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.
[Sidenote: U.C.793.

A.D.

41] 6.