Chapter 3

A.D. 97 (a.u. 850)] Upon his monument was inscribed when he died: "Having conquered Vindex he ascribed the credit of victory not to himself but to his country." [Footnote: Compare also Pliny's Letters, Book Six, number 10.]

[Sidenote:--3--] Nerva ruled so well that he once remarked: "I have done nothing that could prevent me from laying down the imperial office and returning to private life in safety." When Crassus Calpurnius, a grandson of the famous Crassi, formed a plot with some others against him, he made them sit beside him at a spectacle--they were still ignorant of the fact that they had been informed upon--and gave them some swords, nominally to look at and see if they were sharp (as was often done), but really by way of showing that he did not care if he died that moment where he was.

Aelianus Casperius, who was governor under him as he had been under Domitian, and had become one of the Pretorians, incited the soldiers to mutiny against him; his plan was to have them demand some persons for execution. Nerva resisted them stoutly, even to the point of baring his collar-bone and offering them his throat: but he accomplished nothing and those whom Aelianus wished were put out of the way. Wherefore Nerva, subjected to such profound humiliation because of his old age, ascended the Capitol and cried aloud: "To the good fortune of the Roman people and senate and myself I adopt Marcus Ulpius Nerva Trajan."

Subsequently in the senate he designated him Caesar and sent a message to him, written with his own hand (Trajan was governor of Germany):

"The Danaans by thy weapons shall requite my tears." [Footnote: From Homer's Iliad, Book One, verse 42.]

[Sidenote:--4--] Thus did Trajan become Caesar and afterwards emperor, although there were relatives of Nerva. But the man did not esteem family relationship above the safety of the State, nor was he less inclined to adopt Trajan because the latter was a Spaniard instead of an Italian or Italiot, [Footnote: Dio means by _Italian_ one born in Italy, by _Italiot_ one who settles in Italy.] or because no foreigner had previously held the Roman sovereignty. It was a person's virtue and not his country that he thought needed examination.

[Sidenote: A.D. 98 (a.u. 851)] Soon after this act he passed away, having ruled during the period of one year, four months and nine days. His life prior to that time [Footnote: Reading [Greek: proebebiochei] (Boissevain).] had comprised sixty-five years, ten months, and ten days.

[Sidenote:--5--] Trajan, before he became emperor, had had a dream of the following nature. He thought that an old man in purple robe and vesture, moreover adorned with a crown, as the senate is represented in pictures, impressed a seal upon him with a finger ring, first on the left side of his throat and then on the right. When he had been made emperor, he sent a despatch to the senate written with his own hand, which stated, among other things, that he would not slay nor dishonor any man of worth. This he confirmed by oaths not merely at that time but also later.

He sent for Aelianus and the Pretorians who had mutinied against Nerva, pretending that he was going to employ them in some way, and relieved the world of their presence. [Sidenote: A.D. 99 (a.u. 852)] When he had entered Rome he did much toward the administration of state affairs and to please the excellent. To the former business he gave unusual attention, making many grants even to Italian cities for the support of their children, and to good citizens he did continual favors. Plotina, his wife, on first going into the palace turned around so as to face the Scalae and the populace, and said: "My wish is to issue hence the same sort of person as I am now when I enter." And she so conducted herself during the entire sovereignty as to incur no censure.

[Sidenote: A.D. 100 (a.u. 853)] [Sidenote:--6--] After spending some time in Rome he instituted a campaign against the Dacians; for he made their deeds the object of thought and was irritated at the amount of money they were annually getting. He likewise saw that their power and their pride were increasing. Decebalus, learning of his advance, was frightened, since he well knew that formerly he had conquered not the Romans but Domitian, whereas now he would be fighting against both Romans and Trajan as emperor.

And Trajan had a great reputation for justice, for bravery, and for simple living. He was strong in body (being in his forty-second year when he began to rule) [so that in every enterprise he toiled almost as much as the rest;] and his intellectual powers were at their highest, so that he had neither the recklessness of youth nor the sluggishness of old age. He did not envy nor kill any one, but honored and exalted all without exception that were men of worth, and hence he neither feared nor hated one of them. To slanders he paid very little heed and was no slave of anger. He refrained equally from the money of others and from unjust murders. [Sidenote:--7--] He expended vast sums on wars and vast sums on works of peace; and while making very many most necessary repairs on roads and harbors and public buildings, he drained no one's blood for these undertakings. His nature was so noble and magnanimous that even upon the hippodrome he merely inscribed the statement that he had made it suitable for the Roman people when it had crumbled away in spots, and had rendered it larger and more beautiful. For these deeds he was better satisfied to be loved than honored. His meetings with the people were marked by affability and his intercourse with the senate by dignity. He was loved by all and dreaded by none save the enemy. He joined people in hunting and banquets, and in work and plans and jokes. Often he would make a fourth in somebody's litter, and sometimes he would enter persons' houses even without a guard and make himself at home. He lacked education in the exact sense,--book-learning, at least,--but he both understood and carried out its spirit, and there was no quality of his that was not _excellent_. I know well enough that he was given to wine and boys, but if he had ever committed or endured any base or wicked deed as a result of this, he would have incurred censure. As the case stood, he drank all the wine he wanted, yet remained sober, and his pursuit of pederasty harmed no one. And even if he did delight in war, still he was satisfied with success in it,--with overthrowing a most hostile element and bettering his own side. Nor did the usual thing under such circumstances,--conceit and arrogance on the part of the soldiers,--ever manifest itself during his reign; with such a firm hand did he rule them. For these reasons Decebalus was somewhat justified in fearing him.

[Sidenote:--8--] When Trajan, in the course of his campaign against the Dacians had come near Tapai, where the barbarians were encamping, a large mushroom was brought to him, on which it said in Latin characters that the Buri and other allies advised Trajan to turn back and make peace. At Trajan's first encounter with the foe he visited many of the wounded on his own side and killed many of the enemy. And when the bandages gave out, he is said not to have spared even his own clothing, but to have cut it up into strips. In honor of the soldiers that had died in battle he ordered an altar erected and the performance of funeral rites annually.

[Sidenote:--9--] [Decebalus had sent envoys also before the defeat, and no longer the long-haired men, as before, but the chief among the cap-wearers. [Footnote: Latin, _pileati_. The distinction drawn is that between the plebeians and the _nobles_, to whom reference is made respectively by the terms "unshorn" and "covered." Compare here the make up of the Marcomanian embassy in Book Seventy-two, chapter two.] These threw down their arms and casting themselves upon the earth begged Trajan that if possible Decebalus himself be allowed to meet and confer with him, promising that he would do everything that might be commanded; or, if not, that at least some one should be despatched to agree upon terms with him. Those sent were Sura and Claudius Livianus, the prefect; but nothing was accomplished, for Decebalus did not dare even to come near them. He sent representatives also on this occasion.

Trajan had now seized some fortified mountains and on them found the arms and the captured engines, as well as the standard which had been taken in the time Fuscus. [Sidenote: A.D. 101 (a.u. 854)] Undertaking to ascend the heights themselves, he secured one crest after another amid dangers and approached the capital of the Dacians. Lusius, attacking in another quarter, slaughtered numbers and captured still more alive. Then Decebalus sent envoys.

Decebalus, for this reason, and particularly because Maximus at the same time had possession of his sister and a strong position, was ready to agree without exception to every demand made. It was not that he intended to abide by his agreement, but he wanted to secure a respite from his temporary reverses.] So, though against his will, he made a compact to surrender his arms, engines, and manufacturers of engines, to give back the deserters, to demolish his forts, to withdraw from captured territory, and furthermore to consider the same persons enemies and friends as the Romans did [besides neither giving shelter to any of the deserters, [Footnote: Reading [Greek: automolon tina] (Boissevain).] nor employing any soldiers from the Roman empire, for he had acquired the largest and best part of his force by persuading them to come from that quarter]. When he came into Trajan's presence, he fell upon the earth and did obeisance [and cast away his arms. He also sent envoys to the senate to secure these terms, in order that he might have the further ratification of the peace by that body. At the conclusion of this compact the emperor left a camp in Sarmizegethusa, and, having placed garrisons at intervals through the remainder of the territory, returned to Italy.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 103 (a.u. 856)] [Sidenote:--10--] The envoys from Decebalus were introduced in the senate. They laid down their arms, clasped their hands in the posture of captives, and spoke some words of supplication; thus they obtained peace and received back their arms. Trajan celebrated a triumph and was given the title of Dacicus; in the theatre he had contests of gladiators, in whom he delighted, and he brought back dancers once more to the theatre, being in love with one of them, Pylades. However, he did not pay less attention to general administration, as might have been expected of a warlike personage, nor did he hold court the less: on the contrary, he conducted trials now in the forum of Augustus, now in the porch named the Porch of Livia, and often elsewhere on a platform.

And since Decebalus was reported to him to be acting in many ways contrary to the treaty, since he was gathering arms, receiving such as deserted, repairing the forts, sending ambassadors to the neighbors, and injuring those who had previously differed with him, since also he was devastating some land of the Iazygae (which Trajan later would not give back to them when they asked for it), therefore, the senate voted that he was again an enemy. And Trajan again conducted the war against him, commanding in person and not represented by others.

[Sidenote: A.D. 104 (a.u. 857)] [Sidenote:--11--] [As numerous Dacians kept transferring their allegiance to Trajan, and for certain other reasons, Decebalus again requested peace. But since he could not be persuaded to surrender both his arms and himself, he proceeded openly to collect troops and called the surrounding nations to his aid, saying that if they deserted him they themselves would come into danger and that it was safer and easier by fighting on his side to preserve their freedom, before suffering any harm, than if they should allow his people to be destroyed and then later be subjugated when bereft of allies.] And Decebalus in the open field came off poorly, but by craft and deceit he almost compassed the death of Trajan. He sent into Moesia some deserters to see whether they could make away with him, inasmuch as the emperor was generally accessible, and now, on account of the needs of warfare, admitted to conference absolutely every one who desired it. But this plan they were unable to carry out, since one of them was arrested on suspicion and, under torture, revealed the entire plot.

[Sidenote:--12--] Longinus was the commandant of the Roman camp who had made himself a terror to the Dacian leader in warfare. The latter, therefore, sent him an invitation and persuaded him to meet him, on the pretext that he would perform whatever should be enjoined. He then arrested him and questioned him publicly about Trajan's plans. As the Roman would not yield at all, he took him about with him under guard, though not in bonds. And [Decebalus sending an envoy to Trajan, asked that he might get back the territory as far as the Ister and receive indemnity for all the money he had spent on the war,] in recompense for restoring Longinus to him. An ambiguous answer was returned, of a kind that would not make Decebalus think that the emperor regarded Longinus as of either great value or small, the object being to prevent his being destroyed on the one hand, or being preserved on excessive terms, on the other. So Decebalus delayed, still considering what he should do.

Meanwhile Longinus, having [through his freedman] secured a poison [--he had promised Decebalus that he would reconcile Trajan to the proposition, in order that the Dacian should be as far as possible from suspecting what was to happen, and so not keep an especially careful watch over him. Also, to enable his servant to attain safety, he wrote a letter containing a supplication, and gave it to the freedman to carry to Trajan. Then, when he had gone, at night he took the poison,] drank it and died. [After this event Decebalus asked Trajan to give him back his freedman, promising to give him in return the body of Longinus and ten captives. He sent at once the centurion who had been captured with the dead general, assuming that this man would arrange the matter for him; and it was from the centurion that the whole story of Longinus was learned. However, Trajan neither sent him back, nor surrendered the freedman, deeming his safety more valuable for establishing the dignity of the empire than the of Longinus.]

[Sidenote:--13--] Now, Trajan constructed over the Ister a stone bridge, for which I cannot sufficiently admire him. His other works are most brilliant, but this surpasses them. There are twenty square pieces of stone, the height of which is one hundred and fifty feet above the foundations and the breadth sixty, and these, standing at a distance of one hundred and seventy feet from one to another, are connected by arches. How then could one fail to be astonished at the expenditure made upon them? Or the manner in which each of them was placed in a river so deep, in water so full of eddies, on ground so slimy? It was impossible, you note, to divert the course of the river in any direction. I have spoken of the breadth of the river; but the stream is not uniformly so limited, since it covers in some places twice and elsewhere thrice as much ground, but the narrowest point, and the one in that region most adapted to bridge-building, has just those dimensions. Yet the very fact that the river here shrinks from a great flood to such a narrow channel and is here confined, though it again expands into a greater flood, makes it all the more violent and deep; and this feature must be considered in estimating the difficulty of preparing a bridge. This achievement, then, shows the greatness of Trajan's designs, though the bridge is of no particular use to us. Merely the piers are standing, affording no means of crossing, as if they were erected for the sole purpose of demonstrating that there is nothing which human energy can not accomplish. Trajan's reason for constructing the bridge was his fear that, some time when the Ister was frozen, war might be made on the Romans across the water, and his desire to enjoy the easy access to them that this work would permit. Hadrian, on the contrary, was afraid that the barbarians might overpower the guard at the bridge and cross into Moesia, and so he removed the surface work.

[Sidenote: A.D. 105 (a.u. 858)] [Sidenote:--14--] Trajan, having crossed the Ister on this bridge, conducted the war with prudence, rather than with haste, and eventually, after a hard struggle, vanquished the Dacians. In the course of these encounters he personally performed many deeds of good generalship and bravery, and his soldiers ran many risks and displayed great prowess on his behalf. It was here that a certain horseman, dangerously wounded, was carried from the battle on the supposition that he could be healed; but, when he found that he could not recover, he rushed from his quarters (since his hurt had not incapacitated him) and stationing himself in the line again he perished, after having displayed great valor. [Sidenote: A.D. 106 (a.u. 859)] Decebalus, when his capital and all his territory had been occupied and he was himself in danger of being captured, committed suicide, and his head was brought to Rome.

In this way Dacia became subject to Rome and Trajan founded cities there. The treasures of Decebalus were also discovered, though hidden beneath the Sargetia river, which ran past his palace. He had made some captives divert the course of the river and had then excavated its bed. There he had placed a large amount of silver and of gold and other objects of great value, that could endure some moisture, had heaped stones over them and piled on earth. After that he had let the river flow over them. The same captives were compelled to deposit his robes and other similar objects in neighboring caves; and when he had effected this, he made away with them to prevent their talking. But Bicilis, a comrade of his, who knew what had been done, was seized and gave this information.--About this same time, Palma, who was governor of Syria, subdued the portion of Arabia, near Petra, and made it subservient to the Romans.

[Sidenote:--15--] [The ambassadors who came from the kings were given seats by Trajan in the senatorial row at spectacles.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 107 (a.u. 860)] Upon Trajan's return to Rome the greatest imaginable number of embassies came to him from the barbarians, even the Indi being represented. And he gave spectacles on one hundred and twenty-three days. At these affairs thousands, yes, possibly tens of thousands of animals, both wild and tame, were slaughtered, and fully ten thousand gladiators fought in combat.

About the same period he made the Pontine marshes traversable by means of a stone foundation, and built roads alongside, which he furnished with most magnificent bridges.--All the obsolete money he had melted down.

[He had sworn not to commit bloodshed and he confirmed his promise by his actions in spite of plots. He was by nature not at all given to duplicity or guile or harshness. He loved and greeted and honored the good, and the rest he neglected. His age made him still more inclined to mildness.] When Licinius Sura died, he bestowed upon him a public funeral and a statue. This man had attained such a degree of wealth and pride that he built a gymnasium for the Romans. So great was the friendship and confidence [which Sura showed toward Trajan and Trajan toward him that although the man was often slandered,--as naturally happens in the case of all those who possess any influence with the emperors,--Trajan never felt a moment's suspicion or hatred. On the contrary, when those who envied him became insistent, Trajan] went [uninvited to his house] to dinner. And having dismissed his whole body-guard he first called Sura's physician and had him anoint his eyes and then his barber shave his chin. Anciently the emperors themselves as well as all other people used to do this. It was Hadrian who first set the fashion of wearing a beard. When he had done this, he next took a bath and had dinner. So the next day he said to his friends who were always in the habit of making statements detrimental to Sura: "If Sura had wanted to kill me, he would have killed me yesterday." [Sidenote:--16--] Now he did a great thing in running this risk in the case of a man who had been calumniated, but a still greater thing in believing that he would never be harmed by him.

So it was that the confidence of his mind was strengthened by his own knowledge of his dealings with Sura instead of being influenced by the fancies of others.

Indeed, when he first handed to him [Footnote: Saburanus. (?)] who was to be prefect of the Pretorians the sword which the latter required to wear by his side, he bared the blade, holding it up said: "Take this sword, to the end that if I rule well, you may use it for me, but if ill, against me."

He also set up images of Sosia and Palma and Celsus, [Footnote: _L. Publilius Celsus_.]--so greatly did he esteem them above others. Those, however, who conspired against him (among whom was Crassus) he brought before the senate and caused to be punished.

[Sidenote: A.D. 114 (a.u. 867)] Again he gathered collections of books. And he set up in the Forum an enormous column, to serve at once as a sepulchral monument to himself and as a reminder of his work in the Forum. The whole region there was hilly and he dug it down for a distance equaling the height of the column, thus making the Forum level.

[Sidenote:--17--] Next he made a campaign against the Armenians and Parthians on the pretext that the Armenian king [Footnote: _Exedares_.] had obtained his diadem not at his hands but from the Parthian king. [Footnote: _Osrhoes_.] His real reason, however, was a desire to win fame. [On his campaign against the Parthians, when he had reached Athens, an embassy from Osrhoes met him asking for peace and proffering gifts. This king had learned of his advance and was terrified because Trajan was wont to make good his threats by deeds. Therefore he humbled his pride and sent a supplication that war be not made against him: he asked Armenia for Parthomasiris, who was likewise a son of Pacorus, and requested that the diadem be sent to him. He had put a stop, he said, to the reign of Exedares, who was beneficial neither to the Romans nor to the Parthians.

The emperor neither received the gifts, nor sent any answer or command, save that friendship is determined by deeds and not by words; and that accordingly when he should reach Syria he would do what was proper.

And being of this mind he proceeded through Asia, Syria, and adjoining provinces to Seleucia. Upon his coming to Antioch, Abgarus the Osrhoenian did not appear in person, but sent gifts and a friendly communication. For, as he dreaded both him and the Parthians, he was trying to play a double game and for that reason would not come to confer with him.]

[Sidenote:--19--] Parthomasiris behaved in rather violent fashion. In his first letter to Trajan he had signed himself as king, but when no answer came to his epistle, he wrote again, omitting this title, and asked that Marcus Junius, the governor of Cappadocia, be sent to him, implying that he wanted to prefer some request through him. Trajan, accordingly, sent him the son of Junius, and himself went ahead to Arsamosata, of which he took possession without a struggle. Then he came to Satala and rewarded with gifts Anchialus, the king of the Heniochi and Machelones. At Elegeia in Armenia he awaited Parthomasiris. He was seated upon a platform in the trenches. The prince greeted him, took off his diadem from his head, and laid it at his feet. Then he stood there in silence, expecting to receive it back. At this the soldiers shouted aloud, and hailed Trajan imperator as if on account of some victory. (They termed it an uncrowned, [Footnote: Reading [Greek: haselinon] (Bekker) = "without the parsley crown" (such as was bestowed upon victors in some of the Greek games).] bloodless victory to see the king, a descendant of Arsaces, a son of Pacorus, and a nephew of Osrhoes, standing beside Trajan without a diadem, like a captive). The shout terrified the prince, who thought that it heralded insult and destruction for him. He turned about as if to flee, but, seeing that he was hemmed in on all sides, begged as a favor not to be obliged to speak before the crowd. Accordingly, he was escorted into the tent, where he had none of his wishes granted. [Sidenote:--20--] So out he rushed in a rage, and from there out of the camp, but Trajan sent for him, and again ascending the platform bade him speak in the hearing of all everything that he desired. This was to prevent any person from spreading a false report through ignorance of what had been said in private conference. On hearing this exhortation Parthomasiris no longer kept silence, but with great frankness made many statements, some of them being to the effect that he had not been defeated or captured, but had come there voluntarily, believing that he should not be wronged and should receive back the kingdom, as Tiridates had received it from Nero. Trajan made appropriate replies to all his remarks and said that he should abandon Armenia to no one. It belonged to the Romans and should have a Roman governor. He would, however, allow Parthomasiris to depart to any place he pleased. So he sent the prince away together with his Parthian companions and gave them an escort of cavalry to ensure their meeting no one and adopting no rebellious tactics. All the Armenians who had come with him he commanded to remain where they were, on the ground that they were already his subjects.

[Sidenote:--21--] [Leaving garrisons at opportune points Trajan came to Edessa, and there for the first time he set eyes upon Abgarus. Previously this person had sent envoys and gifts to the prince frequently, but he himself for different reasons at different times failed to put in an appearance. The same was true also of Mannus, the phylarch of adjoining Arabia, and Sporaces, phylarch of Anthemusia. On this occasion, however, he was persuaded partly by his son Arvandes, who was beautiful and in the prime of youth and therefore on good terms with Trajan, and partly by the fear of the latter's presence near by; consequently he met him on the road, made his apologies, and obtained pardon. He had a powerful intercessor in the boy. Accordingly, he became a friend of Trajan's and entertained him with a banquet. At the dinner in question he presented his boy in some kind of barbaric dance.]

[Sidenote:--22--] [When Trajan came into Mesopotamia, Mannus sent a herald to him, and Manisarus despatched envoys in regard to peace, because, he said, Osrhoes was making a campaign against him, and he was ready to withdraw from Armenia and Mesopotamia so far as captured. Thereupon the emperor replied that he would not believe him until he should come to him and confirm his offers by deeds, as he was promising. He was also suspicious of Mannus, especially because the latter had sent an auxiliary force to Mebarsapes, king of Adiabene, and then had lost it all at the hands of the Romans. Therefore Mannus never waited for the Romans to draw near but took his course to Adiabene to find shelter with the other two princes. Thus were Singara and some other points occupied by Lusius, without a battle.]

When he had captured the whole country of Armenia and had won over also many of the kings, some of whom, since they submitted, he treated as his friends, and others, though disobedient, he subdued without resort to arms, [Sidenote:--23--] the senate voted to him many honors of various descriptions, and they bestowed upon him the title of Optimus, i.e., Excellent.--He was always accustomed to trudge on foot with his entire army and he had the ordering and arrangement of the troops throughout the entire expedition, leading them sometimes in one order and sometimes in another; and he forded as many rivers as they did. Sometimes he even had his scouts circulate false reports, in order that the soldiers might at the same time practice military manoeuvres and be so impervious to alarm as to be ready for anything. After he had captured Nisibis and Batnae he was given the title of Parthicus. But he took greater pride in the name of Optimus than in all the rest, inasmuch as it belonged rather to his character than to his arms.

[Sidenote: A.D. 115 (a.u. 868)] [Sidenote:--24--] While he was staying in Antioch, a dreadful earthquake occurred. Many cities were damaged, but Antioch was most of all unfortunate. Since Trajan was wintering there and many soldiers and many private persons had flocked thither from all directions for lawsuits, embassies, business, or sightseeing, there was no nation nor people that went unscathed. Thus in Antioch the whole world under Roman sway suffered disaster.

There were many thunderstorms to start with and portentous winds, but no one could have expected that so many evils would result from them. First came, on a sudden, a great bellowing roar, and there followed it a tremendous shock. The whole earth was up-heaved and buildings leaped into the air. Those that were lifted up collapsed and were smashed to pieces, [Sidenote: A.D. 115 (a.u. 868)] while others were beaten this way and that as if by the surges and were turned about. The wrecks were strewn a long distance over the countryside. The crash of grinding and breaking timbers, tiles, and stones together became most frightful, and an inconceivable mass of dust arose, so that no one could see any person nor say or hear anything. Many persons were hurt even outside the houses, being picked up and tossed violently about, and then with a momentum as in a fall from a cliff dashed to the earth. Some were maimed, others killed. Not a few trees leaped into the air, roots and all.

The number of those found in the houses who perished was beyond discovery. Multitudes were destroyed by the very force of the collapse and crowds were suffocated in the debris. Those who lay with a part of their bodies buried under the stones or timbers suffered fearful agony, being able neither to live nor to find an immediate death.

[Sidenote:--25--] Nevertheless many even of these were saved, as was natural in such overwhelming numbers of people. And those outside did not all get off safe and sound. Numbers lost their legs or their shoulders and some [Lacuna] their [Lacuna] heads. Others vomited blood. One of these was Pedo the consul, and he died at once. In brief, there was no form of violent experience that those people did not undergo at that time. And as Heaven continued the earthquake for several days and nights, the people were dismayed and helpless, some crushed and perishing under the weight of the buildings pressing upon them, and others dying of hunger in case it chanced that by the inclination of the timbers they were left alive in a clear space, it might be in a kind of arch-shaped colonnade. When at last the trouble had subsided, some one who ventured to mount the ruins caught sight of a live woman. She was not alone but had also an infant, and had endured by feeding both herself and her child with her milk. They dug her out and resuscitated her together with her offspring, and after that they searched the other heaps but were no longer able to find in them any living creature save a child sucking at the breasts of its mother, who was dead. As they drew out the corpses they no longer felt any pleasure at their own escape.

So great were the disasters that had overwhelmed Antioch at this time. Trajan made his way out through a window of the room where he was. Some being of more than human stature had approached him and led him forth, so that he survived with only a few small bruises. As the shocks extended over a number of days, he lived out of doors in the hippodrome. Casium itself, too, was so shaken that its peaks seemed to bend and break and to be falling upon the city. Other hills settled, and quantities of water not previously in existence came to light, while quantities more escaped by flowing away.

[Sidenote:--26--] Trajan about spring time proceeded into the enemy's country. Now since the region near the Tigris is barren of timbers fit for shipbuilding, he brought the boats which had been constructed in the forests surrounding Nisibis on wagons to the river. The vessels had been arranged in such a way that they could be taken apart and put together. He had very hard work in bridging the stream opposite Mount Carduenum, for the opposing barbarians tried to hinder him. Trajan, however, had a great abundance of both ships and soldiers, and so some boats were fastened together with great speed while others lay motionless in front of them, carrying heavy infantry and archers. Still others kept making dashes this way and that, as if they intended to cross. As a result of these tactics and from their very astonishment at seeing so many ships at once appear _en masse_ from a land devoid of trees the barbarians gave way and the Romans crossed over. They won possession of the whole of Adiabene. (This is a portion of Assyria in the vicinity of Ninus; and Arbela and Gaugamela, close to which Alexander conquered Darius, are also in this same territory. The country has also been called Atyria in the language of the barbarians, the double S being changed to T).

[Adenystrae was a strong post to which one Sentius, a centurion, had been sent as an envoy to Mebarsapes. He was imprisoned by the latter in that place, and later, at the approach of the Romans, he made an arrangement with some of his fellow-prisoners, and with their aid escaped from his shackles, killed the commander of the garrison, and opened the gates to his countrymen.] [Sidenote:--26--] Hereupon they advanced as far as Babylon itself, being quite free from molestation, since the Parthian power had been ruined by civil conflicts and was still at this time involved in dissensions.

[Sidenote:--27--] Cassius Dio Cocceianus in writings concerning the Latins has written that this city [i.e. Babylon] comprised a circuit of four hundred stades. (Compare also Tzetzes, Exegesis of Homer's Iliad, p. 141, 15 ff).

Here, moreover, Trajan saw the asphalt out of which the walls of Babylon had been built. When mixed with baked bricks or smooth stones this material affords so great strength as to render them stronger than rock or any kind of iron. He also looked at the opening from which issues a deadly vapor that destroys any creature living upon the earth and any winged thing that so much as inhales a breath of it. If it extended far above ground or had several vents, the place would not be inhabitable; but, as it is, this gas circles round within itself and remains stationary. Hence creatures that fly high enough above it and such as remain to one side are safe. I saw another opening like it at Hierapolis in Asia, and tested it by means of birds; I bent over it myself and myself gazed down upon the vapor. It is enclosed in a sort of a cistern and a theatre had been built over it. It destroys all living things save human beings that have been emasculated. The reason for that I can not comprehend. I relate what I have seen as I have seen it and what I have heard as I have heard it.

[Sidenote: A.D. 116 (a.u. 869)] Trajan had planned to conduct the Euphrates through a channel into the Tigris, in order that boats might be floated down by this route, affording him an opportunity to make a bridge. But on learning that it had a much higher elevation than the Tigris, he did not do it, fearing that the water might rush pell-mell down hill and render the Euphrates unnavigable. So he conveyed the boats across by means of hauling engines at the point where the space between the rivers is the least--the whole stream of the Euphrates empties into a swamp and from there somehow joins the Tigris--then crossed the Tigris and entered Ctesiphon. Having taken possession of this town he was saluted as imperator and established his right to the title of Parthicus. Various honors were voted him by the senate, among others the privilege of celebrating as many triumphs as he might desire.

After his capture of Ctesiphon he felt a wish to sail down into the Red Sea. This is a part of the ocean and has been so named [Footnote: [Greek: erythra] from Erythras, who was said to have been drowned in it (as if in English we should invent a King Redd).] from some person formerly ruler there. Mesene, the island in the Tigris of which Athambelus was king, he acquired without difficulty. [And it remained loyal to Trajan, although ordered to pay tribute.] But through a storm, and the violence of the Tigris, and the backward flow from the ocean, he fell into danger. The inhabitants of the so-called palisade of Spasinus [they were subject to the dominion of Athambelus] received him kindly.

[Sidenote:--29--] Thence he came to the ocean itself, and when he had learned its nature and seen a boat sailing to India, he said: "I should certainly have crossed over to the Indi, if I were still young." He gave much thought to the Indi, and was curious about their affairs. Alexander he counted a happy man and at the same time declared that he himself had advanced farther. This was the tenor of the despatch that he forwarded to the senate, although he was unable to preserve even what territory had been subdued. On its receipt he obtained among other honors the privilege of celebrating a triumph for as many nations as he pleased. For, on account of the number of those peoples regarding which communications in writing were being constantly forwarded to them, they were unable to understand them or even to name some of them correctly. So the citizens of the capital prepared a trophy-bearing arch, besides many other decorations in his own forum, and were getting themselves in readiness to meet him some distance out when he should return. But he was destined never to reach Rome again nor to accomplish anything deserving comparison with his previous exploits, and furthermore to lose even those earlier acquisitions. For, during the time that he was sailing down the ocean and returning from there again, all his conquests were thrown into tumult and revolted. And the garrisons placed among the various peoples were in some cases driven out and in others killed.

[Sidenote:--30--] Trajan ascertained this in Babylon. [Footnote: The Tauchnitz reading, [Greek: en ploio] will not fit the context. Just below [Greek: ithous] (Bekker) has to be read for [Greek: mythous].] He had taken the side-trip there on the basis of reports, unmerited by aught that he saw (which were merely mounds and stones and ruins), and for the sake of Alexander, to whose spirit he offered sacrifice in the room where he had died. When, therefore, he ascertained it, he sent Lusius and Maximus against the rebels. The latter perished after a defeat in the field; but Lusius was generally successful, recovering Nisibis, besieging Edessa, plundering and burning. Seleucia was also captured by Erucius Clarus and Julius Alexander, lieutenants, and was burned. Trajan, in fear that the Parthians, too, might begin some revolt, decided to give them a king of their own. And when he came to Ctesiphon he called together in a great plain all the Romans and likewise all the Parthians that were there at the time. He mounted a lofty platform, and, after describing in lofty language what he had accomplished, he appointed Parthamaspates king of the Parthians and set the diadem upon his head.

[Sidenote: LXXV, 9, 6] When Volgaesus, the son of Sanatruces, confronted in battle array the followers of Severus and before coming to an actual test of strength asked and secured an armistice, Trajan sent envoys to him and granted him a portion of Armenia in return for peace.

[Sidenote:--31--] Next he came into Arabia and commenced operations against the people of Hatra, since they, too, had revolted. This city is neither large nor prosperous. The surrounding country is mostly desert and holds no water (save a small amount, poor in quality), nor timber, nor herb. It is protected by these very features, which make a siege in any form impossible, and by the Sun, to whom it is, in a way, consecrated. It was neither at this time taken by Trajan nor later by Severus, although they knocked down some parts of its wall. Trajan sent the cavalry ahead against the wall but failed in his attempt, and the attacking force was hurled back into the camp. As he was riding by, he barely missed being wounded himself, in spite of the fact that he had laid aside his imperial attire to avoid being recognized. Seeing the majestic gray head and his august countenance they suspected him to be the man he was, shot at him, and killed a cavalryman in his escort. There were peals of thunder and rainbow tints glimmered indistinctly. Flashes of lightning and spray-like storms, hail and thunderbolts fell upon the Romans as often as they made assaults. And whenever they ate a meal, flies settled on the food and drink causing universal discomfort. Thus Trajan left the place and not long after began to fail in health.

[Sidenote:--32--] Meanwhile the Jews in the region of Cyrene had put one Andreas at their head and were destroying both the Romans and the Greeks. They would cook their flesh, make belts for themselves of their entrails, anoint themselves with their blood, and wear their skins for clothing. Many they sawed in two, from the head downwards. Others they would give to wild beasts and force still others to fight as gladiators. In all, consequently, two hundred and twenty thousand perished. In Egypt, also, they performed many similar deeds, and in Cyprus under the leadership of Artemio. There, likewise, two hundred and forty thousand perished. For this reason no Jew may set foot in that land, but even if one of them is driven upon the island by force of the wind, he is put to death. Various persons took part in subduing these Jews, one being Lusius, who was sent by Trajan.

[Lusius Quietus was a Moor, himself a leader of the Moors, and had belonged to [Footnote: Some puzzling corruption in the MS.] a troop in the cavalry. Condemned for base conduct he was temporarily relieved of his command and dishonored. [Footnote: Probably in the days of Domitian.] But later, when the Dacian war came on and the army stood in need of the Moorish alliance, he came to it of his own accord and gave great exhibitions of prowess. For this he was honored, and in the second war performed far greater and more numerous exploits. Finally, he advanced so far in bravery and good fortune during this war which we are considering that he was enrolled among the ex-praetors, became consul, and governed Palestine. To this chiefly was due the jealousy and hatred felt for him, and his destruction.] Now when Trajan had invaded the hostile territory, the satraps and kings of that region approached him with gifts. One of these gifts was a horse taught to do obeisance. It would kneel with its front legs and place its head beneath the feet of whoever stood near.

[Sidenote: A.D. 117 (a.u. 870)] [Sidenote:--33--] Now Trajan was preparing to make a new expedition into Mesopotamia. Finding himself, however, held fast by the clutches of the disease, he started to sail to Italy himself and left behind Publius Aelius Hadrian with the army in Syria. So the Romans, who had conquered Armenia, most of Mesopotamia, and the Parthians, had labored in vain and had vainly undergone danger. The Parthians disdained Parthamaspates and began to have kings according to their original custom. Trajan suspected that his falling sick was due to the administration of poison. Some declare it was because his blood, which annually descended into the lower part of his body, was kept from flowing. He had also become paralyzed, so that part of his body was disabled, and his general diathesis was dropsical. And on coming to Selinus in Cilicia, which we also call Traianoupolis, he suddenly expired after a reign of nineteen years, six months, and fifteen days.

DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY 69

Hadrian without being adopted succeeds, through the favor of Plotina (chapters 1, 2).

About the assassinations authorized by Hadrian: about his varied learning and jealousies (chapters 3, 4).

His virtues, particularly affability and generosity: old arrears of debt forgiven (chapters 5, 8).

Travels: discipline of the army reformed: interest in hunting (chapters 9, 10).

How he honored Antinous with various marks of remembrance (chapter 11).

Uprising of Jews on account of the founding of Capitolina: Bithynia recovered (chapters 12-14).

The Albanians are held in check: Pharasmanes the Iberian is honored (chapter 15).

The Temple of Jupiter Olympius and the Panellenium are consecrated (chapter 16).

Growing ill, he adopts Commodus, slays Servianus: the distinguished services of Turbo, Fronto, Similis (chapters 17-19).

On the death of Commodus he adopts Antoninus, the latter adopting at the same time Marcus and Verus (chapters 20, 21).

How Hadrian departed this life (chapters 22, 23).

DURATION OF TIME.

Quinctius Niger, Vipsanius Apronianus. (A.D. 117 = a.u. 870 = First of Hadrian, from Aug. 11th).

Hadrianus Aug. (II), Claudius Fuseus Salinator. (A.D. 118 = a.u. 871 = Second of Hadrian).

Hadrianus Aug. (III), Q. Iunius Rusticus. (A.D. 119 = a.u. 872 = Third of Hadrian).

L. Catilius Severus, T. Aurelius Fulvus. (A.D. 120 = a.u. 873 = Fourth of Hadrian).

L. Annius Verus, Aur. Augurinus. (A.D. 121 = a.u. 874 = Fifth of Hadrian).

Acilius Aviola, Corellius Pansa. (A.D. 122 = a.u. 875 = Sixth of Hadrian). Q. Arrius Paetinus, C. Ventidius Apronianus. (A.D. 123 = a.u. 876 = Seventh of Hadrian).

Manius Acilius Glabrio, C. Bellicius Torquatus. (A.D. 124 = a.u. 877 = Eighth of Hadrian).

P. Corn. Scipio Asiaticus (II), Q. Vettius Aquilinus. (A.D. 125 = a.u. 878 = Ninth of Hadrian).

Annius Verus (III), L. Varius Ambibulus. (A.D. 126 = a.u. 879 = Tenth of Hadrian).

Gallicianus, Caelius Titianus. (A.D. 127 = a.u. 880 = Eleventh of Hadrian).

L. Nonius Asprenas Torquatus (II), M. Annius Libo. (A.D. 128 = a.u. 881 = Twelfth of Hadrian).

Iuventius Celsus (II), Marcellus. (A.D. 129 = a.u. 882 = Thirteenth of Hadrian).

Q. Fabius Catullinus, M. Flavius Aper. (A.D. 130 = a.u. 883 = Fourteenth of Hadrian).

Ser. Octav. Laenas Pontianus, M. Antonius Rufinus. (A.D. 131 = a.u. 884 = Fifteenth of Hadrian).

Augurinus, Severianus (or, according to others, Sergianus). (A.D. 132 = a.u. 885 = Sixteenth of Hadrian).

Hiberus, Iunius Silanus Sisenna. (A.D. 133 = a.u. 886 = Seventeenth of Hadrian).

Servianus (III), Vibius Varus. (A.D. 134 = a.u. 887 = Eighteenth of Hadrian).

Pontianus, Atilianus. (A.D. 135 = a.u. 888 = Nineteenth of Hadrian).

L. Ceionius Commodus Verus, Sex. Vetulenus Civica Pompeianus. (A.D. 136 = a.u. 889 = Twentieth of Hadrian).

L. Aelius Verus Caesar, P. Caelius Balbinus Vibullius. (A.D. 137 = a.u. 890 = Twenty-first of Hadrian).

Camerinus, Niger. (A.D. 138 = a.u. 891 = Twenty-second of Hadrian, to July 10th).

[Sidenote: A.D. 117 (a.u. 870)] [Sidenote:--1--] Hadrian had not been adopted by Trajan. He was merely a fellow-citizen of the latter, had enjoyed Trajan's services as guardian, was of near kin to him, and had married his niece. In fine, he was a companion of his, sharing his daily life, and had been assigned to Syria for the Parthian War. However, he had received no distinguishing mark of favor from Trajan and had not been one of the first to be appointed consul. His position as Caesar and emperor was due to the fact that, when Trajan died without an heir, Attianus, a fellow-citizen and former guardian, together with Plotina, who was in love with him, secured him the appointment,--their efforts being facilitated by his proximity and his having a large force under his command. My father Apronianus, who was governor of Cilicia, had ascertained accurately the whole story about him. He used to relate the different incidents, and said in particular that the death of Trajan was concealed for several days to the end that the adoption might be announced. This was shown also by his letters to the senate, the signature upon which was not his, but Plotina's. She had not done this in any previous instance.

[Sidenote:--2--] At the time that he was declared emperor, Hadrian was in Antioch, the metropolis of Syria, of which he was governor. In a dream just before that day he seemed to see fire descend from heaven in the midst of clear sky and wholly fair weather and fall first upon the left of his throat and then upon the right also, though it neither frightened nor injured him. And Hadrian wrote to the senate, asking that his sovereignty be confirmed also by that body, and forbidding any measure to be voted (as was so often done) either then or thereafter that contained any special honor for him, unless he should first himself approve it.

The bones of Trajan were deposited in his column, and the so-called Parthian games continued for a number of years. At a later date even this observance, like many others, was abolished.

Hadrian's rule was in general most humane. [In a letter he expresses himself with the greatest degree of consideration for others and swears that he will neither do anything contrary to the public advantage nor put to death any senator, calling down destruction upon himself, if he shall transgress these principles in any way. But] Still he was spoken against on account of some murders of excellent men that he had sanctioned in the beginning of his reign and near the end of his life. And for this reason he came near not being enrolled among the heroes. Those murdered at the beginning were Palma and Celsus, Nigrinus and Lusius, the first two for the alleged reason that they had conspired against him during a hunt, and the others on certain other complaints, because they had great influence, or were in a strong position as regards wealth and fame. Hadrian felt so keenly the talk that was made about them that he defended himself and declared upon oath that he had not ordered their deaths. Those that perished at the end of the reign were Servianus and his grandson Fuscus.

Hadrian was a pleasant man to meet and his presence shed a kind of grace.

[Sidenote:--3--] As for Hadrian's family, he was a son of [a man of senatorial rank, an ex-praetor] Hadrianus, [for thus he was named]. In regard to his disposition, he was fond of literature in both languages and has left behind all kinds of prose pieces as well as compositions in verse. His ambition was insatiable, and as a result he practiced all conceivable pursuits, even the most trivial. He modeled and painted and declared that there was nothing in peace or in war, in imperial or in private life, of which he was not cognizant. [And this, of course, did people no harm; but his jealousy of those who excelled in any branch was terrible and] ruined many besides utterly destroying quite a few. [For,] since he desired to surpass everybody in everything, [he hated those who attained eminence in any direction.] This feeling it was which led him to undertake the overthrow of two sophists, Favorinus the Gaul and Dionysius the Milesian, [by various methods, chiefly] by stirring up their antagonists [who were of little or no worth at all]. Dionysius is said to have remarked at this time to Avidius [Footnote: Boissevain's reading.] Heliodorus, who managed his correspondence: "Caesar can give you money and honor, but he can't make you an orator." Favorinus was about to bring a case before the emperor in regard to exemption from taxes, a privilege which he desired to secure in his native city. Suspecting, however, that he should be unsuccessful and be insulted in addition he entered the courtroom, to be sure, but made no other statement save: "My teacher stood this night in a dream by my side and bade me do service for my country, since I have been born in it."

[Sidenote:--4--] Now Hadrian spared these men, although he was displeased with them, for he could find no satisfactory pretext to use against them that might compass their destruction. But he first banished and later actually put to death Apollodorus the architect, who had planned the various creations of Trajan in Rome,--the forum, the odeum, and the gymnasium. The excuse given was that he had been guilty of some misdemeanor, but the true reason was that, when Trajan was consulting him on some point about the works, he had said to Hadrian, who broke in with some remark: "Be off and draw gourds. You don't understand any of these matters." It happened that Hadrian at the time was pluming himself upon some such drawing. When he became emperor, therefore, he remembered the slight and would not endure the man's freedom of speech. He sent him his own plan of the temple of Venus and Roma by way of showing him that a great work could be accomplished without his aid, and he asked Apollodorus whether the structure was a good one. The latter in his reply said about the temple that it ought to have been made to tower aloft in the air and have been scooped out beneath. Then, as a result of being higher, it would have stood out more conspicuously on the Sacred Way, and might have received [Sidenote: A.D. 117 (a.u. 870)] within its expanse the engines, so that they could be built unobserved and could be brought into the theatre without any one's being aware of it beforehand. In regard to the statues, he said that they had been made too tall for the height adopted in the principal room. "If the goddesses," he said, "wish to get up and go out, they will be unable to do so." When he wrote this so bluntly to Hadrian, the latter was both vexed and exceedingly pained because he had fallen into a mistake that could not be set right. He restrained neither his anger nor his grief, but murdered the man. [By nature] the emperor was such a person [that he was jealous not only of the living, but also of the dead. For instance,] he abolished Homer and introduced in his stead Antimachus, whose name many persons had not previously known.

[Sidenote:--5--] These acts were charged against him as offences, and so were also his great exactness, his superfluous labors, and his divided interests. But he healed the wounds made and recovered favor by his general care, his foresight, his grandeur and his skill. Again, he did not stir up any war and ended those already in progress. He deprived no one of money unjustly, and upon many peoples and private citizens and senators and knights he bestowed large sums. He did not wait to be asked, but was certain to act each time according to each man's needs. The military he trained with great precision, so that its strength rendered it neither disobedient nor insolent. Allied and subject cities he aided most munificently. He had seen many that no other emperor had even set eyes upon, and he assisted practically all of them, giving to some water, to others harbors, or food, or public works, or money, and to still others various honors.

[Sidenote:--6--] As a leader of the Roman people he was distinguished for force rather than for flattery. Once, at a gladiatorial contest, when the crowd was urging its petition strongly, he not only would not grant its wish, but further ordered this command of Domitian's to be proclaimed: "Be silent." The words were not uttered, though. The herald raised his hand and by that very gesture quieted the people as he had been accustomed to do. (They are never silenced by proclamation). Then, when they had become quiet, he said: "This is what he wishes." Hadrian was not in the least angry with the herald; on the contrary, he honored him for not publishing the rudeness of the order. He could endure such things and was not displeased if he was aided in any unexpected way and by chance comers. It must be admitted that once, when a woman passed him on some road and preferred a request, he at first said to her: "I haven't time." Afterwards, when she cried out loudly, saying: "Don't be emperor, then", he turned about and granted her a hearing.

[Sidenote:--7--] He transacted through the senate all serious and most urgent business and he held court with the assistance of prominent men now in the palace or again in the Forum, the Pantheon, and in many other places, always on a platform, so that what was done was open to public inspection. Sometimes he would join the consuls when _they_ were trying cases, and he showed them honor at the horse-races. When he returned home he was accustomed to be carried in a litter, in order not to trouble any one to accompany him. On days neither sacred nor public he remained at home, and admitted no one even long enough to greet him, unless it were some urgent matter; this was to relieve the courtiers of needless annoyance. Both in Rome and abroad he always kept the noblest men about him; and he used to join them at banquets, which led to his being often carried in their litters as one of a party of four. As frequently as possible he went hunting, and he breakfasted without wine; in fact, most of his food was served without any accompanying beverage; and often in the midst of a meal he would turn his attention to a case at law: later he would drive in the company of all the foremost and best men, and their eating together was the occasion for all kind of discussions. When his friends were very ill, he would go to see them, and he used to attend their festivals, besides evincing pleasure at visiting their country seats and houses. As might have been expected, then, he set up in his forum images for many who were dead and many still alive. No one of his associates, moreover, displayed insolence nor sold aught that he should pronounce or perform, as the Caesarians and other attendants in the suite of emperors have made it their custom to do.

[Sidenote:--8--] This is a kind of preface, of a summary nature, I have been giving in regard to his character. I shall also touch upon all the details that require mention.

The Alexandrians had been rioting and nothing would make them stop until they received a letter from Hadrian rebuking them. So true it is that an emperor's word has more power than force of arms.

[Sidenote: A.D. 118 (a.u. 871)] On coming to Rome he canceled debts owing to the imperial treasury and to the public treasury of the Romans, setting a limit of sixteen years, from which and as far back as which this provision was to be observed. On his own birthday he gave a spectacle to the people free of charge, and slaughtered numbers of wild beasts,--one hundred lions and a like number of lionesses biting the dust on this one occasion. Gifts, likewise, he brought about by means of balls both in the theatres and in the hippodrome, one lot for the men and one lot for the women. Indeed, he had also commanded them to battle separately.

This, then, was what happened that year. Euphrates the philosopher also died a death of his own choosing; and Hadrian assented to his drinking hemlock in consideration of his extreme age and sickliness. [Sidenote:--9--] Hadrian went from one province to another, visiting the districts and cities and observing all the garrisons and fortifications. Some of these he removed to more desirable locations, some he abolished, and he founded some new ones. He personally oversaw and investigated absolutely everything, not merely the usual appurtenances of camps,--I mean weapons and engines and ditches and enclosures and palisades,--but also the private affairs of each one, and the lives, the dwellings and the characters both of the men serving in the organization, and of the commanders themselves. Many cases of too delicate living and equipment he harmonized with military needs and reformed in various ways. He exercised the men in every variety of battle, honoring some and reproving others. He taught all of them what they ought to do. And to make sure that they should obtain benefit from observing _him_, he led everywhere a severe existence and walked or rode horseback on all occasions. Never at this period did he enter either a chariot or a four-wheeled vehicle. He covered his head neither in heat nor in cold, but alike in Celtic snows and under scorching Egyptian suns he went about with it bare. [Sidenote: A.D. 119 (a.u. 872)] In fine, so thoroughly by action and exhortations did he train and discipline the whole military force throughout the whole empire that even now the methods then introduced by him are the soldiers' law of campaigning. This best explains why he lived for the most part at peace with foreign nations. As they saw what support he had and were victims of no injustice, but instead received money, they made no uprising. So excellently had his soldiery been trained, that the cavalry of the so-called Batavians swam the Ister with their heavy armor on. Seeing this the barbarians stood in terror of the Romans, and turning their attention to their own affairs [Footnote: Reading [Greek: epi] (Dindorf) instead of [Greek: peri]] they employed Hadrian as an arbitrator of their differences.

[Sidenote:--10--] He also constructed theatres and held games as he traveled about from city to city, dispensing, however, with the imperial paraphernalia. This he never used outside of Rome. His own country, though he did her great honor and bestowed many proud possessions on her, he nevertheless did not set eyes upon.

He is said to have been enthusiastic over hunting. Indeed, he broke his collar-bone in this pursuit and came near losing a leg. And to a city that he founded in Mysia he gave the name of Adrianotherae. [Sidenote: A.D. 121 (a.u. 874)] However, he did not, while so occupied, leave undone any of the duties pertaining to his office. Of his enthusiasm for hunting his horse Borysthenes, which was his favorite steed for the chase, gives us an indication. When the animal died, he prepared a tomb for him, set up a slab, and placed an inscription upon it. Hence it is scarcely surprising that when Plotina died, the woman through whom he had secured the imperial office, and who was passionately in love with him, he honored her to the extent of wearing mourning garments for nine days, building a temple to her, and composing several hymns to her memory.

When Plotina was dead, Hadrian praised her and said: "Though she asked much of me, she was never refused aught." By this he surely meant to say: "Her requests were of such a character that they neither burdened me nor afforded me any justification for saying no."

He was so skillful in hunting that once he brought down a huge boar with a single blow.

[Sidenote:--11--] On reaching Greece he became a spectator at the Mysteries.

[Sidenote: A.D. 122 (a.u. 875)] After this he passed through Judaea into Egypt and offered sacrifice to Pompey, about whom, he is said to have uttered this verse:

Strange lack of tomb for one with shrines o'erwhelmed! [Footnote: Compare Appian, Civil Wars, Book Two, chapter 86 (also Spartianus, 14, 4).]

And he restored his monument, which had fallen to ruin. In Egypt also he restored the so-called City of Antinous. Antinous was from Bithynium, a city of Bithynia which we also call Claudioupolis; he had been a favorite of the emperor and had died in Egypt, either by falling into the Nile, as Hadrian writes, or, as is more probably the truth, by being offered in sacrifice. For Hadrian, as I have stated, was in general a great dabbler in superstitions and employed divinations and incantations of all kinds. Accordingly, he honored Antinous either because of his love for him or because he had voluntarily submitted to death (it being necessary that a life be surrendered voluntarily for the accomplishment of the ends he had in view), by building a city on the spot where he had suffered this fate and naming it after him: and he further set up likenesses, or rather sacred statues of him, practically all over the world. Finally, he declared that he had seen a star which he assumed to belong to Antinous, and gladly lent an ear to the fictitious tales woven by his associates to the effect that the star had really come into being from the spirit of Antinous and had then appeared for the first time. [Sidenote: A.D. 133 (a.u. 886)] On this account he became the object of some ridicule [as also because the death of his sister Paulina he had not immediately paid her any honor. [Lacuna]]

[Sidenote: A.D. 133 (a.u. 886)] [Sidenote:--12--] In Jerusalem he founded a city in place of the one razed to the ground, naming it Aelia Capitolina, and on the site of the temple of the god he raised a new temple to Jupiter. This brought on a war that was not slight nor of brief duration, for the Jews deemed it intolerable that foreign races should be settled in their city and foreign religious rites be planted there. While Hadrian was close by in Egypt and again in Syria, they remained quiet, save in so far as they purposely made the weapons they were called upon to furnish of poorer quality, to the end that the Romans might reject them and they have the use of them. But when he went farther away, they openly revolted. To be sure, they did not dare try conclusions with the Romans in the open field, but they occupied advantageous positions in the country and strengthened them with mines and walls, in order that they might have places of refuge whenever they should be hard pressed, and meet together unobserved under ground; and in these subterranean passages they sunk shafts from above to let in air and light. [Sidenote:--13--] At first the Romans made no account of them. Soon, however, all Judaea had been up-heaved, and the Jews all over the world were showing signs of disturbance, were gathering together, and giving evidence of great hostility to the Romans, partly by secret and partly by open acts; many other outside nations, too, were joining them through eagerness for gain, and the whole earth, almost, was becoming convulsed over the matter. Then, indeed, did Hadrian send against them his best generals, of who Julius Severus was the first to be despatched, from Britain, of which he was governor, against the Jews. He did not venture to attack his opponents at any one point, seeing their numbers and their desperation, but by taking them in separate groups by means of the number of his soldiers and his under-officers and by depriving them of food and shutting them up he was able, rather slowly, to be sure, but with comparatively little danger, to crush and exhaust and exterminate them. Very few of them survived. [Sidenote:--14--] Fifty of their most important garrisons and nine hundred and eighty-five of their most renowned towns were blotted out. Fifty-eight myriads of men were slaughtered in the course of the invasions and battles, and the number of those that perished by famine and disease and fire was past all investigating. Thus nearly the whole of Judaea was made desolate, an event of which the people had had indications even before the war. The tomb of Solomon, which these men regarded as one of their sacred objects, fell to pieces of itself and collapsed and many wolves and hyenas rushed howling into their cities.

Many Romans, moreover, perished in the war. Wherefore Hadrian in writing to the senate did not employ the opening phrase commonly affected by the emperors: "If you and your children are in health, it shall be well: I and the armies are in health."

[Sidenote: A.D. 134(?)] Severus [Footnote: Not the same person as is mentioned in the previous chapter.] he sent into Bithynia, which needed no force of arms but a governor and presiding officer who was just and prudent and had a reputation. All these qualifications Severus possessed. And he managed and administered both their private and their public affairs in such a way that we [Footnote: i.e., "we natives of Bithynia" (Dio's country).] are still, even to-day wont to remember him. [Pamphylia in place of Bithynia was given into the jurisdiction of the senate and the lot.]

[Sidenote:--15--] This, then, was the ending that the war with the Jews took. A second war was started among the Alani (they are Massagetae) by Pharasmanes. On Albanis and Media he inflicted severe injury and then laid hold on Armenia and Cappadocia, after which, as the Alani were on the one hand persuaded by gifts from Vologaesus and on the other stood in dread of Flavius Arrianus, the governor of Cappadocia, he stopped. [Envoys were sent from Vologaesus and from the Iazygae; the former made some charges against Pharasmanes and the latter wanted to confirm the peace. [?] [Footnote: It is impossible to determine, from the date of this fragment, whether the subject should be Hadrian or Antoninus Pius.] introduced them to the senate and was empowered by that body to return appropriate answers; and accordingly he prepared and read to them his responses.]

[Sidenote:--16--] Hadrian completed the Olympieum in Athens, in which his own statue also stands, and consecrated there a serpent, which was brought from India. He also presided at the Dionysia, the greatest office within the gift of the people, and arrayed in the local costume carried it through brilliantly. He allowed the Greeks, too, to build his sepulchre (called the Panellenium), and instituted a series of games to be connected with it; and he granted to the Athenians large sums of money, annual corn distribution, and the whole of Cephallenia.--Among various laws that he enacted was one to the effect that no senator, either personally or through the medium of another, should have any tax farmed out to him. [Sidenote: A.D. 135 (a.u. 888)] After he had come to Rome, the crowd at a spectacle shouted their request for the emancipation of a certain charioteer: but he replied by means of a writing on a board: "It is not right for you either to ask me to free another's slave or to force his master to do so."

[Sidenote:--17--] He now began to be sick, having suffered even before this from blood gushing from his nostrils: this flow now grew very much more copious, so that he despaired of his life. Consequently, he appointed as Caesar for the Romans Lucius Commodus, although this man frequently vomited blood. [Sidenote: A.D. 136 (a.u. 889)] Servianus and his grandson Fuscus, the former a nonagenarian and the latter eighteen years of age, were put to death on the ground that they were displeased at this action. Servianus before being executed asked for fire, and as he offered incense he exclaimed: "That I am guilty of no wrong, ye; O Gods, are well aware: and as for Hadrian I pray only this, that he may desire to die and not be able." And, indeed, Hadrian did come to his end only after often praying that he might expire and often feeling a desire to kill himself. There is in existence also a letter of his which lays stress on this very matter, showing what a dreadful thing it is for a man to desire to die and not be able. This Servianus had been by Hadrian deemed capable of filling the imperial office. He had once at a banquet told his friends to name for him ten men who were competent to be sole rulers, and then after a moment's pause, had added: "I want to know _nine_: I have one already, Servianus."

[Sidenote:--18--] Other excellent men, also, had come to light during that period, of whom the most distinguished were Turbo and Similis, who, indeed, were honored with statues.

Turbo was a man of great qualities as a general, who had become prefect (or commander of the Pretorians). He committed no act of luxury or haughtiness, but lived like one of the multitude: the entire day he spent in proximity to the palace and often he would go there even shortly before midnight, when some of the others were beginning to sleep. A characteristic anecdote is that which brings in the name of Cornelius Fronto, at this time reputed to be the foremost Roman advocate in lawsuits. One evening very late he was returning home from dinner and ascertained from a man whose counsel he had promised to be that Turbo was holding court. Accordingly, just as he was, in his dress for dinner, he went into his courtroom and greeted him not with the morning salutation, _I wish you joy_, but with that belonging to the evening, _I trust your health continues good_.

Turbo was never seen at home in the daytime even when he was sick; and to Hadrian, who advised him to remain quiet, he replied: "The prefect ought to die on his feet."

[Sidenote:--19--] Similis, who was of greater age and more advanced rank, in character was second to none of the great men, I think. Very slight things may serve us as evidence. When he was centurion, Trajan had summoned him to enter his presence before the prefects, whereupon he said: "It is a shame for you, Caesar, to be talking with a centurion, while the prefects stand outside." And he took unwillingly at that time the command of the Pretorians, and after taking it resigned it. Having with difficulty secured his release he spent the rest of his life, seven years, quietly in the country, and upon his tomb he had this inscription placed: "Similis lies here, who existed so-and-so many years, but lived for seven."

Julius (?) Fabius (?), not being able to endure his son's effeminacy, desired to throw himself into the river.

[Sidenote: A.D. 138 (a.u. 891)] [Sidenote:--20--] Hadrian became consumptive as a result of the great loss of blood, and that led to dropsy. And as it happened that Lucius Commodus was suddenly removed from the scene by the outgushing of a large quantity of blood all at once, he convened at his house the foremost and most renowned of the senators; and lying on a couch he spoke to them as follows: "I, my friends, was not permitted by nature to secure offspring, but you have made it possible by legal enactment. There is this difference between the two ways,--that a begotten son turns out to be whatever sort of person Heaven pleases, whereas one that is adopted a man takes to himself because he chooses just that sort of being. Thus in process of nature a maimed and [Sidenote: A.D. 138 (a.u. 891)] senseless creature is often given to a parent, but by process of voluntary decision one of sound body and sound mind is certain to be selected. For this cause I formerly chose out Lucius from among all, a person of such attainments as I could never have prayed to find in a child. But since the Heavenly Power has taken him from among us, I have found an emperor in his place whom I now give you, one who is noble, mild, tractable, prudent, neither young enough to do anything reckless nor old enough to neglect aught,--one brought up according to the laws, who has held possession of authority according to his country's traditions, so that he is not ignorant of any matters pertaining to his office, but can handle them all effectively. I refer to Aurelius Antoninus here. Although I know him to be the most retiring of men and to be far from desiring any such thing, still I do not think that he will deliberately disregard either me or you but will accept the office even against his will."

[Sidenote:--21--] So it was that Antoninus became emperor. Since he was destitute of male children, Hadrian adopted for him Commodus's son Commodus and, moreover, besides the latter, Marcus Annius Verus; for he wished to appoint those who were afterwards to be emperors for as long a time ahead as possible. (This Marcus Annius, earlier named Catilius, was a grandson of Annius Verus who had thrice been consul and prefect of the city). And though Hadrian urged Antoninus to adopt them both, he preferred Verus on account of his kinship and his age and because he already exhibited an extremely strong cast of mind. This led him to apply to the young man the name Verissimus, with a play upon the meaning of the Latin word.

[Sidenote:--22--] By certain charms and species of magic Hadrian was relieved of the water, but shortly was full of it again. Since, therefore, he was constantly growing worse and might be said to be slowly perishing day by day, he began to long for death. Often he would ask for poison and a sword, but no one would give them to him. As no one would obey him, although he promised money and immunity, he sent for Mastor, an Iazygian barbarian that had become a captive, whom he had employed in hunts on account of his strength and daring. Then, partly by threatening him and partly by making promises, he compelled the man to undertake the duty of killing him. He drew a colored line around a spot beneath the nipple that had been shown him by Hermogenes the physician, in order that he might there be struck a finishing blow and perish painlessly. But even this plan did not succeed, for Mastor became afraid of the project and in terror withdrew. The emperor lamented bitterly the plight in which the disease had placed him and bitterly his powerlessness, in that he was not able to make away with himself, though he might still, even when so near death, destroy anybody else. Finally he abandoned his careful regimen and through using unsuitable foods and drinks met his death, saying and shouting aloud the popular saying: "Many physicians have ruined a king."

[Sidenote:--23--] He had lived sixty-two years, five months and nineteen [Footnote: Seventeen, according to the common tradition.] days, and had been emperor twenty years and eleven months. He was buried near the river itself, close to the Aelian bridge; that was where he had prepared his tomb, for the one belonging to Augustus was full and no other body was deposited there.

This emperor was hated [by the people, in spite of his excellent reign] on account of the early and the late murders, since they had been unjustly and impiously brought about. Yet he had so little of a bloodthirsty disposition that even in the case of some who took pains to thwart him he deemed it sufficient to write to their native lands the bare statement that they did not please him. And if any man who had children was absolutely obliged to receive punishment, still, in proportion to the number of his children he would also lighten the penalty imposed. [Notwithstanding, the senate persisted for a long time in its refusal to vote him divine honors, and in its strictures upon some of those who had committed excesses during his reign and had been honored therefor, when they ought to have been chastised.]

After Hadrian's death there was erected to him a huge equestrian statue representing him with a four-horse team. It was so large that the bulkiest man could walk through the eye of each horse, yet because of the extreme height of the monument persons passing along on the ground below are wont to think that the horses themselves as well as Hadrian are very small.

DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY 70

Antoninus Pius, succeeding by adoption, effects the deification of Hadrian (chapter 1).

The cognomen Pius is bestowed upon Antoninus by the senate (chapter 2).

He showed little hostility toward the Christians: was careful in trifles: met a quiet death in old age (chapter 3).

Earthquake that damaged Bithynia, the Hellespontine region, and especially Cyzicus (chapter 4).

He is compared with Numa: his gentleness and kindliness (chapter 5).

He was intent upon justice, not upon enlarging the empire: hence the barbarians brought their quarrels to him to settle (chapters 6, 7).

DURATION OF TIME.

Camerinus, Niger. (A.D. 138 = a.u. 891 = First of Antoninus, from July 10th).

Antoninus Pius Aug. (II), Bruttius Praesens. (A.D. 139 = a.u. 892 = Second of Antoninus).

Antoninus Pius Aug. (III), Aurelius Caesar (II). (A.D. 140 = a.u. 893 = Third of Antoninus).

M. Peducaeus Sylloga Priscinus, T. Hoenius Severus. (A.D. 141 = a.u. 894 = Fourth of Antoninus).

L. Cuspius Rufinus, L. Statius Quadratus. (A.D. 142 = a.u. 895 = Fifth of Antoninus).

C. Bellicius Torquatus, Tib. Claudius Atticus Herodes. (A.D. 143 = a.u. 896 = Sixth of Antoninus).

Avitus, Maximus. (A.D. 144 = a.u. 897 = Seventh of Antoninus).

Antoninus Pius Aug. (IV), M. Aurelius Caesar (II). (A.D. 145 = a.u. 898 = Eighth of Antoninus).

Sex. Erucius Clarus (II), Cn. Claudius Severus. (A.D. 146 = a.u. 899 = Ninth of Antoninus).

Largus, Messalinus. (A.D. 147 = a.u. 900 = Tenth of Antoninus).

L. Torquatus (III), C. Iulianus Vetus. (A.D. 148 = a.u. 901 = Eleventh of Antoninus). Sergius Scipio Orfitus, Q. Nonius Priscus. (A.D. 149 = a.u. 902 = Twelfth of Antoninus).

Gallicanus, Vetus. (A.D. 150 = a.u. 903 = Thirteenth of Antoninus).

Quintilius Condianus, Quintilius Maximus. (A.D. 151 = a.u. 904 = Fourteenth of Antoninus).

M.' Acilius Glabrio, M. Valerius Homullus. (A.D. 152 = a.u. 905 = Fifteenth of Antoninus).

C. Bruttius Praesens, A. Iunius Rufinus. (A.D. 153 = a.u. 906 = Sixteenth of Antoninus).

L. Ael. Aurelius Commodus, T. Sextius Lateranus. (A.D. 154 = a.u. 907 = Seventeenth of Antoninus).

C. Iulius Severus, M. Rufinius Sabinianus. (A.D. 155 = a.u. 908 = Eighteenth of Antoninus).

M. Ceionius Silvanus, C. Serius Augurinus. (A.D. 158 = a.u. 909 = Nineteenth of Antoninus).

Barbaras, Regulus. (A.D. 157 = a.u. 910 = Twentieth of Antoninus).

Tertullus, Sacerdos. (A.D. 158 = a.u. 911 = Twenty-first of Antoninus).

Plautius Quintilius, Statius Priscus. (A.D. 159 = a.u. 912 = Twenty-second of Antoninus).

T. Clodius Vibius Varus, App. Annius Atilius Bradua. (A.D. 160 = a.u. 913 = Twenty-third of Antoninus).

M. Ael. Aurelius Verus Caesar (III), I. Ael. Aurelius Commodus (II). (A.D. 161 = a.u. 914 = Twenty-fourth of Antoninus, to March 7th).

I. From Dio:

[Sidenote: A.D. 138 (a.u. 891)] [Sidenote:--1--] It should be noted that information about Antoninus Pius is not found in the copies of Dio, probably because the books have met with some accident, so that the history of his reign is almost wholly unknown, save that when Lucius Commodus, whom Hadrian had adopted, died before Hadrian, Antoninus was also adopted by him and became emperor, and that when the senate demurred to giving heroic honors to Hadrian after his demise on account of certain murders of eminent men, Antoninus addressed many words to them with tears and laments, and finally said: "I will not govern you either, if he has become base and inimical and a national foe in your eyes. For you will of course be annulling all his acts, of which my adoption was one." On hearing this the senate both through respect for the man and through a certain fear of the soldiers bestowed the honors upon Hadrian.

[Sidenote:--2--] Only this in regard to Antoninus is preserved in Dio. Yes, one thing more--that the senate gave him the titles both of Augustus and of Pius for some such reason as the following. When in the beginning of his imperial reign many men were accused and some of them had been interceded for by name, he nevertheless punished no one, saying: "I must not begin my career of supervision with such deeds."

[Sidenote: LXIX, 15, 3] [When Pharasmanes the Iberian came to Rome with his wife, he increased his domain, allowed him to offer sacrifice on the Capitoline, set up a statue of him on horseback in the temple of Bellona, and viewed an exercise in arms of the chieftain, his son, and the other prominent Iberians.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 139 (a.u. 892)] We do not find preserved, either, the first part of the account of Marcus Verus, who ruled after Antoninus and all that the latter himself did in the case of Lucius, son of Commodus, whom Marcus made his son-in-law, and all that Lucius accomplished when sent by his father to the war against Vologaesus. I shall speak briefly about these matters, gathering my material from other books, and then I shall go back to the continuation of Dio's narrative.

II. From Xiphilinus:

[Sidenote: LXX, 3] [Sidenote: A.D. 153 (a.u. 906)] Antoninus is admitted by all to have been noble and good, not oppressive to the Christians nor severe to any of his other subjects; instead, he showed the Christians great respect and added to the honor in which Hadrian had been wont to hold them. For Eusebius, son of Pamphilus, cites in his Church History [Footnote: IV, 9.] some letters of Hadrian in which the latter is shown to threaten terrible vengeance upon those who harm in any way or accuse the Christians, and to swear by Hercules that they shall receive punishment.

Antoninus is said also to have been of an enquiring turn of mind and not to have held aloof from careful investigation of even small and commonplace matters; for this those disposed to scoff called him Cumminsplitter.

[Sidenote: A.D. 161 (a.u. 914)] Quadratus states that he died at an advanced age, and that the happiest death befell him, like unto gentlest slumber.

[Sidenote:(A.D. 177?)] [Sidenote:--4--] In the days of Antoninus also a most frightful earthquake is said to have occurred in the region of Bithynia and the Hellespont. Various cities were severely damaged or fell without a building left standing, and in particular Cyzicus; and the temple there that was the greatest and most beautiful of all temples was thrown down. Its columns were four cubits in thickness and fifty cubits in height, each of a single block of stone; and each of the other features of the edifice was more to be wondered at than to be praised. Somewhere in the interior of the country the peak of a mountain rose upwards and surges of the sea are said to have gushed out, while the spray from pure, transparent sea-water was driven to a great distance over the land. [Footnote: Compare also Zonaras V, 12 (p. 80, II. 3-11 Dind).. It is not certain whether this earthquake properly belongs to the reign of Pius or that of Marcus. If to the former, it must have occurred between 150 and 155 B.C. See _Hermes_ XXVI, pages 444-446 (Boissevain: _Zonaras Quelle fuer die Romische Kaisergeschichte von Nerva bis Severus Alexander_) and XXXII, pages 497-508 (B. Keil: _Kyzikenisches_); also _Byzantinische Zeitschrift_ I, page 30 ff. (article by de Boor).]--So much is the account of Antoninus at present extant. He reigned twenty-four years.

III. Of Dio [or rather of Eutropius, or John of Antioch]. Taken from the Writings of Suidas.

This prince Antoninus was an excellent man and deserves to be compared especially with Numa on account of the similarity of his reign to that king's, just as Trajan was seen to resemble Romulus. The private life that Antoninus lived was thoroughly excellent and honorable, [Sidenote:--5--] and in his position as ruler he seemed to be even more excellent and more prudent. To no one was he harsh or oppressive, but he was gracious and gentle toward all.

[Sidenote:--6--] In warfare he sought glory rather from an impulse of duty than from one of gain, and was determined to preserve the borders of the empire intact rather than to extend them to greater distances. In the matter of men he appointed to the administration of public affairs, so far as possible, those who were particularly scrupulous about right conduct, and he rewarded good officials with the honors that were in his power to grant, whereas he banished the worthless (though without any harshness) from the conduct of public affairs.

[Sidenote:--7--] He was admired not alone by those of his own race, but even by foreigners, as was shown by some of the neighboring barbarians laying down their arms and permitting the prince to decide their quarrels by his vote. And whereas he had in the course of his life as a private citizen amassed a vast amount of money, when he entered upon office he expended his own abundance upon gifts for the soldiers and for his friends. To the public treasury he left a great deal of property of all kinds.

DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY 71

The emperor Marcus takes Verus as an associate: he gives him charge of the Parthian war (chapters 1, 2).

Wars with the Iazyges, Marcomani, and Germans (chapters 3 and 5).

About the war in Egypt with the Bucoli (chapter 4).

Marcus's tirelessness in hearing cases at law (chapter 6).

The Iazyges conquered (chapter 7).

The Quadi are vanquished by rain sent from Heaven in answer to Roman prayers (chapters 8 and 10).

About the Thunderbolt Legion from Melitene (chapter 9).

How envoys came to the emperor from a number of barbarians,--the Quadi, Astingi, Iazyges, Marcomani, Naristi (chapters 11-21).

Revolt of Cassius and of Syria (chapters 22-26).

How Cassius was killed, together with his son (chapter 27).

Kindness of Marcus toward the adherents of Cassius: death of Faustina and honors accorded her (chapters 28-31).

The return of Marcus and his generosity (chapter 32).

With his son Commodus he subjugates the Scythians: he himself meets death (chapter 33).

Eulogy of Marcus (chapters 34, 35).

DURATION OF TIME.

M. Ael. Aurel. Verus Caes. (III), L. Ael. Aurel. Commodus (II). (A.D. 161 = a.u. 914 = First of Marcus, from March 7th).

Iunius Rusticus, Vettius Aquilinus. (A.D. 162 = a.u. 915 = Second of Marcus).

I. Aelianus, Pastor. (A.D. 163 = a.u. 916 = Third of Marcus).

M. Pompeius Macrinus, P. Iuventius Celsus. (A.D. 164 = a.u. 917 = Fourth of Marcus).

L. Arrius Pudens, M. Gavius Orfitus. (A.D. 165 = a.u. 918 = Fifth of Marcus).

Q. Servilius Pudens, L. Fufidius Pollio. (A.D. 166 = a.u. 919 = Sixth of Marcus). L. Aurelius Verus Aug. (III), Quadratus. (A.D. 167 = a.u. 920 = Seventh of Marcus).

T. Iunius Montanus, L. Vettius Paulus. (A.D. 168 = a.u. 921 = Eighth of Marcus).

Q. Sosius Priscus, P. Caelius Apollinaris. (A.D. 169 = a.u. 922 = Ninth of Marcus).

M. Cornelius Cethegus, C. Erucius Clarus. (A.D. 170 = a.u. 923 = Tenth of Marcus).

L. Septimius Severus (II), L. Alfidius Herennianus. (A.D. 171 = a.u. 924 = Eleventh of Marcus).

Maximus, Orfitus. (A.D. 172 = a.u. 925 = Twelfth of Marcus).

M. Aurelius Severus (II), T. Claudius Pompeianus. (A.D. 173 = a.u. 926 = Thirteenth of Marcus).

Gallus, Flaccus. (A.D. 174 = a.u. 927 = Fourteenth of Marcus).

Piso, Iulianus. (A.D. 175 = a.u. 928 = Fifteenth of Marcus).

Pollio (II), Aper (II). (A.D. 176 = a.u. 929 = Sixteenth of Marcus).

L. Aurel. Commodus Aug., Quintilius. (A.D. 177 = a.u. 930 = Seventeenth of Marcus).

Rufus, Orfitus. (A.D. 178 = a.u. 931 = Eighteenth of Marcus).

Commodus Aug. (II), T. Annius Aurel. Verus (II). (A.D. 179 = a.u. 932 = Nineteenth of Marcus).

L. Fulvius Bruttius Praesens (II), Sextus Quintilius Condianus. (A.D. 180 = a.u. 933 = Twentieth of Marcus, to March 17th).

[Sidenote: A.D. 161 (a.u. 914)] [Sidenote:--1--] Marcus Antoninus, the philosopher, upon obtaining the sovereignty at the death of Antoninus, who adopted him, had immediately taken to share the authority with him the son of Lucius Commodus, Lucius Verus. He was personally weak in body and he devoted the greater part of his time to letters. It is told that even when he was emperor he showed no shame (or hesitation) at going to a teacher for instruction, but became a pupil of Sextus, the Boeotian philosopher, [Footnote: "Sextus of Chaeronea, grandson of Plutarch" (Capitolinus, _Vita M. Antoni Philosophi_, 3, 2).] and did not hesitate to go to hear the lectures of Hermogenes on rhetoric. He was most inclined to the Stoic school.

Lucius, on the other hand, was strong and rather young, and better suited for military enterprises. Therefore, Marcus made him his son-in-law by marrying him to his daughter Lucilla, and sent him to the Parthian war.

[Sidenote:--2--] For Vologaesus had begun war by assailing on all sides the Roman camp under Severianus, situated in Elegeia, a place in Armenia; and he had shot down and destroyed the whole force, leaders and all. He was now proceeding with numbers that inspired terror against the cities of Syria. [Sidenote: A.D. 162 (a.u. 915)] Lucius, accordingly, on coming to Antioch collected a great many soldiers, and with the best commanders under his supervision took up a position in the city, spending his time in ordering all arrangements and in gathering the contingent for the war. He entrusted the armies themselves to Cassius. The latter made a noble stand against the attack [Sidenote: A.D. 165 (a.u. 918)] of Vologaesus, and finally the chieftain was deserted by his allies and began to retire; then Cassius pursued him as far as Seleucia and destroyed it and razed to the ground the palace of Vologaesus at Ctesiphon. In the course of his return he lost a great many soldiers through famine and disease, yet he started off to Syria with the men that were left. Lucius attained glory by these exploits and felt a just pride in them, yet his extreme good fortune did him no good. [Sidenote: A.D. 169 (a.u. 922)] For he is said to have subsequently plotted against his father-in-law Marcus and to have perished by poison before he could accomplish anything.

* * * * *

Fragments of Dio from Suidas (thought by de Valois to belong to Book LXXI).

[Martius Verus sends out Thucydides to conduct Sohaemus into Armenia; and he, in spite of lack of arms, applied himself sturdily to this distant task with the inherent good sense that he showed in all business falling to his lot. Marcus had the gift not only of overpowering his antagonists or anticipating them by swiftness or outwitting them by deceit (on which qualities generals most rely), but also of persuading them by trustworthy promises and conciliating them by generous gifts and luring them on by tempting hopes. He was suave in all that he did or said, and soothed the vexed and angry feelings of each adversary while greatly raising his hopes. He knew well the right time for flattery and presents and entertainment at table. And since in addition to these talents he showed persistency in endeavor and activity together with speed against his foes, he made it plain to the barbarians that his friendship was better worth gaining than his enmity. So when he arrived at the New city, which a garrison of Romans placed there by Priscus was occupying, and found them attempting mutiny, he took care, both by word and by deed, to bring them to a better temper, and he made the city the foremost of Armenia.]

[* * _Bridging_.--By the Romans the streams and rivers are bridged with the greatest ease, since the soldiers are always practicing at it, and it is carried on like any other warlike exercise on the Ister and the Rhine and the Euphrates. The manner of doing it (which I think not everybody knows) is as follows. The boats, by means of which the river is bridged, are flat. They are anchored up stream a little above the spot where the bridge is to be constructed. When the signal is given, they first let one ship drift down stream close to the bank that they are holding. When it has come opposite the spot to be bridged, they throw into the water a basket filled with stones and fastened with a cord, which serves as an anchor. Made fast in this way the ship is joined to the bank by planks and bridgework, which the vessel carries in large quantities, and immediately a floor is laid to the farther edge. Then they release another ship at a little distance from this one and another one after that until they run the bridge to the opposite bank. The boat which is near the hostile side carries also towers upon it and a gate and archers and catapults.

As many weapons were hurled at the men engaged in bridging, Cassius ordered weapons and catapults to be discharged. And when the front rank of the barbarians fell, the rest gave way.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 172 (a.u. 925)] [Sidenote:--3--] Cassius, however, was bidden by Marcus to have the superintendence of all Asia. The emperor himself fought for a long time, in fact almost his whole life, one might say, with the barbarians in the Ister region, the Iazyges and the Marcomani, first one and then the other, and he used Pannonia as his starting point.

The Langobardi and the Obii [Footnote: Or perhaps _Osi_.] to the number of six thousand crossed the Ister, but the cavalry under Vindex [Footnote: _M. Macrinius Avitus Catonius Vindex_.] marched out and the infantry commanded by Candidus got the start of them, so that an utter rout of the barbarians was instituted. The barbarians, thrown into consternation by such an outcome of their very first undertaking, despatched as envoys to the headquarters of Iallius Bassus [Footnote: _M. Iallius Bassus_.] (administrator of Pannonia) Bellomarius [Footnote: Or perhaps _Badomarius_.], king of the Marcomani, and ten more, for they selected one man per nation. The envoys took oaths to cement the peace and departed homewards.

Many of the Celtae, too, across the Rhine, advanced to the confines of Italy and inflicted much serious harm upon the Romans. They, in turn, were followed up by Marcus, who opposed to them the lieutenants Pompeianus and Pertinax. Pertinax, who later became emperor, greatly distinguished himself. Among the corpses of the barbarians were found also the bodies of women in armor.

[Sidenote: A.D. 168(?)] Yet, when a most violent struggle and brilliant victory had taken place, the emperor nevertheless refused the petition of the soldiers for money, making this statement: "Whatever excess they obtain above the customary amount will be wrung from the blood of their parents and their kinsmen. For respecting the fate of the empire Heaven alone can decide."--And he ruled them so temperately and firmly that even in the course of so many and great wars he was impelled neither by flattery nor by fear to do aught that was unfitting.

[Sidenote: A.D. 172 (a.u. 925)] After conquering them Marcus received the title of Germanicus. We give the name "Germans" to those who dwell in the northern regions.

[Sidenote:--4--] The so-called Bucoli began a disturbance in Egypt, and under the leadership of Isidorus, a priest, [Footnote: Omitting [Greek: kai].] caused the rest of the Egyptians to revolt. They had first, arrayed in women's garments, deceived the Roman centurion, making him think that they were Bucoli women and wanted to give him gold pieces in exchange for their husbands, and then striking him down when he approached them. His companion they sacrificed, and after taking a common oath over his entrails they devoured them. Isidorus surpassed in bribery all his contemporaries. Next, having conquered the Romans in Egypt in regular battle they came very near capturing Alexandria, and would have done so, had not Cassius been sent against them from Syria as directing general. He succeeded in spoiling the concord that existed among them and sundering them one from another, for on account of their numbers and desperation he had not ventured to attack them united. So when they fell into factional disputes he easily subdued them.

[Sidenote:--5--] Now it was in Marcus's war against the Germans (if mention ought to be made of these matters), that a captive lad on being asked some questions by him rejoined: "I can not answer you because of the cold. So if you want to find out anything, command that a coat be given me, if you have one."--And a soldier one night, who was doing guard duty on the Ister, hearing a shout of his fellow-soldiers in captivity on the other side, at once swam the stream just as he was, released them, and brought them back.

One prefect of Marcus's was Bassaeus Rufus, a good man on the whole, but uneducated and boorish, having been brought up in poverty in his early youth. [Wherefore he had been disinclined to go on the campaign, and what Marcus said was incomprehensible to him.] Once some one had interrupted him in the midst of trimming a vine that wound about a tree, and when he did not come down at the first bidding, the person rebuked him, and said: "Come down there, prefect." This he said thinking to humiliate him for his previous haughtiness; yet later Fortune gave him this title to wear.

[Sidenote:--6--] The emperor, as often as he had leisure from war, held court and used to order that a most liberal supply of water be measured out for the speakers. [Footnote: This refers to the contrivance known as the clepsydra or water-clock, which measured time by the slow dropping of water from an upper into a lower vessel, somewhat on the plan of the hour-glass.] He made inquiries and answers of greater length, so that exact justice was ensured by every possible expedient. When thus engaged he would often hold court to try the same case for eleven or even twelve days and sometimes [Sidenote: A.D. 172 (a.u. 926)] at night. He was industrious and applied himself diligently to all the duties of his office; and there was nothing which he said or wrote or did that he regarded a minor matter, but sometimes he would consume whole days on the finest point, putting into practice his belief that the emperor should do nothing hurriedly. For he thought that if he should slight even the smallest detail, it would bring him reproach that would overshadow all his other achievements. Yet he was so frail in body that at first he could not endure the cold, but when the soldiers had already come together in obedience to orders he would retire before speaking a word to them; and he took but very little food always, and that at night. It was never his custom to eat during the daytime unless it were some of the drug called theriac. [Footnote: See Galen, On Antidotes, Book Two, chapter 17, and On Theriac (to Piso), chapter 2.] This drug he took not so much because he feared anything as because his stomach and chest were in bad condition. And it is related that this practice enabled him to endure the disease as well as other hardships.

[Sidenote: A.D. 172(?) 173(?)] [Sidenote:--7--] The Iazyges were conquered by the Romans on land at this time and subsequently on the river. By this I mean not that any naval battle took place, but that the Romans followed them as they fled over the frozen Ister and fought there as on dry land. The Iazyges, perceiving that they were being pursued, awaited the foe's onset, expecting easily to overcome them, since their opponents were not accustomed to ice. Accordingly, some of the barbarians dashed straight at them, while others rode around to attack the flanks, for their horses were trained to run safely even over a surface of this kind. The Romans, seeing this, were not alarmed, but made a close formation, placing themselves so as to face all of them at once. The majority laid down their shields and resting one foot upon them, so that they might slip less, received the enemy's assault. Some seized bridles, others shields and spear-shafts, and drew them towards them. Then, becoming involved in close conflict, they knocked down both men and horses, for on account of their momentum the enemy could not help slipping. The Romans also slipped down: but in case one of them fell on his back he dragged his adversary down on top of him and then by winding his legs about him as in a wrestling match would get him underneath; and if one fell on his face, he made his opponent fall before he did, also on his face. The barbarians, being unused to a contest of this sort, and having lighter equipment, were unable to resist, so that but few escaped out of a large force.

[Sidenote: A.D. 174 (a.u. 927)] [Sidenote:--8--] So Marcus made the Marcomani and Iazyges subservient by a series of great struggles and dangers. A great war against the so-called Quadi also fell to his lot and it was his good fortune to win an unexpected victory, or rather it was given him from Heaven. At a time when the Romans had run into danger in the battle the Heavenly Power most unexpectedly saved them. The Quadi had surrounded them at an opportune spot and the Romans were fighting valiantly with their shields locked together: and the barbarians ceased fighting, expecting to capture their enemies easily by heat and thirst. So they posted guards all about and hemmed them in to prevent their getting water anywhere, for the barbarians were far superior in numbers. The Romans fell into dire distress from their fatigue and wounds and the sun's heat and their thirst, and for these reasons could neither fight nor march in any direction but were standing and being scorched in line of battle and at their several posts, when suddenly numbers of clouds rushed together and a great rain, certainly of divine origin, came pouring down. Indeed, there is a story that Arnouphis, an Egyptian wizard, who was a companion of Marcus, invoked by means of enchantments various deities and in particular Mercury, god of the air, and by this means attracted the rain.

[Sidenote:--9--] This is what Dio says about it, but he seems to be telling an untruth, whether voluntarily or involuntarily; I am more inclined to think it is voluntarily. It surely must be so, for he was not ignorant of the fact that one company of the soldiers had the special name of "The Thunderbolt" (he mentions it in the list along with the rest), [Footnote: The reference is evidently to Book Fifty-five, chapter 23, but it should be observed that the names, though very possibly having the same sense, are not identical. The legion is here called [Greek: keraunobolos] (=Fulminatrix or Fulminata) but in 55, 23 [Greek: keraunophoros] (= Fulminifera).] and this was due to no other cause (nor is any other reported) save that event which gave rise to the title in this very war,--an event which enabled the Romans to survive on this occasion and brought destruction upon the barbarians. It was not Arnouphis, the wizard, for Marcus is not accounted to have taken pleasure in the company of wizards and charms. But what I have reference to is as follows: Marcus had a company (and the Roman name for company is "legion") of soldiers from Melitene. They were all worshipers of Christ. Now it is stated that in that battle, when Marcus was in a quandary over having been surrounded and feared the loss of his whole army, the prefect approached him and said that those called Christians can accomplish anything whatever by their prayers, and that among them there chanced to be a whole company of this sect. Marcus, on hearing this, made an appeal to them to pray to their God. And when they had prayed, the God immediately gave ear, hurling a thunderbolt upon the enemy and encouraging the Romans with rain. Marcus was astounded at what happened and honored the Christians by an official decree, while the legion he named "The Thunderbolt." It is said also that there is a letter of Marcus extant on this matter. But the Greeks, though they know that the company was called "Thunderbolt" and bear witness to the fact themselves, make no statement whatever about the reason for the appellation.

[Sidenote:--10--] Dio goes on to say that when the rain poured down at first all bent their faces upwards and received it in their mouths. Then some held their shields and their helmets as pails, and they themselves took fullmouthed draughts of it and gave their horses to drink. The barbarians making a charge upon them, they drank and fought at the same time; and some who were wounded gulped down together the water and the blood that flowed into their helmets. The most of them had given so much attention to drinking that they would have suffered some great damage from the enemy's onset had not a violent hail and numbers of thunderbolts fallen upon the latter's ranks. In the same spot one might see water and fire descending from Heaven at the same time: the one side was being drenched and drinking, the other was being burned with fire and dying. The fire did not touch the Romans, but if it fell anywhere among them it was straightway extinguished. On the other hand, the shower did the barbarians no good, but like oil served rather to feed the flames that fed on them, and they searched for water while in the midst of rain. Some wounded themselves in the attempt to put out the fire with blood, and others ran over to the side of the Romans, convinced that they alone had the saving water. Marcus finally took pity on them. He was for the seventh time saluted as imperator by the soldiers. And although he was not wont to accept any such honor before the senate voted it, [Footnote: Cp. Mommsen, _Staatsrecht_, 12, p. 123 (or 13, p. 124); also III, p. 1108.] nevertheless this time he took it under the assumption that it was bestowed from Heaven, and he sent a despatch to that effect to the senate.--Moreover Faustina was named "Mother of the Legions."

[Sidenote:--11--] [Marcus [Antoninus] remained in Pannonia in order to transact business with the embassies of the barbarians. Many came to him also at this time. Some promised an alliance: they were led by Battarius, a child twelve years old, and they received money and succeeded in restraining Tarbus, a neighboring potentate, who had come into Dacia, was demanding money, and threatening to make war if he should not get it. Others, like the Quadi, were asking for peace, and they obtained it, the emperor's purpose being to have them detached from the Marcomani. Another reason was that they gave horses and cattle, surrendered all the deserters and the captives at first to the number of thirteen thousand, though later they promised to restore the remainder as well. However, the right of free intercourse even at markets was not granted them, the intention being to prevent the Iazyges and the Marcomani, whom they had sworn not to receive nor let pass through their country, from either mingling with them or presenting themselves also in the guise of Quadi,--a plan which would enable them to reconnoitre the Roman position and to purchase provisions. Besides these who came to Marcus, many others despatched envoys, some by tribes and some by nations, offering to surrender themselves. Some of them were sent on campaigns to other parts of the world, and the captives and deserters who were fit for it were similarly treated. Others received land, in Dacia or in Pannonia or in Moesia and Germany or in Italy itself. A few of them who settled at Ravenna made an uprising and even dared to take possession of the city: and for this reason he did not again bring any barbarian into Italy, but made even those who had previously come there find homes outside.]

Detachments of both Astingi and Lacringi had come to lend assistance to Marcus.

[Sidenote:--12--] [The Astingi, whose leaders were Raus and Raptus, came into Dacia to settle, in the hope of receiving both money and land in return for terms of alliance. As they did not obtain this, they put their wives and children in the keeping of Clemens, [Footnote: _Sex. Cornelius Clemens._] with the apparent intention of acquiring the land of the Costobocci by force of arms; and upon conquering them they injured Dacia no less. The Lacringi, fearing that Clemens out of dread might lead these newcomers into the land which they were inhabiting, attacked them off their guard and won a decisive victory. As a result, the Astingi committed no further deeds displaying hostility to the Romans, but by making urgent supplication to Marcus received money from him and asked that land might be given them if they should harm in some way his temporary enemies. Now these performed some of their promises. The Cotini made similar propositions, but upon getting control of Tarrutenius Paternus, secretary of the emperor's Latin letters, under the pretext of requiring his aid for a campaign against the Marcomani, they not only failed to take this course but did him frightful injury and thereby ensured their own destruction later.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 171 (a.u. 924)] When in one battle the Marcomani were successful and killed Marcus Vindex, the prefect, he erected three statues in his memory.

[Sidenote:--13--] [Envoys were also sent to Marcus by the Iazyges, requesting peace, but they did not obtain any. For Marcus, knowing their race to be untrustworthy, and, furthermore, because he had been deceived by the Quadi, wished to annihilate them absolutely. [Footnote: Reading [Greek: exelein] (Boissevain) in place of the MS. [Greek: exelthein].] The Quadi had not only made alliances at this time with the Iazyges, but previously, too, were wont to receive in their own land Marcomanian fugitives who might be hard pressed, while that tribe was at war with the Romans. Nor did they do aught else that they had agreed, for they did not restore all the captives, but only a few, and these were such as they could not sell nor use for any work as helpers. And whenever they did give back any of those in good condition, they would keep their relatives at home in order that the men given up might desert again to join their friends. They also expelled their king, Furtius, and on their own responsibility made Ariogaesus king instead. Consequently the emperor did not confirm him, since he had not been legally installed, nor renew the treaty of peace, though they promised to return fifty thousand captives if he would.]

[Sidenote:--14--] [Against Ariogaesus Marcus was so bitter that he issued a proclamation to the effect that any one who would bring him alive should receive a thousand gold pieces, and any one who killed him and exhibited his head, five hundred. Yet in other cases this emperor was always accustomed to treat even his most stubborn foes humanely; for instance, he did not kill, but merely sent to Britain Tiridates, a satrap who roused a tumult in Armenia and the person who slew the king of the Heniochi and then held the sword in Verus's [Footnote: _P. Martius Verus._] face, when the latter rebuked him for it. This, then, shows the extent of his irritation against Ariogaesus at the time. However, when the man was later captured he did him no harm, but sent him away to Alexandria.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 174(?) 175(?)] When Pertinax in consideration of his brave exploits obtained the consulship, there were nevertheless some who showed displeasure at the fact that he was of obscure family, and quoted the line from tragedy:

"Such things the wretched war brings in its train." [Footnote: From Euripides, The Suppliants, verse 119.]

They did not know that he should yet be sovereign.

[Sidenote: A.D. 176(?)] [Sidenote:--15--] [At the request of the Marcomani, as expressed by their envoys and in view of the fact that they had followed all the injunctions laid upon them, even if sullenly and hesitatingly, he released to them one half of the adjoining territory, so that they could settle for a distance of about thirty-eight stades [Footnote: Or five miles.] from the Ister, and established the places and the days for their meeting together (these had not been previously determined), and he exchanged hostages with them.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 175 (a.u. 928)] [Sidenote:--16--] [The Iazyges, also, when they had experienced reverses, came to an agreement, Zanticus himself appearing as suppliant before Antoninus. Previously they had imprisoned Banadaspus, their second king, for making proposals to him. Now, however, all the foremost men came in company with Zanticus and made the same compact as that accepted by the Quadi and the Marcomani, except in so far as they were required [Footnote: Reading [Greek: aemellon] (Boissevain).] to dwell twice as far away from the Ister as those tribes. It was his wish to root them out utterly. That they were still strong at this time and could have done the Romans great harm is evident from the fact that they gave back one hundred thousand captives out of a body in which many had been sold, many were dead, and many had run away and been recaptured. They supplied Antoninus at once with a cavalry force of eight thousand allies, fifty-five hundred of whom he sent to Britain.]

[Sidenote:--17--] [The revolt of Cassius and Syria forced Marcus Antoninus, even contrary to his wishes, to come to terms with the Iazyges. He was so upset at the news that he did not even communicate to the senate the basis of the reconciliation made with them, as he was wont to do in all other cases.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 179-180]

[Sidenote:--18--] [The Iazyges sent an embassy and asked to be released from some of the agreements they had made, and a certain leniency was shown them, to prevent their being entirely alienated. Yet neither they nor the Buri were willing to join the Roman alliance until they received pledges from Marcus that he would without fail prosecute the war to the uttermost. They were afraid that he might make a treaty with the Quadi, as before, and leave enemies dwelling at their doors.]

[Sidenote:--19--] [Marcus gave audience to such persons as came in the capacity of envoys from outside nations, but all were not received on the same footing. This varied according as the individual states were worthy to receive citizenship, or freedom from taxes, or perpetual or temporary exemption from tribute, or to enjoy permanent support. And when the Iazyges proved themselves most useful to him, he released them from many of the restrictions imposed upon them,--indeed, from all, save from the arrangements made in regard to their gatherings and mutual intercourse, and the provisions that they should _not_ use boats of their own and _should_ keep away from the islands in the Ister. And he permitted them to go through Dacia and have dealings with the Rhoxolani as often as the governor of Dacia would give them permission.]

[Sidenote:--20--] [The Quadi and the Marcomani sent envoys to Marcus, saying that the two myriads of soldiers that were in the forts would not allow [Footnote: Supplying, with Reiske, [Greek: epetrepon.]] them to pasture or till the soil or do anything else with freedom, but kept receiving many deserters from them and captives of theirs; yet the soldiers themselves were enduring no great hardships, inasmuch as they had bath-houses and all necessary provisions in abundance. The Quadi, consequently, would not endure the watch kept on them from fortifications and undertook to withdraw _en masse_ to the territory of the Semnones. But Antoninus learned beforehand of their intention and by barring the roads thither prevented them. This showed that he desired not to acquire their territory, but to punish the members of the tribe.]

[Sidenote:--21--] [And the Naristi, having encountered hardships, deserted to the number of three thousand at once and received land in our territory.]

[Sidenote:--22--] Upon the rebellion of Cassius in Syria, Marcus, in great alarm, summoned his son Commodus from Rome, since he was now able to enter the ranks of the iuvenes. Now Cassius, who was a Syrian from Cyrrhus, had shown himself an excellent man and the sort of person one would desire to have as emperor: only he was a son of one Heliodorus, [Footnote: _C. Avidius Heliodorus_ (cp. Book Sixty-nine, chapter 3).] who had been delighted to secure the governorship of Egypt as a result of his oratorical skill. But in this uprising he made a terrible mistake, and it was all due to his having been deceived by Faustina. The latter, who was a daughter of Antoninus Pius, seeing that her husband had fallen ill, and expecting that he might die at any moment, was afraid that the imperial office might revert to some outsider and she be left in private life; for Commodus was both young and rather callow, besides. So she secretly induced Cassius to make preparations to the end that if anything should happen to Antoninus he might take both her and the sovereignty. [Sidenote:--23--] Now while he was in this frame of mind, a message came that Marcus was dead (in such circumstances reports always make matters worse than they really are) and immediately, without waiting to confirm the rumor, he laid claim to the empire on the ground that it had been bestowed upon him by the soldiers at this time quartered in Pannonia. And in spite of the fact that before long he learned the truth, nevertheless, since he had once made a move, he would not change his attitude but speedily won over the whole district bounded by the Taurus, and was making preparations to maintain his ascendancy by war. Marcus, on being informed of his uprising by Verus, the governor of Cappadocia, for a time concealed it; but, as the soldiers were being mightily disturbed by the reports and were doing a deal of talking, he called them together and read an address of the following nature:

[Sidenote:--24--] "Fellow-soldiers, I have not come before you to express indignation, nor yet in a spirit of lamentation. Why rage against Fate, that is all-powerful? But perchance it is needful to bewail the lot of those who are undeservedly unfortunate, a lot which is now mine. Is it not afflicting for us to meet war after war? Is it not absurd to be involved in civil conflict? Are not both these conditions surpassed in affliction and in absurdity by the proof before us that there is naught to be trusted among mankind, since I have been plotted against by my dearest friend and have been thrust into a conflict against my will, though I have committed no crime nor even error? What virtue, what friendship shall henceforth be deemed secure after this experience of mine? Has not faith, has not hope perished? If the danger were mine alone, I should give the matter no heed,--I was not born to be immortal,--but since there has been a public secession (or rather obsession) and war is fastening its clutches upon all of us alike, I should desire, were it possible, to invite Cassius here and argue the case with him in your presence or in the presence of the senate; and I would gladly, without a contest, withdraw from my office in his favor, if this seemed to be for the public advantage. For it is on behalf of the public that I continue to toil and undergo dangers and have spent so much time yonder outside of Italy, during mature manhood and now in old age and weakness, though I can not take food without pain nor get sleep free from anxiety.

[Sidenote:--25--] "But since Cassius would never be willing to agree to this (for how could he trust me after having shown himself so untrustworthy towards me?), you, at least, fellow-soldiers, ought to be of good cheer. Cilicians, Syrians, Jews and Egyptians have never proved your superiors nor shall so prove, even if they assemble in numbers ten times your own, whereas they are now by the same proportion inferior. Nor yet would Cassius himself now appear worthy of any particular consideration, however much he may seem to possess the qualities of generalship, however many successes he may seem to have gained. An eagle is not formidable at the head of an army of daws, nor a lion commanding fawns; and it was not Cassius, but you, that brought to an end the Arabian or the famous Parthian War. Again, even though he is renowned as a result of his achievements against the Parthians, yet you have Verus, who has won more victories than he and has acquired more territory in a not less, but more distinguished manner.--But probably he has already changed his mind, on hearing that I am alive, for surely he has done this on no other assumption than that I was dead. And if he resists still further, yet when he learns that we are approaching, he will surely hesitate both out of fear of you and out of respect for me.

[Sidenote:--26--] "There is only one thing I fear, fellow-soldiers (you shall be told the whole truth), and that is that he may either kill himself because ashamed to come into our presence, or some one else upon learning that I shall come and am setting out against him may do it. Then should I be deprived of a great prize both of war and of victory, and of a magnitude such as no human being ever yet obtained. What is this? Why, to forgive a man that has done you an injury, to remain a friend to one who has transgressed friendship, to continue faithful to one who has broken faith. Perhaps this seems strange to you, but you ought not to disbelieve it. For all goodness has not yet perished from among mankind, but there is still in us a remnant of the ancient virtue. And if any one does disbelieve it, that renders the more ardent my desire that men may see accomplished what no one would believe could come to pass. That would be one profit I could derive from present ills, if I could settle the affair well and show to all mankind that there is a right way to handle even civil wars."

[Sidenote:--27--] This is what Marcus both said to the soldiers and wrote to the senate, in no place abusing Cassius, save he constantly termed him ungrateful. Nor, indeed, did Cassius ever utter or write anything of a nature insulting to Marcus.

Marcus at the time he was preparing for the war against Cassius would accept no barbarian alliance although he found a concourse of foreign nations offering their services; for he said that the barbarians ought not to know about troubles arising between Romans.

While Marcus was making preparations for the civil war, many victories over various barbarians were reported at one and the same time with the death of Cassius. The latter while walking had encountered Antonius, a centurion, who gave him a sudden wound in the neck, though the blow was not entirely effective. And Antonius, borne away by the impetus of his horse, left the deed incomplete, so that his victim nearly escaped; but meantime the decurion had finished what was left to do. They cut off his head and set out to meet the emperor.

Marcus Antoninus [was so much grieved at the destruction of Cassius that he would not even endure to see the severed head, but before the murderers drew near gave orders that it should be buried.]

Thus was this pretender slain after a dream of sovereignty lasting three months and six days, and his son was murdered somewhere else. And Marcus upon reaching the provinces that had joined in Cassius's uprising treated them all very kindly and put no one, either obscure or prominent, to death.

[Sidenote:--28--] [The same man would not slay nor imprison nor did he put under any guard any one of the senators associated with Cassius. He did not so much as bring them before his own court, but merely sent them before the senate, nominally under some other complaint, and appointed them a fixed day on which to have their case heard. Of the rest he brought to justice a very few, who had not only cooperated with Cassius to the extent of some overt action but were personally guilty of some crime. A proof of this is that he did not murder nor deprive of his property Flavius Calvisius, the governor of Egypt, but merely confined him on an island. The records made about his case Marcus caused to be burned, in order that no reproach might attach to him from them. Furthermore he released all his relatives.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 176 (a.u. 929)] [Sidenote:--29--] About this same time Faustina died, either of the gout from which she had suffered or from less natural causes and to avoid being convicted of her compact with Cassius.--Moreover, Marcus destroyed the documents [found in the chests of Pudens], [Footnote: Reimar suggested that perhaps Pudens was secretary of the Greek letters of Cassius, as Manlius (Book Seventy-two, chapter 7) was of his Latin letters.] not even reading them, in order that he might not learn even a name of any of the conspirators who had written something against him and that he might not [therefore] be reluctantly forced to hate any one. Another account is that Verus, who was sent ahead into Syria, of which he had secured the governorship, found them among the effects of Cassius and put them out of the way, saying that this course would most probably be agreeable to the emperor, but even if he should be angry, it would be better that he [Verus] himself should perish than many others. Marcus was so averse to slaughter that he saw to it that the gladiators in Rome contended without danger, like athletes; for he never permitted any of them to have any sharp iron, but they fought with blunt weapons, rounded off at the ends. [And so far was he from countenancing any slaughter that though at the request of the populace he ordered to be brought in a lion trained to eat men, he would not look at the beast nor emancipate its teacher, in spite of the long-continued and urgent demands of the people. Instead, he commanded proclamation to be made that the man had done nothing to deserve freedom.]

[Sidenote:--30--] In his great grief over the death of Faustina he wrote to the senate that no one of those who had cooperated with Cassius was dead, as if in this fact alone he could find some consolation for Faustina's loss. "May it never happen," he continued, "that any one of you is slain during [Footnote: Reading [Greek: ep emou] (Dindorf).] my lifetime either by my vote or by your own." Finally he said: "If I do not obtain this request, I shall hasten on to death." So pure and excellent and godfearing did he show himself throughout his career. [Nothing could force him to do anything inconsistent with his character, neither the wickedness of daring attempts nor the expectation of similar events to follow as the result of pardon. To such an extent did he refrain from inventing any imaginary conspiracy and concocting any tragedy that had not taken place, that he released even those who most openly rose against him and took arms against him and against his son, whether they were generals or heads of tribes or kings, and he put none of them to death either by his own action or by that of the senate or by any other arrangement whatever. Wherefore I actually believe that if he had captured Cassius himself alive, he would certainly have saved him from injury.] For he conferred benefits upon many who had been murderers,--so far as lay in their power,--of himself and his son.

[Sidenote:--31--] A law was at this time passed that no one should be governor in the province from which he had originally come, because the revolt of Cassius had occurred during his administration of Syria, which included his native district. It was voted by the senate that silver images of Marcus and Faustina should be set up in the temple of Venus and Roma, and that an altar should be erected whereon all the maidens married in the city and their bridegrooms should offer sacrifice; also that a golden image of Faustina should be carried in a chair to the theatre on each occasion that the emperor should be a spectator, and that it should be placed in the seat well forward, where she herself was wont to take her place when alive, and that the women of chief influence should all sit round about it.

[Sidenote:--32--] Marcus went to Athens, where after being initiated into the mysteries he bestowed honors upon the Athenians and gave teachers to all men in Athens, for every species of knowledge, these teachers to receive an annual salary. On his return to Rome he made an address to the people; and while he was saying, among other things, that he had been absent many years, they cried out: "Eight!" and indicated this also with their hands, in order that they might receive an equal number of gold pieces for a banquet. He smiled and himself uttered the word "Eight." After that he distributed to them two hundred denarii apiece, more than they had ever received before.--In addition to doing this, he forgave all persons all their debts to the imperial and to the public treasury for a space of forty-six years, outside of the sixteen granted by Hadrian. And all the documents relating to these debts he ordered burned in the Forum. [Sidenote: A.D. 177 (a.u. 930)]--He gave money to many cities, one of them being Smyrna, that had suffered terribly by an earthquake; he also assigned the duty of building up this place to an ex-praetor of senatorial rank. Therefore I am surprised at the censures even now passed upon him to the effect that he was not a man of large calibre. For, whereas in ordinary matters he was really quite frugal, he never demurred at a single necessary expenditure (though, as I have said, [Footnote: The reference here made by Dio may very possibly be to a passage reproduced by Zonaras (XII, 1), regarding the authenticity of which Boissevain is nevertheless somewhat doubtful. For the sake of completeness a translation is here given ([Greek: oumaen [Lacuna] ebiasato]):

"Yet he was not thereby induced to secure money from the subject nations. On one occasion, indeed, with wars impending, he had come short for funds and still did not devise any new tax nor endure to ask money from any one. Instead, he exposed in the Forum all the heirlooms of the palace, even down to this or that piece of finery belonging to his wife, and solicited their purchase by any person so disposed. This brought him a store of coin, which he distributed to the soldiers. By success in the war he gained many times the amount in question, and he issued a proclamation to the effect than any one so disposed among the purchasers of the imperial property might return the article purchased and receive its value. Some did so, but the majority declined. And nobody was compelled to restore any object thus acquired."]

he hurt no one by levies), and he necessarily laid out very large sums beyond the ordinary requirements.

[Sidenote:--33--] The Scythian imbroglio, which needed his attention, caused him to give his son a wife, Crispina, sooner than he actually wished. The Quintilii could not end the war, although there were two of them and they possessed prudence, courage, and considerable experience. Consequently the rulers themselves were forced to take the field. [Sidenote: A.D. 178 (a.u. 931)] Marcus also asked the senate for money from the public treasury, not because it had not been placed in the sovereign's authority, but because Marcus was wont to declare that this and everything else belonged to the senate and the people. "We," said he (speaking to the senate), "are so far from having anything of our own that we even live in a house of yours." He set out, therefore, after these remarks, and after hurling the bloody spear, that lay in the temple of Bellona, into hostile territory. (I heard this from men who accompanied him). [Sidenote: A.D. 179] Paternus was given a large detachment and sent to the scene of fighting. The barbarians held out the entire day, but were all cut down by the Romans. And Marcus was for the tenth time saluted as imperator.

[Sidenote: A.D. 180 (a.u. 933)] Had he lived longer, he would have subdued the whole region: as it was, he passed away on the seventeenth of March, not from the effects of the sickness that he had at the time, but by the connivance of his physicians, as I have heard on good evidence, who wanted to do a favor to Commodus.

[Sidenote:--34--] When at the point of death he commended his son to the protection of the soldiers (for he did not wish his death to appear to be his fault); and to the military tribunes, who asked him for the watchword, he said: "Go to the rising sun: I am already setting." After he was dead he obtained many marks of honor and was set up in gold within the senate-house itself.

So this was the manner of Marcus's demise, [who besides all other virtues was so godfearing that even on the dies nefasti he sacrificed at home; and he ruled better than any that had ever been in power. To be sure, he could not display many feats of physical prowess; yet in his own person he made a very strong body out of a very weak one.] Most of his life he passed in the service of beneficence, and therefore he erected on the Capitol a temple to that goddess and called her by a most peculiar name, which had never before been current. [Footnote: What this name was no one knows. Sylburgius conjectured that it might be _Aequanimitas_.] He himself refrained from all offences, [and committed no faults voluntarily:] but the offences of others, particularly those of his wife, he endured, and neither investigated them nor punished them. In case any person did anything good, he would praise him and use him for the service in which he excelled, but about others he did not trouble himself, [saying: "It is impossible for one to create such men as one wishes to have, but it is proper to employ those in existence for that in which each of them may be useful to the commonwealth."] That all his actions were prompted not by pretence but by real virtue is strikingly clear. He lived fifty-eight years, ten months, and twenty-two days, and of this time he had spent considerable as assistant to the previous Antoninus and had himself been emperor nineteen years and eleven days, yet from first to last he remained the same and changed not a particle. So truly was he a good man, without any pretence about him. [Sidenote:--35--] He was vastly helped by his education being an expert in rhetoric and in philosophical argument. In the one he had Cornelius Fronto and Claudius Herodes for teachers, and in the other, Junius Rusticus and Apollonius of Nicomedea, [Footnote: Since Apollonius was really from Chalcedon, an error may here charged to Dio's or some one else's account.] both of whom followed Zeno's school. As a result, great numbers pretended to engage in philosophy, in order that they might be enriched by the emperor.

After all, however, he owed his great attainments chiefly to his natural disposition; for even before he enjoyed the society of those men he was unflinchingly set upon virtue. While still a boy he delighted all his relations, who were numerous and influential and wealthy, and was loved by all of them. This, most of all, led Hadrian to adopt him into his family, and Marcus, for his part, did not grow haughty [but, though young and a Caesar he dutifully played the part of servant to Antoninus through all the latter's reign and ungrudgingly did honor to the other men of eminence. Before going to see his father he used to greet the most worthy men in the house near the Tiber where he lived, and in the very apartment where he slept; and all this time, instead of wearing the attire allowed by his rank, he went dressed as a private citizen. He visited many who were sick and invariably met his teachers at the proper time. Dark garments were what he wore on going out when not in his father's company, and he never used the attendant for himself alone. Upon being appointed leader of the knights he entered the Forum with the rest, although he was Caesar. This shows how excellent was his own natural disposition, though it was aided to the greatest degree by education.] He was always steeped in Greek and Latin rhetorical and philosophical learning [though he had reached man's estate and had hopes of becoming emperor].

[Sidenote:--36--] Before he was made Caesar he had a dream in which he seemed to have shoulders and hands of ivory and to use them in all respects as he did his real limbs.

As a result of his great labors and studies he was extremely frail in body, yet from the very start he enjoyed such good health that he used to fight in armor and on a hunt struck down wild boars while on horseback. [And not only in his early youth but even later he wrote most of his letters to his intimate friends with his own hand.] However, he did not meet the good fortune that he deserved, for he was not strong [in body] and was involved in the greatest variety of troubles throughout practically the whole period that he was ruler. But I am sure I admire him all the more for this very reason, that amid unusual and extraordinary happenings he both himself survived and preserved the empire. One thing in particular contributed to his lack of happiness,--the fact that after rearing and educating his son in the best possible way he was monstrously disappointed in him. This matter must now form the subject of our discourse, for our history now descends from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust, [Footnote: Reading [Greek: chatiomenaen] (Dindorf, following Reiske).] as affairs did for the Romans of that day.

DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY 73

About Commodus Augustus (chapter 1).

How Commodus made terms of peace with the Marcomani, the Quadi, and the Buri (chapters 2, 3).

Intrigues of Pompeianus against Commodus (chapter 4).

About the killing of the Quintilii (chapters 5-7).

About the war in Britain, and the captain, Ulpius Marcellus (chapter 8).

How Perennis, pretorian prefect, was slain (chapters 9, 10)

Statue erected to Victorinus (chapter 11).

Crimes and death of Cleander, a Caesarian (chapters 12, 13)

Fresh assassinations occur (chapter 15).

Commodus's titles (chapter 15).

About the spectacles presented by Commodus, and his insolent behavior (chapters 16-21).

Commodus is killed as the result of a conspiracy (chapter 22).

Dio begins to lay the foundations of his history (chapter 23).

Portents indicating the death of Commodus (chapter 24).

DURATION OF TIME.

L. Fulvius Bruttius Praesens (II), Sextus Quintilius Condianus. (A.D. 180 = a.u. 933 = First of Commodus, from March 17th).

Commodus Aug. (III), Antistius Burrus. (A.D. 181 = a.u. 934 = Second of Commodus).

C. Petronius Mamertinus, Cornelius Rufus. (A.D. 182 = a.u. 935 = Third of Commodus).

Commodus Aug. (IV), Aufidius Victorinus (II). (A.D. 183 = a.u. 936 = Fourth of Commodus).

L. Eggius Marullus, Cn. Papirius Aelianus. (A.D. 184 = a.u. 937 = Fifth of Commodus).

Maternus, Bradua. (A.D. 185 = a.u. 938 = Sixth of Commodus).

Commodus Aug. (V), Acilius Glabrio (II). (A.D. 186 = a.u. 939 = Seventh of Commodus). Crispinus, Aelianus. (A.D. 187 = a.u. 940 = Eighth of Commodus).

C. Allius Fuscianus (II), Duillius Silanus (II). (A.D. 188 = a.u. 941 = Ninth of Commodus).

Iunius Silanus, Servilius Silanus. (A.D. 189 = a.u. 942 = Tenth of Commodus).

Commodus Aug. (VI), M. Petronius Septimianus. (A.D. 190 = a.u. 943 = Eleventh of Commodus).

Apronianus, Bradua. (A.D. 191 = a.u. 944 = Twelfth of Commodus).

Commodus Aug. (VII), P. Helvius Pertinax (II). (A.D. 192 = a.u. 945 = Thirteenth of Commodus, to Dec. 31st).

[Sidenote: A.D. 180 (a.u. 933)] [Sidenote:--1--] This [Commodus] was not naturally wicked, but was originally as free from taint as any man ever was. His great simplicity, however, and likewise his cowardice made him a slave of his companions and it was through them that he first, out of ignorance, missed the better life and then was attracted into licentiousness and bloodthirsty habits, which soon became second nature. [And this, I think, Marcus clearly perceived beforehand.] He was nineteen years old when his father died, leaving him many guardians, among whom were numbered the best men of the senate. But to their suggestions and counsels Commodus bade farewell, and, after making a truce with the barbarians, he hastened to Rome.

[Sidenote:--2--] [For the Marcomani by reason of the number of their people that were perishing and the damage constantly being done to their farms no longer had either food or men in any numbers. Thus they sent only two of their foremost representatives and two others that were of inferior rank as envoys in regard to peace. And whereas he might easily have put an end to their resistance, he so detested exertion and was so eager for the comforts of city life that he made terms with them. Besides the conditions which his father had settled upon with them new ones were now imposed requiring them to restore to him the deserters and the captives that they took after this time and to contribute annually a stipulated amount of grain,--a demand from which he subsequently released them. He obtained some weapons from them and also soldiers, thirteen thousand from the Quadi and a smaller number from the Marcomani. In return for this contingent he relieved them of the requirement of an annual levy. However, he issued further orders that they should not assemble often nor in many parts of the country, but once each month, in one place, in the presence of a Roman centurion; and again, that they should not make war upon the Iazyges, the Buri, or the Vandili. On these terms a reconciliation was effected and all the garrisons in their country beyond the detached border territory were abandoned [Lacuna]]

[Sidenote: A.D. 181(?)] [Sidenote:--3--] [Commodus also granted peace to an embassy from the Buri. Previously he would not have it, though often asked, because they were strong and because it was not peace they wanted, but the securing of a respite for further preparations. Now, however, since they were exhausted, he made terms with them and accepted hostages. From the Buri he received back many captives and from the others [Footnote: The MS. is here very possibly corrupt.] fifteen thousand, and he compelled the others [Footnote: The MS. is here very possibly corrupt.] to take oath that they would never dwell in nor use as pasture forty stadia of their territory, nearest to Dacia. The same (?) Sabinianus also reduced twelve thousand of the neighboring Dacians who had been driven out of their own country and were on the point of aiding the rest. [Footnote: The MS. is here very possibly corrupt.] He promised these that some land in our Dacia should be given them.]

[Sidenote:--4--] Frequent plots were formed by various persons against Commodus [for he did many reprehensible deeds] and he murdered great numbers both of men and of women, some openly and some by secret poison,--in a word, practically all those who had attained eminence during his father's lifetime and his own. Exceptions were Pompeianus and Pertinax and Victorinus: these for some reason unknown to me he did not kill. THIS AND WHAT FOLLOWS I STATE NOT ON THE AUTHORITY OF ANOTHER'S TRADITION, BUT FROM MY OWN OBSERVATION. On coming to Rome he had a conference with the senate, at which he talked a great deal of nonsense, one thing that he said in praise of himself being that he had once on horseback saved the life of his father, who had fallen into a deep mire. Of such a nature were his lofty pratings. [Sidenote: A.D. 182 (a.u. 935)]As he was entering the hunting theatre, Claudius Pompeianus laid a snare for him. He held up a sword in the narrow passage which served as an entrance and said: "See, this is what the senate has sent you."

This man had taken as his spouse the daughter of Lucilla, but had intimate relations both with the daughter herself and with the girl's mother; in this way he had become friendly with Commodus, so that he was his companion at banquets and in the diversions of youth. Lucilla, who was neither more respectable nor more continent than her brother Commodus, detested the girl's husband, Pompeianus. It was for this reason that she persuaded the aforementioned to undertake the attack upon Commodus, and she not only caused his destruction, but was herself detected and put out of the way. Commodus killed also Crispina, because he was angry with her for some act of adultery. Previous to their execution both women had keen banished to the island of Capreae.

There was a certain Marcia, mistress of Quadratus (one of the men murdered at this time) and Eclectus, his cubicularius: the latter became also the cubicularius of Commodus, and the former, first, the emperor's mistress and later the wife of Eclectus; and she beheld them also perish by violence. The tradition is that she very much favored the Christians and did them many kindnesses, as she was enabled to do through possessing all influence with Commodus.

Commodus killed also Julianus [Salvius, [Footnote: _P. Salvius Julianus._] and Tarrutenius Paternus, who was numbered among the exconsuls, and others with them; he furthermore put to death some woman of the nobility. [Footnote: Vitrasia Faustina by name.] Yet Julianus after the death of Marcus could at once have done anything at all that he pleased against him, since he possessed great renown, was in charge of a large army, and enjoyed the devotion of his soldiers: and he refused to make any rebellious move, both because of his own uprightness and because of the good will that he bore to Marcus, though dead. And Paternus, if he had plotted against Commodus, as he was accused of doing, could easily have murdered him while he himself still commanded the Pretorians; but he had not done it.]

The emperor murdered likewise Condianus and Maximus Quintilius; for they had a great reputation on account of education and military ability and fraternal harmony and wealth. Their notable talents led to the suspicion that, even if they were not planning any hostile movement, still they were not pleased with the state of affairs. Thus, even as they had lived together, so they died together, and one child as well. They had exhibited the most striking example ever seen of affection for each other, and at no time had they been divided, even in their political offices. They had grown prosperous and exceedingly wealthy and were wont to govern together and to assist each other in trying cases at law.

Sextus Condianus, son of Maximus, who surpassed the generality of men in character and education, when be heard that sentence of death had been passed upon him, too, drank hare's blood (he was at that time located in Syria); and after this he mounted a horse and purposely fell from it. Then, as he vomited the blood (which was supposed to be his own), he was taken up in the expectation of his immediate demise and conveyed into a dwelling. The man himself now disappeared from view, but a ram's body was placed in a coffin, in his place and burned. Thereafter, by constantly changing his appearance and clothing, he wandered about, now here, now there. And when this story was reported (for it is impossible to conceal for a long time so weighty a matter), there was hue and cry after him in every place, bar none. Many were punished in his stead on account of their resemblance, and many, too, who were alleged to have shared his confidences or to have received and hidden him. Several, moreover, who had perhaps never even seen him, were deprived of their property. But no one knows whether he was really killed (though a great number of heads purporting to be his were carried to Rome) or whether he made good his escape.

Some other person, after the death of Commodus, dared to assert that _he_ was Sextus and to undertake the recovery of his wealth and dignities. And he played the part well while many persons asked him numbers of questions: when, however, Pertinax enquired of him something about Grecian affairs, with which the real Sextus had been well acquainted, he suffered the greatest embarrassment, not being able even to understand what was said. [So it was that nature had made him like Condianus in form and practice like him in other ways, but he did not share in his education.]

[Sidenote:--7--] This matter came to my own ears, and another thing that I saw I shall now describe. There is in the city of Mallus, in Cilicia, an oracle of Amphilochus, that gives responses by means of dreams. It had given warning also to Sextus, in a way that he indicated by a drawing. The picture that he put on a board represented a boy strangling two serpents and a lion pursuing a fawn. I was with my father, then governor of Cilicia, and could not comprehend what they meant until I learned that Sextus's brothers had been, as it were, strangled by Commodus (who later emulated Hercules), just as Hercules, when an infant, is related to have strangled the serpents sent against him by Juno: similarly, the Quintilii were hanged; I learned also that Sextus was a fugitive and was being pursued by a more powerful adversary.

I should render my narrative unduly irksome, were I to set down carefully every single man put to death by this ruler,--all that he despatched because of false information, because of unjustified suspicions, because of notable wealth, because of distinguished family, because of unusual education, or for any other excellence.

[Commodus displayed in Rome itself many marks of wealth and very many more, even, of love for the beautiful. Indeed, he performed one or two acts of public benefit. Manilius, a kinsman of Cassius, who had been secretary of his Latin letters and had possessed the greatest influence with him, was caught after a flight, but the emperor would not listen to a word of his, though he promised to lay a great deal of information, and burned all the conspirator's documents without reading them.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 184 a.u. 937] [Sidenote:--8--] He had also some wars with the barbarians beyond Dacia, in which Albinus and Niger, who later fought the emperor Severus, won fame, but the greatest conflict was the one in Britain. When the tribes in the island, passing beyond the wall that separated them from the Roman legions, proceeded to commit many outrages and cut down a general, together with the soldiers that he had, Commodus was seized with fear and sent Marcellus Ulpius against them. This man, who was temperate and frugal and always followed strict military rules in regard to food and all other details when he was at war, became in course of time haughty and arrogant. He was conspicuously incorruptible in the matter of bribes, but was not of a pleasant or kindly nature. He showed himself more wakeful than any other general, and, as he desired his associates also to be alert, he wrote orders on twelve tablets (such as are made out of linden wood) [almost] every evening, and bade a man carry them to various persons at various hours, that they, believing the general to be always awake, might not themselves take their fill of sleep. Nature had made him able in the first place to go without sleep and he had developed this faculty a great deal more by abstinence from food. [Of scarcely anything did he eat his fill and] in order to avoid satisfying his hunger even with bread he sent to Rome for the loaves: [this was not because he could not eat what was prepared in that region, but] it was done with the purpose that the age of the article might prevent him eating ever so little more than what was absolutely necessary. [His gums, which were sore, were easily made to bleed by the dryness of the bread. And he made it his practice to affect sleeplessness even more than was the case, that he might have a reputation for being always awake.] This was the kind of man Marcellus was, who inflicted great damage upon the barbarians in Britain. Later he narrowly escaped being destroyed by Commodus on account of his peculiar excellence, but was, nevertheless, released.

[Sidenote: A.D. 185 (a.u. 938)] [Sidenote:--9--] Perennis, commander of the Pretorians after Paternus, met destruction on account of a rebellion of the soldiers. For, since Commodus had devoted himself to chariot-racing and licentiousness and paid scarcely any attention to matters pertaining to the empire, Perennis was compelled to manage not only military affairs, but everything else, and to preside over the government. The soldiers, accordingly, when anything did not go to suit them, laid the blame upon Perennis and cherished anger against him.

The soldiers in Britain chose Priscus, a lieutenant, emperor. But he deprecated their action, saying "I am as little suited for emperor as you are for soldiers."

The lieutenants in Britain had been rebuked for their turbulence (indeed, they had not become quiet until Pertinax put a stop to their discord), and now they chose of their number fifteen hundred javelin-slingers, whom they sent into Italy. They had approached Rome without meeting any hindrance, when Commodus met them and enquired: "Why is this, fellow-soldiers? What does your presence signify?" Their answer was: "We are here because Perennis is plotting against you, and intends to make his son emperor." Commodus believed them, especially since Cleander dwelt at length upon the point. (The latter was often prevented by Perennis from doing all that he desired, and consequently entertained a bitter hatred for him). Therefore he delivered the prefect to the soldiers of whom he was commander, and did not venture to despise fifteen hundred men, though he had many times that number of Pretorians. So Perennis was abused and struck down, and his wife and sister and two sons were also killed.

[Sidenote:--10--] Thus was he slain though he deserved a far different fate both on his own account and for the interest of the entire Roman domain. Only, it may be remarked that his fondness for office had been the chief cause of the ruin of his colleague Paternus. Privately he was never remotely concerned about either fame or wealth, but lived a most incorruptible and temperate life, and for Commodus he preserved his empire in entire safety. [For the emperor wholly followed his amusements and gave himself over to chariot-driving and cared not a whit for any political interests; nor, indeed, had he given his mind to the matter ever so zealously, could he have accomplished aught by reason of his luxurious living and inexperience.]

And the Caesarians, having got rid of this man, with Cleander at their head entered upon every form of outrage, selling all privileges, doing violence, plunging into licentiousness.

Commodus during most of his life was given to idleness and horses and battles of beasts and of men. Aside from his performances at home he despatched many beasts in public and many men on many occasions. With his own hands and without assistance he gave the finishing stroke to five hippopotami at one time and to two elephants on separate days. Moreover, he killed rhinoceroses and a camelopard. This is what I have to say in general with reference to his whole career.

[Sidenote:--11--] To Victorinus, prefect of the city, a statue was granted. [He died not as the victim of a plot. At one time what might be called a loud rumor and many reports were circulating in regard to his destruction] and, though Commodus frequently wished to get him out of the way, he still kept putting it off and shrinking from the deed until the man grew very bold, and one day approaching Perennis said: "I hear that you wish to kill me. Why then do you delay? Why do you put it off, when you might do it this very day?" [But not even this caused him to suffer any harm at the hands of any one else; it was a self-sought death that he suffered, and the fact seems strange, inasmuch as he had been honored among the foremost men by Marcus and in mental excellence and forensic eloquence stood second to none of his contemporaries. Indeed, by mentioning two incidents in his history I shall reveal his whole character.]

Once, when he was governor of Germany, he at first attempted by private persuasion indoors to induce his lieutenant not to accept bribes. As the latter would not listen to him, he mounted the tribunal and [after bidding the herald proclaim him] took oath that he had never received bribes and never would receive any. Next he bade his under-officer also take oath; and when this person refused to perjure himself, he ordered him to be dismissed from office. [And later as commandant of Africa he had an associate of similar character to the man just mentioned. He did not, to be sure, treat him in the same way, but put him aboard a boat and sent him back to Rome.] This is the kind of man Victorinus was.

[Sidenote:--12--] As for Cleander, who after Perennis possessed greatest influence, he had been sold along with his fellow-slaves and had been brought to Rome along with them for the purpose of carrying burdens. As time went on he attained such prominence that he slept before the chamber of Commodus, married the emperor's concubine Damostratia, and put to death Saoterus of Nicomedea (who had held the position before him) besides many others. Yet this victim had possessed very great influence, so that the Nicomedeans obtained from the senate the right of holding a series of games and of building a temple to Commodus. At any rate, Cleander, raised to greatness by the power of Fortune, granted and sold senatorships. praetorships, procuratorships, leaderships,--in a word everything. Some by expending all that they possessed had finally become senators. It came to be said of Julius Solon (an exceedingly obscure man) that he had been deprived of his property and banished to the senate. [Sidenote: A.D. 189 (a.u. 942)] Not only did Cleander do this, but he appointed twenty-five consuls for one year,--something which never occurred before or after. One of those consuls was Severus, who later became emperor. The man obtained money, therefore, from every quarter and amassed more wealth than had ever yet belonged to those nominated cubicularii. A great deal of it he gave to Commodus and his concubines and a great deal of it he spent on houses, baths, and other works useful to individuals and to cities.

[Sidenote:--13--] This Cleander, who had soared to so exalted a height, himself fell suddenly and perished in dishonor. It was not the soldiers that killed him, as they had Perennis, but the populace. There occurred a real and pressing famine, which was increased to the utmost severity by Papirius Dionysius, the grain commissioner, in order that Cleander, whose thefts would seem as much responsible for it as any cause, might both incur hatred and suffer destruction at the hands of the Romans. So it fell out. There was a horse-race on, and as the horses were about to contend for the seventh time a crowd of children ran into the race course, at their head a tall and sturdy maiden. As a result of what subsequently happened she was deemed by people to have been a divinity. The children shouted many wild words of complaint, which the people took up again and began to bawl anything that came into their heads. Finally, the throng jumped down and started to find Commodus (who was then in the Quintilian suburb), invoking many blessings on his head but many curses upon Cleander. The latter sent some soldiers against them, who wounded and killed a few, but encouraged by their numbers and the strength of the Pretorians they became still more urgent. They drew near to Commodus before information reached him from any source of what was going on. Then the famous Marcia, wife of Quadratus, brought him the news. And Commodus was so terrified,--he was always the veriest coward,--that he at once ordered Cleander to be slain and also his child, who was in Commodus's hands to be reared. The child was dashed to the earth and perished, and the Romans, taking the body of Cleander, dragged it away and abused it and carried his head all about the city on a pole. They also wounded some other men who had possessed great power during his ascendancy.

[Sidenote:--14--] Commodus, taking a respite from his lusts and sports, developed a taste for blood and proceeded to compass the death of distinguished men. Among these was Julianus the prefect, whom he used to embrace and caress in public and saluted as "father." Another was Julius Alexander, who was executed for having brought down a lion by a lucky cast of his javelin while on horseback. [Footnote: Boissevain suggests that the "Roman Hercules" perhaps feared that Alexander might diminish his glory.] This victim, on becoming aware of the presence of his assassins, murdered them by night and likewise put out of the way all his own enemies at Emesa, his native town. After doing this he mounted a horse and started toward the barbarians; and he would have escaped, had he not carried a favorite along with him. He was himself a most excellent horseman, but he would not think of abandoning the lad, who was tired out, and so when he was being overtaken he killed both the boy and himself. Dionysius, too, the grain commissioner, met his death by the orders of Commodus.

Moreover, a pestilence, as great as any I know, took place, for it should be noted that two thousand persons several times died in Rome on a single day. Many more, not merely in the capital but throughout almost the entire empire, perished by the hands of scoundrels, who smeared some deadly drugs on tiny needles, and, for pay, infected men with the poison by means of these instruments. The same thing had happened before in the reign of Domitian. [Footnote: See Book Sixty-seven, chapter 11.] But the death of these unfortunates was not regarded as of any importance.

[Sidenote: A.D. 190 (a.u. 943)] [Sidenote:--15--] Still, the effect of Commodus upon the Romans was worse than that of all pestilences and all villanies. One feature was that whatever honors they were wont to vote to his father out of pure regard they were compelled by fear and by strict injunction to assign also to the son. He gave orders that Rome itself be called Commodiana, the legions "Commodian," and the day on which this measure was voted "Commodiana." Upon himself he bestowed, in addition to very many other titles, that of Hercules. Rome he termed "the Immortal," "the Fortunate," "the Universal Colony of the Earth" (for he wished it to seem a settlement of his own). In his honor a gold statue was erected of a thousand pounds' weight, together with a bull and a cow. Finally, all the months were likewise called after him, so that they were enumerated as follows: Amazonian, Invincible, Fortunate, Pious, Lucius, Aelius, Aurelius, Commodus, August, Herculean, Roman, Transcendent. For he had assumed these different names at different times. "Amazonian" and "Transcendent," however, he applied exclusively to himself, to indicate that in absolutely every respect he unapproachably surpassed all mankind. So extravagantly did the wretch rave. And to the senate he would send a despatch couched in these terms: "Caesar Imperator, Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus, Augustus, Pius, Beatus, Sarmaticus, Germanicus, Maximus, Britannicus, Peacemaker of the World, Invincible, Roman Hercules, High Priest, Holder of Tribunician Authority for the eighteenth term, Imperator for the eighth time, Consul for the seventh time, Father of the Fatherland, to consuls, praetors, tribunes and the Commodian Fortunate Senate, Greeting." Great numbers of statues were erected displaying him in the garb of Hercules. And it was voted that his age should be called the "Golden Age" and that entries to correspond with this should in every case be made in the records.

[Sidenote:--16--] Now this Golden One, this Hercules, this God (such was another designation of his) one day in the afternoon rode suddenly from the suburbs with haste into Rome and conducted thirty horse-races in two hours. These proceedings had much to do with his running short of money. He was also fond of bestowing gifts and frequently presented the populace with one hundred and forty denarii apiece. But most of his expenditures were for the objects that I have mentioned. [So it was that neither his general income nor what was provided by Cleander (though incalculable in amount) sufficed him, and he was compelled to bring charges against both women and men,--charges not serious enough for capital punishment but prolific in threats and terror.] Some of these persons he murdered, to others he sold preservation in return for their property [and got something from them by constraint under the pretence that it was a voluntary offering]. And finally on his birthday he ordered us, our wives, and our children each to contribute two aurei [a year as] a kind of first-fruits, and the senators in all the other cities five denarii per head. [Of this, too, he saved not the smallest part, but spent it all disgracefully on beasts and gladiators.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 192 (a.u. 945)] [Sidenote:--17--] In public he nowhere drove chariots except sometimes on a moonless night. He became very desirous to play the character also in public, but, being ashamed to be seen doing this, he kept it up constantly at home, wearing the Green uniform. Beasts, moreover, in large numbers were slaughtered at his house and many also in public. Again, he would contend as gladiator: (at home he killed a man in this way, and, in pretending to shave others, instead of taking off the hairs he sliced off one man's nose, another's ears, and some other feature of a third;) but in public his contests were [Footnote: It is just barely possible that the original gave some different idea from "his contests were" (cp. the text of Boissee).] minus the steel and human blood. Before entering the theatre he would put on a cleeved tonic of silk, white interwoven with gold, and we greeted him standing there in this attire. When he actually went in he donned a pure purple dress sprinkled with gold, assuming also a similar chlamys of Greek pattern and a crown made of Indic gems and gold, and carried such a herald's staff as Mercury does. The lion skin and club were carried before him along the streets, and at the theatres were invariably placed on a gilded chair, whether he was present or absent. He himself would enter the theatre in the garb of Mercury, and casting off everything else begin his performance in simple tunic and unshod.

[Sidenote:--18--] On the first day he individually killed a hundred bears by shooting down at them from the top of the elevated circle. The whole theatre had been divided up by some diameters built in, which supported a circular roof and intersected each other, the object being that the beasts, divided into four herds, might be more easily speared at short range from any point. In the midst of the struggle he grew weary, and taking from a woman some sweet wine cooled in a club-shaped cup drank it down at a gulp. At this both the populace and we on the instant all shouted this phrase, common at drinking bouts: "Long life to you!"

Let no one think that I sully the dignity of history in noting down such happenings. In general I should have preferred not to mention it, but since it was one of the emperor's acts and I was myself present, taking part in everything seen and heard and spoken, I have judged it proper to suppress none of the details, but to hand them down to the attention of those who shall live hereafter, just as I should do in the case of anything else especially great and important. And, indeed, all the remaining events that took place in my lifetime I shall polish and elaborate more than earlier occurrences for the reason that my evidence is that of a contemporary and I know no one else who has my ability at reducing notable things to writing that has studied them so exhaustively as I.

[Sidenote:--19--] It was on the first day, then, that this took place. On the others he frequently went down from the raised section to the bottom of the circle and slaughtered all the tame animals that he approached, some of them also being led to him or brought before him in nets. He also killed a tiger, a hippopotamus, and an elephant. After accomplishing this, he retired, but at the conclusion of breakfast fought again as a gladiator. The form of fighting which he practiced and the armor which he used was that pertaining to the so-called _secutor:_ in his right hand he held the shield and in his left the wooden sword. He prided himself very greatly upon being left-handed. His antagonist would be some professional athlete, or, perhaps, gladiator, with a cane; this was sometimes a man that the emperor himself challenged and sometimes one that the people chose. In this and other matters he acted the same way as the other gladiators, except that they go in for a very small sum, whereas Commodus had twenty-five myriads from the gladiatorial fund given him each day. There stood beside him during the contest Aemilius Laetus, the prefect, and Eclectus, his cubicularius. He went through a skirmish, and, of course, conquered, and then, just as he was, he kissed them [Footnote: Supplying [Greek: ois] (after Reimar).] with his helmet on. After this the rest did some fighting.--The first day he personally paired all the combatants, either down below, where he wore all the attire of Mercury, including a gilded wand, or else from his place on the elevated platform; and we took his proceeding as an omen. Later he ascended his customary seat and from that point viewed the remainder of the spectacle with us. Nothing more was done that resembled child's play, but great numbers of men were killed. At one place somebody delayed about slaying and he fastened the various opponents together and bade them all fight at once. At that the men so bound struggled one against another and some killed those who did not belong to their group, since the numbers and the limited space had brought them into proximity.

[Sidenote:--20--] That spectacle as here described lasted fourteen days. While the contests were going on we senators invariably attended, along with the knights, save that Claudius Pompeianus the elder never appeared, but sent his sons, remaining away himself. He chose rather to be put to death for this than to behold the child of Marcus as emperor conducting himself so.--Besides all the rest that we did, we shouted whatever we were bidden and this sentence continuously: "Thou art lord, and thou art foremost, of all most fortunate: thou dost conquer, thou shalt conquer; from everlasting, Amazonian, thou dost conquer!"

Of the rest of the people many did not even enter the theatre and some managed to steal out quietly, for they were partly ashamed of what was being done and partly afraid. A story was current that he would like to shoot a few of them as Hercules had the Stymphalian birds. This story was believed, too, because once he had gathered all the men in the city who by disease or some other calamity had lost their feet, had fastened some dragon's extremities about their knees, and after giving them sponges to throw instead of stones had killed them with blows of a club, on the pretence that they were giants.

[Sidenote:--21--] This fear was shared by all, both us and the rest. Here is another way in which he menaced us senators,--an act which he certainly expected would be the death of us. He had killed an ostrich, and cutting off its head he came toward where we were sitting. In his left hand he held the spoils and in the right stretched aloft his bloody sword. He spoke not a word, but with a grin wagged his head to and fro, intimating that he would subject us to this same treatment. And many on the spot would have perished by the sword for laughing at him (for it was laughter and not grief that overcame us), had I not myself chewed a laurel leaf, which I got from my garland, and brought the rest who were sitting near me to munch similar sprigs, so that in the constant motion of our jaws we might conceal the fact that we were laughing. After this occurrence he raised our spirits, since before fighting again as a gladiator he bade us enter the theatre in the equestrian garb and with woolen cloaks. (This was something we never do when going into the theatre unless some emperor has passed away). And on the last day his helmet was carried out by the gates through which the dead are taken out. That made us all without exception think that he was surely about to meet his end in some way.

[Sidenote:--22--] And he did die (or rather was despatched) before a great while. Laetus and Eclectus, displeased at the way he acted, and moreover filled with fear at the threats he uttered against them when he was checked in any of his whims, formed a plot against him. Commodus was anxious to slay both the consuls (Erucius Clarus and Sosius Falco) and on the first of the month to issue as consul and secutor at once from the place where the gladiators are kept. He had the first cell in their quarters, as if he were one of them. Let no one be incredulous about this, for he even cut off the head of the Colossus and put one of his own there instead; and then, having given it a club and placed a bronze lion at its feet so as to make it look like Hercules, he inscribed, besides the titles that belonged to him, also this sentence: "First of secutors to engage; the only left-handed fighter that has conquered twelve times"--I think it is--"a thousand."

[Lacuna] was written by Lucius Commodus Hercules, and upon it was inscribed the well known couplet, viz.: "Hercules I, Jove's son, Lord of Fair Fame, Not Lucius, howsoe'er constrained thereto."

For these reasons Laetus and Eclectus, making Marcia their confidante, attacked him. At night on the last of the year, when people were busy with merry-making, they had Marcia administer poison to him in cooked beef. The wine he had consumed and his always immoderate use of the baths kept him from succumbing at once, and instead he vomited; this caused him to suspect the attempt and he uttered some threats. Then they sent Narcissus, an athlete, to him and had this man strangle him in the midst of a bath. This was the end that Commodus met after ruling twelve years, nine months, and fourteen days. He had lived thirty-one years and four months, and with him the imperial house of the true Aurelii ceased.

[Sidenote:--23--] After this there occurred most violent wars and factional disturbances. The compilation of facts in this work of mine has been due to the following chance. I had written and published a book about the dreams and signs which caused Severus to expect the imperial power; and he, happening to look at a copy that was sent him by me, wrote me a long and complimentary acknowledgment. This letter I received about nightfall and soon after went to sleep. And in my slumbers Heaven commanded me that a history be written. So it came about that I wrote the narrative with which I am at this moment concerned. And because it pleased Severus himself and other people very much, I then conceived a desire to compile a record of all other matters of Roman interest. Therefore I decided no longer to leave that treatise as a separate composition, but to incorporate it in this present history, in order that in one undertaking I might write positively everything from the beginning as far as Fortune sees fit to permit. I have obtained this goddess, it appears, as the guide of the conduct of my life, and therefore I am dependent on her entirely: she gives me strength for my historical research when I am respectful and subdued before her, and wins me back to work by means of dreams when I am discouraged and give up the task: she grants me delightful hopes in regard to the future, that time will allow this history to survive and never let its brightness be dimmed. To gather an account of everything done by the Romans from the beginning until the death of Severus has taken me ten years, and to arrange it in literary form twelve years more. The rest will be written as opportunity offers.

[Sidenote:--24--] Prior to the death of Commodus there were the following signs. Many ill-boding eagles wandered about the Capitol uttering cries that portended naught of peace, and an owl hooted there. [Sidenote: A.D. 191 (a.u. 944)] A fire, starting by night in some dwelling, laid hold of the temple of Peace and spread to the stores of Egyptian and Arabian wares: then, leaping to a great height, it entered the palace and burned a very large portion of it, so that the documents belonging to the empire almost all perished. This as much as anything made it clear that the injury would not stop in the City but extend over the entire civilized world. The conflagration could not be extinguished by human hands, although great numbers of civilians and great numbers of soldiers were carrying water and Commodus himself came from the suburbs to cheer them on. Only after it had destroyed everything on which it had fastened did it spend its force and reach a limit.

DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY 74

Pertinax, through the agency of Eclectus and Laetus, is created emperor by the soldiers and by the senate (chapter 1).

Commodus is declared an enemy and is made a subject for jest (chapter 2).

Kindness of Pertinax toward Pompeianus, Glabrio, and the senators (chapter 3).

Omens portending supreme power for him (chapter 4).

Pertinax reforms pernicious practices: he sells Commodus's apparatus of licentiousness (chapter 5, 6).

His moderation with regard to his own family (chapter 7).

At the instigation of Laetus Falco the consul is slated for emperor (chapter 8).

Death of Pertinax Augustus (chapter 9, 10).

Flavius Sulpicianus and Julianus strive in outbidding each other for the sovereignty (chapter 11).

Julianus is made emperor contrary to the wishes of the senate and the Roman people (chapters 12, 13).

About the three leaders, Severus, Niger, Albinus (chapter 14).

Severus forms an alliance with Albinus and proceeds against Julianus (chapter 15).

Julianus, in the midst of laughable preparations, is killed by order of the senate (chapters 16, 17).

DURATION OF TIME, five months (from the Calends of January to the Calends of June), in which the following were consuls:

1. Quintus Sosius Falco, C. Erucius Clarus.

2. Flavius Sulpicianus, Fabius Cilo Septiminus (from the Calends of March).

3. Silius Messala (from the Calends of May). (A.D. 193 = a.u. 946).

[Sidenote: A.D. 193 (a.u. 946)] [Sidenote:--1--] Pertinax was one of those men to whom no exception can be taken, but he ruled only for an exceedingly brief space of time and was then put out of the way by the soldiers. While the fate of Commodus was still a secret the party of Eclectus and Laetus came to him and acknowledged [Footnote: Reading [Greek: emaenusan] (Dindorf, after H. Stephanus).] what had been done. On account of his excellence and reputation they were glad to select him. He, after seeing them and hearing their story, sent his most trustworthy comrade to view the body of Commodus. When the man confirmed the report of the act, he was then conveyed secretly into the camp and caused the soldiers consternation; but through the presence of the adherents of Laetus and by means of promises [Footnote: Reading [Greek: epaeggeilato] (Dindorf, after Bekker).] to give them three thousand denarii per man, he won them over. They would certainly have remained content, had he not phrased the conclusion of his speech somewhat as follows: "There are many unpleasant features, fellow-soldiers, in the present situation, but the rest with your help shall be set right again." On hearing this they took occasion to suspect that all the irregular privileges granted them by Commodus would be abolished. Though irritated, they nevertheless remained quiet, concealing their anger.

On leaving the fortifications he came to the senate-house while it was still night, and after greeting us (so far as a man might approach him in the midst of such a jostling throng) he said in an impromptu way: "I have been named emperor by the soldiers; however, I don't desire the office and am going to resign it this very day because of my age and health and the unpleasant condition of affairs." This was no sooner said than we gave the selection our genuine approbation and chose him in very truth; for he was noble in spirit and strong in body, except that he walked a little lame.

[Sidenote:--2--] In this way was Pertinax declared emperor and Commodus an enemy, while both senate and people denounced the latter long and savagely. They desired to hale away his body and tear it limb from limb, as they did his images; but, when Pertinax told them that the corpse had already been interred, they spared his remains but glutted their rage on his representations, calling him all sorts of names. But "Commodus" or "emperor" were two that no one applied to him. In stead, they termed him "wretch" and "tyrant," adding in jest titles like "the gladiator," "the charioteer," "the left-handed," "the ruptured man." To the senators, who had been excited most by fear of Commodus, the crowd called out: "Huzza, huzza, you are saved, you have conquered!" All the shouts that they had been accustomed to raise with a kind of rhythmic swing to pay court to Commodus in the theatres they now chanted metamorphosed into the most ridiculous nonsense. Since they had got rid of one ruler, and as yet had nothing to fear from his successor, they made the most of their freedom in the intervening time and secured a reputation for frankness by their fearlessness. They were not satisfied merely to be relieved of further terror, but desired to show their courage by wanton insolence.

[Sidenote:--3--] Pertinax was a Ligurian from Alba Pompeia; his father was not of noble birth and he himself had just enough literary training for ordinary needs. Under these conditions he had become an associate of Claudius Pompeianus, through whose influence he had become a commander in the cavalry, and had reached such a height that he now came to be emperor over his former friend. And I at that time, during the reign of Pertinax, saw Pompeianus for the first and last occasion. He was wont to live mostly in the country on account of Commodus [and very seldom came down to the city], making his age and a disease of the eyes his excuse [and he had never before, when I was present, entered the senate]. Moreover, after Pertinax he was always ill. [During his reign he saw and was well [Footnote: Reading [Greek: erroto] (Dindorf).] and advised.] Pertinax honored him mightily in every way and in the senate made him take the seat beside him. [The same privilege he accorded also to Acilius Glabrio. This man, too, at that period both heard and saw. It was to these, then, that he granted such surpassing honor.] Toward us also he behaved in a very sociable way. He was easy of access, listened readily to any one's request, and cordially answered as he thought right. Again, he gave us banquets marked by moderation. Whenever he failed to invite us, he would send to various persons various foods, even the least costly. For this the wealthy and vainglorious made great sport of him, but the rest of us, who valued excellence above debauchery, approved his course.

[Public opinion regarding Pertinax was so different from that in the case of Commodus that those who heard what had happened, suspecting that this story had been spread by Commodus to test them, in several instances (governors of provinces being particularly involved) imprisoned the men who brought the news. It was not that they did not wish it to be true, but they were more afraid of seeming to have helped destroy Commodus than of not attaching themselves to Pertinax. For under the latter one who even committed an error of this kind might still breathe freely, but under the former not even a faultless person could feel safe.]

[Sidenote:--4--] While he was still in Britain, after that great revolt which he quelled, and was being accorded praise on all sides, a horse named Pertinax won a race at Rome. It belonged to the Greens and was picked as a winner by Commodus. So, when its partisans raised a great shout, proclaiming "It is Pertinax," the others, their opponents, in disgust at Commodus likewise prayed (speaking with reference to the man, not the horse): "Would that it might be so!" Later, when this same horse by reason of age had given up racing and was in the country, it was sent for by Commodus, who brought it into the hippodrome, gilded its hoofs, and adorned its back with a gilded skin. And people suddenly seeing it cried out again: "It is Pertinax!" The very expression was itself ominous, since it occurred at the last horse-race that year, and immediately after it the sovereignty passed to Pertinax. A similar import was attached to the club, for Commodus when about to fight on the final day had given it to Pertinax.

[Sidenote:--5--] It was in this way that Pertinax came into power. He obtained all the proper titles and a new one for wishing to be democratic. That is, he was named Princeps Senatus, according to ancient custom. He at once reduced to order everything that was previously irregular and lacking in discipline. He showed in his capacity of emperor kindliness and uprightness, unimpeachable management, and a most careful consideration for the public welfare. Pertinax did everything, in fact, that a good emperor should do, and he removed the stigma of disgrace from the memories of those who had been unjustly put to death; moreover, he took oath that he would never sanction such a penalty. Immediately some recalled their relatives and some their friends with tears and joy at once; formerly not even these exhibitions of emotion were allowed. After this they exhumed the bodies, some of which were found entire and some in fragments, according as decay and time had caused each of them to fare, and they gave them decent treatment and deposited them in their ancestral tombs.

At this time the treasury was suffering from such lack of funds that only twenty-five myriad denarii could be found. Pertinax therefore had difficulty in raising money from the images and the arms, the horses and the trappings, and the favorites of Commodus, but gave to the Pretorians all that he had promised and to the people one hundred denarii apiece. All the articles that Commodus had gathered by way of luxury and for armed combats and for chariot driving were exposed in the auction-room, the principal object sought being their sale, though there was a further intention to show what were the late emperor's deeds and practices and to ascertain who would purchase such articles.

[Sidenote:--6--] Laetus consistently spoke well of Pertinax and abused Commodus [relating all the latter's evil deeds].

He [Footnote: Pertinax is meant.] summoned some barbarians that had received a large sum of gold coin from Commodus in return for preservation of peace (the party was already on the road) and demanded its return, saying: "Tell your people that Pertinax is ruler." The foreigners knew his name very well as a result of the reverses they had suffered when he made a campaign against them with Marcus.--Let me tell you another similar act of his intended to cast reflections upon Commodus. He found that some filthy clowns and buffoons, disgusting in appearance, with still more disgusting names and habits, had been made extremely wealthy by Commodus on account of their wantonness and licentiousness; accordingly, he made public their titles and the amounts they had acquired. The former caused laughter and the latter wrath and grief, for there were some of them that possessed just the sums for which the emperor had slain numbers of senators. However, Laetus did not remain permanently loyal to Pertinax, or perhaps we might even say not for a moment. Since he did not get what he wanted, he proceeded to incite the soldiers against him (as will be related).

[Sidenote:--7--] Pertinax appointed as prefect of the city his father-in-law, Flavius Sulpicianus, a man who in any case deserved the position. Yet he was unwilling to make his wife Augusta or his son Caesar, though we voted him permission. He rejected emphatically each proposition, whether because he had not yet firmly rooted his own power, or because he did not choose to let his unchaste consort sully the name of Augusta. As for his son, who was still a child, he did not care to have him spoiled by the dignity [Footnote: Reading [Greek: ogkho] (Reimar) for the MS. [Greek: horkho].] and the hope implied in the name before he should be educated. Indeed, he would not even bring him up in the palace, but on the very first day of his sovereignty he put aside everything that had belonged to him previously and divided it between his children--he had also a daughter--and gave orders that they should live at their grandfather's house; there he visited them occasionally in the capacity of father and not of emperor.

[Sidenote:--8--] Now, since the soldiers were no longer allowed to plunder nor the Caesarians to indulge their licentiousness, they hated him bitterly. The Caesarians attempted no revolt, because they were unarmed, but the Pretorian soldiers and Laetus formed a plot against him. In the first place they selected Falco the consul for emperor, because he was prominent for both wealth and family, and purposed to bring him to the camp while Pertinax was at the coast investigating the corn supply. The latter, learning of the plan, returned in haste to the City, and coming before the senate said: "You should not be ignorant, Conscript Fathers, that though I found but twenty-five myriad denarii, I have distributed as much to the soldiers as did Marcus and Lucius, to whom were left sixty-seven thousand five hundred myriads. It is the surprising Caesarians who have been responsible for this deficiency of funds." Pertinax told a lie when he said that he had bestowed upon the soldiers an equal amount with Lucius and Marcus; for the one had given them about five thousand and the other about three thousand denarii apiece. The soldiers and the Caesarians, who were present in the senate in great numbers, became mightily indignant and muttered dangerously. But as we were about to condemn Falco [and were already declaring him an enemy] Pertinax rose and cried out: "Heaven forbid that any senator, while I am ruler, be put to death even for a just cause!" [And in this way Falco's life was saved, and thenceforth he lived in the country, preserving a cautious and respectful demeanor.]

[Sidenote:--9--] But Laetus, using Falco as a starting point, destroyed many of the soldiers on the pretence that the emperor ordered it. The rest, when they became aware of it, were afraid that they should perish, too, and raised a tumult. Two hundred bolder than their mates invaded the palace with drawn swords. Pertinax had no warning of their approach until they had got upstairs. Then his wife rushed in and informed him what had happened. On learning this he behaved in a way which one may call noble or senseless or however one pleases. For, whereas he might probably have killed his assailants (since he had the night-guard and the cavalry by to protect him and there were also many other people in the palace at the time), or might at any rate have concealed himself and made his escape to some place or other, and might have closed the doors of the palace and the other intervening doors, he, nevertheless, adopted neither alternative. Instead, hoping to awe them by his presence and thus gain a hearing and persuade them to their duty, he confronted the approaching band, which was already indoors. No one of their fellow soldiers had barred the way, and the porters and other Caesarians so far from making any door fast had opened absolutely all the entrances. The soldiers, seeing him, at first were [Sidenote:--10--] abashed, save one, and rested their eyes on the floor and began thrusting their swords back into their scabbards. But the one exception leaped forward, exclaiming: "This sword the soldiers have sent you," and forthwith made a dash at him, striking him a blow. Then his comrades did not restrain themselves and felled their emperor together with Eclectus. The latter alone had not deserted him and defended him as far as he was able, even to the extent of wounding several. Wherefore I, who still earlier believed that he had shown himself a man of worth, now thoroughly admired him. The soldiers cut off the head of Pertinax and stuck it on a spear, glorying in the deed. Thus did Pertinax, who undertook to restore everything in a brief interval, meet his end. He did not comprehend, though a well trained man of affairs, that it is impossible with safety to reform everything at once, but that the constitution of a government requires, if anything does, both time and wisdom. He had lived sixty-seven years lacking four months and three days. He had reigned eighty-seven days.

[Sidenote:--11--] When the fate of Pertinax was reported, some ran to their homes and some to those of the soldiers, and paid heed to their own safety. It happened that Sulpicianus had been despatched by Pertinax to the camp to set in order matters there, and he consequently stayed there and took action looking to the appointment of an emperor. But there was a certain Didius Julianus [of senatorial rank but eccentric character], an insatiate money-getter and reckless spender, always anxious for a change in the government, who on account of the last named proclivity had been driven out by Commodus to his own city, Mediolanum. He, accordingly, on hearing of the death of Pertinax, hastily made his way to the camp, and standing near the gates of the fort made offers to the soldiers in regard to the Roman throne. Then ensued a most disgraceful affair and one unworthy of Rome. For just as is done in some market and auction-room, both the city and her whole empire were bid off. The sellers were the people who had killed their emperor, and the would-be buyers were Sulpicianus and Julianus, who vied to outbid each other, one from within, the other from without. By their increases they speedily reached the sum of five thousand denarii per man. Some of the guard kept reporting and saying to Julianus: "Sulpicianus is willing to give so much; now what will you add?" And again to Sulpicianus: "Julianus offers so much; how much more do you make it?" Sulpicianus would have won the day, since he was inside and was prefect of the city and was the first to say five thousand, had not Julianus raised his bid, and no longer by small degrees but by twelve hundred and fifty denarii at once, which he offered with a great shout, indicating the amount likewise on his fingers. Captivated by the difference and at the same time through fear that Sulpicianus might avenge Pertinax (an idea that Julianus put into their heads) they received the highest bidder inside and designated him emperor.

[Sidenote:--12--] So toward evening the new ruler turned his steps with speed toward the Forum and senate-house. He was escorted by a vast number of Pretorians with numerous standards as if prepared for action, his object being to scare both us and the populace and thereby secure our allegiance. The soldiers called him "Commodus," and exalted him in various other ways. As the news was brought to us each individually, and we ascertained the truth, we were possessed with fear of Julianus and the soldiers, especially all of us who had [Lacuna] any favors for Pertinax. [Footnote: A slight gap in the MS., where we should perhaps read: "all of us who had done any favors for Pertinax or anything to displease Julianus" (Boissevain).] [Lacuna] I was one of them, for I had been honored by Pertinax in various ways, owing to him my appointment as praetor, and when acting as advocate for others at trials I had frequently proved Julianus in the wrong on many points. Nevertheless, we put in an appearance, and partly for this very reason, since it did not seem to us to be safe to hide at home, for fear that act in itself might arouse suspicion. So when bath [Footnote: Reading [Greek: leloumenoi] (Reiske) for the MS. [Greek: dedoulomenoi].] and dinner were both over, we pushed our way through the soldiers, entered the senate-house, and heard the potentate deliver a characteristic speech, in the course of which he said: "I see that you need a ruler, and I myself am better fitted than any one else to direct you. And I should mention all the advantages I can offer, if you did not know them perfectly and had not already had experience with me. Consequently, I felt no need of being attended by many soldiers, but have come to you alone, that you may ratify what has been given me by them." "I am here alone" is what he said, when he had surrounded the entire exterior of the senate-house with heavily armed men and had a number of soldiers in the senate-house itself. Moreover, he mentioned our being aware what kind of person he was, and made us both hate and fear him.

[Sidenote:--13--] In this way he got his imperial power confirmed also by decrees of the senate and returned to the palace. Finding the dinner that had been prepared for Pertinax he made great fun of it, and sending out to every place from which by any means whatever something expensive could be procured at that time of day he satisfied his hunger (the corpse was still lying in the building) and then proceeded to amuse himself by dicing. Among his companions was Pylades the dancer. The next day we went up to visit him, feigning in looks and behavior much that we did not feel, so as not to let our grief be detected. The populace, however, openly frowned upon the affair, spoke its mind as much at it pleased, and was ready to do what it could. Finally, when he came to the senate-house and was about to sacrifice to Janus before the entrance, all bawled out as if by preconcerted arrangement, terming him empire-plunderer and parricide. He affected not to be angry and promised them some money, whereupon they grew indignant at the implication that they could be bribed and all cried out together: "We don't want it, we won't take it!" The surrounding buildings echoed back the shout in a way to make one shudder. When Julianus had heard their response, he could endure it no longer, but ordered that those who stood nearest should be slain. That excited the populace a great deal more, and it did not cease expressing its longing for Pertinax or its abuse of Julianus, its invocations of the gods or its curses upon the soldiers. Though many were wounded and killed in many parts of the city, they continued to resist and finally seized weapons and made a rush into the hippodrome. There they spent the night and the ensuing day without food or drink, calling upon the remainder of the soldiery (especially Pescennius Niger and his followers in Syria) with prayers for assistance. Later, feeling the effects of their outcries and fasting and loss of sleep, they separated and kept quiet, awaiting the hoped for deliverance from abroad.

"I do not assist the populace: for it has not called upon me."

[Sidenote:--14--] Julianus after seizing the power in this way managed affairs in a servile fashion, paying court to the senate as well as to men of any influence. Sometimes he made offers, again he bestowed gifts, and he laughed and sported with anybody and everybody. He was constantly going to the theatre and kept getting up banquets: in fine, he left nothing undone to win our favor. However, he was not trusted; his servility was so abject that it made him an object of suspicion. Everything out of the common, even if it seems to be a kindness to somebody, is regarded by men of sense as a trap.

The senate had at one time voted him a golden statue and he refused to accept it, saying: "Give me a bronze one so that it may last; for I perceive that the gold and silver statues of the emperors that ruled before me have been torn down, whereas the bronze ones remain." In this he was not right: since 'tis excellence that safeguards the memory of potentates. And the bronze statue that was bestowed upon him was torn down after he was overthrown.

This was what went on in Rome. Now I shall speak about what happened outside and the various revolutions. There were three men at this time who were commanding each three legions of citizens and many foreigners besides, and they all asserted their claims,--Severus, Niger, and Albinus. The last-named governed Britain, Severus Pannonia, and Niger Syria. These were the three persons darkly indicated by the three stars that suddenly came to view surrounding the sun, when Julianus in our presence was offering the Sacrifices of Entrance in front of the senate-house. These heavenly bodies were so very brilliant that the soldiers kept continually looking at them and pointing them out to one another, declaring moreover that some dreadful fate would befall the usurper. As for us, however much we hoped and prayed that it might so prove, yet the fear of the moment would not permit us to gaze at them, save by occasional glances. Such are the facts that I know about the matter.

[Sidenote:--15--] Of the three leaders that I have mentioned Severus [was] the shrewdest [in being able to foresee the future with accuracy, to manage present affairs successfully, to ascertain everything concealed as well as if it had been laid bare and to work out every complicated situation with the greatest ease.] He understood in advance that after deposing Julianus the three would fall to blows with one another and offer combat for the possession of the empire, and therefore determined to win over the rival who was nearest him. So he sent a letter by one of his trusted managers to Albinus, creating him Caesar. Of Niger, who was proud of having been invoked by the people, he had no hopes. Albinus on the supposition that he was going to share the empire with Severus remained where he was: Severus made all strategic points in Europe, save Byzantium, his own and hastened toward Rome. He did not venture outside a protecting circle of weapons, having selected his six hundred most valiant men in whose midst he passed his time day and night; these did not once put off their breastplates until they reached Rome.

[This Fulvius [Footnote: The name, so far as can be discerned in the MS., may be Fulvius or Flavius or Fabius. The position and import of the fragment are alike doubtful.] (?) too, who when governor of Africa had been tried and condemned by Pertinax for rascality, avarice, and licentiousness, was later elevated to the highest position by the same man, now become emperor, as a favor to Severus.]

[Sidenote:--16--] Julianus on learning the condition of affairs had the senate make Severus an enemy and proceeded to prepare against him. [In the suburbs he constructed a rampart, wherein he set gates, that he might take up a position there outside and fight from that base.] The City during these days became nothing more nor less than a camp, pitched, as it were, in hostile territory. There was great turmoil from the various bodies of those bivouacked and exercising,--men, horses, elephants. The mass of the population stood in great fear of the armed men [because the latter hated them.] Occasionally laughter would overcome us. The Pretorians did nothing that was expected of their name and reputation, for they had learned to live delicately. The men summoned from the fleet that lay at anchor in Misenum did not even know how to exercise. The elephants found the towers oppressive and so would not even carry their drivers any longer [but threw them off also]. What caused us most amusement was his strengthening the palace with latticed gates and strong doors. For, as it seemed likely that the soldiers would never have slain Pertinax so easily if the building had been securely fastened, Julianus harbored the belief that in case of defeat he would be able to shut himself up there and survive.

Moreover, he put to death both Laetus and Marcia, so that all the conspirators against Commodus had now perished. Later Severus gave Narcissus also to the beasts, making the proclamation (verbatim): "This is the man that strangled Commodus." The emperor likewise killed many boys for purposes of enchantments, thinking that he could avert some future calamities, if he should ascertain them in advance. And he kept sending man after man to find Severus and assassinate him. [Vespronius Candidus, a man of very distinguished rank but still more remarkable for his sullenness and boorishness, came near meeting his end at the hands of the soldiers.]

[Sidenote:--17--] The avenger had now reached Italy and without striking a blow took possession of Ravenna. The men whom his opponent kept sending to him to either persuade him to turn back or else block his approaches were won over. The Pretorians, in whom Julianus reposed most confidence, were becoming worn out by constant toil and were getting terribly alarmed at the report of Severus's proximity. At this juncture Julianus called us together and bade us vote for Severus to be his colleague in office.

The soldiers were led to believe by communications from Severus that, if they would surrender the assassins of Pertinax and themselves offer no hostile demonstration, they should receive no harm; therefore they arrested the men who had killed Pertinax and announced this very fact to Silius Messala, the consul. The latter assembled us in the Athenaeum, [Footnote: Located on the Capitol, and established by Hadrian.] so called from the fact that it was a seat of educational activity, and informed us of the news from the soldiers. We then sentenced Julianus to death, named Severus emperor, and bestowed heroic honors upon Pertinax. So it was that Julianus came to be slain as he was reclining in the palace itself; he had only time to say: "Why, what harm have I done? Whom have I killed?" He had lived sixty years, four months, and the same number of days, out of which he had reigned sixty-six days.

Dio, 74th Book: "Men of intelligence should neither begin a war nor seek to evade it when it is thrust upon them. They should rather grant pardon to him who voluntarily conducts himself properly, in spite Of any previous transgression, [Lacuna]

DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY

Severus takes vengeance on the Pretorians who were the assassins of Pertinax and enters the city (chapters 1, 2).

Prodigies which portended the sovereignty to Severus (chapter 3).

Funeral procession which he superintended, in honor of Pertinax (chapters 4, 5).

War of Severus Augustus against Pescennius Niger (chapters 6-9).

The storming of Byzantium (chapters 10-14).

DURATION OF TIME.

Q. Sosius Falco, C. Erucius Clarus. (A.D. 193 = a.u. 946 = First of Severus, from the Calends of June).

I. Septimius Severus Aug. (II), D. Clodius Septimius Albinus Caes. (A.D. 194 = a.u. 947 = Second of Severus).

Scapula Tertullus, Tineius Clemens. (A.D. 195 = a.u. 948 = Third of Severus).

C. Domitius Dexter (II), L. Valerius Messala Priscus. (A.D. 196 = a.u. 949 = Fourth of Severus).

[Sidenote:--1--] Severus upon becoming emperor in the manner described punished with death the | Pretorians | who had contrived the fate of Pertinax. Before reaching Rome he summoned those remaining [Pretorians], surrounded them in a plain while they still did not know what was going to happen to them, and having reproached them long and bitterly for their transgression against their emperor he relieved them of their arms, took away their horses, and expelled them from Rome. The majority reluctantly proceeded to throw away their arms and let their horses go, and scattered uninjured, in their tunics. One man, as his horse refused to leave him, but kept following him and neighing, slew both the beast and himself. To the spectators it seemed that the horse also was glad to die.

When he had attended to this matter Severus entered Rome; he went as far as the gates on horseback and in cavalry costume, but from that point on changed to citizen's garb and walked. The entire army, both, infantry and cavalry, in full armor accompanied him. The spectacle proved the most brilliant of all that I have witnessed, for the whole city had been decked with wreaths of blossoms and laurel and besides being adorned with richly colored stuffs blazed with lights and burning incense. The population, clad in white and jubilant, gave utterance to many hopeful expressions. The soldiers were present, conspicuous by their arms, as if participating [Footnote: Reading [Greek: pompeyontes] (Dindorf, after Bekker).] in some festival procession, and we, too, were walking about in our best attire. The crowd chafed in their eagerness to see him and to hear him say something, as if his voice had been somehow changed by his good fortune, and some of them held one another up aloft to get a look at him from a higher position.

[Sidenote:--2--] Having entered in this style he began to make us rash promises, such as the good emperors of old had given, to the effect that he would not put any senator to death. He not only took oath concerning this matter, but what was of greater import he also ordered it ratified by public decree, and passed an ordinance that both the emperor and the person who helped him in any such deed should be considered an enemy,--themselves and also their children. Yet he was himself the first to break the law and instead of keeping it caused the death of many persons. Even Julius Solon himself, who framed this decree according to imperial mandate, was a little later murdered. The emperor did many things that were not to our liking. [He was blamed for making the city turbulent by the multitude of soldiers and he oppressed the commonwealth by excessive expenditure of funds: he was blamed most of all for placing his hope of safety in the strength of his army and not in the good-will of his companions.] But some found fault with him especially because, whereas it had been the custom for the body-guard to be drawn from Italy, Spain, Macedonia and Noricum only,--a plan which furnished men more distinguished in appearance and of simpler habits,--he had abolished this method, [He ruled that any vacancies should be filled from all the legions alike; this he did with the idea that he should find them as a result more conversant with military practices and should be setting up warfare as a kind of prize for the excellent. As a matter of fact he incidentally ruined all the most reliable men of military age in Italy, who turned their attention to robbery and gladiatorial fighting in place of the service that had previously claimed it.] and filled the city with a throng of motley soldiers, most savage in appearance, most terrifying in their talk, and most uncultured to associate with.

[Sidenote:--3--] The signs which led him to expect the sovereignty were these. When he had been registered in the senate-house, it seemed to him in a vision that a she-wolf suckled him, as was the case with Romulus. On the occasion of his marrying Julia, Faustina, the wife of Marcus, prepared their bedchamber in the temple of Venus opposite the palace; and once, when he was asleep, water gushed from his hand as from a spring; and when he was governor of Lugdunum, the whole Roman domain approached and greeted him,--all this in dreams, I mean. At another time he was taken by some one to a point affording a wide view; and as he gazed from it over all the earth and all the sea he laid his fingers on them as one might on some instrument [Footnote: Compare Plato, Republic, 399 C.] capable of all harmonies, and they answered to his touch. Again, he thought that in the Roman Forum a horse threw Pertinax, who was already mounted, but readily took him on its back. These things he had already learned from dreams, but in his waking hours he had, while a youth, ignorantly seated himself upon the imperial chair. This accident, taken with the rest, indicated rulership to him in advance.

[Sidenote:--4--] Upon attaining that condition he erected a heroum to Pertinax and commanded that his name should be repeated in the course of all prayers and of all oaths. A gold image of him was ordered brought into the hippodrome on a car drawn by elephants and three gilded thrones for him conveyed into the remaining theatres. His funeral, in spite of the time elapsed since his death, took place as follows:

In the Forum Romanum a wooden platform was constructed hard by the stone one, upon which was set a building without walls but encompassed by columns, with elaborate ivory and gold decoration. In it a couch of similar material was placed, surrounded by heads of land and sea creatures, and adorned with purple coverlets interwoven with gold. Upon it had been laid a kind of wax image of Pertinax, arrayed in triumphal attire. A well-formed boy was scaring the flies away from it with peacock feathers, as though it were really a person sleeping. While it was lying there in state, Severus, we senators, and our wives approached, clad in mourning garb. [Footnote: Reading [Greek: penthikos] (Sylburgius, Boissevain et al)..] The ladies sat in the porticos, and we under the open sky. After this there came forward, first, statues of all the famous ancient Romans, then choruses of boys and men, intoning a kind of mournful hymn to Pertinax. Next were all the subject nations, represented by bronze images, attired in native garb. And the guilds in the City itself,--those of the lictors and the scribes and the heralds, and all others of the sort,--followed on. Then came images of other men who were famous for some deed or invention or brilliant trait. Behind them were the cavalry and infantry in armor, the race-horses, and all the funeral offerings that the emperor and we and our wives, together with distinguished knights and peoples and the collegia of the city, had sent. They were accompanied by an altar, entirely gilded, the beauty of which was enhanced by ivory and Indic jewels. [Sidenote:--5--] When these had gone by, Severus mounted the Platform of the Beaks and read a eulogy of Pertinax. We shouted our approval many times in the midst of his discourse, partly praising and partly bewailing Pertinax, but our cries were loudest when he had ceased. Finally, as the couch was about to be moved, we all together uttered our lamentations and all shed tears. Those who carried the bier from the platform were the high priests and the officials who were completing their term of office, as well as any that had been appointed for the ensuing year. These gave it to certain knights to carry. The rank and file of us went ahead of the bier, some beating our breasts and others playing on the flute some dirge-like air; the emperor followed behind all, and in this order we arrived at the Campus Martius. Here there had been built a pyre, tower-shaped and triple pointed, adorned with ivory and gold together with certain statues. On its very summit was lodged a gilded chariot that Pertinax had been wont to drive. Into this the funeral offerings were cast and the bier was placed in it, and next Severus and the relatives of Pertinax kissed the image. Our monarch ascended a tribunal, while we the senate, except officials, took our places on the benches, that with safety and convenience alike we might view what went on. The magistrates and the equestrian order, arrayed in a manner becoming their station, besides the cavalry of the army and the infantry, passed in and out performing intricate evolutions, both traditional and newly invented. Then at length the consuls applied fire to the mound, which being done an eagle flew up from it. In this way was immortality secured for Pertinax [who (although bodies of men engaged in warfare usually turn out savage and those given to peace cowardly) excelled equally in both departments, being an enemy to dread, yet shrewd in the arts of peace. His boldness, wherein bravery appears, he displayed towards foreigners and rebels, but his clemency, wherewith is mingled justice, towards friends and the orderly elements of society. When advanced to preside over the destinies of the world, he was never ensnared by the increase of greatness so as to show himself in some things more subservient and in others more haughty than was fitting. He underwent no change from the beginning to the very end, but was august without sullenness, gentle without humiliating lowliness, prudent, yet did no injury, just without inquisitorial qualities, a close administrator without stinginess, highminded, but devoid of boasts.]

[Sidenote:--6--] Now Severus made a campaign against Niger. The latter was an Italian, one of the knights, remarkable for nothing either very good or very bad, so that one could either greatly praise or greatly censure him. [Wherefore he had been assigned to Syria by Commodus.] He had as a lieutenant, together with others, Aemilianus, who [by remaining neutral and watching the course of events] was thought to surpass all the senators of that day in understanding and in experience of affairs; for he had been tested in many provinces. [These conditions and the fact that he was a relative of Albinus had made him conceited.]

[Sidenote:--7--] [Niger was not in general a well-balanced man and though he had very great abilities still fell into error. But at this time he was more than usually elated, so that he showed how much he liked those who called him "the new Alexander"; and when one man asked, "Who gave you permission to do this?" he pointed to his sword and rejoined, "This did." When the war broke out Niger had gone to Byzantium and from that point conducted a campaign against Perinthus. He was disturbed, however, by unfavorable omens that came to his notice. An eagle perched upon a military shrine and remained there till captured, in spite of attempts to scare it away. Bees made wax around the military standards and about his images most of all. For these reasons he retired to Byzantium.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 194 (a.u. 947)] Now Aemilianus while engaged in conflict with some of the generals of Severus near Cyzicus was defeated by them and slain. After this, between the narrows of Nicaea and Cius, they had a great war of various forms. Some battled in close formation on the plains; others occupied the hill-crests and hurled stones and javelins at their opponents from the higher ground; still others got into boats and discharged their bows at the enemy from the lake. At first the adherents of Severus, under the direction of Candidus, were victorious; for they found their advantage in the higher ground from which they fought. But the moment Niger himself appeared a pursuit in turn was instituted by Niger's men and victory was on their side. Then Candidus caught hold of the standard bearers and turned them to face the enemy, upbraiding the soldiers for their flight; at this his followers were ashamed, turned back, and once more conquered those opposed to them. Indeed, they would have destroyed them utterly, had not the city been near and the night a dark one.

The next event was a tremendous battle at Issus, near the so-called Gates. In this contest Valerianus and Anullinus [Footnote: _P. Cornelius Anullinus._] commanded the army of Severus, whereas Niger was with his own ranks and marshaled them for war. This pass, the Cilician "Gates", [Footnote: Compare Xenophon's _Anabasis_, I, 4, 4-5.] is so named on account of its narrowness. On the one side rise precipitous mountains, and on the other sheer cliffs descend to the sea. So Niger had here made a camp on a strong hill, and he put in front heavy-armed soldiers, next the javelin slingers and stone throwers, and behind all the archers. His purpose was that the foremost might thrust back such as assailed them in hand-to-hand conflict, while the others from a distance might be able to bring their force into play over the heads of the others. The detachment on the left and that on the right were defended by the sea-crags and by the forest, which had no issue. This is the way in which he arranged his army, and he stationed the beasts of burden close to it, in order that none of them should be able to flee in case they should wish it. Anullinus after making all this out placed in advance the heavier part of his force and behind it his entire light-armed contingent, to the end that the latter, though discharging their weapons from a distance might still retard the progress of the enemy, while the solidity of the advance guard rendered the upward passage safe for them. The cavalry he sent with Valerianus, bidding him, so far as he could, go around the forest and unexpectedly fall upon the troops of Niger from the rear. When they came to close quarters, the soldiers of Sevents placed some of their shields in front of them and held some above their heads, making a testudo, and in this formation they approached the enemy. So the battle was a drawn one for a long while, but eventually Niger's men got decidedly the advantage both by their numbers and by the topography of the country. They would have been entirely victorious, had not clouds gathered out of a clear sky and a wind arisen from a perfect calm, while there were crashes of thunder and sharp flashes of lightning and a violent rain beat in their faces. This did not trouble Severus's troops because it was behind them, but threw Niger's men into great confusion since it came right against them. Most important of all, the opportune character of this occurrence infused courage in the one side, which believed it was aided by Heaven, and fear in the other, which felt that the supernatural was warring against them; thus it made the former strong even beyond its own strength and terrified the latter in spite of real power. Just as they were fleeing Valerianus came in sight. Seeing him, they turned about, and after that, as Anullinus beat them back, retreated once more. Then they wandered about, running this way and that way, to see where they could break through.

[Sidenote:--8--] It turned out that this was the greatest slaughter to take place during the war in question. Two myriads of Niger's followers perished utterly. The fact was indicated also by the priest's vision. While Severus was in Pannonia, the priest of Jupiter saw in a vision a black man force his way into the emperor's camps and meet his death by superior numbers. And by turning the name of Niger into Greek people recognized that he was the one meant by the "black" person mentioned. Directly Antioch had been captured (not long after) Niger fled from it, making the Euphrates his objective point, for he intended to seek refuge among the barbarians. His pursuers, however, overtook him; he was taken and had his head struck off. This head Severus sent to Byzantium and caused to be reared on a cross, that the sight of it might incline the Byzantines to his cause. The next move of Severus was to mete out justice to those who had belonged to Niger's party. [Of the cities and individuals he chastised some and rewarded others. He executed no Roman senator, but deprived most of them of their property and confined them on islands. He was merciless in his search for money. Among other measures he exacted four times the amount that any individuals or peoples had given to Niger, whether they had done so voluntarily or under compulsion. He himself doubtless perceived the injustice of it,] [Footnote: The MS. text is faulty, and the translation, ventured independently, corresponds approximately to a suggestion by van Herwerden in Boissevain's edition.] but as he required great sums, he paid no attention to the common talk.

[Sidenote:--9--] Cassius Clemens, a senator, while on trial before Severus himself, did not hide the truth but spoke with such frankness as the following report will show:

"I," he said, "was acquainted with neither you nor Niger, but as I found myself in his part of the world, I accepted the situation heartily, not with the idea of being hostile to you but with the purpose of deposing Julianus. I have, then, committed no wrong in this, since I labored originally for the same ends as you, nor should I be censured for failing to desert the master whom I had once secured by the will of Heaven and for not transferring my allegiance to you. You would not yourself have liked to have your intimate circle and fellow judges here betray your cause and go over to him. Examine therefore not our bodies nor our names but the events themselves. For in every point in which you condemn us you will be passing sentence upon yourself and your associates. However secure you may be from conviction in any suit or by any court finding, still, in the report of men, of which an eternal memory shall survive, you will be represented as making against yourself the same charges as have led to punishment [Footnote: Supplying, with Reiske, [Greek: soi [Lacuna] kolasthaenai].] in the case of others."--Severus admired this man for his frankness and allowed him to keep half his property.

[Many who had never even seen Niger and had not cooperated with him were victims of abuse on the charge that they had been members of his party.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 195 (a.u. 948)] [Sidenote:--10--] The Byzantines performed many remarkable deeds both during the life and after the death of Niger. This city is favorably located with reference both to the continents and to the sea that lies between them, and is strongly intrenched by the nature of its position as well as by that of the Bosporus. The town sits on high ground extending into the sea. The latter, rushing down from the Pontus with the speed of a mountain torrent assails the headland and in part is diverted to the right, forming there the bay and harbors. But the greater part of the water passes on with great energy past the city itself toward the Propontis. Moreover, the place had walls that were very strong. Their face was constructed of thick squared stones, fastened together by bronze plates, and the inner side of it had been strengthened with mounds and buildings so that the whole seemed to be one thick wall and the top of it formed a circuit betraying no flaws and easy to guard. Many large towers occupied an exposed position outside it, with windows set close together on every side so that those assaulting the fortification in a circle would be cut off between them. Being built at a short distance from the wall and not in a regular line, but one here and another there over a rather crooked route, they were sure to command both sides of any attacking party. Of the entire circuit the part on the land side reached a great height so as to repel any who came that way: the portion next to the sea was lower. There, the rocks on which it had been reared and the dangerous character of the Bosporus were effective allies. The harbors within the wall had both been closed with chains and their breakwaters carried towers projecting far out on each side, making approach impossible for the enemy. And, in fine, the Bosporus was of the greatest aid to the citizens. It was quite inevitable that once any person became entangled in its current he should willy-nilly be cast up on the land. This was a feature quite satisfactory to friends, but impossible for foes to deal with.

[Sidenote:--11--] It was thus that Byzantium had been fortified. The engines, besides, the whole length of the wall, were of the most varied description. In one place they threw rocks and wooden beams upon parties approaching and in another they discharged stones and missiles and spears against such as stood at a distance. Hence over a considerable extent of territory no one could draw near them without danger. Still others had hooks, which they would let down suddenly and shortly after draw up boats and machines. Priscus, a fellow-citizen of mine, had designed most of them, and this fact both caused him to incur the death penalty and saved his life. For Severus, on learning his proficiency, prevented his being executed. Subsequently he employed him on various missions, among others at the siege of Hatra, and his contrivances were the only ones not burned by the barbarians. He also furnished the Byzantines with five hundred boats, mostly of one bank, but some of two banks, and equipped with beaks. A few of them were provided with rudders at both ends, stern and prow, and had a double quota of pilots and sailors in order that they might both attack and retire without turning around and damage their opponents while sailing back as well as while sailing forward.

[Sidenote:--12--] Many, therefore, were the exploits and sufferings of the Byzantines, since for the entire space of three years they were besieged by the armaments of practically the whole world. A few of their experiences will be mentioned that seem almost marvelous. They captured, by making an opportune attack, some boats that sailed by and captured also some of the triremes that were in their opponents' roadstead. This they did by having divers cut their anchors under water, after which they drove nails into the ship's bottom and with cords attached thereto and running from friendly territory they would draw the vessel towards them. Hence one might see the ships approaching shore by themselves, with no oarsman nor wind to urge them forward. There were cases in which merchants purposely allowed themselves to be captured by the Byzantines, though pretending unwillingness, and after selling their wares for a huge price made their escape by sea.

[Sidenote: A.D. 196 (a.u. 949)] When all the supplies in the town had been exhausted and the people had been set fairly in a strait with regard to both their situation and the expectations that might be founded upon it, at first, although beset by great difficulties (because they were cut off from all outside resources), they nevertheless continued to resist; and to make ships they used lumber taken from the houses and braided ropes of the hair of their women. Whenever any troops assaulted the wall, they would hurl upon them stones from the theatres, bronze horses, and whole statues of bronze. When even their normal food supply began to fail them, they proceeded to soak and eat hides. Then these, too, were used up, and the majority, having waited for rough water and a squall so that no one might man a ship to oppose them, sailed out with the determination either to perish or to secure provender. They assailed the countryside without warning and plundered every quarter indiscriminately. Those left behind committed a monstrous deed; for when they grew very faint, they turned against and devoured one another.

[Sidenote:--13--] This was the condition of the men in the city. The rest, when they had laden their boats with more than the latter could bear, set sail after waiting this time also for a great storm. They did not succeed, however, in making any use of it. The Romans, noticing [Sidenote: A.D. 196 a.u. 949] that their vessels were overheavy and depressed almost to the water's edge, put out against them. They assailed the company, which was scattered about as wind and flood chose to dispose them, and really engaged in nothing like a naval contest but crushed the enemy's boats mercilessly, striking many with their boat-hooks, ripping up many with their beaks, and actually capsizing some by their mere onset. The victims were unable to do anything, however much they might have wished it: and when they attempted to flee in any direction either they would be sunk by force of the wind, which encountered them with the utmost violence, or else they would be overtaken by the enemy and destroyed. The inhabitants of Byzantium, as they watched this, for a time called unceasingly upon the gods and kept uttering now one shout and now another at the various events, according as each one was affected by the spectacle or the disaster enacted before his eyes. But when they saw their friends perishing all together, the united throng sent up a chorus of groans and wailings, and thereafter they mourned for the rest of the day and the whole night. The entire number of wrecks proved so great that some drifted upon the islands and the Asiatic coast, and the defeat became known by these relics before it was reported. The next day the Byzantines had the horror increased even above what it had been. For, when the surf had subsided, the whole sea in the vicinity of Byzantium was covered with corpses and wrecks with blood, and many of the remains were cast up on shore, with the result that the catastrophe, now seen in its details, appeared even worse than when in process of consummation.

[Sidenote:--14--] The Byzantines straightway, though against their will, surrendered their city. The Romans executed all the soldiers and magistrates except the pugilist who had greatly aided the Byzantines and injured the Romans. He perished also, for in order to make the soldiers angry enough to destroy him he immediately hit one with his fist and with a leap gave another a violent kick.

Severus was so pleased at the capture of Byzantium that to his soldiers in Mesopotamia (where he was at this time) he said unreservedly: "We have taken Byzantium, too!" He deprived the city of its independence and of its civil rank, and made it tributary, confiscating the property of the citizens. He granted the town and its territory to the Perinthians, and the latter, treating it after the manner of a village, committed innumerable outrages. So far he seemed in a way to be justified in what he