Res Gestae

And since some in person, a part through others, by sending a written list of their desires,[*](So also at the temple of Jupiter at Baalbek.) inquired the will of the deities after definitely stating their requests, the papers or parchments containing their petitions sometimes remained in the shrine even after the replies had been given.

Some of these were with malicious intent sent to the emperor who (being narrow-minded), although deaf to other very serious matters, on this point was softer than an earlobe,[*](Cf. Cic., Q.F. ii. 154, me . . . fore auricula infima scito molliorem; Catull. 25, 2 (mollior) imula auricilla. ) as the proverb has it; and being suspicious and petty, he grew furiously angry. At once be admonished Paulus to proceed quickly to the Orient, conferring on him, as a leader renowned for his experience, the power of conducting trials according to his good pleasure.

A commission was also given to Modestus (at that very time count in the Orient) a man fitted for these and similar affairs. For Hermogenes of Pontus, at that time praetorian prefect, was rejected as being of too mild a temper.

Off went Paulus (as he was ordered) in panting haste and teeming with deadly fury, and since free rein was given to general calumny, men were brought in from almost the whole world, noble and obscure alike; and some of them were bowed down with the weight of chains, others wasted away from the agony of imprisonment.