GALLUS AND CONSTANTIUS.

Evil minds are also driven by cruelty.

A writ was sent, and through deadly hatred—though he was untouched by any crime—this same Clematius was killed, permitted neither to open his mouth nor to speak. Clematius was a nobleman from Alexandria. Historical accounts suggest his mother-in-law, having been rejected by him, bribed Gallus’s wife, Constantina, with a necklace to secure his execution without trial. After this impious act was perpetrated, which now caused fear in others as well, as if a license had been granted to cruelty, certain men were judged harmful and condemned through the mists of suspicion.
A portrait of a tyranny raging monstrously.

Some of these were killed; others were punished by the seizure of their property and driven as exiles from their ancestral homes. With nothing left to them but complaints and tears, they survived on collected alms. As civil and just rule was turned into a bloody whim, wealthy and famous houses were shuttered. Nor was any voice of an accuser sought amidst these heaps of evils—even if the victims were subjects—so that crimes might at least appear to be committed against the prescriptions of the laws,
This is the difference between a tyrant and a king: tyrants rage for their own pleasure, while kings do so only out of necessity and cause.

as cruel princes have occasionally done in the past. Instead, whatever had settled in Caesar’s implacable mind was immediately urged to be carried out, as if it had been weighed as divine and human law original: "fas iúsque perpensum". Beyond these measures, it was devised that certain unknown men—hardly to be feared because of their very lowliness—should be sent to all corners of Antioch The capital city of the Roman province of Syria and Gallus's seat of power. to collect rumors and report what they heard.
The arts of tyranny.

These men, wandering about and dissembling, would stand among circles of honored citizens or enter wealthy houses dressed as beggars. Whatever they could learn or hear, they would report to the palace, having been secretly admitted through back doors. They maintained a harmonious conspiracy to invent certain tales and to double the severity of what they actually knew; meanwhile, they suppressed any praises of Caesar, which the fear of impending evils wrung from many against their will.
The miserable state of families under a grim rule.

And it sometimes happened that if a master of a house whispered anything into his wife’s ear in the secrecy of their inner chambers—with no servant present—the Emperor would learn of it the next day, as if it had been reported by Amphiaraus or Marcius, the famous seers of old. Amphiaraus was a legendary Greek hero and seer; the Marcii were famous Roman prophets whose oracles were consulted in times of crisis. Consequently, even the walls—the only witnesses to secrets—were feared. Adoles-