43 The end of his life, a
deplorable calamity to us and a grief to his friends, was regarded with concern
even by strangers and those who knew him not. The common people and this busy
population continually inquired at his house, and talked of him in public
places and in private gatherings. No man when he heard of Agricola’s death
could either be glad or at once forget it. Men’s sympathy was increased by a
prevalent rumour that he was destroyed by poison. For myself, I have nothing
which I should venture to state for fact. Certainly during the whole of his
illness the Emperor’s chief freedmen and confidential physicians came more
frequently than is usual with a court which pays its visits by means of
messengers. This was, perhaps, solicitude, perhaps espionage. Certain it is,
that on the last day the very agonies of his dying moments were reported by a
succession of couriers, and no one believed that there would be such haste
about tidings which would be heard with regret. Yet in his manner and
countenance the Emperor displayed some signs of sorrow, for he could now forget
his enmity, and it was easier to conceal his joy than his fear. It was well
known that on reading the will, in which he was named co-heir with Agricola’s
excellent wife and most dutiful daughter, he expressed delight, as if it had
been a complimentary choice. So blinded and perverted was his mind by incessant
flattery, that he did not know that it was only a bad Emperor whom a good
father would make his heir.
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