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He ordered Julius Graecinus to be put to death for no other reason than this, "That he was a better man than it was expedient for a tyrant that any one should be;" for, as Pliny tells us, the Caesars deliberately preferred that their people should be vicious than that they should be virtuous.
Augustus sent thither the beaked ships captured in the battle of Actium, Ann. 4, 5. Hence perhaps called illustris. Procuratorem Caesarum. Collector of imperial revenues in the Roman Provinces. Quae equestris est, i.e. the procurator was, as we say, ex officio, a Roman knight. The office was not conferred on senators. Julius Graecinus. Cf.
But when the youth named Perpenna and Graecinus, and some others whom Aufidius knew to be in the conspiracy, he was confounded, yet he made light of the story to the youth, and told him to despise Manlius for a lying braggart; but he went to Perpenna, and, showing him the critical state of affairs, and the danger, urged him to the deed.
To the honour of Agricola my wife's father, this present book is in the meantime dedicated; and, as 'tis a declaration of filial duty and affection, will thence be commended, at least excused. His father Julius Graecinus was a Senator, and noted for eloquence and philosophy. By these his virtues, he earned the wrath of Caligula.
When a consular named Rebilius, a man of equally bad character, sent a yet larger sum to Graecinus, and pressed him to receive it. "I must beg," answered he, "that you will excuse me. I did not take money from Persicus either." Ought we to call this receiving presents, or rather taking one's pick of the senate?
If you want an instance of magnanimity, take the case of Julius Graecinus, whom Caius Caesar put to death merely on the ground that he was a better man than it suited a tyrant for anyone to be.
His father, Julius Graecinus, had fallen a victim to Caligula, because he refused to undertake the prosecution of a man the Emperor was determined to destroy, and there is some reason to suspect that Agricola himself was sacrificed to the suspicions and envy of Domitian. Like most good and honourable men, he had a good mother, whose virtues Tacitus records.
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