At about that time a certain slave, Danus by name, was accused by his wife on trifling charges merely to intimidate him; this woman was approached by Rufinus, who had come to know her in some way or other. He was the man who had given certain information that he had learned through Gaudentius, one of the agents,See note 2, p. 98. and had caused the death of Africanus, then governor-general of Pannonia, along with his guests, as I have related;xv. 3, 7. he was even then, because of his obsequiousness, chief steward of the praetorian prefecture.

This Rufinus (as he kept boastfully saying) led the fickle woman, first into shameful relations with him, and then into a dangerous deceit; he induced her by a tissue of lies to charge her guiltless husband with high treason, and to allege that he had stolen a purple robe from Diocletian’s tomb and with several accomplices was concealing it.

And having thus framed these matters to the destruction of many persons, Rufinus himself, in hope of greater profit, flies to the emperor’s camp, to stir up his customary scandals. And when the fact was divulged, Mavortius, then praetorian prefect, a man of high resolution, was bidden to look into the charge with a keen investigation, having associated with him, to hear the case in common, Ursulus, count of the largesses,See Introd., pp. xl f. likewise a man of praiseworthy severity.