him poison. Observing the man's hesitation, he said, "Why do you delay,
as though the whole business was in your power? I ask for death with
arms in my hands." Then the slave assented, and gave him a harmless drug
to drink. When Domitius fell asleep after drinking this, the slave went
to his son, and said, "Give orders for my being kept in custody until
you learn from the result whether I have given your father poison or
no." Domitius lived, and Caesar saved his life; but his slave had saved
it before.

XXV. During the civil war, a slave hid his master, who had been
proscribed, put on his rings and clothes, met the soldiers who were
searching for him, and, after declaring that he would not stoop to
entreat them not to carry out their orders, offered his neck to their
swords. What a noble spirit it shows in a slave to have been willing
to die for his master, at a time when few were faithful enough to
wish their master to live! to be found kind when the state was cruel,
faithful when it was treacherous! to be eager for the reward of
fidelity, though it was death, at a time when such rich rewards were
offered for treachery!

XXVI. I will not pass over the instances which our own age affords. In
the reign of Tiberius Caesar, there was a common and almost universal
frenzy for informing, which was more ruinous to the citizens of Rome
than the whole civil war; the talk of drunkards, the frankness of
jesters, was alike reported to the government; nothing was safe; every
opportunity of ferocious punishment was seized, and men no longer waited
to hear the fate of accused persons, since it was always the same. One
Paulus, of the Praetorian guard, was at an entertainment, wearing a
portrait of Tiberius Caesar engraved in relief upon a gem. It would be
absurd for me to beat about the bush for some delicate way of explaining
that he took up a chamber-pot, an action which was at once noticed by
Maro, one of the most notorious informers of that time, and the slave of
the man who was about to fall into the trap, who drew the ring from the
finger of his drunken master. When Maro called the guests to witness
that Paulus had dishonoured the portrait of the emperor, and was already
drawing up an act of accusation, the slave showed the ring upon his
own finger. Such a man no more deserves to be called a slave, than Maro
deserved to be called a guest.

XXVII. In the reign of Augustus men's own words were not yet able to
ruin them, yet the