Meantime Regulus called him forward, but he paid no attention, not out of contempt,—­for he had already been humbled,—­but because he was unaccustomed to hearing any command given him.  But when the consul shouted at him a second and a third time, at the same time stretching out his arm and saying:  “Sejanus, come here!” he enquired blankly:  “Are you calling me?” So at last he stood up, and Laco, who had entered, took his stand beside him.  When finally the reading of the letter was finished, all with one voice both denounced him and uttered threats, some because they had been wronged, others through fear, some to disguise their friendship for him and others out of joy at his downfall.  Regulus did not give all of them, however, a chance to vote, nor did he put the question to any one regarding the man’s death, for fear there should be come opposition and a consequent disturbance; for Sejanus had numerous relatives and friends.  Hence, after asking one person’s opinion and obtaining a supporting vote in favor of imprisonment, he conducted the former favorite out of the senate-chamber, and in company with the other officials and with Laco led him down to the prison.

[-11-] Then might one have obtained a clear and searching insight into the weakness of man, so that self-conceit would have been never again, under any conditions possible.  Him whom at dawn they had escorted to the senate-halls as one superior to themselves they were now dragging to a cell as if no better than the worst.  On him whom they once deemed worthy of crowns they now heaped bonds.  Him whom they were wont to protect as a master they now guarded like a runaway slave, and uncovered while he wore a headdress.  Him whom they had adorned with the purple-bordered toga they struck in the face.  Whom they were wont to adore and sacrifice to as to a god they were now leading to execution.  The crowd also assailed him, reproaching him violently for the lives he had destroyed and jeering loudly at what had been hoped of him.  All of his images they hurled down, beat down, and pulled down, seeming to feel that they were maltreating the man himself, and he thus became a spectator of what he was destined to suffer.  For the moment he was merely cast into prison; but not much later,—­that very day, in fact,—­the senate assembled in the temple of Concord not far from his cell, and seeing the attitude of the populace and that none of the Pretorians was near by it condemned him to death.  On these orders he was executed and his body cast down the Scalae Gemoniae, where the rabble abused it for three whole days and afterward threw it into the river.  His children were put to death by special decree, the girl (whom he had betrothed to the son of Claudius) having been first outraged by the public executioner on the principle that it was unlawful for a virgin to meet death in prison.  His wife Apicata was not condemned, to be sure, but on learning that her children were dead and after seeing