o the temple of Jupiter, whilst he beheld the
contest and the fire from Tiberius's house [715], where he was feasting.
Not long after, repenting of what he had done, and throwing the blame of
it upon others, he called a meeting, and swore "that nothing was dearer
to him than the public peace;" which oath he also obliged the rest to
take. Then drawing a dagger from his side, he presented it first to the
consul, and, upon his refusing it, to the magistrates, and then to every
one of the senators; but none of them being willing to accept it, he went
away, as if he meant to lay it up in the temple of Concord; but some
crying out to him, "You are Concord," he came back again, and said that
he would not only keep his weapon, but for the future use the cognomen of
Concord.

XVI. He advised the senate to send deputies, accompanied by the Vestal
Virgins, to desire peace, or, at least, time for consultation. The day
after, while he was waiting for an answer, he received intelligence by a
scout, that the enemy was advancing. Immediately, therefore, throwing
himself into a small litter, borne by hand, with only two attendants, a
baker and a cook, he privately withdrew to his father's house, on the
Aventine hill, intending to escape thence into Campania. But a
groundless report being circulated, that the enemy was willing to come to
terms, he suffered himself to be carried back to the palace. Finding,
however, nobody there, and those who were with him stealing away, he
girded round his waist a belt full of gold pieces, and then ran into the
porter's lodge, tying the dog before the door, and piling up against it
the bed and bedding.

XVII. By this time the forerunners of the enemy's army had broken into
the palace, and meeting with nobody, searched, as was natural, every
corner. Being dragged by them out of his cell, and asked "who he was?"
(for they did not recognize him), "and if he knew where Vitellius was?"
he deceived them by a falsehood. But at last being discovered, he begged
hard to be detained in custody, even were it in a prison; pretending to
have something to say which concerned Vespasian's security.
Nevertheless, he was dragged half-naked into the Forum, with his hands
tied behind him, a rope about his neck, and his clothes torn, amidst the
most contemptuous abuse, both by word and deed, along the Via Sacra; his
head being held back by the hair, in the manner of condemned criminals,
and the point of a sword put