liffs, of a stupendous height, and by a
deep sea. But immediately, the people of Rome being extremely clamorous
for his return, on account of a disaster at Fidenae [342], where upwards
of twenty thousand persons had been killed by the fall of the
amphitheatre, during a public spectacle of gladiators, he crossed over
again to the continent, and gave all people free access to him; so much
the more, because, at his departure from the city, he had caused it to be
proclaimed that no one should address him, and had declined admitting any
persons to his presence, on the journey.

XLI. Returning to the island, he so far abandoned all care of the
government, that he never filled up the decuriae of the knights, never
changed any military tribunes or prefects, or governors of provinces, and
kept Spain and Syria for several years without any consular lieutenants.
He likewise suffered Armenia to be seized by the Parthians, Moesia by the
Dacians and Sarmatians, and Gaul to be ravaged by the Germans; to the
great disgrace, and no less danger, of the empire.

XLII. But having now the advantage of privacy, and being remote from the
observation of the people of Rome, he abandoned himself to all the
vicious propensities which he had long but imperfectly concealed, and of
which I shall here give a particular account from the beginning. While a
young soldier in the camp, he was so remarkable for his excessive
inclination to wine, that, for Tiberius, they called him Biberius; for
Claudius, Caldius; and for Nero, Mero. And after he succeeded to the
empire, and was invested with the office of reforming the morality of the
people, he spent a whole night and two days together in feasting and
drinking with Pomponius Flaccus and Lucius Piso; to one of whom he
immediately gave the province of Syria, and to the other the prefecture
of the city; declaring them, in his letters-patent, to be "very pleasant
companions, and friends fit for all occasions." He made an appointment
to sup with Sestius Gallus, a lewd and prodigal old fellow, who had been
disgraced by Augustus, and reprimanded by himself but a few days before
in the senate-house; upon condition that he should not recede in the
least from his usual method of entertainment, and that they should be
attended at table by naked girls. He preferred a very obscure candidate
for the quaestorship, before the most noble competitors, only for taking
off, in pledging him at table, an amphora of wine