. That morning he
tried and passed sentence on a soothsayer sent from Germany, who being
consulted about the lightning that had lately (494) happened, predicted
from it a change of government. The blood running down his face as he
scratched an ulcerous tumour on his forehead, he said, "Would this were
all that is to befall me!" Then, upon his asking the time of the day,
instead of five o'clock, which was the hour he dreaded, they purposely
told him it was six. Overjoyed at this information; as if all danger
were now passed, and hastening to the bath, Parthenius, his chamberlain,
stopped him, by saying that there was a person come to wait upon him
about a matter of great importance, which would admit of no delay. Upon
this, ordering all persons to withdraw, he retired into his chamber, and
was there slain.

XVII. Concerning the contrivance and mode of his death, the common
account is this. The conspirators being in some doubt when and where
they should attack him, whether while he was in the bath, or at supper,
Stephanus, a steward of Domitilla's [836], then under prosecution for
defrauding his mistress, offered them his advice and assistance; and
wrapping up his left arm, as if it was hurt, in wool and bandages for
some days, to prevent suspicion, at the hour appointed, he secreted a
dagger in them. Pretending then to make a discovery of a conspiracy, and
being for that reason admitted, he presented to the emperor a memorial,
and while he was reading it in great astonishment, stabbed him in the
groin. But Domitian, though wounded, making resistance, Clodianus, one
of his guards, Maximus, a freedman of Parthenius's, Saturius, his
principal chamberlain, with some gladiators, fell upon him, and stabbed
him in seven places. A boy who had the charge of the Lares in his
bed-chamber, and was then in attendance as usual, gave these further
particulars: that he was ordered by Domitian, upon receiving his first
wound, to reach him a dagger which lay under his pillow, and call in his
domestics; but that he found nothing at the head of the bed, excepting
the hilt of a (495) poniard, and that all the doors were fastened: that
the emperor in the mean time got hold of Stephanus, and throwing him upon
the ground, struggled a long time with him; one while endeavouring to
wrench the dagger from him, another while, though his fingers were
miserably mangled, to tear out his eyes. He was slain upon the
fourteenth of the calends o