se
of slaves who had given information against their masters. [Accordingly,
such individuals, though, they received money and honors and offices all
at once from him, lived in no greater honor and security than other men.
The very offences to which they had [Sidenote: A.D. 82 (a.u. 835)] been
urged by Domitian commonly were made pretexts for their destruction, the
emperor's object being to have the actual perpetrators appear solely
responsible for their wrongdoing. It was the same intention which led him
once to issue a public notice to the effect that, when an emperor does not
punish informers he is the cause of the existence of such a class.]

[Sidenote:--2--] Though this was his behavior to all throughout the course
of his reign, still he quite outdid himself in dealing dishonor and ruin
to his father's and brother's friends. [To be sure, he himself posted a
notice that he would ratify all the gifts made to any persons by them and
by other emperors. But this was mere show.] He hated them because they did
not supply all his demands, many of which were unreasonable, as also
because they had been held in some honor. [Whatever had enjoyed their
affection and the benefit of their influence beyond the ordinary he
regarded as hostile to him.] Therefore, although he himself had a passion
for a eunuch named Earinus, nevertheless, because Titus had also shown
great liking for castrated persons, he carried his desire to cast
reflections on his brother's character to the extent of forbidding any one
thereafter in the Roman empire to be castrated. In general, he was
accustomed to say that those emperors who failed to punish large numbers
of men were not good, but merely fortunate. [Personally, he paid no
attention to those who praised Titus for not causing a single senator's
death, nor did he care that the senate frequently saw fit to pass decrees
that the emperor should not be permitted to put to death any of his peers.
The emperor, as he believed, was far and away superior to them and might
put any one of them out of the way either on his own responsibility or
with the consent of the rest; it was ridiculous to suppose that they could
offer any opposition or refuse to condemn a man. Some would praise Titus,
only not in Domitian's hearing; for such effrontery would be deemed as
grave an offence as if they were to revile the emperor in his presence and
within hearing: but [Lacuna] [Footnote: A gap must probably be construed
here. B