A Good Emperor?
Edward Gibbon on the emperor Septimius Severus:

“He promised only to betray, he flattered only to ruin; and however he might occasionally bind himself by oaths and treaties, his conscience, obsequious to his interest, always released him from the inconvenient obligation.”

Quoted in ‘Yes, I am a walking advert for reform’ by the Earl of Onslow, The Guardian, 26 November 2003