It is believed, that he advanced all the most rapacious amongst the procurators to higher offices, with the view of squeezing them after they had acquired great wealth. He was commonly said, “to have used them as sponges,” because it was his practice, as we may say, to wet them when dry, and squeeze them when wet. It is said that he was naturally extremely covetous, and was upbraided with it by an old herdsman of his, who, upon the emperor’s refusing to enfranchise him gratis, which on his advancement he humbly petitioned for, cried out, “That the fox changed his hair, but not his nature.” On the other hand, some are of opinion, that he was urged to his rapacious proceedings by necessity, and the extreme poverty of the treasury and exchequer, of which he took public notice in the beginning of his reign; declaring that “no less than four hundred thousand millions of sesterces were wanting to carry on the government.” This is the more likely to be true, because he applied to the best purposes what he procured by bad means.
XVII. His liberality, however, to all ranks of people, was excessive. He made up to several senators the estate required (457) by law to qualify them for that dignity; relieving likewise such men of consular rank as were poor, with a yearly allowance of five hundred thousand sesterces 759; and rebuilt, in a better manner than before, several cities in different parts of the empire, which had been damaged by earthquakes or fires.
XVIII. He was a great encourager of learning and the liberal arts. He first granted to the Latin and Greek professors of rhetoric the yearly stipend of a hundred thousand sesterces 760 each out of the exchequer. He also bought the freedom of superior poets and artists 761, and gave a noble gratuity to the restorer of the Coan of Venus 762, and to another artist who repaired the Colossus 763. Some one offering to convey some immense columns into the Capitol at a small expense by a mechanical