the fact with obstinacy; and, being put to the torture, bore the severest tortures of the rack with unshaken constancy. 17.  Indeed, so remarkable was her resolution, that though acquainted with all the particulars of the conspiracy, and although Cher’ea was the person appointed to preside at her torture, she revealed nothing; on the contrary, when she was led to the rack, she trod upon the toe of one of the conspirators, intimating at once her knowledge of their conspiracy, and her resolution not to divulge it. 18.  Thus she suffered, until all her limbs were dislocated; and, in that deplorable state, was presented to the emperor, who ordered her a gratuity for what she had endured.

19.  Cher’ea could no longer contain his indignation, at being thus made the instrument of a tyrant’s cruelty.  After several deliberations of the conspirators, it was at last resolved to attack him during the Palatine games, which lasted four days,[19] and to strike the blow when his guards should not have the opportunity to defend him. 20.  The first three days of the games passed.  Cher’ea began to apprehend that deferring the completion of the conspiracy might be the means of divulging it; he even dreaded that the honour of killing the tyrant might fall to the lot of some other person bolder than himself.  At last he resolved to defer the execution of his plot only to the day following, when Calig’ula should pass through a private gallery, to some baths near the palace.

21.  The last day of the games was more splendid than the rest; and Calig’ula seemed more sprightly and condescending than usual.  He enjoyed the amusement of seeing the people scramble for the fruits and other rarities by his order thrown among them, being no way apprehensive of the plot formed for his destruction. 22.  In the mean time the conspiracy began to transpire:  and, had he any friends remaining, it could not have failed of being discovered.  A senator who was present, asking one of his acquaintance if he had heard any thing new, and the other replying in the negative, said “you must know, that this day will be represented the death of a tyrant.”  The other immediately understood him, but desired him to be cautious. 23.  The conspirators waited many hours with extreme anxiety; and Calig’ula seemed resolved to spend the whole day without any refreshment.  So unexpected a delay exasperated Cher’ea; and, had he not been restrained, he would suddenly have perpetrated his design in the midst of all the people. 24.  At that instant, while he was hesitating, Aspore’nus,[20] one of the conspirators, persuaded Calig’ula to go to the bath, and take some slight refreshment, that he might the better enjoy the rest of the entertainment. 25.  The emperor, rising up, the conspirators used every precaution to keep off the throng, and to surround him themselves, under pretence of great assiduity.  Upon his entering a little vaulted gallery that led to the bath, Cher’ea struck him to the ground with his dagger, crying out, “Tyrant, think upon this.”  The other conspirators closed in upon him; and while the emperor was resisting, and crying out that he was not yet dead, they dispatched him with thirty wounds.