Suetonius says Tiberius frightened a man worth 400 million sesterces into suicide to inherit, and Caligula sent poisoned sweets to men who named him heir

Seneca says Gnaeus Lentulus the Augur was thought to be worth 400 million sesterces, owed his rise to Augustus, and was as barren in intellect as in spirit. In AD 24 an accuser named him in a treason charge, and Tiberius had him cleared. Suetonius says Tiberius drove Lentulus, "a man of great wealth, to take his own life through fear," and became his sole heir. Tacitus records his death in AD 25 as the end of a great noble who had borne honest poverty and then held a great fortune innocently acquired. Tacitus does not say how he died. Under Gaius, emperor from AD 37, the practice grew. Suetonius says Gaius voided the wills of chief centurions who had not named Tiberius or himself as heir, calling it ingratitude. He also voided the wills of others if anyone said they had meant to make Caesar their heir. Once people were frightened into naming him, he said they were mocking him by staying alive, and "to many of them he sent poisoned dainties." Cassius Dio says the Senate decreed that anyone who had meant to leave something to Tiberius should leave it to Gaius, and that Gaius called old men his relatives so he could inherit from them.