Suetonius, Divus Tiberius 75
“The people were so elated at his death, that at its first announcement some went running around shouting, “Tiberius to the Tiber” and others appealed to the Earth mother and the Ghosts to give the dead man no home except among the punished. Others threatened his corpse with a hook and the Mourning Stairs, angered by the memory of new insult added to ancient injury.
This is because the Senate had recently decreed that executions should be delayed for 10 days and as it turned out some of them were to be killed when the news of Tiberius’ death broke. The poor souls who begged for public protection had no one to approach or appeal to because Gaius was gone; and the jailors strangled them and threw them out on the Mourning Stairs because they were afraid to do anything against the law. Their hatred grew greater since the tyrant’s brutality persisted after death”
Morte eius ita laetatus est populus, ut ad primum nuntium discurrentes pars: “Tiberium in Tiberim!” clamitarent, pars Terram matrem deosque Manes orarent, ne mortuo sedem ullam nisi inter impios darent, alii uncum et Gemonias cadaveri minarentur, exacerbati super memoriam pristinae crudelitatis etiam recenti atrocitate. Nam cum senatus consulto cautum esset, ut poena damnatorum in decimum semper diem differretur, forte accidit ut quorundam supplicii dies is esset, quo nuntiatum de Tiberio erat. Hos implorantis hominum fidem, quia absente adhuc Gaio nemo exstabat qui adiri interpellarique posset, custodes, ne quid adversus constitutum facerent, strangulaverunt abieceruntque in Gemonias. Crevit igitur invidia, quasi etiam post mortem tyranni saevitia permanente.
