in several engagements. 6.  At last, however, the barbarians were repelled, partly by force, and partly by the assistance of money, which only served to enable them to make future invasions with greater advantage. 7.  But in whatever manner the enemy might have been repelled, Domi’tian was resolved not to lose the honours of a triumph.  He returned in great splendour to Rome; and, not contented with thus triumphing twice without a victory, he resolved to take the surname of German’icus, for his conquests over a people with whom he never contended.

8.  In proportion as the ridicule increased against him, his pride seemed every day to demand greater homage.  He would permit his statues to be made only of gold and silver; he assumed to himself divine honours; and ordered that all men should address him by the same appellations which they gave to the Divinity. 9.  His cruelty was not inferior to his arrogance; he caused numbers of the most illustrious senators and others to be put to death, upon the most trifling pretences.  One AE’lius La’ma was condemned and executed only for jesting, though there was neither novelty nor poignancy in his humour.  Occea’nus was murdered only for celebrating the nativity of O’tho.  Pomposia’nus shared the same fate, because it was foretold by an astrologer that he should be emperor.  Sallus’tius Lucul’lus his lieutenant in Britain, was destroyed only for having given his name to a new sort of lances of his own invention.  Ju’nius Rus’ticus died for publishing a book, in which he commended Thra’sea and Pris’cus, two philosophers, who opposed Vespa’sian’s coming to the throne.

10.  Lu’cius Anto’nius, governor of Upper Germany, knowing how much the emperor was detested at home, resolved upon striking for the throne; and accordingly assumed the ensigns of imperial dignity. 11.  As he was at the head of a formidable army, his success remained a long time doubtful; but a sudden overflow of the Rhine dividing his army, he was set upon at that juncture by Norman’dus, the emperor’s general, and totally routed.  The news of this victory, we are told, was brought to Rome by supernatural means, on the same day that the battle was fought. 12.  Domi’tian’s severity was greatly increased by this short-lived success.  In order to discover the accomplices of the adverse party, he invented new tortures:  sometimes cutting off the hands—­at other times thrusting fire into the bodies of those whom he suspected of being his enemies. 13.  In the midst of these severities, he aggravated his guilt by hypocrisy—­never pronouncing sentence without a preamble full of gentleness and mercy.  The night before he crucified the comptroller of his household, he treated him with the most flattering marks of friendship, and ordered him a dish of meat from his own table.  He carried Areti’nus Cle’mens with him in his own litter the day he resolved upon his death. 14.  He was particularly terrible to the senate and nobility, the whole body of whom he frequently threatened to