(BOOK 79, BOISSEVAIN.)

[Sidenote: A.D. 216 (a.u. 969)] [Sidenote:—1—] The next thing was a campaign against the Parthians and the pretext that was used was that Artabanus had refused to view favorably his wooing and give him his daughter in marriage. (But he knew well enough that, while pretending to want to marry her, he in fact was anxious to detach the Parthian kingdom.) So he damaged a large section of the country around Media by means of a sudden incursion, sacked many citadels, won over Arbela, dug open the royal tombs of the Parthians, and flung the bones about. The Parthians would not engage him at close quarters, and therefore I have had nothing of especial interest to record concerning the doings of that expedition except, perhaps, one anecdote. Two soldiers who had seized a skin of wine came to him, each claiming the booty as entirely his own. Being bidden by him to divide the wine equally they drew their swords and cut the wine skin in two, apparently expecting each to get a half with the wine in it. They so dreaded their emperor that they troubled him even with such details and showed such scrupulousness as to lose both wineskin and wine.

Now the barbarians took refuge in the mountains and across the Tigris in order to perfect their preparations. But Antoninus suppressed this fact and, assuming that he had utterly vanquished a foe whom he had not even seen, he displayed becoming pride; and, as he himself wrote, he was particularly gratified because a lion ran down from the mountains and fought on his side.

[Sidenote:—2—] Not only in other ways did he live unnaturally and transgress laws, but in his very campaigns [[lacuna] but truth; [Footnote: Here begins the parchment codex, Vaticanus 1288. See Volume I, page 8.] for I have run across the book written by him about it. He understood so well how he stood with all the senators that, in spite of many protests, their slaves and freedmen and intimate friends were arrested by him and were asked under torture whether "so-and-so loves me" or "so-and-so hates me." For the charts of the stars under which any of his foremost courtiers had been born gave evidence, he said, as to who was friendly to him and who was hostile. And on this basis he honored many persons and destroyed many others.

[Sidenote: A.D. 217 (a.u. 970)] [Sidenote:—3—] When the Parthians and the Medes, greatly enraged at the treatment they had received, equipped a large body of troops, he fell into an ecstasy of terror. He was very bold in threats and very reckless in daring, but very cowardly in following a slow course involving danger, and very weak in hard labor. He could no longer bear either great heat or armor, and consequently wore sleeved tunics made in such a shape as more or less to resemble breastplates. Thus having the appearance of armor without its weight he could be safe from plots and also arouse admiration. He often used these garments when not in battle. He wore also a cavalry cloak, now all purple, now purple with white threads, and again of white with purple threads, and also red. In Syria and in Mesopotamia he used Celtic clothing and shoes. He furthermore invented a costume of his own by cutting out cloth and stitching it up, barbaric fashion, into a kind of cloak. He himself wore it very constantly, so that it led to his being called Caracalla, [Footnote: A word of Celtic origin, signifying a long, ulster-like tunic plus a hood. This was a Gallic dress.] and he prescribed it by preference as the dress for the soldiers. The barbarians saw what sort of person he was and also heard that his men were enervated through their previous luxury; for, to give an instance of their behavior, the Romans passed the winter in houses, making use of everything belonging to their entertainers as if it were their own. [They further perceived that their opponents had become so physically worn and so dejected in spirit by their toils and by the hardships which they were now undergoing that they no longer heeded the presents which they kept receiving from their commander.] Elated, therefore, to think that they should find them rather helpers than foes, they made ready to attack. [Footnote: The last five words are a conjecture of Bekker's.]

[Sidenote:—4—] Antoninus made preparations in his turn, but it did not fall to his lot to enter upon the war: he was struck down in the midst of his soldiers, whom he most honored and in whom he reposed vast confidence. A seer in Africa had declared (in such a way that it became noised abroad) that both Macrinus the prefect and his son Diadumenianus [Footnote: His full name was M. Opellius Diadumenianus.] must reign. Macrinus, sent to Rome, had revealed this to Flavius Maternianus, who at the time commanded the soldiers in the city, and he had at once sent word to Antoninus. It happened that this letter was diverted to Antioch and came to [his mother] Julia, since she had been given orders to read over everything that arrived and thus prevent a mass of unimportant letters being sent to him while in a hostile country. Another letter written by Ulpius Julianus, who then had charge of appraisements, went by other carriers straight to Macrinus and informed him of the state of the case. It was in this way that the letter to the emperor suffered a delay and the despatch to his rival came to the attention of the latter in good season. Now Macrinus, becoming afraid that he might be put to death by Antoninus on account of all this, especially since a certain Egyptian Serapio had told the prince to his face that Macrinus should succeed him, did not find it well to delay.—Serapio had first been thrown to a lion for his pains, but when he merely held out his hand, as is reported, and the animal did not touch him, he was slain. He might have escaped even this fate (or so he declared) by calling upon certain spirits, if he had lived one day longer.

[Sidenote:—5—] Macrinus came to no harm but hastened his preparations, having a presentiment that otherwise he should perish, especially since Antoninus had suddenly, one day before [Footnote: "One day before" is a conjecture of Bekker's. (The birthday of Antoninus seems to have been on the sixth of April.)] his birthday, removed those of Macrinus's companions that were in the latter's company, alleging one reason in one case and another in another with the general pretext of doing them honor. Not but [lacuna] expecting that it was fated for him to get it he had also made a name which owed its origin to this fact. Accordingly, he suborned two tribunes stationed in the pretorian guard, Nemesianus and Apollinarius, brothers belonging to the Aurelian gens, and Julius Martialius, who was enrolled among the evocati and had a private grudge against Antoninus for not giving him the post of centurion on request. Thus he made his plot, and it was carried out as follows. On the eighth of April, when the emperor had set out from Edessa to Carrhæ and had dismounted from his horse to go and ease himself, Martialius approached as if he wanted to say something to him and struck him smartly with a small knife. The assassin at once fled and would have escaped detection, had he thrown away the sword. The weapon led to his being recognized by one of the Scythians on the staff of Antoninus, and he was brought down with a javelin. As for Martialius [lacuna] the military tribunes pretending to come to the rescue slew [lacuna]

[This Scythian attended him, not merely to be an ally of his, but as keeping guard over him to a certain extent. [Sidenote:—6—] For he maintained Scythians and Celtæ about him, free and slaves alike, whom he had taken away from children and wives and had equipped with arms; and he affected to place more dependence upon them than upon the soldiers. To illustrate, he kept honoring them with posts as centurions, and he called them "lions." Moreover, he would often converse with emissaries sent from the very provinces, and in the presence of no one else but the interpreters would urge them, in case any catastrophe befell him, to invade Italy and march upon Rome, assuring them that it was very easy to capture. And to prevent any inkling of his talk spreading to our ears he would immediately put to death the interpreters. For all that, we did ascertain it later from the barbarians themselves: and the matter of the poisons we learned from Macrinus.] It seemed that he partly sent for and partly bought quantities of all kinds of poisons from the inhabitants of Upper Asia, spending altogether seven hundred and fifty myriads upon them, in order that he might secretly kill in different ways great numbers of men,—in fine, whomsoever he would. They were subsequently discovered in the royal apartments and were all consumed by fire. [At this time the soldiers, both for this reason and, beyond other considerations, because they were vexed at having the barbarians preferred to themselves, were not altogether so enthusiastic over their leader as of yore and did not aid him when he became the victim of a plot.] Such was the end that he met after a life of twenty-nine years [and four days (for he had been born on the fourth of April)], and after a reign of six years, two months, and two days.

[Sidenote:—7—] There are many things at this point, too, in the story that occur to excite my surprise. When he was about to start from Antioch on his last journey, his father confronted him in a vision, girt with a sword and saying: "As you killed your brother, so will I smite you unto death;" and the soothsayers told him to beware of that day, using so direct a form of speech as this: "The gates of the victim's liver are shut." After this he went out through some door, paying no heed to the fact that the lion, which he was wont to call "Rapier," and had for a table companion and bedfellow, knocked him down as he went out, and, moreover, tore some of his clothing. He kept many other lions besides and always had some of them around him, but this one he would often caress even publicly. It was thus that these events occurred.

And a little before his death, as I have heard, a great fire suddenly fastened upon the entire interior of the temple of Serapis in Alexandria, and did no other harm whatever save only to destroy that sword with which he had slain his brother. [Later, when it stopped, many stars shone out.] In Rome, too, [a spirit wearing the likeness of a man led an ass up the Capitol and later up the Palatine, seeking, as he said, its master and stating that Antoninus was dead and Jupiter reigned. Arrested for his behavior, he was sent by Maternianus to Antoninus, and he declared: "I depart, as you bid, but I shall face not this emperor but another." Afterwards on coming to Capua he vanished.

[Sidenote:—8—] This took place while the prince was still alive.] At the horse-race [held in memory of Severus's reign] the statue of Mars, while being carried in procession, fell down. This perhaps would not arouse such great wonder, but listen to the greatest marvel of all. The Green faction had been defeated, whereupon, catching sight of a jackdaw, which was screeching very loud on the tip of a javelin, they all gazed at him and all of a sudden, as if by previous arrangement, cried out: "Hail Martialius, Martialius hail, long it is since we beheld thee!" It was not that the jackdaw was ever so called, but through him they were greeting, apparently under some divine inspiration, Martialius, the assassin of Antoninus. To some, indeed, Antoninus seemed to have foretold his own end, inasmuch as in the last letter that he sent to the senate he had said: "Cease praying that I may reign a hundred years." The petition mentioned had always been uttered from the beginning of his sovereignty and this was the first and only time that he found fault with it. Thus, while his words were simply meant to chide them for offering a prayer impossible of accomplishment, he was really indicating that he should no longer rule for any length of time. And when certain persons had once called attention to this fact, it also came to my mind that when he was giving us a banquet in Nicomedea at the Saturnalia and had talked a good deal, as was usual at a symposium, then on our rising to go he had addressed me and said: "With great acumen and truth, Dio, has Euripides remarked that

  "'Neath divers forms the spirit world is lurking,
  Much passing hope the gods are ever working.
  Oft disappointment strikes down sure ambition:
  The unthought chance God brings to full fruition.
  This story leaves things in just that condition.'"

[Footnote: Lines that occur at the end of several of Euripides's dramas.]

At the time this quotation seemed to have been mere nonsense, but when not long after he perished the fact that this was the last speech he uttered to me was thought to infuse into it a certain truly oracular significance with regard to what was to befall him. Similar importance was attached to the utterance of Jupiter called Belus, [Footnote: The same as Baal.] a god revered in Apamea [Footnote: This is the Apamea on the Orontes, built by Seleucus Nicator.] of Syria. He, years before, when Severus was still a private citizen, had spoken to him these verses:

   "Touching eyes and head, like Zeus, whose delight is in thunder,
  Like unto Ares in waist, and in chest resembling Poseidon."
  [Footnote: From Homer's Iliad, II, verses 478-9.]

And later, after his accession as emperor, the god had made this response to an enquiry: "Thy house shall perish utterly in blood." [Footnote: Adapted from Euripides, Phoenician Maidens, verse 20.]

[Sidenote:—9—] [Accordingly the body of Antoninus was then burned, and his bones, brought secretly by night into Rome, were deposited in the mausoleum of the Antonines. All the senators and private individuals, men and women, without exception entertained so violent a hatred of him that all their words and actions relating to him were such as would befit the downfall of a most implacable foe. He was not officially disgraced, because the soldiers did not get from Macrinus the state of peace which they had hoped to secure by a change. Deprived of the profits which they were wont to receive from Antoninus, they began to long for him again. Indeed, their wishes subsequently prevailed to the extent of having him enrolled among the heroes: of course this was voted by the senate.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 217, a.u. 970] In general, abundant ill was consistently spoken of him by everybody. They would no longer term him Antoninus, but [some called him Bassianus, [Footnote: He was originally Septimius Bassianus, named after his maternal grandfather.] his old name, others] Caracalla, as I have mentioned, [Footnote: In chapter 3.] [others] also Tarautas, from the appellation of a gladiator who was [in appearance] very small and very ugly and [in spirit very audacious and] very bloodthirsty.

[Sidenote:—10—] Now his affairs, however one may name him, were in this state. As for me, even before he came to the throne, it was foretold me in a way by his father that I should write this account. Just after his death methought I saw in a great plain the whole power of Rome arrayed in arms, and it seemed as if Severus were sitting [on a knoll there and] on a lofty tribunal conversing with them. And, seeing me standing by to hear what was said, he spoke out: "Come hither, Dio, to this spot; approach nearer, that you may both ascertain accurately and write a history of all that is said and done."—Such was the life and the overthrow of Tarautas. [After him there perished also those who had shared in the plot against him, some at once and others before a great while. His intimate companions and the Cæsarians likewise perished. He had been, as it were, coupled with a spirit of murder that operated equally against enemies and against friends.]

[Sidenote:—11—] Macrinus, by race a Moor from Cæsarea, came from most obscure parents [so that with considerable justice he was likened to the ass that was led to the Palatine by the apparition]. For one thing his left ear had been bored, according to the custom [generally] in vogue among the Moors. His affability was even more striking. As to duties, his comprehension of them was not so accurate as his performance of them was faithful. [Thus it was, thanks to the advocacy of a friend's cause, that he became known to Plautianus, and at first he took the position of manager of the latter's property; subsequently he ran a risk of perishing together with his employer, but was unexpectedly saved by the intercession of Cilo and was given charge of the vehicles of Severus that passed back and forth along the Flaminian Way.] From Antoninus [after securing some titles of a short-lived procuratorship] he obtained an appointment as prefect and administered the affairs of this responsible position excellently and with entire justice, [so far as he was free to act independently. This, then, was his general character and these the steps of his advancement. Even during the life of Tarautas he was led, in the way that I have described, to harbor in his mind the hope of empire;] and at his death [he did not, to be sure, either that day or the two following days occupy the office, in order to avoid the imputation of having killed him with such intentions: but for that space of time the Roman state remained completely bereft of a ruler possessing authority, though without the people's knowing it. He communicated with the soldiers in every direction,—that is to say, the ones who were in Mesopotamia on account of the war but instead of being in one body were scattered all about; and he won their allegiance through the agency of his [Footnote: Reading [Greek: ohi] (Dindorf) instead of [Greek: hos].] friends], among his various offers being a suggestion that they might secure a respite from the war, which was an especial cause of dissatisfaction to them: and so on the fourth day [the anniversary of Severus's birthday] he was chosen emperor by them [after making a show of resistance].

[Sidenote:—12—] [He delivered an address full of good points and held out hopes of many advantages to the rest of mankind as well. Those who had been doomed to some life punishment for an act of impiety, of the kind that is so named with reference to attitude toward emperors, were absolved from their sentence; and complaints of that nature which were pending were dismissed. He rescinded the measures enacted by Caracalla relating to inheritances and emancipations and, by asseverating that it was a sacrilege to kill a senator, he succeeded in his appeal for the pardon of Aurelianus, whose surrender was demanded by the soldiers because he had proved most obnoxious to them in many previous campaigns. Not for long, however, was it in his power to behave as an honest man [lacuna] and Aurelianus [lacuna] soldiers [lacuna] this man [lacuna] by him [lacuna] absolute power [lacuna] wrath [lacuna] and two hundred and fifty denarii [lacuna] there had been public notice of giving more [lacuna] fearing that [lacuna] Aurelianus, the only one then present not only of ex-consuls but of those who were senators at all [lacuna] by aid of money [lacuna] upon him [lacuna] glad to divert the blame for Caracalla's death [lacuna] and about the [lacuna] them [lacuna] the [lacuna] the [lacuna] great masses both of furniture and of property of the emperors. But as not even this on account of the soldiers sufficed for the [lacuna] of senators [lacuna] kill [lacuna] no one, but putting some under guard [lacuna] of the knights and the freedmen and the Cæsarians and [lacuna] causing those who erred in even the slightest respect to be punished, so that to all [lacuna] of them [lacuna] the procuratorships and the excessive expenditures and the majority of the burdens recently laid upon them by Tarautas [lacuna] of the games [lacuna] multitude [lacuna], gathering the presents which had unnecessarily been bestowed upon any persons, and he forbade any silver image of him being made over five pounds in weight, or any golden image of over three. Greatest of all, the hire of those serving in the pretorian guard [lacuna] to that appointed [lacuna] by Severus [lacuna]

[Sidenote:—13—] Though in truth he was praised by some for this (and not without reason), still he incurred (on the part of the sensible) a censure that quite counterbalanced it. The adverse sentiment in question was due to the fact that he enrolled certain persons in the ranks of ex-consuls and immediately assigned them to governorships of provinces. Yet he refused the following year to have the reputation of being consul twice because he had the honors of ex-consul: this was a practice begun during the reign of Severus and followed also by the latter's son. This procedure, however, both in his own case and in that of Adventus was lawful enough, but he showed great folly in sending Marcius Agrippa first into Pannonia and later into Dacia to govern. The previous officials of the districts mentioned,—Sabinus and Castinus,—he summoned at once to his side, pretending that he wanted their company, but really because he feared their surpassing spirit and their friendship for Caracalla. It was in this way that he came to despatch Agrippa to Dacia and Deccius Triccianus [Footnote: Ælius Deccius Triccianus.] to Pannonia. The former had been a slave acting as master of wardrobe for some woman and for this cause [Footnote: It is hard to see why, unless in the age of Severus slaves were forbidden to have charge of women's attire.] had been tried by Severus, although at the time he was attached to the fiscus; he had then been driven out to an island for betraying some interest, was subsequently restored, together with the rest, by Tarautas, had taken charge of his decisions and letters, and finally had been degraded to the position of senator, with ex-consular rank, because he had admitted overgrown lads into the army. Triccianus served in the rank and file of the Pannonian contingent, had once been porter to the governor of that country, and was at this time commanding the Alban legion.

[Sidenote:—14—] These were some of the grounds that led many persons to find fault with him. Another was his elevation of Adventus. Adventus had drawn pay as one of the spies and detectives, had left his position there and served among the letter-carriers, had later been appointed cubicularius, and still later was advanced to a position as procurator. Now although old age prevented him from seeing, lack of education from reading, and want of experience from being able to accomplish anything, the emperor made him senator, fellow-consul, and prefect of the city. This upstart had dared to say to the soldiers after the death of Caracalla: "The sovereignty properly belongs to me, since I am elder than Macrinus: but inasmuch as I am extremely old, I make way for him." His behavior was regarded as nonsensical, as was also that of Macrinus, in granting the greatest dignity of the senate to such a man, who could not when consul carry on a plain conversation with anybody in the senate, and consequently on the day of elections pretended to be sick. Hence, before long Macrinus assigned the direction of the city to Marius Maximus in his stead. It looked as if he had made him præfectus urbi with the sole purpose of polluting the senate-house. And this pollution took place not only in virtue of the fact that he had served in the mercenary force and had performed the duties belonging to executioners, scouts, and centurions, but in that he had secured control of the city prior to fulfilling the demands of the consulship. In other words, he became city prefect before senator. Macrinus connived at his promotion with the definite intention of blinding the public in regard to his own record, which would have shown that he had seized the imperial office while yet a knight.

[Sidenote:—15—] Besides these not unmerited censures that some passed upon him, he also attracted adverse criticism for designating as prefects Ulpius Julianus and Julianus Nestor, who possessed no particular excellence and had not been tested in many undertakings, but had become quite notorious for rascality in Caracalla's reign; for, being at the head of the late prince's messengers [Footnote: Mommsen thinks that by this expression Dio probably means the position of princeps peregrinorum.] they had been of great assistance to him in his unholy meddling. However, only a few citizens took account of these details, which did not tend wholly to encourage them. The majority of individuals, in view of their having recently got rid of Tarautas, which was more than they could have hoped, and comparing the new ruler in the few indications afforded with the old, and in view of all the other considerations and expectations, did not deem it fitting to condemn him so soon. And for this reason they mourned him exceedingly when he was killed, though they would certainly have felt hatred for him had he lived longer.]

For he began to live rather more luxuriously and he took official notice of those who reproved him. His putting Maternianus and Datus out of the way was not reasonable,—for what wrong had they done in being attentive to their emperor?—but it was not unlike human nature, since he had been involved in great danger. But he made a mistake in venting his wrath upon the rest, who were suspected of disliking his low birth and his unexpected attempt upon the sovereign power. He ought to have done precisely the opposite; realizing what he had been at the outset and what his position then was, he should not have been supercilious, but should have behaved moderately, cultivated the genius of his household, and encouraged men by good deeds and a display of excellence unchanged by circumstances.

[Sidenote:—16—] These things [lacuna] in regard to him [lacuna] have been said by me [lacuna] in detail [lacuna] of any [lacuna] just as [lacuna] nominally throughout his entire reign [lacuna] of all [lacuna] of it [lacuna] that he said in conversation with the soldiers [lacuna] it was proved [lacuna] and he dared to utter not a few laudations of himself and to send still more of them in letters, saying among other things: "I have been quite sure that you also would agree with the legions, since I enjoy the consciousness of having conferred many benefits upon the commonwealth." He subscribed himself in the letter as Cæsar and emperor and Severus, adding to the name of Macrinus the titles of Pious, and Fortunate, and Augustus, and Proconsul, of course without awaiting any vote on our part. He sent the letter without being ignorant that he was, on his own responsibility, assuming so many and great designations nor [lacuna] name [lacuna] of Pretorians as formerly some [lacuna] not but what [lacuna] so wrote [lacuna] in the beginning [lacuna] war chiefly [lacuna] of barbarians [lacuna] near [lacuna] in the letter he used simply the same terms as the emperors before Caracalla, and this he did the whole year through [lacuna] memoranda found among the soldiers. Thus [lacuna] of things accustomed to be said with a view to flattery and not inspired by truthfulness they became so suspicious as to ask that they be made public, and he sent them to us, and the quæstor read them aloud, as he did other similar documents in their turn. And a certain prætor, as the senate was then in session and none of the quæstors was present, also read an epistle once composed by Macrinus himself.

[Sidenote:—17—] The first letter having been read, appropriate measures were passed with reference to both Macrinus and his son. He was designated Patrician, and Princeps Iuventutis, and Cæsar. He accepted everything save the horse-race voted in honor of the beginning of his reign; from this he begged to be excused, saying that the event had been sufficiently honored by the spectacle on the birthday of Severus. Of Tarautas he made no mention at this time, in the way of either honor or dishonor, save only that he called him Emperor. He ventured to term him neither Hero nor Foe, and, as I conjecture, it was because the deeds of his predecessor and the hatred of much of mankind made him shrink from the former epithet, and the thought of the soldiers restrained him from the latter. Some suspected that it was because he wanted the disgracing to be the act of the senate and the people rather than his own, especially since he was in the midst of the legions. He did say that Tarautas by his wrongdoing had been chiefly responsible for the war and had terribly burdened the public treasury by increasing the money given to the barbarians, inasmuch as it was of equal amount with the pay of the soldiers under arms. No one dared, however, to give utterance publicly to any such statement against him and vote that he was an enemy, for fear of immediate annihilation at the hands of the soldiers in the City. Still, they abused him in their own fashion and heaped insults upon him as much as they could, going over the list of his bloody deeds, with the name of each victim, and ranging him alongside all the evil tyrants that had ever held sway over them.

[Sidenote:—18—] At the same time the public demanded that the horse-race given on his birthday be abolished, that absolutely all the statues, both gold and silver, erected [Footnote: Supplying, with Reiske, [Greek: hidruthentas].] in his honor be melted down, and that those who had served with him in any capacity as informers be made known and punished with the utmost speed. For great numbers, not only slaves and freedmen and soldiers and Cæsarians, but likewise knights and senators and numerous very distinguished women, were believed to have given secret hints during his reign and to have blackmailed various persons. And although they did not attach to Antoninus the name of Enemy, they did keep vociferating that Martialius (on account of the similarity of his name to that of Mars, as they pretended,) ought to be honored with enconiums and with statues for worship. They also showed for the moment no indication of annoyance at Macrinus], the reason being that they were so overwhelmed by joy on account of the death of Tarautas as not to have leisure to think anything about his humble origin, and they were glad to accept him as emperor. They were less concerned about whose slaves they should be next than about whose yoke they had shaken off, and were impressed with the idea that any chance comer who might present himself would be preferable to their former master. [All the unusual expenditures were rehearsed that had been made, not only by the Roman Treasury but privately for any persons and on the part of any foreign nations as a result of the former sovereign's direction: and thus the overthrow of those charged with carrying out the enactments made by him and the hope that in the future nothing similar would be done inclined people to be satisfied with the existing arrangement.

[Sidenote:—19—] However, they soon learned that Aurelianus was dead and that Diadumenianus, son of Macrinus, had been appointed Cæsar. This last was nominally the act of the soldiers, through whose ranks he passed when summoned from Antioch to meet his father, but really it was accomplished by Macrinus. People further learned that their ruler had assumed the name of Antoninus. (He had done this to win the favor of the soldiers, partly to avoid seeming to dishonor his predecessor's memory entirely, especially in view of the fact that he had secretly thrown down some of the statues offered to him in Rome by Alexander and set on pedestals by Antoninus himself: and again he wanted to get an excuse for promising them seven hundred and fifty denarii more.) So persons began to think differently and reflected that previously they had held him in no esteem. Taking account, furthermore, of all the additional ignoble manifestations on his part that they suspected and thought likely, they began to be ashamed and did not [lacuna] Caracalla any more than [lacuna] things pertaining to him differently [lacuna] by deprecating the [lacuna] of Severus [lacuna] of Antoninus [lacuna] they displayed [lacuna] and hero and what befitted his reign, not to be sure [lacuna] and wholly the judgments of all men in Rome [lacuna] underwent a change [lacuna] senate [lacuna] to him [lacuna] me [lacuna] however, when all were questioned man by man regarding his honors, both others answered ambiguously and [lacuna] Saturninus [lacuna] in a way attributing [lacuna] prætors [lacuna] that it was not permissible for him to put any vote about anything, in order that they might avoid the consul's jealousy. This procedure was contrary to precedent, for it was not lawful that there should take place in the senate-chamber an inquiry into any matter, except at the command of the emperor.

[Sidenote:—20—] The crowd, because they could obscure their identity at the contest and by their numbers, gained the greater boldness, raised a loud cry at the horse-race on the birthday of Diadumenianus, which fell on the fourteenth of September: they uttered many lamentations, asserting that they alone of all mankind were destitute of a leader, destitute of a king; and they invoked the name of Jupiter, declaring that he alone should be their leader and uttering aloud these words: "As a master thou wert angry, as a father take pity on us." Nor would they pay any heed at first to either the equestrian or the senatorial order [lacuna] and commending the emperor and the Cæsar to the extent of [lacuna] in Greek saying: "Ah, what a glorious day is to-day! What noble kings!" and desiring that the others also should share their opinion. But they stretched out their arms toward the sky and exclaimed: "[lacuna]. this is the Roman Augustus: having him we have all!" So true it is that among mankind respect is a distinct characteristic of the better element and contempt a characteristic of the worse. For these two now regarded Macrinus and Diadumenianus as henceforth absolutely non-existent and trampled upon their claims as though they were already dead. This was one great reason why his soldiers despised him, and paid no heed to what was done to win their favor. Another still more important cause lay in the frequent and extraordinary insolence shown toward him by the Pergamenians, who were deprived of what they had formerly received from Tarautas; and for this conduct he imposed upon them public sentence of loss of citizenship. [Sidenote:—21—] The attitude of the soldiers is straightway to be described. At this time Macrinus neither sent to the senate, as they were demanding, nor published otherwise any document of the informers, saying either truly or falsely (to avoid a great disturbance) that none such had been found in the royal residence. For Tarautas had either destroyed the majority of those containing any accusation or had returned them to the senders themselves, as I have stated, [Footnote: The passage to which Dio refers is lost.] to the end that no proof of his baseness should be left. But he did reveal the names of three senators whom, from what he had himself discovered, he deemed to be especially deserving of hatred. These were Manilius and Julius, and moreover Sulpicius Arrhenianus, who had blackmailed, among others, Bassus, the son of Pomponius, whose lieutenant he had been when Bassus was governor of Moesia. These men were banished to islands, as the emperor expressly forbade their being put to death. "We would avoid,"—he wrote—these were his very words,—"ourselves appearing to do the things for which we censure them."—And Lucius Priscillianus [whose name was presented by the senate itself,] was as much renowned for his insulting behavior as he was for his killing of wild beasts. [He fought them at Tusculum every now and then, and contended with so many each time that he bore the scars of their bites.] Once he, unassisted, joined battle with a bear and panther, a lioness and lion at once, but far more numerous were the men, both knights and senators, whom he destroyed as a result of his slanders. [For both of these achievements] he was greatly honored by Caracalla [was enrolled among the ex-prætors and became (contrary to precedent) governor of Achæa. He incurred the violent hatred of the senate, was summoned for trial] and was confined upon an island. These men, then, came to their end as described.

[Sidenote:—22—] And Flaccus was entrusted also with the dispensation of food stuffs,—an office which Manilius had formerly held,—for he had secured [Footnote: Reading [Greek: eilaephos] (Reimar).] it (with the added ratification of Macrinus) as a reward of his information against him; and he was subsequently made superintendent of the distribution of dole which took place at the games given by the major prætors, save those celebrated in honor of Flora [lacuna] moreover the iuridici possessing authority in Italy had to stop rendering decisions outside the traditional limits set by Marcus. [Footnote: The text of the early part of this chapter may be characterized as "jagged." The sentences lack clearness and the relation of the individual words is not always certain. The reader may be interested to see a translation of Hirschfeld's interpretation of the section, taken from his book entitled Untersuchungen auf dem Gebiete der Roemischen Verwaltungsgeschichte (pp. 117-120).

a [Flaccus]—It is here a question of a high senatorial office, which can only be the præfectura alimentorum.

b [The iuridici]—Perhaps the person entrusted with the execution of this ruling was C. Octavius Sabinus, who had the title of electus ad corrigendum statum Italiæ.

c [The orphans]—Probably during the latter portion of Caracalla's reign, as also under Commodus, the funds for food had been available either not at all or at irregular intervals, and therefore the restitution of district prefects was determined upon.

From these Food Prefects for a particular district those officials must be distinguished who bear the general title of præfectus alimentorum without any local limitation, and show a marked difference from the rest in that they are invariably of consular rank, whereas the position of district prefect, like that of curator of roads, was usually held by a candidate that had only passed the prætorship. The inscriptions of these consular prefects begin not earlier than the end of the reign of Marcus Aurelius, perhaps not till Commodus, and extend to the time of Macrinus, while during this whole time (a period, that is, of about forty years) all trace of the district prefects vanishes. Under these circumstances the conclusion seems to me inevitable that towards the end of the second century (probably from the first years of Marcus Aurelius on) the district prefecture was abolished and the administration was centralized in Rome under a consular præfectus alimentorum, whose authority extended over the whole of Italy.

Now very probably it was the introduction under Marcus Aurelius of the iuridici which occasioned this change, even if not immediately, and that these duties of distribution, as well as other administrative functions, were placed in their hands; one thing that would seem to recommend this view particularly is that their position in general tended to make them official examiners of the affairs of the municipia. When, in addition, we have evidence that Macrinus in the year 217 reduced the authority of the iundici to the limits originally imposed by Marcus Aurelius and that further the same emperor instituted certain rulings for the amelioration of food distribution; when, moreover, we consider in connection with this the coincidence of the disappearance of the consular food prefects for Italy on the one hand and the reappearance of the pretorial district prefects on the other, it will not appear overbold to suppose that Macrinus, in the course of the reform affecting the iuridici, also detached from them the right to supervise foods, restored it to the curators of roads (as in the original arrangement) and abolished the central bureau in Rome.]—A certain Domitius Florus had formerly had charge of the senate records and ought to have been next appointed ædile, but before entering upon office had been deprived of all hope on account of Plautianus; he now had recourse to sedulous office-seeking, recovered his lost standing and was appointed tribune. Anicius Faustus was sent into Asia to govern in place of Asper. The latter had at first obtained very great honor from Macrinus, who thought he could settle affairs in Asia: afterwards, when he was already en route and was approaching the province (Macrinus had not accorded a favorable reception to the petition forwarded to Caracalla and delivered to him, in which the inhabitants begged that Asper be not sent them as proconsul), the emperor offered him a terrible affront in rejecting him. It was reported to the prince that Asper had made some improper remarks, and moreover he affected to think that old age and disease constituted a second reason for relieving him of his duties, and therefore he delivered Asia into the keeping of Faustus, a man who had been overlooked in the order of allotment by Severus. As the time for him to govern turned out to be short, Macrinus bade him hold the office for the following year in place of Aufidius Fronto. To the latter he would entrust neither Africa (which he had drawn by lot), because the Africans begged that he be not allowed to come, nor yet Asia, though he had first transferred him thither. As a fitting recognition, however, Macrinus proposed that twenty-five myriads be given him to stay at home. Fronto, however, would not accept that, saying that he wanted not money but a position of authority, and accordingly later he received the province from Sardanapalus.

Besides these events aid was extended to the orphans, whose hopes of support were small, from the [lacuna] age of childhood to military years. [Footnote: See note 2c, page 58.]

[Sidenote:—23—] Now Julia, the mother of Tarautas, chanced to be in Antioch, and at the first information of her son's death she was so affected that she struck herself violently and undertook to starve herself to death. The presence of this very same man, whom she hated alive, became the object of her longings now that he had ceased to exist; yet not because she desired him to live, but because she was furious at having to return to private life; and this led her to abuse Macrinus also long and bitterly. Subsequently, as no change was made in her royal suite or in the guard of Pretorians attending her, and the new emperor sent her a kind message (not having yet heard what she had said), she took courage, laid aside her longing for death, and, without writing him any response, held some negotiations with the soldiers she had about her, especially [lacuna] and as they were angry with Macrinus [lacuna] as they had a pleasanter remembrance of her son, how she might attain the imperial position, rendering herself the peer of Semiramis and Nitocris, since she came in a way from the same regions as they; [Footnote: Boissevain's conjecture for the succeeding sentences (valuable, of course, only as the guess of an expert) is the following:

But when nobody would cooperate with her and letters came from Macrinus making certain announcements at which, in view of her circumstances, she felt herself depressed in spirits, she renounced her ambitions out of fear that she might be deprived of the title of Augusta and be forced to depart to her native land, and al [lacuna] drea [lacuna] wom [lacuna] ad [lacuna] eake [lacuna] and mos [lacuna] any one behol [lacuna] she decided to do just the reverse and submit lest she be forced eventually to return to Rome and be there compelled by Macrinus to remain at home for the future for appearing to be opposed to his policy. Afterwards, however, she was intending to take measures that would enable her to get away by ship, if possibility still offered, when he ordered her, etc.] as [lacuna] coöperated [lacuna] and letters [lacuna] of Macrinus [lacuna] some for which [lacuna] judgment [lacuna] fearing that she might be deprived of the title of Augusta and to [lacuna] native country be forced to return [lacuna] to fear [lacuna] go to Rome [lacuna] Macrinus [lacuna] seeming to do the opposite [lacuna] how [lacuna] might depart and he ordered her to depart from Antioch with all speed and go whithersoever she would. [And when she heard what was said in Rome about her son] she no longer cared to live. The cancer in her breast, which, for a very long time had remained stationary in its progress, had been made angry and inflamed by the blow which she struck her chest on hearing of her son's death; this helped to undermine her constitution and she made sure of her demise by voluntary starvation.

[Sidenote:—24—][And so this queen, sprung from a family of common people and raised to a high station, who had lived during her husband's reign in great unhappiness on account of Plautianus, who had beheld her younger son butchered in her own lap and had borne ill-will to her elder son while he lived, finally receiving such tidings of his assassination, withdrew from power while in the full flush of life and thereafter did herself to death. Hence a person reviewing her career could not deem infallibly happy all those who attain great authority; indeed, in no case unless some true and undefiled pleasure in life belongs to them, and unswerving, permanent good fortune.—This, then, was the fate of Julia. Her body was taken to Rome and placed in the tomb of Gaius and Lucius. Later, however, both her bones and those of Geta were transferred by her sister Mæsa to the precinct of Antoninus.

[Sidenote:—25—] Nor was Macrinus destined to survive for long,—a fact of which he doubtless had previous indications. A mule bore a mule in Rome and a sow had a little pig with four ears and two tongues and eight feet. A great earthquake occurred, blood flowed from a pipe, and bees formed honeycombs in the Forum Boarium. The hunting-theatre was smitten with thunderbolts on the very day of the Vulcanalia [Footnote: August twenty-third.] and such a blaze ensued that all its upper circumference and the whole circuit of construction and the ground-level were burned and thereupon the rest of it caught fire and fell in ruins. No human aid availed against the conflagration, though every possible stream of water was directed upon the blaze, nor could the downpour from the sky, which came in great amount and violence, accomplish anything. The force of both kinds of water was exhausted by the power of the thunderbolts, and to a certain extent, at least, the building only received additional injury; [Footnote: Reading [Greek: prosesineto](Bekker).] wherefore the gladiatorial spectacle was held in the stadium for many years.

This naturally seemed to foreshow what was to be. There were other fires besides and imperial possessions were burned especially often during his reign,—a thing which in itself has always been regarded as of ill omen; but the fact that it seemed to have overthrown the horse-race of Vulcan had a direct bearing upon the emperor. This accordingly gave rise to a feeling that something out of the ordinary was in process of consummation, and the idea was strengthened by the behavior on that same day of the Tiber, which rose until it invaded the Forum and the roads leading to it with such impetus as to sweep away even human beings. And a woman, as I have heard, grim and gigantic, was seen by some persons and declared that these disasters were insignificant as compared with what was destined to befall them.

[Sidenote:—26—] And so it proved, for the evil did not confine itself to the City alone, but took possession of the whole world under its dominion, with whose inhabitants the theatre was customarily filled. The Romans, defeated, gave up their war against the barbarians and likewise received great detriment from the greed and factional differences of the soldiers. The progress of both these evils I am now to describe.] Macrinus, seeing that Artabanus was exceedingly angry at the way he had been treated and had invaded Mesopotamia with a large force, at first of his own accord sent him the captives and used friendly language, urging him to accept peace and laying the blame for the past upon Tarautas. But the other would not entertain his proposition and furthermore bade him build up the forts and demolished cities, abandon Mesopotamia entirely and offer satisfaction in general, but particularly for the damage to the royal tombs. [For, trusting in the large force that he had gathered and despising Macrinus as an unworthy emperor, he gave reign to his wrath and expected that even without the Roman's consent he could accomplish whatever he wished.] Macrinus had no opportunity to think it over, but, meeting the enemy already on the way to Nisibis, was defeated in a battle begun by the soldiers about water, while encamped opposite each other. And he came very near losing the rampart itself, but some armor-bearers and baggage-carriers happened along and saved it. In their confidence, they had started out ahead and made a rush upon the barbarians; and the unexpectedness of their sally was of advantage to them, making them appear to be armed soldiers and not mere helpers. But the [lacuna] both was not present then and [lacuna] the night [lacuna] the camps [lacuna] and the Romans followed on. The enemy, perceiving the noise that they made in going out, suspected [lacuna] flight, but seeing them at a glance [lacuna] the Romans barbarians [lacuna] forced by their [lacuna] and the flight of Macrinus, they became dejected and were conquered. And as a result [lacuna] from Mesopotamia especially [lacuna] they overran Syria [lacuna] he abandoned.

[Sidenote: A.D. 218 (a.u. 971)] This took place at the season under consideration: but in the autumn and winter, during which Macrinus and Adventus became consuls, they no longer came to blows with each other but kept up an interchange of envoys and heralds until they had reached an agreement.

[Sidenote:—27—] For Macrinus, through native cowardice (being a Moor he was tremendously timorous) and by reason of the soldiers' lack of discipline, did not dare to begin a war. On the contrary] he expended for the sake of peace enormous amounts, in the shape of both gifts and money, to Artabanus himself and to his assistants in the government, so that the entire outlay came to five thousand myriads. [And the emperor was not unwilling to effect a reconciliation, both for the reasons mentioned and because his soldiers were extremely restive,—a condition due to their having been away from home an unusual length of time, as well as to the scarcity of food. No supplies were to be had from stores, since there were no stores ready, nor from the country itself, because part had been devastated and part was controlled by forts. Macrinus, however, did not forward an exact account of all their proceedings to the senate and consequently triumphal sacrifices were voted him and the name of Parthicus was bestowed. But this he would not accept, being apparently ashamed to adopt the appellation of an enemy by whom he had been defeated.

Moreover, the war that had been waged in the regions of the Armenian king subsided. Tiridates received the diadem sent him by Macrinus, and got back his mother (whom Tarautas had confined in prison eleven months), together with the booty captured from Armenia and all the territory that his father possessed in Cappadocia, with hopes of obtaining the annual payment often furnished by the Romans. And the Dacians, after damaging parts of Dacia, held their hands in spite of a desire for further conflict, and got back the hostages that Caracalla, under the name of an alliance, had taken from them. This was the course of these events.

[Sidenote:—28—] But a new war broke upon the heads of the Romans, and no longer a foreign but a civil strife. It was the soldiers who were responsible for the outbreak. They were somewhat irritated by their setbacks, but their behavior was owing still more to the fact that they would no longer endure any hard work if they could help it, but were thoroughly out of training in every respect and wanted to have no emperor that ruled with a firm hand but demanded that they get everything without stint, and chose to perform no task that was fitting for them. They were further angered by the cutting off of their pay and the deprivation of prizes and exemptions (these last among the privileges of the military), which they had gained from Tarautas, even though they personally were not destined to be affected by these measures. Their resolution was definitely strengthened by the delay which they had undergone in practically one and the same spot while wintering in Syria on account of the war. It should be stated that Macrinus seemed to have shown good generalship and to have acted sensibly in debarring the men in arms from no privilege, but preserving to them intact all the rights allowed by his predecessor, whereas he gave notice to such as intended to enlist anew that they would be enrolled only upon the old schedule published by Severus. He hoped that these recruits, entering the army a few at a time, would hold aloof from rebellion, at first through peaceful inclinations and fear and later through the influence of time and custom, and that by having no corrupting effect upon the rest they would quiet them.

[Sidenote:—29—] If this had been done after the members of the army had retired to their individual fortresses and were consequently scattered, it would have been a correct move. Perhaps some of them would not have shown indignation, believing that they would really be put at no disadvantage because temporarily they suffered no loss: and even if they had been vexed, yet, each body being few in number and subservient to the commanders sent by the senate, they could have accomplished no great harm. But, united in Syria, they suspected that they should be liable to innovations if they separated;—for the time being they could well believe they were being pampered on account of the demands of war. And again [lacuna] So the others killed certain soldiers and ravaged portions of Mesopotamia, and these men butchered not a few of their own number and also overthrew their emperor; and, what is still worse, they set up another similar ruler, by whom nothing was done save what was evil and base. [Sidenote:—30—] It seems to me that this occurrence had been foreshadowed more clearly, perhaps, than any previous event. A very distinct eclipse of the sun [had taken place] about that time, [and the comet-star was seen for a considerable period. And another] luminary, whose tail extended from the west to the east, for several nights caused us terrible alarm, so that this verse of Homer's was ever on our lips:

 "Rang the vast welkin with clarion calls, and Zeus heard the tumult."
  [Footnote: From Homer's Iliad, XXI, verse 388.]

It was brought about in the following way:

Mæsa, the sister of Julia Augusta, had two daughters, Soæmias and Mammæa, by her husband Julius, an ex-consul. She had also two male grandchildren. One was Avitus, the child of Soæmias and Varius Marcellus, a man of the same race,—he was from Apamea,—who had been occupied in procuratorships, had been enrolled in the senate, and soon after died. The other was Bassianus, the child of Mammæa and Gessius Marcianus, who was himself also a Syrian, from a city called Arca, and had been assigned to various positions as procurator. Now Mæsa at home in Emesa her life [lacuna] her sister Julia, with whom she had made her abode during the entire period of the latter's reign, having perished. For Avitus, after governing in Asia, sent by Caracalla from Mesopotamia into Cyprus, was seen to be limited to the position of adviser to some magistrate who suffered from old age and sickness; and again [lacuna] him, when [lacuna] he died, one Eutychianus, that had given satisfaction in games and exercises, and for that reason [lacuna] who [lacuna] [Sidenote:—31—] [lacuna] upon [lacuna] becoming aware of the strong dislike of the soldiers for Macrinus [lacuna] wall [lacuna] and partly persuaded by the Sun, whom they name Elagabalus and worship devotedly, and by some other prophecies, he undertook to overthrow Macrinus and put up Avitus, the grandson of Mæsa and a mere child, as emperor in his stead. And he accomplished both projects, although he had himself as yet not fully reached manhood and had as helpers only a few freedmen and soldiers [lacuna] and Emesenian senators [lacuna] pretending that he was a natural son of Tarautas and arraying him in clothing which the latter had worn when a child, Cæsar by the [lacunæ] introduced into the camp at night, without the knowledge of his mother or his grandmother, and at dawn on the sixteenth of May he persuaded the soldiers, who were eager to get some starting-point for an uprising, to revolt. Julianus, the prefect, learning this (for he happened to be not far distant), caused both a daughter and a son-in-law of Marcianus, together with some others, to be assassinated. Then, after collecting as many of the soldiers remaining as he could in the short time at his disposal, he made an attack upon what was, to all intents and purposes, a most hostile fortress. [Sidenote:—32—] He might have taken it that very day, for the Moors sent to Tarautas according to the terms of alliance fought most valiantly for Macrinus, who was a countryman of theirs, and even broke through some of the gates. But he refused the opportunity, either because he was afraid to rush in or because he expected that he could win the men inside to surrender voluntarily. As no propositions were made to him, and they furthermore built up all the gates during the night, so that they were now in a securer position, he again assaulted the place but effected nothing. For they carried Avitus (whom they were already saluting as "Marcus Aurelius Antoninus") all about upon the ramparts, and exhibited some likeness of Caracalla when a child as bearing some resemblance to their new ruler, declaring that the latter was truly Caracalla's child and his proper successor in the imperial office. "Why do you do this, fellow-soldiers?" they exclaimed. "Why do you thus fight against your benefactor's son?" By this means they corrupted all the soldiers with Julianus, especially as the troops were anxious to have a change, so that the attackers killed their commanders, save Julianus (for he effected his escape), and surrendered themselves to the False Antoninus. For when an attempt to restrain them was made by their centurions and the other subordinates, and they were, as a result, hesitating, Eutychianus sent Festus (thus—according to the cubicularius of Tarautas—was one of the Cæsarians named) [Footnote: The text is emended in accordance with a tentative suggestion of Boissevain.] and persuaded them to kill all such officers and offered as a prize to each soldier who should slay his man the victim's property and military rank. The boy also harangued them from the wall with fictitious statements, praising his "father" and [lacuna] Macrinus, as [lacuna]

[Fourteen lines are lacking.]

* * * * *

[Sidenote:—33—] [lacuna] those left to be restored to their original property and status as citizens. But the most effective means by which he attached them to himself was his promise to give each and every one unlimited amounts of money, and to restore the exiles,—an act which would seem to make him out in truth a legitimate son of Tarautas [lacuna]

* * * * *

[Fourteen lines are lacking.]

[Sidenote:—34—] [lacuna] Marcianus [lacuna] Macrinus [lacuna] (for Marcellus was dead) he put this person to death; but, lacking courage to proceed further on his own responsibility without Macrinus, he sent for the latter. Macrinus came quickly to the Alban soldiers at Apamea and appointed his son emperor in spite of the lad's being but ten years old, in order that with this excuse he might mollify the soldiers by various means, chief among which should be the promise of five thousand denarii; he assigned them a thousand each on the spot and restored to the rest complete allowances of food and everything else of which they had been deprived: in this way he hoped to appease them. With this same end in view he bestowed upon the populace a dinner worth one hundred and fifty denarii a head before revealing to them anything about the uprising; for he wanted it to be thought that he was banqueting them not because of that event but to show honor to his son. And on that occasion first one of the revolted soldiers approached him carrying the head of Julianus (who had been found somewhere in hiding and slain), in many linen cloths and tied up very strongly indeed with ropes, pretending it was the head of the False Antoninus. He had sealed the package with the finger ring of Julianus. After doing that the soldier ran out when the head was uncovered. Macrinus, upon discovering what had been done, no longer dared either to stay where he was or to assault the fortification, but returned to Antioch with all speed. So the Alban legion and the rest who were wintering in that region likewise revolted. The opposing parties continued their preparations and both sides sent messengers and letters to the provinces and to the legions. As a result perturbation was caused in many places by the first communication of each side about the other and by the constant messages contradicting each other. In the course of the uncertainty numerous letter-carriers on both sides lost their lives, and numbers of those who had slain the followers of Antoninus, or had not immediately attached themselves to their cause, were censured. Some perished on this account and some merely incurred a small loss. Hence I will pass over most of this (it is all very much alike and permits of no considerable description in detail) and will give a summary of what took place in Egypt.

[Sidenote:—35—] The governor of that country was Basilianus, whom Macrinus had also made prefect in place of Julianus. Some interests were managed also by Marius Secundus, although he had been created senator by Macrinus and was at the head of affairs in Phoenicia. In this way both of them were dependent upon Macrinus and for that reason put to death the runners of the False Antoninus. As long, therefore, as the outcome of the business was still in dispute, they and the soldiers and the individuals were in suspense, some wishing and praying and reporting one thing and others the opposite, as always in factional disturbances. When the news of the defeat of Macrinus arrived, a riot of some magnitude followed, in which many of the populace and not a few of the soldiers were destroyed. Secundus found himself in a dilemma; and Basilianus, fearing that he should lose his life instanter, effected his escape from Egypt. After coming to the vicinity of Brundusium in Italy he was discovered, having been betrayed by a friend in Rome to whom he had sent a secret message asking for food. So he was later taken back to Nicomedea and executed.

[Sidenote:—36—] Macrinus wrote also to the senate about the False Antoninus [as he did also to the governors everywhere], calling him "boy" and saying that he was mad. He wrote also to Maximus, the præfectus urbi, giving him such information as one might expect, and further stating that the soldiers recently enlisted insisted upon receiving all that they were wont to have before, and that the rest, who had been deprived of nothing, made common cause with them in their anger at what was withheld. And to omit a recital, he said, of all the many means devised by Severus and his son for the ruin of rigid discipline, it was impossible for the troops to be given their entire pay in addition to the donatives which they were receiving; for the increase in their pay granted by Tarautas amounted to seven thousand myriads annually, and could not be given, partly because the soldiers and again because [lacuna] righteous [lacuna] but the recognized expenditures [lacuna] and the [lacuna] could he himself and the child as [lacuna] himself [lacuna] and he commiserated himself upon having a son, but said that he found it a solace in his disaster to think that he had outlived the fratricide who attempted to destroy the whole world. He also added to the missive something like the following: "I know that there are many who are more anxious to have emperors killed than to have them live, but this is one thing I can not say in respect to myself, that any one could either desire or pray that I should perish." At which Fulvius Diogenianus exclaimed: "We have all prayed for it!"

[Sidenote:—37—] The speaker was one of the ex-consuls, but not of very sound mind, and consequently he caused himself as much exasperation as he did other people. He also [lacuna] the subscription [lacuna] of letter [lacuna] and to the [lacuna] leather it had been entrusted to read [lacuna] and those [lacuna] and [lacuna] others and also [lacuna] be sent [lacuna] directly as [lacuna] hesitating [lacuna] ordering [lacuna] by the [lacuna] and both to others [lacuna] of foremost to the [lacuna] any care for the common preserver [lacuna] over [lacuna] that the False Antoninus finding in the chests of Macrinus not yet [lacuna] he himself voluntarily [lacuna] published [lacuna] calumny [lacuna] making with reference to the soldiers. And he marched so quickly against him that Macrinus could with difficulty encounter him in a village of the Antiochians one hundred and fifty stades distant from the city. There, so far as the zeal of the Pretorians went, he had him conquered (he had taken from them their breastplates scales and their grooved shields and had thus rendered them lighter for the battle): but he was beaten by his own cowardice, as Heaven had foreshown to him. For on that day when his first letter about the imperial office was read to us a pigeon had lighted upon an image of Severus (whose name he had applied to himself) that stood in the senate-chamber. [And subsequently, when the communication about his son was sent, we had convened, not at the bidding of the consuls or the prætors (for they did not happen to be present) but of the tribunes,—a practice which by this time had fallen more or less into disuse. And he had not written even his name in the preface of the letter, though he termed him Cæsar and emperor and indicated that the contents emanated from them both. Also, in the rehearsal of events, he mentioned the name Diadumenianus, but left out that of Antoninus, though he had this title too. Such was the state of these [Sidenote:—38—] affairs; and, by Jupiter, when he sent word about the uprising of the False Antoninus, the consuls uttered certain formulæ against him, as is regularly done under such circumstances, and one of the prætors and another of the tribunes did the same. War was declared and solemnly proclaimed against the usurper and his cousin and their mothers and their grandmother, and immunity was granted to those that had taken part in the uprising, in case they should submit, according as Macrinus had promised them. For the conversation he had had with the soldiers was read aloud.] As a result of this, we all condemned still more strongly his abasement and folly. [For one thing] he was most constantly calling himself "father" and Diadumenianus his "son," and he kept holding up to reproach the age of the False Antoninus, though he had designated as emperor his son, who was much younger. [Now in the battle Gannys hurriedly took possession of the narrow place in front of the village and disposed his soldiers in good order for warfare, regardless of the fact that he was most inexperienced in military matters. Of such surpassing importance is good fortune in comparison with other qualifications, that it actually bestows understanding upon the ignorant.] But his army made a very weak fight and the men would not have stood their ground, had not Mæsa and Soæmias [for they were already in the boy's retinue] leaped down from their vehicles and, rushing among the fugitives, by their lamentations restrained them from flight, and had not the lad himself been seen by them (by some divine disposition of affairs) with drawn sword on horseback charging the enemy. Even so they would have turned their backs again, had not Macrinus fled at sight of their resistance.

[Sidenote:—39—] The latter, having been thus defeated on the eighth of June, sent his son in charge of Epagathus and some other attendants, to Artabanus, king of the Parthians. He himself went to Antioch, giving out that victory was his, to the end that he might be offered shelter there. Then, when the news of his defeat became noised abroad, in the midst of many consequent slaughters both along the roads and in the city, springing from somebody's favoring the one side or the other, he made his escape. From Antioch he proceeded by night, on horseback, with his head and whole chin shaved, and attired in a dark garment worn over his purple robe in order that he might, so far as possible, resemble an ordinary citizen. In this way, with a few companions, he reached Ægæ in Cilicia, and there, by pretending to be one of the soldiers that carried messages, he got a wagon, on which he drove through Cappadocia and Galatia and Bithynia as far as the shipyard of Eribolus, which is opposite the city of Nicomedea. It was his intention to make his way back to Rome, expecting that there he could gain some assistance from the senate and from the people. And, if he had escaped thither, he would certainly have accomplished something. For their disposition was decidedly more favorable to him, in view of the hardihood of the Syrians, the age of the False Antoninus, and the uncontrolledness of Gannys and Comazon, so that even the soldiers would either voluntarily [Footnote: Reading [Greek: 'hechhontast'] instead of [Greek: thnhêschontast].] have changed their attitude or, refusing to do so, would have been overpowered. As it turned out, however, if any one recognized him in the course of his journey so far described, at least no one ventured to lay hands on him: but he came to grief on his voyage from Eribolus to Chalcedon. He did not dare to enter Nicomedea [through fear of the governor of Bithynia, Cæcilius Aristo], and so he sent to one of the procurators asking for money, and in this way he became known. He was overtaken [while still] in Chalcedon and, on the arrival of those sent by the False Antoninus in order that [lacuna] now if ever [lacuna] he was arrested [by Aurelius Celsus, a centurion,] and taken to Cappadocia [like a man held in no honor]. Ascertaining there that his son had also been captured [(Claudius Pollio, the centurion of the legion, had arrested him while driving through Zeugma, where, in the course of a previous journey, he had been designated Cæsar)], he threw himself from the conveyance (for he had not been bound) and at the time suffered a fracture of his shoulder; but subsequently (though not a great deal later) being sentenced to die before entering Antioch, he was slain by Marcianus Taurus, a centurion, and his body remained unburied until the False Antoninus could come from Syria into Bithynia and gloat over it.

[Sidenote:—40—] So Macrinus, when an old man,—for he was fifty-four years of age [lacking three or five days],—and eminent in experience of affairs, displaying some degree of excellence and commanding so many legions, was overthrown by a mere child of whose very name he had previously been ignorant,—even as the oracle had foretold to him; [[lacuna]] for upon his applying [to Zeus Belus] it had answered him:

  "Old man, verily warriors young harass and exhaust thee:
  Utterly spent is thy strength, and a grievious eld comes upon thee!"
  [Footnote: From Homer's Iliad, VIII, verses 102-103.]

And fleeing [lacuna] or [lacuna], having played part of runaway slave through the provinces which he had ruled, arrested like some robber by common officers, beholding himself with villains most dishonored [lacuna] guarded before whom often many senators had been brought; and his death was ordered who had the authority to punish or to release any Roman whomsoever, and he was arrested and beheaded by centurions, when he had authority to put to death both them and others, inferior and superior. And his son likewise perished.

[Sidenote:—41—] This proves that no one, even of those whose foundations seem unshakable, is sure of his position, but the exceeding prosperous, equally with the rest, are poised in the balance.

And this man would have been lauded beyond all mankind, if he had not himself desired to become emperor, but had chosen some person enrolled in the senate to stand at the head of the Roman empire and had appointed him emperor; and only in this way could he have avoided blame for the plot against Caracalla, for by such action he would have demonstrated that he resorted to it to secure his own safety and not on account of a desire for supremacy. Whereas, instead, he got himself into disrepute and ruined his career, becoming subject to reproach, and finally falling a victim to a disaster that he richly deserved. And having grasped at sole sovereignty before he had even the title of senator, he lost it very quickly and in the most disappointing way. He had ruled only a year and two months, lacking three days (a result obtained by reckoning to the date of the battle).

DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY

79

Dio's Roman History 79:—

About Avitus, called also Pseudantoninus, and the slaughter that he wrought (chapters 1-7).

About his transgression of law and how he married the Vestal (chapters 8-10).

About Eleogabalus [Footnote: It will be noted that the spelling of this word in the Greek "arguments" of the MSS. differs from that in the Greek text of the same.] and how he summoned Urania to Rome and united her in bonds of wedlock with Eleogabalus (chapters 11-12).

About his licentiousness (chapters 13-16).

How he adopted his cousin and also renamed him Alexander (chapters 17, 18).

How he was overthrown and slain (chapters 19-21).