He usually
fed his wild beasts with the bodies of those wretches whom he
condemned; and every tenth day sent off numbers of them to be thus
devoured, which he jocosely called clearing his accounts. One of those
who was thus exposed, crying out that he was innocent,[17] Calig'ula
ordered him to be taken up, his tongue to be cut out, and then
thrown into the amphitheatre as before. 2. He took delight in killing
men with slow tortures, that, as he expressed it, they might feel
themselves dying, being always present at such executions himself,
directing the duration of the punishment, and mitigating the tortures
merely to prolong them. 3. In fact, he valued himself for no quality
more than his unrelenting temper, and inflexible severity, when he
presided at an execution. 4. Upon one occasion, being incensed with
the citizens, he wished that the Roman people had but one neck, that
he might dispatch them at one blow.
5. Such insupportable and capricious cruelties produced many secret
conspiracies against him; but they were for a while deferred upon
account of his intended expedition against the Germans and Britons.
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