When
this was now laid open, the general hate and animosities long since
conceived against him, broke violently out, and had he not offered to make
a discovery, he had been instantly condemned to death.
The next impeached was Cotta Messalinus, the author of every the most
bloody counsel, and thence long and intensely hated. The first opportunity
was therefore snatched to fall upon him with a combination of crimes; as
that he had called Caius Caligula by the feminine name of _Caia Caligula_,
and branded him with constuprations of both kinds; that when he celebrated
among the Priests the birthday of Augusta, he had styled the entertainment
a _funeral supper_; and that complaining of the great sway of Marcus
Lepidus, and of Lucius Arruntius, with whom he had a suit about money, he
had added; "they indeed will be supported by the Senate, but I by my
little Tiberius." [Footnote: Tiberiolus meus.] Of all this he stood
exposed to conviction by men of the first rank in Rome; who being earnest
to attack him, he appealed to Caesar: from whom soon after a letter was
brought in behalf of Cotta; in it he recounted "the beginning of their
friendship," repeated "his many good services to himself," and desired
"that words perversely construed, and humorous tales told at an
entertainment, might not be wrested into crimes.
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