But though the zeal of the
nobles and the bounty of the prince brought relief to suffering, yet every
day a stronger and fiercer host of informers pursued its victims, without
one alleviating circumstance. Quintilius Varus, a rich man and related to
the emperor, was suddenly attacked by Domitius Afer, the successful
prosecutor of Claudia Pulchra, his mother, and no one wondered that the
needy
FIRE AT ROME; TIBERIUS TO CAPRI |
adventurer of many years who had squandered
his lately gotten recompense was now preparing himself for fresh iniquities.
That Publius Dolabella should have associated himself in the prosecution was
a marvel, for he was of illustrious ancestry, was allied to Varus, and was
now himself seeking to destroy his own noble race, his own kindred. The
Senate however stopped the proceeding, and decided to wait for the emperor,
this being the only means of escaping for a time impending horrors.
