Tacitus, Annals 14.42-45; The murder of Pedanius Secundus in 61 AD (42.1) Not long after this, one of his slaves killed Pedanius Secundus, the prefect of the city, either because he had been denied freedom when he had paid the agreed price, or, aflame with love for a slave boy kept as a prostitute, he could not stand having his master as a rival. (2) However, when, according to ancient custom, the entire household that lived under the same roof ( tectum ) was to have been put to death, such a riot broke out amongst the plebs, who wanted to protect the large number of innocent people, that the senate was besieged by a mob. In the senate itself there was strong feeling that severity that was too extreme should be avoided, even though the majority was of the opinion that nothing should be changed. Gaius Cassius, who was one the majority opinion, argued for the motion in this way: (43.1) I have often been present at meeting, Oh conscript fathers, when new decrees of the senate have been proposed in place of the institutions and laws of our ancestors, and I did not oppose them. I did not do this because I had any doubt but that what had been provided for in all matters was done better and more correctly in the past, and that these things were being changed for the worst, but rather so that I would not seem to extol my area of expertise through excessive love of ancient custom. (2) At the same time, I did not think that I ought to destroy whatever authority I might have though constant contradiction, so that it might remain intact in case the state ever had need of my advice. This is the time, when a man of consular rank has been killed in his own house by a servile plot, and not one of those slaves stopped it, or betrayed it, even though the senatus consultum has not yet been altered that threatens death to all the slaves. By Hercules, you can vote for a pardon, but who will his own rank defend when rank availed the prefect of the city nothing? What number of slaves will protect a person, when four hundred slaves could not protect Pedanius Secundus? Who will the slaves protect, when they pay not attention to our safety through fear? (4) Or, as some are not ashamed to suggests, did the killer avenge his own injury, because he lost money from his estate or was deprived of an old slave? Lets go all the way and decide that the master was killed for just cause. (44) Is it permissible to seek arguments up to this point because it has been discussed by philosophers ? But if we think that this has to be decided for the first time, do you think that a slave decided to kill his master without uttering a threat, or saying nothing that might have given some indication of what he was planning to do? Did he his design without taking advice, prepare the weapon amongst people who did not know what he was doing? Was he able to pass by the watchmen, open the doors of the bed chamber, bring in a light, and accomplish the murder without anyone noticing? (2) Many clues proceed a crime, and if slaves betray then, we are able to live as individuals amongst many, safe amidst their anxieties, and finally, if we are killed, not to be without vengeance amongst killers. (3) The nature of slaves was suspected by our ancestors, even when they were born in the same fields and houses and immediately received the care of their masters. After we started to have entire nations as household slaves, people who had different customs, different faiths, if any, you were not able to control this cesspool in any way other than through fear. Innocent people will die. (4) When every tenth man from a defeated army is executed, even the brave are chosen by lot. Every great "example" had some innocent victim, but the individual harm is repaid by the public good. (45) No one dared to oppose the proposal of Cassius, so the dissonant voices of those who were for mercy brought up the number, the age, the gender and the undoubted innocence of the majority: but the side that favored execution won out. But it was not possible to calm the people, gathered in a great crowd and threatening the senate with torches and stones. (2) Then Caesar issued an edict admonishing the people, and lined the whole route along which the condemned were taken to execution with soldiers from the city garrison. Cingonius Varro moved that the freedmen who lived under the same roof ( tectum ) should be deported from Italy. But this was prohibited by the emperor, least ancient custom, which pity had not diminished should turn into cruelty.