man was aware of the evil character of Gaius and desired to depart before he should taste of it, saying:  “I can not in my old age become the slave of a new master like him.”  Still others were saved,—­some who had actually been condemned but were not permitted to die before the expiration of ten days, and others because their trial was again put off when the judges learned that Tiberius was seriously ailing.

[-28-] He passed away at Misenum before he could learn anything of this.  He had been sick for a considerable time, but expecting to live, as Thrasyllus had foretold, he neither consulted physicians nor changed his way of life; wasting away gradually as he was, in old age and subject to a sickness that was not severe, he would often all but expire and then recover strength again.  These changes would cause Gaius and the rest first great pleasure, when they thought he was going to die, and then great fear, when they thought he would live.  His successor, therefore, fearing that his health might actually be restored, refused his requests for anything to eat, on the ground that he would be injured, and pretending that he needed warmth wrapped many thick cloths about him.  In this way he smothered him, with a certain amount of help, to be sure, from Macro.  The latter, as Tiberius was already seriously ill, was paying his court to the young man, particularly as he had before this succeeded in making him fall in love with his own wife, Ennia Thrasylla.  Tiberius suspecting this had once said:  “You understand well when to abandon the setting, and hasten to the rising sun.”

So Tiberius, who possessed the most varied virtues, the most varied vices, and followed each set in turn as if the other did not exist, passed away in this fashion on the twenty-sixth day of March.[17] He had lived seventy-seven years, four months, nine days, of which he had spent as ruler twenty-two years, seven months and seven days.  A public funeral was accorded him and a eulogy, delivered by Gaius.

[Footnote 1:  Supplying here (as did Sylburgius, to fill a gap in the sense) ... [GREEK:  echeleuse chahi tae boulae]....]

[Footnote 2:  The consul of A.D. 30, either C.  Cassius Longinus or his brother L.  Cassius Longinus.]

[Footnote 3:  A gap in the MS. exists, as indicated.]

[Footnote 4:  A corrupt reading for which no wholly satisfactory substitute has been offered.]

[Footnote 5:  The predicate of this clause has fallen out in the MS., and the restoration is on lines suggested by Bekker.]

[Footnote 6:  Reading (with Mommsen) [Greek:  outo] for [Greek:  auto].]

[Footnote 7:  Reading [Greek:  aedae polu] (Stephanus, Boissevain).]

[Footnote 8:  Using Boissevain’s reading [Greek:  adikousaes] (from Reiske) in preference to the MS. [Greek:  diadikousaes].]

[Footnote 9:  A small gap.  The text filled and context amended by Kuiper.]