d prevented them from
escorting him, and as they descended the steps down which condemned
criminals were commonly cast they slipped and fell. Subsequently he took
the auspices and not one bird of good omen appeared, but crows flew and
cawed about him and then flew off all together to the jail, where they
alighted.

[-6-] These prodigies neither Sejanus nor any one else laid to heart.
For, in view of the way things stood, not even if some god had plainly
foretold that so great a change would take place in a short time, would
any one have believed it. They swore by his Fortune as if they would
never be weary, and hailed him colleague of Tiberius, making this phrase
refer not to the consulship but to the supreme power. Tiberius was no
longer uninformed of aught that concerned his minister. He racked his
brains to see in what manner he might kill him, but, not finding any way
in which he might do this openly and safely, he treated both the man
himself and all the rest in a remarkable fashion, so as to gain an
accurate knowledge of their feeling. He sent many despatches of all kinds
regarding himself to Sejanus and to the senate incessantly, saying at one
time that he was poorly and just at the point of death, and again that
he was in exceedingly good health and would reach Rome directly. Now he
would strongly approve Sejanus and again vehemently denounce him. Some of
his companions he would honor to show his regard for him, and others he
would dishonor. Thus Sejanus, filled in turn with extreme elation
and extreme fear, was always in a flutter. He could not decide to be
terrified and for that reason attempt a revolution, inasmuch as he was
being honored, nor yet to become bold enough to attempt some desperate
venture inasmuch as he was frequently abased. Moreover, all the rest of
the people were getting to feel dubious, because they heard alternately
and at short intervals the most contrary reports, because they could no
longer justify themselves in either admiring or despising Sejanus, and
because they were wondering about Tiberius, thinking first that he was
going to die and then that his arrival was imminent.

[-7-] Sejanus was disturbed by all this, and a great deal more by the
fact that from one of his statues at first a mass of smoke ascended in a
burst, and then, when the head was taken off to enable investigators to
see what was going on, a huge serpent darted up. Another head at once
replaced the former, and accor