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But Fuivius,Fabius Maximus in Tacitus, Annals, i. 5, who relates the story quite differently. the friend of Caesar Augustus, heard the emperor, now an old man, lamenting the desolation of his house: two of his grandsonsGaius and Lucius Caesar. were dead, and Postumius,Postumus Agrippa; Cf. Tacitus, Annals, i. 3. the only one surviving, was in exile because of some false accusation, and thus he was forced to import his wife’s sonTiberius. into the imperial succession; yet he pitied his grandson and was planning to recall him from abroad. Fulvius divulged what he had heard to his own wife, and she to Livia; and Livia bitterly rebuked Caesar: if he had formed this design long ago, why did he not send for his grandson, instead of making her an object of enmity and strife to the successor to the empire. Accordingly, when Fulvius came to him in the morning, as was his custom, and said, Hail, Caesar, Caesar replied, Farewell, Fulvius.Ave, Caesar; Vale, Fulvi. And Fulvius took his meaning and went away; going home at once, he sent for his wife, Caesar has found out, he said, that I have not kept his secret, and therefore I intend to kill myself. It is right that you should, said his wife, since, after living with me for so long a time, you have not learned to guard against my incontinent tongue. But let me die first. And, taking the sword, she dispatched herself before her husband.
