The Annals and the Histories · Ann. 11.22

At Rome meanwhile, without any motive then known or subsequently ascertained, Cneius Nonius, a Roman knight, was found wearing a sword amid a crowd who were paying their respects to the emperor. The man confessed his own guilt when he was being torn in pieces by torture, but gave up no accomplices, perhaps having none to hide. During the same consulship, Publius Dolabella proposed that a spectacle of gladiators should be annually exhibited at the cost of those who obtained the quæstorship. In our ancestors' days this honour had been a reward of virtue, and every citizen, with good qualities to support him, was allowed to compete for office. At first there were no distinctions even of age, which prevented a man in his early youth from becoming a consul or a dictator. The quæstors indeed were appointed while the kings still ruled, and this the revival by Brutus of the lex curiata plainly…

Cornelius Tacitus · trans. Church & Brodribb, 1876
Source edition
Passage preview. Read in context for the complete text, notes and references.