[-22-] There is no denying that he received praise for his behavior in these matters, and most of all because he would not accept a number of honors that were voted to him for it. But the sensual orgies which he carried on shamelessly with the individuals of highest rank, male and female alike, caused ill to be spoken of him. For example, there was the case of his friend Sextus Marius. Imperial favor had made this man so rich and so powerful that when he was once at odds with a neighbor he invited him to dine for two successive days. On the first he razed his guest's dwelling entirely to the ground and on the next he rebuilt it on a larger scale and in more elaborate style. The victim of his treatment declared his ignorance of the perpetrators, whereupon Marius admitted being responsible for both occurrences and added significantly: "This shows you that I have both the knowledge and the power to repel attacks and also to requite a kindness." This friend, then, who had sent his daughter, a strikingly beautiful girl, to a place of refuge to prevent her being outraged by Tiberius, was charged with having criminal relations with her and for that reason destroyed both his daughter and himself. All this covered the emperor with disgrace, and his connection with the death of Drusus and Agrippina gave him a reputation for cruelty. Men had been thinking all along that the whole of the previous action against these two was due to Sejanus, and had been hoping that now their lives would be spared; so, when they learned that they had been actually murdered, they were exceedingly grieved, partly for the reasons mentioned and partly because, so far from depositing their bones in the imperial tomb, Tiberius ordered their remains to be hidden so carefully in the earth that they might never be found. In addition to Agrippina, Munatia Plancina was slain. Previous to this time, though he hated her (not on account of Germanicus but for another reason), he yet allowed her to live to prevent Agrippina from rejoicing at her death.
[-23-] Besides doing this he appointed Gaius quaestor, though not of first rank, promising him, however, that he would advance him to the other office five years earlier than was customary. At the same time he requested the senate not to make the young man conceited by numerous or extraordinary honors, for fear the latter might go astray in one way or another. He had, indeed, a descendant in the person of Tiberius, but him he disregarded both on account of age (he was a mere child as yet) and on account of the prevailing suspicion that this boy was not the son of Drusus. He therefore clove to Gaius as the most eligible candidate for sole ruler, especially as he felt sure that Tiberius would live but a short time and would be murdered by that very man. There was no detail of the character of Gaius of which he was in ignorance; indeed, he once remarked to his successor, who was quarreling with Tiberius: "You will kill him, and others will kill you." The emperor knew of no one else that suited him so entirely, and at the same time he was well aware that the man would be a thorough knave; yet the story obtains that he was glad to give him the empire in order that his own crimes might find concealment in the enormity of Gaius's offences and that the largest and the noblest portion of what was left of the senate might perish after him. At all events he is said to have often uttered the ancient saying: