remained near the Cedrus[78] river to watch what would take place. When,
after conquering the Moesians, the Roman general started against them,
they sent envoys forbidding him to pursue them, since they had done the
Romans no harm. Crassus detained them, saying he would give them their
answer the following day, and besides treating them kindly he made them
drunk, so that he learned all their plans. The whole Scythian race is
insatiable in the use of wine and quickly succumbs to its influence.
Crassus meanwhile, during the night, advanced to a wood, and after
stationing scouts in front of the forest made his army stop there.
Thereupon the Bastarnae, thinking the former were alone, made a charge
upon them, following them up also when the men retreated into the dense
forest, and many of the pursuers perished there as well as many others in
the flight which followed were obstructed by their wagons, which were
behind them, and owed their defeat further to their desire to save their
wives and children. Their king Deldo was slam by Crassus himself. The
armor stripped from the prince he would have dedicated as spolia opima
to Jupiter Feretrius, had he been a general acting on his own authority.
Such was the course of that engagement: of the remainder some took refuge
in a grove, which was set on fire all around, and others leaped into a
fort, where they were annihilated. Still others perished, either by being
driven into the Ister or after being scattered through the country. Some
survived even yet and occupied a strong post where Crassus besieged them
in vain for several days. Then with the aid of Roles, king of some of the
Getae, he destroyed them. Roles when he visited Caesar was treated as a
friend and ally for this assistance: the captives were distributed to the
soldiers.
[-25-] After accomplishing this Crassus turned his attention to the
Moesians; and partly by persuading some of them, partly by scaring them,
and partly by the application of force he subjugated all except a very
few, though with labor and danger. Temporarily, owing to the winter, he
retired into friendly territory after suffering greatly from the cold,
and still more at the hands of the Thracians, through whose country, as
friendly, he was returning. Hence he decided to be satisfied with what
he had effected. For sacrifices and a triumph had been voted not only to
Caesar but to him also, though, according at least to some accounts, he
did not secure the title of imperator, but Caesar alone might apply it to
himself. The Bastarnae, however, angry at their disasters, on learning
that he would make no further campaigns against them turned again upon
the Dentheleti and Sitas, whom they regarded as having been the chief
cause of their evils. Then Crassus, though reluctantly, took the field
and by forced marches fell upon them unexpectedly, conquered, and
thereafter imposed such terms as he pleased. Now that he had once taken
up arms again he conceived a desire to recompense the Thracians, who had
harassed him during his retreat from Moesia; for news was brought at this
time that they were fortifying positions and were spoiling for a fight.
And he did subdue them, though not without effort, by conquering in
battle the Merdi and the Serdi and cutting off the hands of the captives.
He overran the rest of the country except the land of the Odrysae. These
he spared because they are attached to the service of Dionysus, and had
come to meet him on this occasion without arms. Also he granted them the
piece of land in which they magnify the god, and took it away from the
Bessi, who were occupying it.
[-26-] While he was so occupied he received a summons from Roles, who had
become embroiled with Dapyx, himself also a king of the Getae. Crassus
went to help him and by hurling the horse of his opponents back upon
the infantry he thoroughly terrified the latter, so that he carried the
battle no further but caused a great slaughter of the fugitives of both
divisions. Next he cut off Dapyx, who had taken refuge in a fort, and
besieged him. During the investment some one from the walls saluted him
in Greek, and upon obtaining an audience arranged to betray the place.
The barbarians caught in this way turned upon one another, and Dapyx was
killed, besides many others. His brother, however, Crassus took alive and
not only did him no harm, but released him.
At the close of this exploit he led his army against the cave called
Keiri. The natives in great numbers had occupied this place, which is
extremely large and so very strong that the tradition obtains that the
Titans after the defeat administered to them by the gods took refuge
there. Here the people had brought together all their flocks and their
other principal valuables. Crassus after finding all its entrances, which
are crooked and hard to search out, walled them up, and in this way
subjugated the men by famine. Upon this success he did not keep his hands
from the rest of the Getae, though they had nothing to do with Dapyx. He
marched upon Genoucla, the most strongly defended fortress of the kingdom
of Zuraxes, because he heard that the standards which the Bastarnae had
taken from Gaius Antonius near the city of the Istriani were there. His
assault was made both with the infantry and upon the Ister,--the city
being near the water,--and in a short time, though with much labor in
spite of the absence of Zuraxes, he took the place. The king as soon as
he heard of the Roman's approach had set off with money to the Scythians
to seek an alliance, and did not return in time.
This he did among the Getae. Some of the Moesians who had been subdued
rose in revolt, and them he won back by the energy of others: [-27-] he
himself led a campaign against the Artacii and a few other tribes who
had never been captured and would not acknowledge his authority, priding
themselves greatly on this point and imbuing the rest with both anger and
a disposition to rebel. He brought them to terms partly by force, as
they did but little, and partly by the fear which the capture of some
inspired. This took a long time. I record the names, as the facts,
according to the tradition which has been handed down. Anciently Moesians
and Getae occupied all the land between the Haemus and the Ister. As time
went on some of them changed their names to something else. Since then
there have been included under the name of Moesia all the tribes which
the Savus by emptying into the Ister north of Dalmatia, Macedonia and
Thrace, separates from Pannonia. Two of the many nations found among
them are the Triballi, once so named, and the Dardani, who have the same
designation at present.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: The events, however, run over into the following year.]
[Footnote 2: Interesting to compare are three citations from an unknown
Byzantine writer (in Excerpta cod. Paris, suppl. Gr. 607 A, edited by M.
Treu, Ohlau, 1880, p. 29 ff.), who seems to have used Dio as a source:
a) The mother of Augustus just one day previous to her travail beheld in
a dream how her womb was snatched away and carried up into heaven.
b) And in the same night as Octavius was born his father thought that the
sun rose from his wife's entrails.
c) And a certain senator, Nigidius Figulus, who was an astrologer, asked
Octavius, the father of Augustus, why he was so slow in leaving his
house. The latter replied that a son had been born to him. Nigidius
thereupon exclaimed: "Ah, what hast thou done? Thou hast begotten a
master for us!" The other believing it and being disturbed wished to make
away with the child. But Nigidius said to him: "Thou hast not the power.
For it hath not been granted thee to do this."]
[Footnote 3: Suetonius in relating this anecdote (Life of Augustus,
chapter 5) says that the senate-meeting in question was called to
consider the conspiracy of Catiline. Since, however, Augustus is on all
hands admitted to have been born a. d. IX. Kal. Octobr. and mention of
Catiline's conspiracy was first made in the senate a. d. XII. Kal.
Nov. (Cicero, Against Catiline, I, 3, 7), the claim of coincidence is
evidently based on error.]
[Footnote 4: Compare again the same Byzantine writer quoted in footnote
to chapter 1,--two excerpts:
d) Again, while he was growing up in the country, an eagle swooping down
snatched from his hands the loaf of bread and again returning replaced it
in his hands.
e) Again, during his boyhood, Cicero saw in a dream Octavius himself
fastened to a golden chain and wielding a whip being let down from the
sky to the summit of the Capitol.]
[Footnote 5: Compare Súetonius, Life of Augustus, chapter 94]
[Footnote 6: See footnote to Book Forty-three, chapter 42.]
[Footnote 7: The senate-house already mentioned in Book Forty, chapter
50.]
[Footnote 8: This word is inserted by Boissevain on the authority of a
symbol in the manuscript's margin, indicating a gap.]
[Footnote 9: Inserting with Reimar [Greek: proihemenos], to complete the
sense.]
[Footnote 10: See Roscher I, col. 1458, on the Puperci Iulii. And compare
Suetonius, Life of Caesar, chapter 76.]
[Footnote 11: For further particulars about Sex. Clodius and the _ager
Leontinus_ (held to be the best in Sicily, Cicero, Against Verres, III,
46) see Suetonius, On Rhetoric, 5; Arnobuis, V, 18; Cicero, Philippics,
II, 4, 8; II, 17; II, 34, 84; II, 39, 101; III, 9, 22.]
[Footnote 12: Compare here (and particularly with, reference to the
plural _Spurii_) the passage in Cicero, Philippics, III, 44, 114:
Quod si se ipsos illi nostri liberatores e conspectu nostro abstulerunt,
at exemplum facti reliquerunt: illi, quod nemo fecerat, fecerunt:
Tarquinium Brutus bello est persecutus, qui tum rex fuit, cum esse Romae
licebat; Sp. Cassius, Sp. Maelius, M. Manlius propter suspitionem regni
appetendi sunt necati; hi primum cum gladiis non in regnum appetentem,
sed in regnum impetum fecerunt.]
[Footnote 13: For the figure, compare Aristophanes, The Acharnians, vv.
380-381 (about Cleon):
[Greek: dieballe chai pseudae chateglottise mou
chachychloborei chaplunen.]]
[Footnote 14: Dio has in this sentence imitated almost word for word the
utterance of Demosthenes, inveighing against Aischines, in the speech on
the crown (Demosthenes XVIII, 129).]
[Footnote 15: Compare Book Forty-five, chapter 30.]
[Footnote 16: There is a play on words here which can not be exactly
rendered. The Greek verb [Greek: _pheaegein_] means either "to flee" or
"to be exiled."]
[Footnote 17: Various diminutive endings, expressing contempt.]
[Footnote 18: The MS. reading is not wholly satisfactory here. Bekker, by
a slight change, would produce (after "Bambalio"): "nor by declaring war
because of," etc.]
[Footnote 19: The Greek word is [Greek: obolos] a coin which in the fifth
century B.C. would have amounted to considerably more than the Roman
_as_; but as time went on the value of the [Greek: obolos] diminished
indefinitely, so that glossaries eventually translate it as _as_ in
Latin.]
[Footnote 20: I. e., epilepsy.]
[Footnote 21: Sturz changes this reading of _sixty_ days to _fifty_,
comparing Appian, Civil Wars, Book Three, chapter 74. Between the two
authorities it is difficult to decide, and the only consideration that
would incline one to favor Appian is the fact that he says this period of
fifty days was unusually long ("more than the Romans had ever voted upon
vanquishing the Celtae or winning any war"). Boissevain remarks that Dio
is not very careful about such details.]
[Footnote 22: Adopting Reiske's reading, [Greek: _tinas_].]
[Footnote 23: Compare here Mommsen (_Staatsrecht_, 23, 644, 2 or 23,
663, 3), who says that since the only objection to be found with this
arrangement was that since the praetor urbanus could not himself conduct
the comitia, he ought not properly to have empowered others to do so.]
[Footnote 24: _M. Juventius Laterensis._]
[Footnote 25: This refers to the latter half of chapter 42, where Caesar
binds his soldiers by oath never to fight against any of their former
comrades.]
[Footnote 26: [Greek: _pragmaton_] here is somewhat uncertain and might
give the sense "as a result of the troubles in which they had been
involved, one with another." Sturz and Wagner appear to have viewed it in
that light: Boissée and friends consulted by the translator choose the
meaning found in the text above.]
[Footnote 27: The name of this freedman as given by Appian (Civil Wars,
IV, 44) is Philemon; but Suetonius (Life of Augustus, chapter 27) agrees
with Dio in writing Philopoemen.]
[Footnote 28: In B.C. 208 the Ludi Apollinares were set for July
thirteenth, but by the year B.C. 190 they occupied three days, and in
B.C. 42 the entire period of the sixth to the thirteenth of July was
allotted to their celebration. Now Caesar's birthday fell on July twelfth
and the day before that, July eleventh, would have conflicted quite as
much with the festival of Apollo. Hence this expression "the previous
day" must mean July fifth. (See Fowler's Roman Festivals, p. 174.)]
[Footnote 29: There seems to be an error here made either by Dio or by
some scribe in the course of the ages. For, according to many reliable
authorities (Plutarch, Life of Brutus, chapter 21; Appian, Civil Wars,
Book Three, chapter 23; Cicero, Philippics, II, 13, 31, and X, 3, 7; id.,
Letters to Atticus, Book Fifteen, letters 11 and 12), it was Brutus
and not Cassius who was praetor urbanus and had the games given in his
absence. Therefore the true account, though not necessarily the true
reading would say that "_Brutus_ was praetor urbanus," and (below) that he
"lingered in Campania with _Cassius_."
See also Cobet, Mnesmosyne, VII, p. 22.]
[Footnote 30: That this is the right form of the name is proved by the
evidence of coins, etc. In Caesar's Civil War, Book Three, chapter 4,
the same person is meant when it is said that _Tarcondarius Castor_ and
Dorylaus furnished Pompey with soldiers.]
[Footnote 31: See Book Thirty-six, chapter 2 (end).]
[Footnote 32: _Q. Marcius Crispus_. (The MSS. give the form _Marcus_, but
the identity of this commander is made certain by Cicero, Philippics, XI,
12, 30, and several other passages.)]
[Footnote 33: I. e., "The Springs,"--a primitive name for Philippi
itself.]
[Footnote 34: Iuppiter Latiaris was the protecting deity of Latium, and
his festival is practically identical with the _Feriae Latinae_. Roscher
(II, col. 688) thinks that Dio has here confused the praefectus urbi with
a special official (dictator feriarum Latinarum causa) appointed when
the consuls were unable to attend. Compare Book Thirty-nine, chapter 30,
where our historian does not commit himself to any definite name for this
magistrate.]
[Footnote 35: "While carrying a golden Victory slipped and fell" is the
phrase in the transcript of Zonaras.]
[Footnote 36: Reading [Greek: _aegchon_] (as Boissevain) in preference to
[Greek: _aegon_] or [Greek: _eilchon_].]
[Footnote 37: Accepting Reiske's interpretative insertion, [Greek:
telos].]
[Footnote 38: Among the Fragmenta Adespota in Nauck's _Fragmenta
Tragicorum Groecorum_ this is No. 374.]
[Footnote 39: The names within these parallel lines are wanting in the
MS., but were inserted by Reimar on the basis of chapter 34 of this book,
and slightly modified by Boissevain.]
[Footnote 40: Both MSS., the Mediceus and the Venetus, here exhibit a gap
of three lines.]
[Footnote 41: Owing to an inaccuracy of spelling in the MSS. this number
has often been corrupted to "four hundred". The occurrence of "three
hundred" in Suetonius's account of the affair (Life of Augustus, chapter
15) assures us, however, that this reading is correct.]
[Footnote 42: Compare Book Forty three, chapter 9 (§4).]
[Footnote 43: Compare the first chapter of this Book.]
[Footnote 44: Compare Book Forty-three, chapter 47 (and see also XLVIII,
33, and LII, 41).]
[Footnote 45: This is an error either of Dio or of some copyist. The
person made king of the Jews at this time was in reality Antigonus the
son of Aristobulus and nephew of Hyrcanus. Compare chapter 41 of this
book, and Book Forty-nine, chapter 22.
In this same sentence I read _[Greek: echthos]_ (as Boissevain and the
MSS.) in place of _[Greek: ethos]_.]
[Footnote 46: Hurling from the Tarpeian rock was a punishment that might
be inflicted only upon freemen. Slaves would commonly be crucified or put
out of the way by some method involving similar disgrace.]
[Footnote 47: After "Menas advised it" Zonaras in his version of Dio has:
"bidding him cut the ship's cable, if he liked, and sail away."]
[Footnote 48: Suetonius (Life of Augustus, chapter 83) also mentions this
fashion.]
[Footnote 49: Verb suggested by Leunclavius.]
[Footnote 50: This is the well known Gnosos in Crete. For further
information in regard to the matter see Strabo X, 4, 9 (p. 477) and
Velleius Paterculus, II, 81, 2.]
[Footnote 51: There is at this point a gap of one line in the MSS.]
[Footnote 52: Using Naber's emendation [Greek: probeblaemenoi].]
[Footnote 53: The Latin word _testudo_, represented in Greek by the
precisely equivalent [Greek: chelonae] in Dio's narrative, means
"tortoise."]
[Footnote 54: The amount is not given in the MSS. The traditional sum,
incorporated in most editions to fill the gap and complete the sense, is
_thirty-five_. "One hundred" is a clever conjecture of Boissevain's.]
[Footnote 55: Probably in A.D. 227.]
[Footnote 56: Called _Colapis_ by Strabo and Pliny.]
[Footnote 57: A marginal note in Reimar's edition suggests amending the
rather abrupt [Greek: loipois] at this point to [Greek: Libournois]
("waged war with (i. e., against) thee Liburni"); and we might be tempted
to follow it, but for the fact that Appian uses language almost identical
with Dio's in his Illyrian Wars, chapter 27 ("He [Augustus] left
Statilius Taurus to finish the war").]
[Footnote 58: The gymnasiarch was an essentially Greek official, but
might be found outside of Hellas in such cities as had come under Greek
influence. In Athens he exercised complete supervision of the gymnasium,
paying for training and incidentals, arranging the details of contests,
and empowered to eject unsuitable persons from the enclosure. We have
comparatively little information about his duties and general standing
elsewhere, but probably they were nearly the same. The office was
commonly an annual one.
Antony did not limit to Alexandria his performance of the functions of
gymnasiarch. We read in Plutarch (Life of Antony, chapter 33) that at
Athens on one occasion he laid aside the insignia of a Roman general to
assume the purple mantle, white shoes, and the rods of this official; and
in Strabo (XIV, 5, 14) that he promised the people of Tarsos to preside
in a similar manner at some of their games, but the time came sent a
representative instead.--See Krause, _Gymnnastik und Agonistik der
Hellenen_, page 196.]
[Footnote 59: See Book Forty-eight, chapter 35.]
[Footnote 60: Chapter 4 of this book.]
[Footnote 61: Cp. Book Forty-seven, chapter 11.]
[Footnote 62: Sc. of denarii.]
[Footnote 63: _L. Tarius Rufus._]:
[Footnote 64: Dio in some unknown manner has at this point evidently
made a very striking mistake. Sosius was not killed in the encounter but
survived to be pardoned by Octavius after the latter's victory. And our
historian, who here says he perished, speaks in the next book (chapter 2)
of the amnesty accorded.]
[Footnote 65: Canopus was only fifteen miles distant from Alexandria
(hence its pertinence here) and was noted for its many festivals and bad
morals,--the latter being superinduced by the presence in the city of a
large floating population of foreigners and sailors. The atmosphere of
the town (to compare small things with great) was, in a word, that of
Corinth.]
[Footnote 66: The cordax was a dance peculiar to Greek comedy and of an
appropriately licentious character, resembling in some points certain of
the Oriental dances that survive to the present day.]
[Footnote 67: Nicopolis, i. e., "City of Victory." The same name was
given by Pompey to a town founded after his defeat of Mithridates. (See
Book Thirty-six, chapter 50.)]
[Footnote 68: An allusion to the second of the two taxes mentioned in
Book Fifty, chapter 10.]
[Footnote 69: Verb supplied by R. Stephanus.]
[Footnote 70: Cobet's interpretation (Mnemosyne X (N.S.), 1882).]
[Footnote 71: Compare Pliny, Natural History, XXI, 78.]
[Footnote 72: There is an ambiguous [Greek: aùrtuv] here. Only Boissée,
however, takes it to mean the Romans. Leonieenus, Sturz and Wagner
translate is as "Alexandrians."]
[Footnote 73: A reminiscence of the _Eumenides_ of Aischylos.]
[Footnote 74: See Glossary (last volume) and also compare the beginning
of chapter 24 in Book Thirty-seven.]
[Footnote 75: Latin "vexillum caeruleum,"--a kind of flag or banner.]
[Footnote 76: The custom was that the magistrates should issue from the
town to meet the triumphator and then march ahead of him. Octavius by
putting them behind him symbolized his position as chief citizen of the
State.]
[Footnote 77: These buildings are mentioned together also in the
Monumentum Ancyranum (C:L., 1T:, part 2, pp. 780-781).]
[Footnote 78: The name of this river is also spelled _Cebrus_.]