Kitap 29
1.20
For he was exposed and open to the approach of plotters through his dangerous tendency to two faults: first, he was more prone to intolerable anger, when to be angry at all was shameful; secondly, in his princely pride he did not condescend to sift the truth of what, with the readiness of access of a man in private life, he had heard in secret whispers, but accepted as true and certain.
1.21
The result was that many innocent persons under the appearance of mercy were thrust forth from their homes, and driven headlong into exile; and their property, which was consigned to the treasury, the emperor himself turned to his own profit,Hadrian and Septimius Severus put such money into the public treasury; see Spart., Hadr. 7, 7; Capitolinus, Albinus, 12, 4. while the condemned, worn out by the privations of fearful poverty, were reduced to beggary—and that is a fate to avoid which the wise old poet Theognis advises us actually to hurl ourselves into the sea.Edmonds, Elegy and Iambus, i. p. 248, 175 ff., L.C.L.:— Ἄνδρ᾽ ἀγαθὸν πενίη πάντων δάμνησι μάλιστα, καὶ γήρως πολιοῦ, κύρνε, καὶ ἠπιάλου. ἣν δὴ χρὴ φεύγοντα καὶ ἐς βαθυκήτεα πόντον ρἱπτεῖν, καὶ πετρέων, κύρνε, κατ᾽ ἠλιβάτων.
1.22
And even if anyone should admit that these things were right, yet their excess alone was hateful. Whence it was observed that the maxim is true, that no sentence is more cruel than one which conceals great severity under the guise of mercy.
