For, it was not so
much any study of his, to gratify the present generation and secure the
Roman State, as to perpetuate to posterity the grandeur of his race. So
that his mind still wavering and his strength decaying, to the decision of
fortune he permitted a counsel to which he was now unequal. Yet he dropped
certain words whence might be gathered that he foresaw the events and
revolutions which were to come to pass after him: for, he upbraided Macro,
by no dark riddle, "that he forsook the setting sun and courted the
rising:" and of Caligula, who upon some occasional discourse ridiculed
Sylla, he foretold, "that he would have all Sylla's vices, and not one of
his virtues." Moreover, as he was, with many tears, embracing the younger
of his grandsons, and perceived the countenance of Caligula implacable and
provoked; "thou," said he, "wilt slay him, and another shall slay thee."
But, however his illness prevailed, he relinquished nothing of his vile
voluptuousness; forcing patience, and feigning health. He was wont too to
ridicule the prescriptions of physicians, and all men who, after the age
of thirty, needed to be informed by any one else, what helped or hurted
their constitutions.
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