lso their children. Yet he was himself the first
to break the law and instead of keeping it caused the death of many
persons. Even Julius Solon himself, who framed this decree according to
imperial mandate, was a little later murdered. The emperor did many things
that were not to our liking. [He was blamed for making the city turbulent
by the multitude of soldiers and he oppressed the commonwealth by
excessive expenditure of funds: he was blamed most of all for placing his
hope of safety in the strength of his army and not in the good-will of his
companions.] But some found fault with him especially because, whereas it
had been the custom for the body-guard to be drawn from Italy, Spain,
Macedonia and Noricum only,--a plan which furnished men more distinguished
in appearance and of simpler habits,--he had abolished this method, [He
ruled that any vacancies should be filled from all the legions alike; this
he did with the idea that he should find them as a result more conversant
with military practices and should be setting up warfare as a kind of
prize for the excellent. As a matter of fact he incidentally ruined all
the most reliable men of military age in Italy, who turned their attention
to robbery and gladiatorial fighting in place of the service that had
previously claimed it.] and filled the city with a throng of motley
soldiers, most savage in appearance, most terrifying in their talk, and
most uncultured to associate with.

[Sidenote:--3--] The signs which led him to expect the sovereignty were
these. When he had been registered in the senate-house, it seemed to him
in a vision that a she-wolf suckled him, as was the case with Romulus. On
the occasion of his marrying Julia, Faustina, the wife of Marcus, prepared
their bedchamber in the temple of Venus opposite the palace; and once,
when he was asleep, water gushed from his hand as from a spring; and when
he was governor of Lugdunum, the whole Roman domain approached and greeted
him,--all this in dreams, I mean. At another time he was taken by some one
to a point affording a wide view; and as he gazed from it over all the
earth and all the sea he laid his fingers on them as one might on some
instrument [Footnote: Compare Plato, Republic, 399 C.] capable of all
harmonies, and they answered to his touch. Again, he thought that in the
Roman Forum a horse threw Pertinax, who was already mounted, but readily
took him on its back. These things he had already learned from