. He was insatiable in his lusts, calling frequent commerce with
women, as if it was a sort of exercise, klinopalaen, bed-wrestling; and
it was reported that he plucked the hair from his concubines, and swam
about in company with the lowest prostitutes. His brother's daughter
[841] was offered him in marriage when she was a virgin; but being at
that time enamoured of Domitia, he obstinately refused her. Yet not long
afterwards, when she was given to another, he was ready enough to debauch
her, and that even while Titus was living. But after she had lost both
her father and her husband, he loved her most passionately, and without
disguise; insomuch that he was the occasion of her death, by obliging her
to procure a miscarriage when she was with child by him.

XXIII. The people shewed little concern at his death, but the soldiers
were roused by it to great indignation, and immediately endeavoured to
have him ranked among the gods. They were also ready to revenge his
loss, if there had been any to take the lead. However, they soon after