the city as if he were after some enemies.  There he rested the following day, as though seeking respite from battle, and wearing a gold-spangled tunic he returned on a chariot over the same bridge.  He was drawn by race-horses that were most competent to gain victories.  A long train of what was apparently spoils accompanied him, among them Darius, one of the Arsacidae, belonging to the group of Parthians then serving as hostages.  His friends and associates in beflowered robes followed him on vehicles, as did the army and the rest of the throng, which was decked out according to individual taste.  Of course, in the midst of such a campaign and after so magnificent a victory he had to deliver a bit of an harangue:  so he ascended a platform which had likewise been erected at about the center of the bridge.  First he extolled himself as one who had undertaken a great enterprise; next he praised the soldiers as men exhausted by the dangers they had faced, adding the significant statement that they had traversed the sea on foot.  For this gallantry he gave them money and afterward for the rest of the day and all through the night they enjoyed a banquet,—­he on the bridge, as though some island, and they at anchor on other boats.  Light in abundance shone upon them from the place itself and abundant light besides from the mountains.  For since the place was crescent-shaped, fire was exhibited from all sides, as might be done in a theatre, so that no one could notice the darkness.  It was his wish to make the night day, as he had made the sea land.  When he had become full to excess of food and strong drink, he threw numbers of his companions off the bridge into the sea and sank many of the rest by making a circuitous attack upon them in boats that had rams.  Some perished, but the majority though drunk managed to save themselves.  The reason was that the sea showed itself extremely smooth and tranquil both while the bridge was being put together and while the other events were taking place.  This, too, caused the emperor some elation, and he said that even Neptune was afraid of him.  As for Darius and Xerxes, he made all manner of fun of them, inasmuch as he had bridged over a far vaster expanse of sea than they.

[-18-] The final episode in the career of that bridge, which I shall now relate, proved another source of death to many.  Inasmuch as the emperor had exhausted his revenues in the construction he fell to plotting against many more persons because of their property.  He presided at trials both privately and in company with the entire senate.  That body also tried some cases by itself, yet it had not full powers and there were many appeals from its decisions.  The decisions of the senate were merely made public, but when any men were condemned by Gaius their names were bulletined, as though he feared they might not learn their fate.  These met their punishment some in prison and others by being hurled from the Capitoline.  Still others killed themselves beforehand.  There