Tiberius had reaffirmed the laws on contracts, enacted by Caesar, which were sure to result in great loss of confidence and upheaval; and although his chief repeatedly urged him to utter some word,[14] he refused to answer.  These events seemed to make some impression on the emperor and he modified the situation, so far as it pertained to loans, by giving two thousand five hundred myriads to the public treasury under the arrangement that this money could be lent out by the senatorial party without interest for three years to such as desired it.  He further commanded that the most notorious of those who had steadily acted as accusers should be put to death on one day.  And when a man who belonged to the centurions wished to lodge information against some one, he forbade that any person who had served in the army should do so, although he allowed the privilege to knights and senators.

[-22-] There is no denying that he received praise for his behavior in these matters, and most of all because he would not accept a number of honors that were voted to him for it.  But the sensual orgies which he carried on shamelessly with the individuals of highest rank, male and female alike, caused ill to be spoken of him.  For example, there was the case of his friend Sextus Marius.  Imperial favor had made this man so rich and so powerful that when he was once at odds with a neighbor he invited him to dine for two successive days.  On the first he razed his guest’s dwelling entirely to the ground and on the next he rebuilt it on a larger scale and in more elaborate style.  The victim of his treatment declared his ignorance of the perpetrators, whereupon Marius admitted being responsible for both occurrences and added significantly:  “This shows you that I have both the knowledge and the power to repel attacks and also to requite a kindness.”  This friend, then, who had sent his daughter, a strikingly beautiful girl, to a place of refuge to prevent her being outraged by Tiberius, was charged with having criminal relations with her and for that reason destroyed both his daughter and himself.  All this covered the emperor with disgrace, and his connection with the death of Drusus and Agrippina gave him a reputation for cruelty.  Men had been thinking all along that the whole of the previous action against these two was due to Sejanus, and had been hoping that now their lives would be spared; so, when they learned that they had been actually murdered, they were exceedingly grieved, partly for the reasons mentioned and partly because, so far from depositing their bones in the imperial tomb, Tiberius ordered their remains to be hidden so carefully in the earth that they might never be found.  In addition to Agrippina, Munatia Plancina was slain.  Previous to this time, though he hated her (not on account of Germanicus but for another reason), he yet allowed her to live to prevent Agrippina from rejoicing at her death.