[5,55] Ταῦτα τοῖς πρέσβεσιν ἀποκρινάμενος καὶ προπέμψας ἐκ τῆς πόλεως μετὰ τοῦτο φράζει τῇ βουλῇ περὶ τῆς ἀπορρήτου συνωμοσίας, ἃ παρὰ τῶν μηνυτῶν ἔμαθε· καὶ λαβὼν ἐξουσίαν παρ´ αὐτῶν αὐτοκράτορα τοῦ διερευνήσασθαι τοὺς μετασχόντας τῶν ἀπορρήτων βουλευμάτων καὶ τοῦ κολάσαι τοὺς ἐξευρεθέντας, οὐ τὴν αὐθάδη καὶ τυραννικὴν ἦλθεν ὁδόν, ὡς ἕτερος ἄν τις ἐποίησεν εἰς τοσαύτην κατακλεισθεὶς ἀνάγκην· ἀλλ´ ἐπὶ τὴν εὐλόγιστόν τε καὶ ἀσφαλῆ καὶ τῷ σχήματι τῆς καθεστώσης τότε πολιτείας ἀκόλουθον ἐτράπετο. οὔτε γὰρ ἐκ τῶν οἰκιῶν συλλαμβανομένους ἄγεσθαι τοὺς πολίτας ἐπὶ τὸν θάνατον ἀποσπωμένους ἀπὸ γυναικῶν τε καὶ τέκνων καὶ πατέρων ἐβουλήθη, τόν τ´ οἶκτον ἐνθυμούμενος, οἷος ἔσται τῶν προσηκόντων ἑκάστοις παρὰ τὸν ἀποσπασμὸν τῶν ἀναγκαιοτάτων καὶ δεδοικώς, μή τινες ἀπονοηθέντες ἐπὶ τὰ ὅπλα τὴν ὁρμὴν λάβωσι, καὶ δι´ αἵματος ἐμφυλίου χωρήσῃ τὸ ἀναγκασθὲν παρανομεῖν· οὔτε δικαστήρια καθίζειν αὐτοῖς ᾤετο δεῖν, λογιζόμενος, ὅτι πάντες ἀρνήσονται καὶ οὐθὲν ἔσται βέβαιον τοῖς δικασταῖς τεκμήριον οὐδ´ ἀναμφίλεκτον ἔξω τῆς μηνύσεως, ᾧ πιστεύσαντες θάνατον τῶν πολιτῶν καταψηφιοῦνται· καινὸν δέ τινα τρόπον ἀπάτης ἐξεῦρε τῶν νεωτεριζόντων, δι´ οὗ πρῶτον μὲν αὐτοὶ μηδενὸς ἀναγκάζοντες εἰς ἓν χωρίον ἥξουσιν οἱ τῶν ἀπορρήτων βουλευμάτων ἡγεμόνες, ἔπειτ´ ἀναμφιλέκτοις ἁλώσονται τεκμηρίοις, ὥστε μηδ´ ἀπολογίαν αὐτοῖς καταλείπεσθαι μηδεμίαν, πρὸς δὲ τούτοις οὐκ εἰς ἔρημον συναχθέντες τόπον οὐδ´ ἐν ὀλίγοις μάρτυσιν ἐξελεγχθέντες, ἀλλ´ ἐν ἀγορᾷ πάντων ὁρώντων γενόμενοι καταφανεῖς ἃ προσήκει πείσονται, ταραχή τ´ οὐδεμία γενήσεται κατὰ τὴν πόλιν οὐδ´ ἐπαναστάσεις ἑτέρων, οἷα συμβαίνειν φιλεῖ περὶ τὰς κολάσεις τῶν νεωτεριζόντων, καὶ ταῦτ´ ἐν ἐπισφαλέσι καιροῖς.

[5,55] Having given this answer to the ambassadors (p165) and ordered them to be conduct out of the city, he then told the senate everything relating to the secret conspiracy which he had learned from the informers. And receiving from the senate full authority to seek out the participants in the conspiracy and to punish those who should be discovered, he did not pursue the arbitrary and tyrannical course that anyone else might have followed under the like necessity, but resorted to the reasonable and safe course that was consistent with the form of government then established. Thus he was unwilling, in the first place, that citizens should be seized in their own houses and haled thence to death, torn from the embraces of their wives, children and parents, but considered the compassion which the relations of the various culprits would feel at the violent snatching away of those who were closest to them, and also feared that some of the guilty, if they were driven to despair, might rush to arms, and those who were forced to turn to illegal methods might engage in civil bloodshed. nor, again, did he think he ought to appoint tribunals to try them, since he reasoned that they would deny all guilty and that no certain and incontrovertible proof of it, besides the information he had just received, could be laid before the judges to which they would give credit and condemn the citizens to death. But he devised a new method of outwitting those who were stirring up sedition, a method by which, in the first place, the leaders of the conspiracy would of themselves, without any compulsion, meet in one place, and then would be convicted by incontrovertible proofs, so that they would be left without any defence whatever; furthermore, as they would not then be (p167) assembled in an unfrequented place nor convicted before a few witnesses only, but their guilt would be made manifest in the Forum before the eyes of all, they would suffer the punishment they deserved, and there would be no disturbance in the city nor uprisings on the part of others, as often happens when the seditious are punished, particularly in dangerous times.