2 praeberet faciem neve summitteret; quibusdam stercore et caeno incessentibus, aliis incendiarium et patinarium vociferantibus, parte vulgi etiam corporis vitia exprobrante; erat enim in eo enormis proceritas, facies rubida plerumque ex vinulentia, venter obesus, alterum femur subdebile impulsu olim quadrigae, cum auriganti Gaio ministratorem exhiberet. Tandem apud Gemonias minutissimis ictibus excarnificatus atque confectus est et inde unco tractus in Tiberim. in XVIII. Periit cum fratre et filio anno vitae septimo quinquagesimo; nec fefellit coniectura eorum qui augurio, quod factum ei Viennae ostendimus, non aliud portendi praedixerant quam venturum alicuius Gallicani hominis potestatem, siquidem ab Antonio Primo adversarum partium duce oppressus est, cui Tolosae nato cognomen in pueritia Becco fuerat: id valet gallinacei rostrum. his face be seen. Some pelted him with dung and ordure, others called him incendiary and glutton, and some of the mob even taunted him with his bodily defects. He was in fact abnormally tall, with a face usually flushed from hard drinking, a huge belly, and one thigh crippled from being struck once upon a time by a four-horse chariot, when he was in attendance on Gaius as he was driving. At last on the Stairs of Wailing he was tortured for a long time and then despatched and dragged off with a hook to the Tiber. XVIII. He met his death, along with his brother and his son, in the fifty-seventh year of his age, fulfilling the prediction of those who had declared from an omen which befell him at Vienna, as we have stated," that he was destined to fall into the power of some man of Gaul. For he was slain by Antonius Primus, a leader of the opposing faction, who was born at Tolosa and in his youth bore the surname Becco, which means a rooster's beak." a Chap. ix., above. Gallus means 66 "a cock," as well as a Gaul." LIBER VIII DIVUS VESPASIANUS DIVUS TITUS DOMITIANUS DIVUS VESPASIANUS I. REBELLIONE trium principum et caede incertum diu et quasi vagum imperium suscepit firmavitque tandem gens Flavia, obscura illa quidem ac sine ullis maiorum imaginibus, sed tamen rei p. nequaquam paenitenda, constet licet Domitianum cupiditatis ac saevitiae merito poenas luisse. 2 T. Flavius Petro, municeps Reatinus, bello civili Pompeianarum partium centurio an evocatus, profugit ex Pharsalica acie domumque se contulit, ubi deinde venia et missione impetrata coactiones argentarias factitavit. Huius filius, cognomine Sabinus, expers militiae-etsi quidam eum primipilarem, nonnulli, cum adhuc ordines duceret, sacramento solutum per causam valitudinis tradunt— publicum quadragesimae in Asia egit; manebantque a See note on Galba, x. 3. A tax of five per cent. on the value of every slave who was set free, paid by the slave himself or by his master. |