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Notes Display Latin text | Titus, Chapter 6: His father's partner | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
| From that time on he [Note 1] never ceased to act as the emperor's partner and even as his protector. He took part in his father's [Note 2] triumph and was censor with him. He was also his colleague in the tribunician power and in seven consulships [72, 74-77, 79]. He took upon himself the discharge of almost all duties, personally dictated letters and wrote edicts in his father's name, and even read his speeches in the Senate in lieu of a quaestor. He also assumed the command of the Praetorian Guard, which before that time had never been held except by a Roman eques, and in this office conducted himself in a somewhat arrogant and tyrannical fashion. For whenever he himself regarded anyone with suspicion, he would secretly send some of the Guard to the various theatres and camps, to demand their punishment as if by consent of all who were present; and then he would put them out of the way without delay. Among these was Aulus Caecina, an ex-consul, whom he invited to dinner and then ordered to be stabbed almost before he left the dining-room; but in this case he was led by a pressing danger, having got possession of an autograph copy of an harangue which Caecina had prepared to deliver to the soldiers. Although by such conduct he provided for his safety in the future, he incurred such odium at the time that hardly anyone ever came to the throne with so evil a reputation or so much against the desires of all. |