licentiousness in others, at the consummation of a most vile and at the
same time most dangerous outrage, appeared, in truth, to be indignant;
but by not giving that indignation sufficient free play and further by
allowing the youths to do what no one had ever yet dared to propose, he
greatly corrupted the latter, who had imitated the habits of women of
the demi-monde and of professional male buffoons.]
[On the occasion of the Culenian [Footnote: Nobody knows what the
Culenian games were; Valois guesses that they may have been an
Alexandrian festival. The text of this whole chapter is in a very ragged
condition, and should not be held too strictly accountable in the matter
of sense or cohesion.] spectacle severe censure was passed, not only
upon those who there carried on their accustomed pursuits, but also upon
the spectators.]
DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY
78
Antoninus's treacherous campaign against Artabanus, the Parthian
(chapters 1-3).
Antoninus's death (chapters 4-6). Foreshadowings of his death, and
the abuse heaped upon him dead (chapters 7-10).
About Macrinus Augustus, and his excellencies and faults (chapters
11-15).
His letters and commands to the senate, and other official acts
(chapters 16-22).
Death of Julia Augusta (chapters 23, 24).
Inauspicious signs: peace arranged with Artabanus after submitting to
a defeat (chapters 25-27).
Uprising of the soldiers: Pseudantoninus is proclaimed as emperor by
the soldiers (chapters 28-31).
How Macrinus, conquered in battle, took to flight and was cut down
after the capture of his son (chapters 32-41).
DURATION OF TIME.
C. Attius Sabinus (II), Cornelius Annullinus (A.D. 216 = a.u. 969 =
Sixth of Antoninus.)
C. Bruttius Præsens, T. Messius Extricatus (II). (A.D. 217 = a.u.
970 = Seventh of Antoninus, from Feb. 4th to April 8th.)
M. Opellius Macrinus Aug., Q.M. Coclatinus Adventus. (A.D. 218 = a.u.
971. The first year of Macrinus ends April 11th and his second year
is abruptly terminated June 8th.)
_(BOOK 79, BOISSEVAIN.)_
[Sidenote: A.D. 216 (_a.u._ 969)] [Sidenote:--1--] The next thing was a
campaign against the Parthians and the pretext that was used was that
Artabanus had refused to view favorably his wooing and give him his
daughter in marriage. (But he knew well enough that, while pretending to
want to marry her, he in fact was anxious to detach the Parthian
kingdom.) So he damaged a large section of the country around Media by
means of a sudden incursion, sacked many citadels, won over Arbela, dug
open the royal tombs of the Parthians, and flung the bones about. The
Parthians would not engage him at close quarters, and therefore I have
had nothing of especial interest to record concerning the doings of that
expedition except, perhaps, one anecdote. Two soldiers who had seized a
skin of wine came to him, each claiming the booty as entirely his own.
Being bidden by him to divide the wine equally they drew their swords
and cut the wine skin in two, apparently expecting each to get a half
with the wine in it. They so dreaded their emperor that they troubled
him even with such details and showed such scrupulousness as to lose
both wineskin and wine.
Now the barbarians took refuge in the mountains and across the Tigris in
order to perfect their preparations. But Antoninus suppressed this fact
and, assuming that he had utterly vanquished a foe whom he had not even
seen, he displayed becoming pride; and, as he himself wrote, he was
particularly gratified because a lion ran down from the mountains and
fought on his side.
[Sidenote:--2--] Not only in other ways did he live unnaturally and
transgress laws, but in his very campaigns [[lacuna] but truth; [Footnote:
Here begins the parchment codex, Vaticanus 1288. See Volume I, page 8.]
for I have run across the book written by him about it. He understood so
well how he stood with all the senators that, in spite of many protests,
their slaves and freedmen and intimate friends were arrested by him and
were asked under torture whether "so-and-so loves me" or "so-and-so
hates me." For the charts of the stars under which any of his foremost
courtiers had been born gave evidence, he said, as to who was friendly
to him and who was hostile. And on this basis he honored many persons
and destroyed many others.
[Sidenote: A.D. 217 (_a.u._ 970)] [Sidenote:--3--] When the Parthians and
the Medes, greatly enraged at the treatment they had received, equipped
a large body of troops, he fell into an ecstasy of terror. He was very
bold in threats and very reckless in daring, but very cowardly in
following a slow course involving danger, and very weak in hard labor.
He could no longer bear either great heat or armor, and consequently
wore sleeved tunics made in such a shape as more or less to resemble
breastplates. Thus having the appearance of armor without its weight he
could be safe from plots and also arouse admiration. He often used these
garments when not in battle. He wore also a cavalry cloak, now all
purple, now purple with white threads, and again of white with purple
threads, and also red. In Syria and in Mesopotamia he used Celtic
clothing and shoes. He furthermore invented a costume of his own by
cutting out cloth and stitching it up, barbaric fashion, into a kind of
cloak. He himself wore it very constantly, so that it led to his being
called Caracalla, [Footnote: A word of Celtic origin, signifying a long,
ulster-like tunic plus a hood. This was a Gallic dress.] and he
prescribed it by preference as the dress for the soldiers. The
barbarians saw what sort of person he was and also heard that his men
were enervated through their previous luxury; for, to give an instance
of their behavior, the Romans passed the winter in houses, making use of
everything belonging to their entertainers as if it were their own.
[They further perceived that their opponents had become so physically
worn and so dejected in spirit by their toils and by the hardships which
they were now undergoing that they no longer heeded the presents which
they kept receiving from their commander.] Elated, therefore, to think
that they should find them rather helpers than foes, they made ready to
attack. [Footnote: The last five words are a conjecture of Bekker's.]
[Sidenote:--4--] Antoninus made preparations in his turn, but it did not
fall to his lot to enter upon the war: he was struck down in the midst
of his soldiers, whom he most honored and in whom he reposed vast
confidence. A seer in Africa had declared (in such a way that it became
noised abroad) that both Macrinus the prefect and his son Diadumenianus
[Footnote: His full name was M. Opellius Diadumenianus.] must reign.
Macrinus, sent to Rome, had revealed this to Flavius Maternianus, who at
the time commanded the soldiers in the city, and he had at once sent
word to Antoninus. It happened that this letter was diverted to Antioch
and came to [his mother] Julia, since she had been given orders to read
over everything that arrived and thus prevent a mass of unimportant
letters being sent to him while in a hostile country. Another letter
written by Ulpius Julianus, who then had charge of appraisements, went
by other carriers straight to Macrinus and informed him of the state of
the case. It was in this way that the letter to the emperor suffered a
delay and the despatch to his rival came to the attention of the latter
in good season. Now Macrinus, becoming afraid that he might be put to
death by Antoninus on account of all this, especially since a certain
Egyptian Serapio had told the prince to his face that Macrinus should
succeed him, did not find it well to delay.--Serapio had first been
thrown to a lion for his pains, but when he merely held out his hand, as
is reported, and the animal did not touch him, he was slain. He might
have escaped even this fate (or so he declared) by calling upon certain
spirits, if he had lived one day longer.
[Sidenote:--5--] Macrinus came to no harm but hastened his preparations,
having a presentiment that otherwise he should perish, especially since
Antoninus had suddenly, one day before [Footnote: "One day before" is a
conjecture of Bekker's. (The birthday of Antoninus seems to have been on
the sixth of April.)] his birthday, removed those of Macrinus's
companions that were in the latter's company, alleging one reason in one
case and another in another with the general pretext of doing them
honor. Not but [lacuna] expecting that it was fated for him to get it
he had also made a name which owed its origin to this fact. Accordingly,
he suborned two tribunes stationed in the pretorian guard, Nemesianus
and Apollinarius, brothers belonging to the Aurelian gens, and Julius
Martialius, who was enrolled among the evocati and had a private grudge
against Antoninus for not giving him the post of centurion on request.
Thus he made his plot, and it was carried out as follows. On the eighth
of April, when the emperor had set out from Edessa to Carrhæ and had
dismounted from his horse to go and ease himself, Martialius approached
as if he wanted to say something to him and struck him smartly with a
small knife. The assassin at once fled and would have escaped detection,
had he thrown away the sword. The weapon led to his being recognized by
one of the Scythians on the staff of Antoninus, and he was brought down
with a javelin. As for Martialius [lacuna] the military tribunes pretending
to come to the rescue slew [lacuna]
[This Scythian attended him, not merely to be an ally of his, but as
keeping guard over him to a certain extent. [Sidenote:--6--] For he
maintained Scythians and Celtæ about him, free and slaves alike, whom he
had taken away from children and wives and had equipped with arms; and
he affected to place more dependence upon them than upon the soldiers.
To illustrate, he kept honoring them with posts as centurions, and he
called them "lions." Moreover, he would often converse with emissaries
sent from the very provinces, and in the presence of no one else but the
interpreters would urge them, in case any catastrophe befell him, to
invade Italy and march upon Rome, assuring them that it was very easy to
capture. And to prevent any inkling of his talk spreading to our ears he
would immediately put to death the interpreters. For all that, we did
ascertain it later from the barbarians themselves: and the matter of the
poisons we learned from Macrinus.] It seemed that he partly sent for and
partly bought quantities of all kinds of poisons from the inhabitants of
Upper Asia, spending altogether seven hundred and fifty myriads upon
them, in order that he might secretly kill in different ways great
numbers of men,--in fine, whomsoever he would. They were subsequently
discovered in the royal apartments and were all consumed by fire. [At
this time the soldiers, both for this reason and, beyond other
considerations, because they were vexed at having the barbarians
preferred to themselves, were not altogether so enthusiastic over their
leader as of yore and did not aid him when he became the victim of a
plot.] Such was the end that he met after a life of twenty-nine years
[and four days (for he had been born on the fourth of April)], and after
a reign of six years, two months, and two days.
[Sidenote:--7--] There are many things at this point, too, in the story
that occur to excite my surprise. When he was about to start from
Antioch on his last journey, his father confronted him in a vision, girt
with a sword and saying: "As you killed your brother, so will I smite
you unto death;" and the soothsayers told him to beware of that day,
using so direct a form of speech as this: "The gates of the victim's
liver are shut." After this he went out through some door, paying no
heed to the fact that the lion, which he was wont to call "Rapier," and
had for a table companion and bedfellow, knocked him down as he went
out, and, moreover, tore some of his clothing. He kept many other lions
besides and always had some of them around him, but this one he would
often caress even publicly. It was thus that these events occurred.
And a little before his death, as I have heard, a great fire suddenly
fastened upon the entire interior of the temple of Serapis in
Alexandria, and did no other harm whatever save only to destroy that
sword with which he had slain his brother. [Later, when it stopped, many
stars shone out.] In Rome, too, [a spirit wearing the likeness of a man
led an ass up the Capitol and later up the Palatine, seeking, as he
said, its master and stating that Antoninus was dead and Jupiter
reigned. Arrested for his behavior, he was sent by Maternianus to
Antoninus, and he declared: "I depart, as you bid, but I shall face not
this emperor but another." Afterwards on coming to Capua he vanished.
[Sidenote:--8--] This took place while the prince was still alive.] At
the horse-race [held in memory of Severus's reign] the statue of Mars,
while being carried in procession, fell down. This perhaps would not
arouse such great wonder, but listen to the greatest marvel of all. The
Green faction had been defeated, whereupon, catching sight of a jackdaw,
which was screeching very loud on the tip of a javelin, they all gazed
at him and all of a sudden, as if by previous arrangement, cried out:
"Hail Martialius, Martialius hail, long it is since we beheld thee!" It
was not that the jackdaw was ever so called, but through him they were
greeting, apparently under some divine inspiration, Martialius, the
assassin of Antoninus. To some, indeed, Antoninus seemed to have
foretold his own end, inasmuch as in the last letter that he sent to the
senate he had said: "Cease praying that I may reign a hundred years."
The petition mentioned had always been uttered from the beginning of his
sovereignty and this was the first and only time that he found fault
with it. Thus, while his words were simply meant to chide them for
offering a prayer impossible of accomplishment, he was really indicating
that he should no longer rule for any length of time. And when certain
persons had once called attention to this fact, it also came to my mind
that when he was giving us a banquet in Nicomedea at the Saturnalia and
had talked a good deal, as was usual at a symposium, then on our rising
to go he had addressed me and said: "With great acumen and truth, Dio,
has Euripides remarked that
"'Neath divers forms the spirit world is lurking,
Much passing hope the gods are ever working.
Oft disappointment strikes down sure ambition:
The unthought chance God brings to full fruition.
This story leaves things in just that condition.'"
[Footnote: Lines that occur at the end of several of Euripides's
dramas.]
At the time this quotation seemed to have been mere nonsense, but when
not long after he perished the fact that this was the last speech he
uttered to me was thought to infuse into it a certain truly oracular
significance with regard to what was to befall him. Similar importance
was attached to the utterance of Jupiter called Belus, [Footnote: The
same as Baal.] a god revered in Apamea [Footnote: This is the Apamea on
the Orontes, built by Seleucus Nicator.] of Syria. He, years before,
when Severus was still a private citizen, had spoken to him these
verses:
"Touching eyes and head, like Zeus, whose delight is in thunder,
Like unto Ares in waist, and in chest resembling Poseidon."
[Footnote: From Homer's Iliad, II, verses 478-9.]
And later, after his accession as emperor, the god had made this
response to an enquiry: "Thy house shall perish utterly in blood."
[Footnote: Adapted from Euripides, Phoenician Maidens, verse 20.]
[Sidenote:--9--] [Accordingly the body of Antoninus was then burned, and
his bones, brought secretly by night into Rome, were deposited in the
mausoleum of the Antonines. All the senators and private individuals,
men and women, without exception entertained so violent a hatred of him
that all their words and actions relating to him were such as would
befit the downfall of a most implacable foe. He was not officially
disgraced, because the soldiers did not get from Macrinus the state of
peace which they had hoped to secure by a change. Deprived of the
profits which they were wont to receive from Antoninus, they began to
long for him again. Indeed, their wishes subsequently prevailed to the
extent of having him enrolled among the heroes: of course this was voted
by the senate.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 217, _a.u._ 970] In general, abundant ill was
consistently spoken of him by everybody. They would no longer term him
Antoninus, but [some called him Bassianus, [Footnote: He was originally
Septimius Bassianus, named after his maternal grandfather.] his old
name, others] Caracalla, as I have mentioned, [Footnote: In chapter 3.]
[others] also Tarautas, from the appellation of a gladiator who was [in
appearance] very small and very ugly and [in spirit very audacious and]
very bloodthirsty.
[Sidenote:--10--] Now his affairs, however one may name him, were in
this state. As for me, even before he came to the throne, it was
foretold me in a way by his father that I should write this account.
Just after his death methought I saw in a great plain the whole power of
Rome arrayed in arms, and it seemed as if Severus were sitting [on a
knoll there and] on a lofty tribunal conversing with them. And, seeing
me standing by to hear what was said, he spoke out: "Come hither, Dio,
to this spot; approach nearer, that you may both ascertain accurately
and write a history of all that is said and done."--Such was the life
and the overthrow of Tarautas. [After him there perished also those who
had shared in the plot against him, some at once and others before a
great while. His intimate companions and the Cæsarians likewise
perished. He had been, as it were, coupled with a spirit of murder that
operated equally against enemies and against friends.]
[Sidenote:--11--] Macrinus, by race a Moor from Cæsarea, came from most
obscure parents [so that with considerable justice he was likened to the
ass that was led to the Palatine by the apparition]. For one thing his
left ear had been bored, according to the custom [generally] in vogue
among the Moors. His affability was even more striking. As to duties,
his comprehension of them was not so accurate as his performance of them
was faithful. [Thus it was, thanks to the advocacy of a friend's cause,
that he became known to Plautianus, and at first he took the position of
manager of the latter's property; subsequently he ran a risk of
perishing together with his employer, but was unexpectedly saved by the
intercession of Cilo and was given charge of the vehicles of Severus
that passed back and forth along the Flaminian Way.] From Antoninus
[after securing some titles of a short-lived procuratorship] he obtained
an appointment as prefect and administered the affairs of this
responsible position excellently and with entire justice, [so far as he
was free to act independently. This, then, was his general character and
these the steps of his advancement. Even during the life of Tarautas he
was led, in the way that I have described, to harbor in his mind the
hope of empire;] and at his death [he did not, to be sure, either that
day or the two following days occupy the office, in order to avoid the
imputation of having killed him with such intentions: but for that space
of time the Roman state remained completely bereft of a ruler possessing
authority, though without the people's knowing it. He communicated with
the soldiers in every direction,--that is to say, the ones who were in
Mesopotamia on account of the war but instead of being in one body were
scattered all about; and he won their allegiance through the agency of
his [Footnote: Reading [Greek: ohi] (Dindorf) instead of [Greek: hos].]
friends], among his various offers being a suggestion that they might
secure a respite from the war, which was an especial cause of
dissatisfaction to them: and so on the fourth day [the anniversary of
Severus's birthday] he was chosen emperor by them [after making a show
of resistance].
[Sidenote:--12--] [He delivered an address full of good points and held
out hopes of many advantages to the rest of mankind as well. Those who
had been doomed to some life punishment for an act of impiety, of the
kind that is so named with reference to attitude toward emperors, were
absolved from their sentence; and complaints of that nature which were
pending were dismissed. He rescinded the measures enacted by Caracalla
relating to inheritances and emancipations and, by asseverating that it
was a sacrilege to kill a senator, he succeeded in his appeal for the
pardon of Aurelianus, whose surrender was demanded by the soldiers
because he had proved most obnoxious to them in many previous campaigns.
Not for long, however, was it in his power to behave as an honest man
[lacuna] and Aurelianus [lacuna] soldiers [lacuna] this man [lacuna] by
him [lacuna] absolute power [lacuna] wrath [lacuna] and two hundred and
fifty denarii [lacuna] there had been public notice of giving more
[lacuna] fearing that [lacuna] Aurelianus, the only one then present not
only of ex-consuls but of those who were senators at all [lacuna] by aid
of money [lacuna] upon him [lacuna] glad to divert the blame for
Caracalla's death [lacuna] and about the [lacuna] them [lacuna] the
[lacuna] the [lacuna] great masses both of furniture and of property of
the emperors. But as not even this on account of the soldiers sufficed
for the [lacuna] of senators [lacuna] kill [lacuna] no one, but putting
some under guard [lacuna] of the knights and the freedmen and the
Cæsarians and [lacuna] causing those who erred in even the slightest
respect to be punished, so that to all [lacuna] of them [lacuna] the
procuratorships and the excessive expenditures and the majority of the
burdens recently laid upon them by Tarautas [lacuna] of the games
[lacuna] multitude [lacuna], gathering the presents which had
unnecessarily been bestowed upon any persons, and he forbade any silver
image of him being made over five pounds in weight, or any golden image
of over three. Greatest of all, the hire of those serving in the
pretorian guard [lacuna] to that appointed [lacuna] by Severus [lacuna]
[Sidenote:--13--] Though in truth he was praised by some for this (and
not without reason), still he incurred (on the part of the sensible) a
censure that quite counterbalanced it. The adverse sentiment in question
was due to the fact that he enrolled certain persons in the ranks of
ex-consuls and immediately assigned them to governorships of provinces.
Yet he refused the following year to have the reputation of being consul
twice because he had the honors of ex-consul: this was a practice begun
during the reign of Severus and followed also by the latter's son. This
procedure, however, both in his own case and in that of Adventus was
lawful enough, but he showed great folly in sending Marcius Agrippa
first into Pannonia and later into Dacia to govern. The previous
officials of the districts mentioned,--Sabinus and Castinus,--he
summoned at once to his side, pretending that he wanted their company,
but really because he feared their surpassing spirit and their
friendship for Caracalla. It was in this way that he came to despatch
Agrippa to Dacia and Deccius Triccianus [Footnote: _Ælius Deccius
Triccianus_.] to Pannonia. The former had been a slave acting as master
of wardrobe for some woman and for this cause [Footnote: It is hard to
see why, unless in the age of Severus slaves were forbidden to have
charge of women's attire.] had been tried by Severus, although at the
time he was attached to the fiscus; he had then been driven out to an
island for betraying some interest, was subsequently restored, together
with the rest, by Tarautas, had taken charge of his decisions and
letters, and finally had been degraded to the position of senator, with
ex-consular rank, because he had admitted overgrown lads into the army.
Triccianus served in the rank and file of the Pannonian contingent, had
once been porter to the governor of that country, and was at this time
commanding the Alban legion.