"
Most remarkable was the beginning of that letter; for in these words he
introduced it: "What to write you, Conscript Fathers, or in what manner to
write, or what at all not to write at this instant; if I can determine,
may all the Deities, Gods and Goddesses, doom me still to more cruel
agonies than those under which I feel myself perishing daily." So closely
did the bloody horror of his cruelties and infamy haunt this man of blood,
and became his torturers! Nor was it at random what the wisest of all men
[Footnote: Socrates.] was wont to affirm, that if the hearts of tyrants
were displayed, in them might be seen deadly wounds and gorings, and all
the butcheries of fear and rage; seeing what the severity of stripes is to
the body, the same to the soul is the bitter anguish of cruelty, lust, and
execrable pursuits. To Tiberius not his imperial fortune, not his gloomy
and inaccessible solitudes could ensure tranquillity; nor exempt him from
feeling and even avowing the rack in his breast and the avenging furies
that pursued him.
After this, it was left to the discretion of the Senate to proceed as they
listed against Caecilianus the Senator, "who had loaded Cotta with many
imputations;" and it was resolved, "to subject him to the same penalties
inflicted upon Aruseius and Sanquinius, the accusers of Lucius Annuntius.
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