1In a city at odds with itself, and wavering between liberty and licence because of the frequent changes of emperors, even small matters were carried on with great upheavals. 1Vibius Crispus, ranked through his wealth, power and talent among the famous rather than among the good, was summoning Annius Faustus, of the equestrian order, who had often practised as an informer in Nero's time, to trial before the senate; 1for recently, under Galba's principate, the senators had decreed that the cases of the accusers should be investigated. 1That decree of the senate, variously applied, and weak or strong according to whether the defendant who fell under it was powerful or helpless, still retained some element of terror.
1And Crispus had thrown his whole weight into ruining the man who had informed against his brother, and had drawn a great part of the senate to demand that he be handed over to death undefended and unheard. 1On the other hand, with others nothing helped the defendant so much as the excessive power of his accuser: they proposed that time should be given and the charges published, and that, however hateful and guilty, he should still be heard according to custom. 1And at first they prevailed, and the trial was put off for a few days: soon Faustus was condemned, but by no means with that approval from the citizens which his evil character had deserved, for they remembered that Crispus himself had brought the same kind of accusations for reward, and it was not the punishment for the crime but the avenger that displeased them.