Res Gestae

And he, when he came into the emperor’s presence, being recognized and asked the reason for his coming,

By these words the emperor was struck as by a dagger, and like a keen-scented hound he searched into all the conduct of the prefect, asking Iphicles in his native tongue about people whom he personally knew: where in the world, for example, was so and so who excelled his countrymen in honour and reputation; or another, who was rich; or still another of high rank. And when he learned that one had fallen victim to the noose, that another had gone across the sea, that a third had committed suicide or had died under the blows of the knout,[*](plumbo probably refers to a lash with balls of lead fastened to it; cf. xxviii. 1, 29, note; Erfurdt-Wagner say in eculeo, which seems to mean that the victim was lashed as he bestrode the eculeus; or it may refer to weights attached to the victim’s feet; see xxvi. 10, 13, note 3.) he burned with tremendous rage, to which Leo, who was then chief marshal of the Court (oh, horror!), added blazing fuel, a man who himself aspired to the prefecture, in order to fall from a greater height.[*](A common idea; see Juv. x. 105 ff., numerosa parabat excelsae turris tabulata, unde altior esset casus, and Mayor’s note on 106.) And if he had attained and ruled the office, in comparison with what he would have dared, the administration of a Probus would be praised to the skies!