(BOOK 80, BOISSEVAIN.)

[Sidenote: A.D. 218 (a.u. 971)] [Sidenote:—1—] Now Avitus, alias False Antoninus, alias Assyrian or again Sardanapalus and also Tiberinus (he secured the last appellation after he had been slain and his body thrown into the Tiber) [on the very next day after the victory entered Antioch, first promising the soldiers attending him five hundred denarii apiece on condition that they should not sack the town,—a thing which they were very anxious to do. This amount he levied upon the people. And he sent to Rome such a despatch as might have been expected, speaking much evil of Macrinus, especially with reference to his low birth and his plot against Antoninus. Here is a sample of what he said: "He who was not permitted to enter even the senate-house after the proclamation debarring everybody other than senators from doing so, this man, I say, dared treacherously to murder the emperor whom he had been trusted to guard, dared to appropriate his office and to become emperor before he was senator." About himself he made many promises, not only to the soldiers but also to the senate and the people. He asserted that he should do everything without exception to emulate Augustus (to whose youth he likened his own) and also Marcus Antoninus. Yes, and he wrote also the following, alluding to the derogatory remarks made about him by Macrinus: "He undertook to censure my age, when he himself appointed a five-year old son."

[Sidenote:—2—] Besides forwarding this communication to the senate, he sent to the senate the records discovered among the soldiers and the letters of Macrinus written, to Maximus, and sent them likewise to the legions, hoping that these would cause them to hold the preceding emperor's memory in greater detestation, and to feel greater affection for him. In both the despatch to the senate and the letter to the people he subscribed himself as emperor and Cæsar, son of Antoninus, grandson of Severus, Pius, Felix, Augustus, proconsul, and holder of the tribunician power, assuming these titles before they were voted,[lacuna] the [lacuna] not the [lacuna] but the [lacuna] of [lacuna] used [Footnote: Illegible MS.—Boissevain conjectures: "And he used not the name of Avitus, but that of his father."] [lacuna] the records of the soldiers [lacuna] for of Macrinus [lacuna] Cæsar [lacuna] Pretorians and Alban legionaries who were in Italy [lacuna] and as consul should proclaim [Footnote: "He sent another letter to the Pretorians and to the Alban legionaries who were in Italy, in which he stated incidentally that he was consul and high-priest." (Boissevain's conjecture.)] [lacuna] and the [lacuna] Marius Censorinus [lacuna] superintendence [lacuna] accepted [lacuna] Macrinus [lacuna] himself since not sufficiently by his own voice [lacuna] public [lacuna] read [lacuna] the letters of Sardanapalus [lacuna] registered among the ex-consuls and gave him injunctions that if any one should resist him he should use the band of soldiers. As a consequence, though against its will, it read everything to those [lacuna] [Footnote: "Most of it Marius Censorinus, who was their commandant, read aloud, but the news about Macrinus he suppressed, because he thought that his single voice could not give it sufficient publicity; at the same time, however, he took it upon himself to have the letter of Sardanapalus read to the senate through the medium of Claudius Pollio, who had been enrolled among the ex-consuls; thus, if any opposition should develop, he would be in a position to use the band of soldiers. As a consequence the senate, though against its will, read everything to those enlisted." (Boissevain's conjecture.)]

For, by reason of the necessity thrust upon them, they were not able to do anything that they should or had better have done [lacuna] but were panic-stricken by fear [lacuna] and Macrinus, whom they had often commended, they voted should be regarded as a public enemy and they abused him, together with his son; and Tarautas, whom they had often wished to declare an enemy, they now exalted and of course prayed that his son might be like him.

[Sidenote:—3—] This was in Rome. And Avitus assigned [lacuna] Pollio to govern [lacuna] Germany [lacuna] since the latter had very rapidly reduced Bithynia to subjection. He himself, after sojourning some months in Antioch until he had established his authority there in every direction, went into Bithynia, coadjutor [lacuna] often [lacuna] making Gannys, as had been his custom in the case of Antioch.

Having passed the winter here he proceeded into Italy through Thrace and Moesia and both the Pannonias, and there he abode to the end of his life. One action of his was worthy of a thoroughly good emperor: for, whereas many individuals and communities alike,

including the Romans themselves, both knights and senators,

had privately and publicly, by word and deed, heaped insults upon [both Caracalla and] himself as a result of the letters of Macrinus, he [neither threatened to make reprisals] in the case of a single person, nor did he make reprisals. But on the other hand he drifted into all the most obscene and lawless and bloodthirsty practices. [Some of them never before known in Rome, took root and grew like ancestral institutions. Others, taken up tentatively from one time [Footnote: Reading [Greek: allote] (Bekker, Dindorf) in place of [Greek: alla te].] to another by various individuals] flourished for the three years and nine months and four days during which he ruled (to compute from the battle in which he gained supreme control). [In Syria, he caused the assassination of Nestor and Fabius Agrippinus, the governor of the country, as well as of the foremost knights belonging to the party of Macrinus; but he inflicted a similar fate upon men in Rome who were on most friendly terms with him. In Arabia, he executed Pica Cæsianus, [Footnote: P. Numicius Pica Cæsianus.] entrusted with the administration, because he had not immediately declared his allegiance; and, in Cyprus, Claudius Attalus, because he had fallen out with Comazon. Attalus had once been governor of Thrace, had been expelled from the senate by Severus in the war with Niger, but was restored to it by Tarautas, and had at this time been assigned to Cyprus, as the lot directed. He had incurred Comazon's ill-will by having formerly reduced him to the position of rower in a trireme as a punishment for some villany which the latter committed while serving in Thrace.]

[Sidenote:—4—] This incident sheds some light on the character of Comazon, who got this name from mimes and buffoonery. [Footnote: This statement is an error on the part of Xiphilinus, who thought that "Comazon" (in Greek=The Reveler) was a nickname for a certain Eutychianus. Investigations, however, show that there was a M. Valerius Comazon prominent at this time and that the word should be taken as a proper and not as a vulgar noun.] He commanded the Pretorians and, though holding no position of management or superintendence whatever, except over the camp, [he obtained the consular honors] and subsequently actually became consul. [Also he became city prefect] not merely once, but twice and thrice, as could be recorded in no other case. Wherefore this, too, must be enumerated among the most illegal proceedings. [It was on his account, then, that Attalus was put to death.

Triccianus came to his end on account of the Alban legion, which he commanded with good discipline during Macrinus's reign, and Castinus [Footnote: C. Iulius Septimius Castinus.] because he was energetic and was known to many soldiers in consequence of the commands he had held and his association with Antoninus. He had accordingly been sent out in advance by Macrinus without reference to other events and was living in Bithynia. The emperor put him to death in spite of having written concerning him to the senate that Triccianus had been banished from Rome, like Julius Asper, by Macrinus, and that he had restored him. He took similar vengeance on Sulla, who had been governing Cappadocia but had relinquished it, because Sulla both meddled in some matters that did not concern him and when summoned to Rome by Elagabalus had managed to meet the Celtic soldiers returning home after their winter in Bithynia, a period during which they had raised some little disturbance. These men perished for the reasons specified and no statements about them were communicated to the senate. Seius Carus, the descendant of Fuscianus, who had been city prefect, was killed because he was rich, great, and sensible, on the pretext that he was forming a league of some of the soldiers belonging to the Alban legion; and, on the basis of some charges preferred by the emperor alone, he was accused in the palace, where he was also slain.] Valerianus Pætus lost his life because he had stamped some likeness of himself upon gold pieces to serve as ornaments for his mistresses. [This led to the accusation that he intended to remove to Cappadocia, a country bordering on his own (he was a Gaul), for the purpose of starting a revolution, and that this was why he made gold pieces bearing his own figure.

[Sidenote:—5—] On these charges] Silius Messala and Pomponius Bassus [also were condemned to death by the senate: they] incurred blame because they were not pleased with what he was doing. He did not hesitate to write this statement about them to the senate, and called them investigators of his habits of life and censors of proceedings in the palace. ["The proofs of their plot I have not sent you," he said, "because it would be useless to read them, in view of the fact that the men are already dead."] There was another cause of dislike underlying [the case against Messala,—the point, namely, that he sturdily made public many facts in the senate. This was what led the emperor at the outset to send for him to come to Syria, pretending to have very great need of him, whereas his real fear was that Messala might bring about a change of attitude on the part of the senators.

The cause in] the case of Bassus was that he had a wife both fair to look upon and of noble rank; she was a descendant of Claudius Severus and of Marcus Antoninus. Indeed, the prince married her, not allowing her even to mourn the catastrophe. Now of his marriages, in which he both married and was bestowed in marriage, an account will be given presently. He appeared both as man and as woman, and performed the functions of both in the most licentious fashion [lacuna] about [lacuna] and [lacuna] by whom [lacuna] own [lacuna] Sergius [lacuna] and [lacuna] out of [lacuna] any [lacuna] making [lacuna] him [lacuna] blame for [lacuna] slaughter the [Sidenote:—6—] [lacuna] and of knights [lacuna] Cæsarians [lacuna] [lacuna] were destroyed [lacuna] nothing [lacuna] but by killing in Nicomedea at the very start of his reign Gannys, who had arranged the uprising, who had introduced him into the camp and had likewise caused [the soldiers to revolt, who had presented him with the victory over Macrinus, one who had reared and managed him,—by this act he came to be regarded as the most impious of men. To be sure, Gannys was living rather luxuriously and was fond of accepting bribes, but for all that he brought no injury upon anybody and bestowed many benefits upon many people. Most of all, he always showed a deep respect for the emperor, and he was thoroughly satisfactory to Mæsa and Soæmias, suiting the former because she had brought him up and the latter because he practically lived with her. But these were not the reasons why the emperor put him out of the way, seeing that he was willing to give him a marriage contract and appoint him Cæsar. It was rather that Gannys compelled him to live temperately and prudently. And his own hand was the first to give his minister a mortal blow, since no one of the soldiers had the hardihood to take the initiative in his murder.—These events, then, took place in this way.

[Sidenote:—7—] [lacuna] Another pair executed were Verus, who had likewise mustered courage to make an attempt upon the sovereignty while in the midst of the third (Gallic) legion, which he was commanding; and Gellius Maximus, on the same sort of charge, though he was lieutenant in Syria proper and at the head of the fourth (Scythian) legion. For to such an extent had everything got upside down, that these men, too, one of whom had been enrolled in the senate from the ranks of the centurions and the other of whom was the son of a physician, took it into their heads to aim at the imperial office. I have mentioned them alone by name, not so much because they were the only ones who appeared entirely insane as because they belonged to the senate; for other attempts were made. A certain centurion's son undertook to throw into disorder the same Gallic legion, and another, a worker in wool, tampered with the Fourth, and a third, a private citizen, with the fleet in harbor at Cyzicus when the False Antoninus was wintering at Nicomedea. And there were many others elsewhere, so that it became a very ordinary thing for those who so wished to hazard the chance of fomenting rebellion and becoming emperor. They were encouraged partly by the fact that many persons had entered upon the supreme office without expecting or deserving it. Let no one be incredulous of my statements, for the facts about the private citizens I ascertained from men who are worthy of confidence, and of what I have written about the fleet I gained an exact knowledge in Pergamum, close at hand, the affairs of which, as also of Smyrna, I managed, having been assigned to duty there by Macrinus. And in view of this attempt none of the others seemed at all incredible to me.

[Sidenote:—8—] This is what he did in the way of murders. His acts which varied from our ancestral precedents, however, were of simple character and inflicted no great harm upon us. Some noteworthy innovations were his applying to himself certain titles connected with his sovereignty before they had been voted, as I have already described, [Footnote: See Chapter 2.] and again his enrolling himself in the consulship in place of Macrinus when he had not been elected to it and did not enter upon any of its duties (the time expiring too soon): yet at first, in three letters, he had referred to the year by the name of Adventus, as if assuming that the latter had been sole consul. Other points were that he undertook to be consul a second time, without having secured any office previously or the privileges of any office, and that while consul in Nicomedea he did not employ the triumphal costume on the Day of Vows. [Footnote: Translated by Sturz "votivorum ludorum die." What festival is meant is uncertain, but it is probably not the Compitalia (III. Non. Ian.). [Sidenote:—11—] With his infractions of law is connected also the matter of Elagabalus. The offence consisted, not in his introducing a foreign god into Rome, or in his exalting him in very strange ways, but in his placing him before even Jupiter and having himself voted his priest, in his circumcising his foreskin and abstaining from swine's flesh [on the ground that his devotion would be purer by this means. He had thought of cutting off his genitals altogether, but that was an idea prompted by salaciousness; the circumcision which he actually accomplished was a part of the priestly requirements of Elagabalus. Hence he mutilated in like manner numerous of his associates.] A further offence was his being frequently seen in public clad in the barbaric dress which the Syrian priests employ, a circumstance which had more to do than anything else with his getting the name of "The Assyrian."

[Sidenote:—12—] ¶ A golden statue of False Antoninus was erected, distinguished by its great and varied adornment.

¶ Macrinus, though he found considerable money in the treasury, squandered it all, and incomes did not suffice for expenditures.

[Sidenote: A.D. 219 (a.u. 972)] [Sidenote:—9—] As to his marriage. He espoused Cornelia Paula in order that he might sooner (these are his words) become a father,—he, who could not even be a man. On the occasion of his marriage not only the senate and the equestrian order but also the wives of the senators received some distribution of presents. The people were given a banquet at the per capita rate of one hundred and fifty denarii, and the soldiers had one that cost a hundred more. There were contests of gladiators at which the prince wore a purple-bordered toga, the same as he had done at the ludi votivi. Various beasts were slain, among them an elephant and fifty-one tigers, a greater number than had ever yet been despatched at one time. Afterwards he dismissed Paula on the pretext that she had some blemish on her person and cohabited with Aqulia Severa,—a most flagrant breach of law. She was consecrated to Vesta and yet he most sinfully ravished her and actually dared to say: "I did it in order that godlike children may spring from me, the high-priest, and from her, the high-priestess." He felicitated himself on an act which was destined to lead to his being maltreated in the Forum and thrown into prison and subsequently put to death. However, he did not keep even this woman for long, but married a second, and then a third, and still another; after that he went back to Severa.

[Sidenote:—10—] Portents had been taking place in Rome, one of them on the statue of Isis, which is borne upon a dog above the pediment of her temple: it consisted in her turning her face towards the interior.—Sardanapalus was conducting games and numerous spectacles, in which Helix, the athlete, won renown. How far he surpassed his adversaries is shown by his wishing to contend in both wrestling and pancratium at Olympia, and by his winning victories in both at the Capitolina. The Eleans, being jealous of him, and through fear that he might prove the eighth from Hercules (as the saying is), [Footnote: The history and significance of this proverb are not known.] would not call any wrestler into the stadium, in spite of their having inscribed this contest on the bulletin-board. But in Rome he won each of the two games,—a feat that no one else had accomplished.

[Sidenote:—11—] And here I must omit mention of the barbaric chants which Sardanapalus chanted to Elagabalus, and his mother and grandmother, all three, as also of the secret sacrifices that he offered to him: at these he slaughtered boys, and used charms, besides shutting up in the god's temple a live lion and monkey and snake, throwing in among them human genitals, and practicing other unholy rites, while he wore invariably innumerable amulets. [Sidenote:—12—] But to run briefly over these matters, he actually (most ridiculous of all) courted a wife for Elagabalus, on the assumption that the god wanted marriage and children. Such a wife might be neither poor nor low-born, and so he chose the Carthaginian Urania, summoned her to come thence, and established her in the palace. He gathered wedding gifts for her from all his subjects, as he might have done in the case of his own wives. All these presents that were given during his lifetime were exacted later, but in the way of dowry he declared that nothing should be brought save the gold lions, which were melted down.

[Sidenote:—13—] But this Sardanapalus, who thought it right to make the gods cohabit under the form of marriage, himself lived from first to last most licentiously. [He married many women] and had liaisons with many more [without any lawful title], yet it was not that he cared about them; he simply wanted to imitate their actions when he should lie with his lovers [and get accomplices in his excesses by returning to them indiscriminately]. He used his body for doing and allowing many unheard of things which no one would endure telling or hearing, but his most conspicuous acts, which it would be impossible to conceal, were the following. He would go by night, wearing a wig of long hair, into the taverns and ply the trade of a female huckster. He frequented the notorious brothels, drove out the prostitutes, and prostituted himself. Finally, he set aside a room in the palace and there committed his indecencies, standing all the time naked at the door of it, as the harlots do, and shaking the curtain, which was fastened by gold rings, the while in a soft and melting voice he solicited the passers-by. Certain persons had been given special orders to let themselves be attracted to his abode. For, as in other matters, so in this business, too, he had numerous detectives through whom he sought out the persons who could please him most by their foulness. He would collect money from his Patrons and put on airs over his gains: he would also dispute with his associates in this shameful occupation, saying that he had more lovers than they and took in more money. [Sidenote:—14—] This is the way he behaved to all alike that enjoyed his services. But he had, besides, one chosen man whom he accordingly desired to appoint Cæsar.

Also, arrayed in the Green uniform, he drove a chariot privately and at home,—if one can call that place home where contests were conducted by the foremost of his suite [and knights and Cæsarians], the very prefects, his grandmother, his mother, his women, and likewise several members of the senate, including Leo, the præfectus urbi, and where they watched him playing charioteer and begging gold coin like any vagabond, and bowing down before the managers of the games and the members of the factions.

[Now in trying anybody in court he really did have the appearance of a man, but everywhere else his actions and the quality of his voice showed the wantonness of youth. For instance, he used to dance not only in the orchestra but more or less also while walking, performing sacrifice, greeting friends or making speeches.

And finally (to go back now to the story which I began) he was bestowed in marriage and was termed wife, mistress, queen. He worked in wool, sometimes wore a hair-net, painted his eyes [daubing them with white lead and alkanet], and once he shaved his chin and celebrated a festival to mark the event. After that he went with smooth face, because it would help him appear like a woman, and he often reclined while greeting the senators. [Sidenote:—15—] "Her" husband was Hierocles, a Carian slave [once the favorite of Gordius], from whom he had learned chariot-driving. It was in this connection, also, that by a most unexpected chance he won the imperial approbation. At a horse-race Heirocles fell out of his chariot just opposite the seat of Sardanapalus, losing his helmet in his fall. Being still beardless and adorned with a crown of yellow hair, he attracted the attention of the prince and was at once carried hastily to the palace; and by his nocturnal feats he captivated Sardanapalus more than ever and rose to still greater power. Consequently his influence became even greater than his patron's and it was thought a small thing that his mother, while still a slave, should be brought to Rome by soldiers and be numbered among the wives of ex-consuls. Certain other persons, too, were not seldom honored by the emperor and became powerful, some because they had joined in his uprising and others because they committed adultery with him. For he was anxious to have the reputation of committing adultery, that in this respect, too, he might imitate the most lascivious women; and he would often get caught voluntarily and in the very act. Then, for his conduct, he would be brutally abused by his husband and would be beaten, so that he had black eyes. His affection for this "husband" was no light inclination, but a serious matter and a firmly fixed passion, so much so that he did not become vexed at any such harsh treatment, but on the contrary loved him the more for it and actually wished to appoint him Cæsar;—he threatened his grandmother when she interfered, and chiefly on this man's account he became at odds with the soldiers. It was this that was destined to lead his destruction.

[Sidenote:—16—] As for Aurelius Zoticus, a native of Smyrna, whom they also called "Cook" (from his father's trade), he incurred the sovereign's thorough love and thorough hatred, and consequently his life was saved. This Aurelius had a body that was beautiful all over, as if ready for a gymnastic contest, and he surpassed everybody in the size of his private parts. The fact was reported to the emperor by those who were on the lookout for such features and the man was suddenly snatched away from the games and taken to Rome, accompanied by an immense procession, larger than Abgarus had in the reign of Severus or Tiridates in that of Nero. He was appointed cubicularius before he had been even seen by the emperor, [was honored by the name of his grandfather, Avitus, was adorned with garlands as at a festival,] and entered the palace the center of a great glare of lights. Sardanapalus, on seeing him, rose with modesty; the newcomer addressed him, as was usual, "My Lord Emperor, hail!" whereupon the other, bending his neck so as to assume a ravishing feminine pose, and turning his eyes wide open upon him, answered without hesitation: "Call me Not Lord, for I am a Lady." Then Sardanapalus immediately took a bath with him, and, finding his guest when stripped to correspond to the report of him, burned with even greater lust, reposed upon his breast, and took dinner, like some loved mistress, in his bosom. Hierocles began to fear that Zoticus would bring the emperor into a greater state of subjection than he himself was able to effect, and that he might suffer some terrible fate at his hands, as often happens in the case of rival lovers. Therefore he had the wine-bearers, who were well-disposed to him, administer some drug that abated the visitor's ferocity. And so Zoticus after a whole night of embarrassment, being unable to secure an erection, was deprived of all that he had obtained, and was driven out of the palace, out of Rome, and later out of the remainder of Italy; and this saved his life. [However, the emperor drove himself to such a frenzy of lewdness that he asked the physicians to contrive a woman's vagina in his person by means of an incision, and held out to them the hope of great pay for this achievement.]

[Sidenote:—17—] Sardanapalus himself was destined not much later to receive his well-deserved pay for his own defilement. For his acting in this way and for making himself the object of these actions he became hated by the populace and by the soldiers to whom he was most attached, and at last he was slain by them in the very camp.

¶The False Antoninus was despised and put out of the way by the soldiers. When any persons, particularly if armed, have accustomed themselves to feel contempt for their rulers, they set no limits on their right to do what they please but keep their arms ready to use even against the very man who gave them whatever rights they possess.

[Sidenote: A.D. 221 (a.u. 974)] This is how it happened. He introduced his cousin Bassianus before the senate, and, having stationed Mæsa and Soæmias on either hand, adopted him as his child. Then did he congratulate himself on being suddenly the father of so large a child (as if he surpassed him in age) and declared that he needed no other offspring to keep his house free from despondency.

Elagabalus, he said, had ordered him to do this and further to call his son's name Alexander. And I for my part am persuaded that it came about in very truth by some divine intention, and I base my inference not upon what he said but upon what was said to him by some one, viz., that an Alexander would come from Emesa to succeed him, and again on what took place in upper Moesia and in Thrace. [Sidenote:—18—] A little before this a spirit, declaring that he was the famous Alexander of Macedon, wearing his appearance and all his apparatus, started from the regions near the Ister, appearing there in I know not what way. It traversed Thrace and Asia, reveling in company with four hundred male attendants, who were equipped with thyrsi and fawn-skins and did no harm. The fact was admitted by all those who lived in Thrace at that time that lodgings and all the provisions for It were provided at public expense. And no one dared to oppose It either by word or by deed,—no governor, no soldier, no procurator, no heads of provinces,—but It proceeded, as if in a daylight procession prescribed by proclamation, to the confines of Bithynia. Leaving that point, it approached the Chalcedonian land and there, after performing some sacred rite by night and burying a wooden horse, it vanished. These facts I ascertained while still in Asia, as I stated, and before anything at all had been done about Bassianus in Rome.

¶One day the same man said this: "I have no need of titles derived, from war and blood. It suffices me to have you call me 'Pious' and 'Fortunate'."

¶The False Antoninus on receiving praise from the senate one day remarked: "Yes, you love me and, by Jupiter, so does the populace and likewise the foreign legions. But I do not satisfy the Pretorians, to whom I keep giving so much."

[Sidenote: A.D. 222 (a.u. 975)] [Sidenote:—19—] So long as Sardanapalus continued to love his cousin, he was safe. But, since he was suspicious of all men, and learned that their favor was turning solely and absolutely to the boy, he dared to change his mind and worked in every way to effect his overthrow.

¶Some persons were conversing with the False Antoninus and remarked how fortunate he was to be consul along with his son. He rejoined: "I shall be more fortunate next year, for then I'm going to be consul with my truly-begotten son."

The moment, though, that he tried to destroy him, he not only accomplished nothing but ran the risk of being killed himself. Alexander was sedulously guarded by his mother and his grandmother and the soldiers, and the Pretorians, on becoming aware of the attempt of Sardanapalus, raised a terrible tumult. They would not cease their rebellious attitude until Sardanapalus, with Alexander, visited the camp; and he poured out his supplications and under compulsion gave up such of his companions in lewdness as the soldiers demanded. In behalf of Hierocles he pled piteously and lamented him with tears, foretelling his own death, and adding: "Grant me this one man, whatever you are pleased to suspect about him, or else kill me!" and thus with difficulty he succeeded in appeasing them. On this occasion, then, he was saved, though with difficulty. His grandmother hated him for his practices (which seemed to show that he was not the son of Antoninus) and was coming to favor Alexander, as being really sprung from him.

[Sidenote:—20—] Later he again made a plot against Alexander and, as the Pretorians raised an outcry at this, entered the camp with him. Then, he became aware that he was under guard and awaiting execution, for the mothers of the two, being more openly at variance with each other than before, were stirring up the soldiers to action. He then made an attempt to flee, and intended to escape to some point by being placed in a box, but was discovered and slain, having reached eighteen years of age. His mother, who embraced and clung tightly to him, perished with him; their heads were cut off and their bodies, after being stripped naked, were first dragged all over the city, and then the woman's trunk was cast off in some corner, while his was thrown into the river.

[Sidenote:—21—] With him perished Hierocles, and others, and the prefects; and Aurelius Eubulus, who was an Emesenian by race [and had gone so far in lewdness and defilement that his surrender had earlier been demanded by the populace]. He had been entrusted with the general accounts [Footnote: One of the rationales summarum.] and there was nothing that escaped his confiscations. So now he was torn to pieces by the populace and the soldiers, and Fulvius, the city prefect, with him. Comazon succeeded the latter, as he had succeeded Fulvius's predecessor. Just as a mask used to be carried into the theatres to occupy the stage during the intervals in the acting, when it was left vacant by the comedians, so was Comazon put in the vacant place of the men who had been prefects in his day over the city of Rome.—As for Elagabalus, [Footnote: Elagabalus, the god.] he was banished from Rome altogether.

Such was the story of Tiberinus: and none of those even who helped him arrange the uprising and attained great power in return, save perhaps a single individual, [Footnote: This probably refers to Comazon.] survived.

DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY

80

Why Dio was not able to relate in detail the history of the reign of
Alexander (chapter 1).

About Ulpian, Pretorian Prefect, and his death (chapter 2).

Undertakings of Artaxerxes the Persian against the Parthians and Romans (chapters 3, 4).

Dio's second consulship, his return to his own country, and conclusion of the History (chapter 5).