Kitap 30
8.10
Besides this there was a fire of envy in the very marrow of this same emperor, and knowing that most vices are wont to assume the appearance of virtues,Cf. Cicero, Part. orat., 81 cernenda autem sunt diligenter, nefallant ea nos vitia quae virtutem videntur imitari; Seneca, Epist. 45, 7; Juv. xiv. 109. he had ever upon his lips the saying, that malice of severity is the inseparable associate of rightful power. And as men of the highest position always think that everything is allowed them, and they are strongly inclined to suspect those who oppose them and to overthrow better men than themselves, so he hated the well dressed, the learned, the rich, and the high-born; and he depreciated brave men, in order to give the appearance of surpassing all men in good qualities, a fault, as we read, by which the emperor Hadrian was inflamed.See Spartianus, Hadrian, 15, summed up in 15, 13, non recte suadetis, familiares, qui non patimini me illum doctiorem omnibus credere, qui habet triginta legiones; so also Caligula; see Suet., Calig. 35.
8.11
This same prince often denounced cowards, calling such men sullied, unclean, and deserving to be thrust down below the humblest estate; and yet he himself, in the presence of empty terrors, sometimes turned abjectly pale and dreaded in his inmost soul something that did not exist at all.
