51. Answers to exercises Copy

Larcius Macedo, a man of praetorian rank, who was indeed an arrogant and cruel master and

himself the son of a slave, has suffered at the hands of his own slaves a cruel deed and one

not worthy of a letter alone. For those men had for a long time already been looking for an

opportunity to kill their master. Macedo was having a bath in his country house: suddenly his

slaves stood around him; one attacked his throat, another made for his face and another struck

his stomach. When they believed that he was dead, they threw him down onto the hot tiled

floor in order to find out whether he was still alive. Either because he felt nothing or because

he was pretending to feel nothing, he lay motionless in such a way that the slaves were

confident that he had been killed. Then, almost overcome by the heat, he was carried out; his

more faithful slaves received him, and his concubines ran together with howling and

shouting. Thus both aroused by the voices and restored by the cold of the place, by raising his

eyes and moving his body he revealed that he was alive (and it was now safe to do so). The

slaves ran off in all directions; the majority were arrested, the rest are still being searched for.

He himself however, worn out by his wounds, died within a few days, not without hope of

revenge.