When this hope proved false, he resorted to false accusations and robbery, being at the end of his resources and so utterly impoverished that he was obliged to postpone and defer even the pay of the soldiers and the rewards due to the veterans. First of all he made a law, that instead half, five-sixths of the property of deceased of onefreedmen should be made over to him, if without good and sufficient reason they bore the name of any family with which he himself was connected ; further, that the estates of those who were ungrateful to their emperor® should belong to the privy purse, and that the advocates who had written or dictated such wills should not go unpunished. Finally, that any word or deed on which an informer could base an action should be liable to the law against lesemajesty. He demanded the return of the rewards” which he had given in recognition of the prizes conferred on him by any city in any competition. Having forbidden the use of amethystine or Tyrian purple dyes, he secretly sent a man to sell a few ounces on a market day and then closed the shops of all the dealers.¢ It is even said that when he saw a matron in the audience at one of his recitals clad in the forbidden colour he pointed her out to his agents, who dragged her out and stripped her on the spot, aps not only of her garment, but also of her property. He never appointed anyone to an office without adding : “ You know what my needs are,” and “ Let us see to it that no one possess anything.” At last he stripped many temples of their gifts and melted down the images of gold and silver, including those of the Penates, which however Galba soon afterwards restored.