He was removing many of the foremost men on many pretexts and by means of murders and banishments. [He also conveyed many to some out-of-the-way place, where he got rid of them; and not a few he caused to die in some way or other by their own acts that they might seem to have suffered death by their own wish and not through outside force.] He did not spare even the vestal virgins, but punished them on charges of their having had intercourse with men.  It is further reported that since their examination was conducted in a harsh and unfeeling manner, and many of them were accused and constantly being punished, one of the pontifices, Helvius Agrippa, could not endure it, but, horror-stricken, expired there in the senate where he sat. [Domitian also took pride in the fact that he did not bury alive, as was the custom, the virgins he found guilty of debauchery, but ordered them to be killed by some different way.]

After this he set out for Gaul and plundered some of the tribes across the Rhine enjoying treaty rights,—­a performance which filled him with conceit as if he had achieved some great success.  Presumably on account of the victory he increased the soldiers’ wages, so that whereas each had been receiving seventy-five denarii he commanded that a hundred be given them.  Later he thought better of it, but instead of diminishing the amount he curtailed the number of men-at-arms.  Both of these steps entailed great injury to the public weal:  he had made the defenders of the State too few, while rendering their support an item of great expense.

[Sidenote:  A.D. 84 (a.u. 837)] [Sidenote:—­4—­] Next he made a campaign into Germany and returned without having seen a trace of war anywhere.  And what need is there of mentioning the honors bestowed upon him at this juncture for his exploit or from time to time upon the other emperors who were like him?  For the object in any case was simply not to arouse the rage of those despots by letting them suspect, in consequence of the small number and insignificance of the rewards, that the people saw through them.  Yet Domitian had this worst quality of all, that he desired to be flattered, and was equally displeased with both sorts of men, those who paid court to him and those who did not.  He disliked the former because their attitude seemed one of cajolery and the latter because it seemed one of contempt.  Notwithstanding [he affected to take pleasure in the honorary decrees voted him by the senate.  Ursus he came near killing because he was not pleased with his sovereign’s exploits, and then, at the request of Julia, he appointed him consul.] Subsequently, being still more puffed up by his folly, he was elected consul for ten years in succession, and first and only censor for life of all private citizens and emperors:  and he obtained the right to employ twenty-four lictors and the triumphal garb whenever he entered the senate-house.  He gave October a new name, Domitianum, because he