107 



Tardy but just retribution overtook also Aemilia Lepida. wife of the 

 unfortunate Drusus, tlie son of Germanicus. She also had been guiltv 

 of adulteiy \\'ith Sejanus, and instrumental to the ruin of her husband. 

 She was now convicted of intimacy with a slave, and anticipated the 

 executioner by her own hand. (Tac. Ann. VI. 40.) 



The judicial forms so carefully adhered to in the cases of all the 

 persons accused of participation in the conspiracy of Sejanus, are 

 strangely at variance with what is reported to have taken place in the 

 year 33. Tacitus relates that Tiberius issued an order, that all per- 

 sons then in custody on the above charge, should indiscriminately be 

 put to death. He then draws a dreadful picture. He speaks of an 

 endless slaughter of every sex and age, of corpses of men of rank and 

 of low birth here dispersed, there heaped upon one another. But 

 that this was a great exaggeration is apparent from Suetonius (Tib. 61), 

 who says that twenty were put to death in one day. 



Whatever may have been the truth as to the number of victims, it 

 seems that the Emperor's motive was to have done once for all with 

 these bloody scenes, and for this reason he ordered also the most active 

 and infamous of the informers to be executed. But the heads of the horrid 

 hydra grew again, and Tiberius could not stem the torrent of blood. 

 (To be continued.) 



TENTH ORDINARY MEETING. 



Royal Institution, March 3rd, 1856. 



ROBERT M'ANDREW, Esq., F.R.S., President, in the Chair. 



The resignation of Mr. John Forshaw was received. 



Mr. T. C. Archer illustrated the formation of pearl, by specimens ; 

 Mr. M 'Andrew exhibited several ancient medals, and Dr. Thomson 

 noticed the fall of very fine snow crystals upon the 20th ult. 



The paper for the evening was — 



ON THE USEFUL PRODUCTS OF THE NATURAL ORDER 

 GRAMINACEiE. 

 By T. C. archer, Esq. 

 Few persons unaccustomed to reflect upon the sources of those mate- 

 rials which form the necessaries or luxuries of mankind can form even 



