Book 26
10.11
For when any one at that time had become powerful for any reason, and having almost royal authority and being consumed with longing to seize the goods of others, accused some clearly guiltless person, he was welcomed as an intimate and loyal friend,Of the emperor. The text and exact meaning are uncertain, although the general sense is clear; regio imperio prope accedens can hardly mean having access to the court, or hastening to the court, as the vulgate reading regiae prope accedens did. who was to be enriched by the ruin of other men.
10.12
For the emperor, rather inclined himself to do injury, lent his ear to accusers, listened to death-dealing denunciations, and took unbridled joy in various kinds of executions; unaware of that saying of Cicero’s which asserts that those are unlucky who think that they have power to do anything they wish.
