Tiberius was happy; for in his occurred that
glorious fall of the great amphitheatre at Fidenae. But for me--alas!
alas!" And then he would pray earnestly for fire or slaughter--pestilence
or famine. Famine indeed was to some extent in his own power; and
accordingly, as far as his courage would carry him, he did occasionally
try that mode of tragedy upon the people of Rome, by shutting up the
public granaries against them. As he blended his mirth and a truculent
sense of the humorous with his cruelties, we cannot wonder that he should
soon blend his cruelties with his ordinary festivities, and that his daily
banquets would soon become insipid without them. Hence he required a daily
supply of executions in his own halls and banqueting rooms; nor was a
dinner held to be complete without such a dessert. Artists were sought out
who had dexterity and strength enough to do what Lucan somewhere calls
_ensem rotare_, that is, to cut off a human head with one whirl of
the sword. Even this became insipid, as wanting one main element of misery
to the sufferer, and an indispensable condiment to the jaded palate of the
connoisseur, viz.
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