" When the
encampment was finished, he began gradually to allure the affections of
the soldiers, by all the ways of affability, court, and familiarity: it
was he too who chose the Centurions, he who chose the Tribunes. Neither in
his pursuits of ambition did the Senate escape him; but by distinguishing
his followers in it with offices and provinces, he cultivated power and a
party there: for, to all this Tiberius was entirely resigned; and even so
passionate for him, that not in conversation only, but in public, in his
speeches to the Senate and people, he treated and extolled him, as _the
sharer of his burdens_; nay, allowed his effigies to be publicly adored,
in the several theatres, in all places of popular convention, and even
amongst the Eagles of the legions.
But to his designs were many retardments: the Imperial house was full of
Caesars; the Emperor's son a grown man, and his grandsons of age: and
because the cutting them off all at once, was dangerous; the treason he
meditated, required a gradation of murders. He however chose the darkest
method, and to begin with Drusus; against whom he was transported with a
fresh motive of rage.
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