[-6-] These prodigies neither Sejanus nor any one else laid to heart.  For, in view of the way things stood, not even if some god had plainly foretold that so great a change would take place in a short time, would any one have believed it.  They swore by his Fortune as if they would never be weary, and hailed him colleague of Tiberius, making this phrase refer not to the consulship but to the supreme power.  Tiberius was no longer uninformed of aught that concerned his minister.  He racked his brains to see in what manner he might kill him, but, not finding any way in which he might do this openly and safely, he treated both the man himself and all the rest in a remarkable fashion, so as to gain an accurate knowledge of their feeling.  He sent many despatches of all kinds regarding himself to Sejanus and to the senate incessantly, saying at one time that he was poorly and just at the point of death, and again that he was in exceedingly good health and would reach Rome directly.  Now he would strongly approve Sejanus and again vehemently denounce him.  Some of his companions he would honor to show his regard for him, and others he would dishonor.  Thus Sejanus, filled in turn with extreme elation and extreme fear, was always in a flutter.  He could not decide to be terrified and for that reason attempt a revolution, inasmuch as he was being honored, nor yet to become bold enough to attempt some desperate venture inasmuch as he was frequently abased.  Moreover, all the rest of the people were getting to feel dubious, because they heard alternately and at short intervals the most contrary reports, because they could no longer justify themselves in either admiring or despising Sejanus, and because they were wondering about Tiberius, thinking first that he was going to die and then that his arrival was imminent.

[-7-] Sejanus was disturbed by all this, and a great deal more by the fact that from one of his statues at first a mass of smoke ascended in a burst, and then, when the head was taken off to enable investigators to see what was going on, a huge serpent darted up.  Another head at once replaced the former, and accordingly he was on the point of sacrificing to himself (for sacrificing to himself was a regular part of his program), when a rope was discovered coiled around the statue’s neck.  Also a figure of Fortuna, made (as is said) in the time of Tullius, an early king of Rome,—­one which Sejanus at this time kept at his house and took great pride in,—­he saw turn away while he was sacrificing in person ... and later others who had gone out in their company.[3] Most men were suspicious of these circumstances, but since they did not know the mind of Tiberius and further took into consideration the latter’s caprice and the unstable condition of affairs, they were divided in sentiment.  Privately they kept a sharp eye on their own safety, but publicly they paid court to him, among other reasons because Tiberius had joined to [him][4] as priests both Sejanus