to find fault with him. Another was his elevation of Adventus. Adventus
had drawn pay as one of the spies and detectives, had left his position
there and served among the letter-carriers, had later been appointed
cubicularius, and still later was advanced to a position as procurator.
Now although old age prevented him from seeing, lack of education from
reading, and want of experience from being able to accomplish anything,
the emperor made him senator, fellow-consul, and prefect of the city.
This upstart had dared to say to the soldiers after the death of
Caracalla: "The sovereignty properly belongs to me, since I am elder
than Macrinus: but inasmuch as I am extremely old, I make way for him."
His behavior was regarded as nonsensical, as was also that of Macrinus,
in granting the greatest dignity of the senate to such a man, who could
not when consul carry on a plain conversation with anybody in the
senate, and consequently on the day of elections pretended to be sick.
Hence, before long Macrinus assigned the direction of the city to Marius
Maximus in his stead. It looked as if he had made him præfectus urbi
with the sole purpose of polluting the senate-house. And this pollution
took place not only in virtue of the fact that he had served in the
mercenary force and had performed the duties belonging to executioners,
scouts, and centurions, but in that he had secured control of the city
prior to fulfilling the demands of the consulship. In other words, he
became city prefect before senator. Macrinus connived at his promotion
with the definite intention of blinding the public in regard to his own
record, which would have shown that he had seized the imperial office
while yet a knight.
[Sidenote:--15--] Besides these not unmerited censures that some passed
upon him, he also attracted adverse criticism for designating as
prefects Ulpius Julianus and Julianus Nestor, who possessed no
particular excellence and had not been tested in many undertakings, but
had become quite notorious for rascality in Caracalla's reign; for,
being at the head of the late prince's messengers [Footnote: Mommsen
thinks that by this expression Dio probably means the position of
_princeps peregrinorum_.] they had been of great assistance to him in
his unholy meddling. However, only a few citizens took account of these
details, which did not tend wholly to encourage them. The majority of
individuals, in view of their having recently got rid of Tarautas, which
was more than they could have hoped, and comparing the new ruler in the
few indications afforded with the old, and in view of all the other
considerations and expectations, did not deem it fitting to condemn him
so soon. And for this reason they mourned him exceedingly when he was
killed, though they would certainly have felt hatred for him had he
lived longer.]
For he began to live rather more luxuriously and he took official notice
of those who reproved him. His putting Maternianus and Datus out of the
way was not reasonable,--for what wrong had they done in being attentive
to their emperor?--but it was not unlike human nature, since he had been
involved in great danger. But he made a mistake in venting his wrath
upon the rest, who were suspected of disliking his low birth and his
unexpected attempt upon the sovereign power. He ought to have done
precisely the opposite; realizing what he had been at the outset and
what his position then was, he should not have been supercilious, but
should have behaved moderately, cultivated the genius of his household,
and encouraged men by good deeds and a display of excellence unchanged
by circumstances.
[Sidenote:--16--] These things [lacuna] in regard to him [lacuna] have
been said by me [lacuna] in detail [lacuna] of any [lacuna] just as
[lacuna] nominally throughout his entire reign [lacuna] of all [lacuna]
of it [lacuna] that he said in conversation with the soldiers [lacuna]
it was proved [lacuna] and he dared to utter not a few laudations of
himself and to send still more of them in letters, saying among other
things: "I have been quite sure that you also would agree with the
legions, since I enjoy the consciousness of having conferred many
benefits upon the commonwealth." He subscribed himself in the letter as
Cæsar and emperor and Severus, adding to the name of Macrinus the titles
of Pious, and Fortunate, and Augustus, and Proconsul, of course without
awaiting any vote on our part. He sent the letter without being ignorant
that he was, on his own responsibility, assuming so many and great
designations nor [lacuna] name [lacuna] of Pretorians as formerly some
[lacuna] not but what [lacuna] so wrote [lacuna] in the beginning
[lacuna] war chiefly [lacuna] of barbarians [lacuna] near [lacuna] in
the letter he used simply the same terms as the emperors before
Caracalla, and this he did the whole year through [lacuna] memoranda
found among the soldiers. Thus [lacuna] of things accustomed to be said
with a view to flattery and not inspired by truthfulness they became so
suspicious as to ask that they be made public, and he sent them to us,
and the quæstor read them aloud, as he did other similar documents in
their turn. And a certain prætor, as the senate was then in session and
none of the quæstors was present, also read an epistle once composed by
Macrinus himself.
[Sidenote:--17--] The first letter having been read, appropriate
measures were passed with reference to both Macrinus and his son. He was
designated Patrician, and Princeps Iuventutis, and Cæsar. He accepted
everything save the horse-race voted in honor of the beginning of his
reign; from this he begged to be excused, saying that the event had been
sufficiently honored by the spectacle on the birthday of Severus. Of
Tarautas he made no mention at this time, in the way of either honor or
dishonor, save only that he called him Emperor. He ventured to term him
neither Hero nor Foe, and, as I conjecture, it was because the deeds of
his predecessor and the hatred of much of mankind made him shrink from
the former epithet, and the thought of the soldiers restrained him from
the latter. Some suspected that it was because he wanted the disgracing
to be the act of the senate and the people rather than his own,
especially since he was in the midst of the legions. He did say that
Tarautas by his wrongdoing had been chiefly responsible for the war and
had terribly burdened the public treasury by increasing the money given
to the barbarians, inasmuch as it was of equal amount with the pay of
the soldiers under arms. No one dared, however, to give utterance
publicly to any such statement against him and vote that he was an
enemy, for fear of immediate annihilation at the hands of the soldiers
in the City. Still, they abused him in their own fashion and heaped
insults upon him as much as they could, going over the list of his
bloody deeds, with the name of each victim, and ranging him alongside
all the evil tyrants that had ever held sway over them.
[Sidenote:--18--] At the same time the public demanded that the
horse-race given on his birthday be abolished, that absolutely all the
statues, both gold and silver, erected [Footnote: Supplying, with Reiske,
[Greek: hidruthentas].] in his honor be melted down, and that those who
had served with him in any capacity as informers be made known and
punished with the utmost speed. For great numbers, not only slaves and
freedmen and soldiers and Cæsarians, but likewise knights and senators
and numerous very distinguished women, were believed to have given
secret hints during his reign and to have blackmailed various persons.
And although they did not attach to Antoninus the name of Enemy, they
did keep vociferating that Martialius (on account of the similarity of
his name to that of Mars, as they pretended,) ought to be honored with
enconiums and with statues for worship. They also showed for the moment
no indication of annoyance at Macrinus], the reason being that they were
so overwhelmed by joy on account of the death of Tarautas as not to have
leisure to think anything about his humble origin, and they were glad to
accept him as emperor. They were less concerned about whose slaves they
should be next than about whose yoke they had shaken off, and were
impressed with the idea that any chance comer who might present himself
would be preferable to their former master. [All the unusual
expenditures were rehearsed that had been made, not only by the Roman
Treasury but privately for any persons and on the part of any foreign
nations as a result of the former sovereign's direction: and thus the
overthrow of those charged with carrying out the enactments made by him
and the hope that in the future nothing similar would be done inclined
people to be satisfied with the existing arrangement.
[Sidenote:--19--] However, they soon learned that Aurelianus was dead
and that Diadumenianus, son of Macrinus, had been appointed Cæsar. This
last was nominally the act of the soldiers, through whose ranks he
passed when summoned from Antioch to meet his father, but really it was
accomplished by Macrinus. People further learned that their ruler had
assumed the name of Antoninus. (He had done this to win the favor of the
soldiers, partly to avoid seeming to dishonor his predecessor's memory
entirely, especially in view of the fact that he had secretly thrown
down some of the statues offered to him in Rome by Alexander and set on
pedestals by Antoninus himself: and again he wanted to get an excuse for
promising them seven hundred and fifty denarii more.) So persons began
to think differently and reflected that previously they had held him in
no esteem. Taking account, furthermore, of all the additional ignoble
manifestations on his part that they suspected and thought likely, they
began to be ashamed and did not [lacuna] Caracalla any more than
[lacuna] things pertaining to him differently [lacuna] by deprecating
the [lacuna] of Severus [lacuna] of Antoninus [lacuna] they displayed
[lacuna] and hero and what befitted his reign, not to be sure [lacuna]
and wholly the judgments of all men in Rome [lacuna] underwent a change
[lacuna] senate [lacuna] to him [lacuna] me [lacuna] however, when all
were questioned man by man regarding his honors, both others answered
ambiguously and [lacuna] Saturninus [lacuna] in a way attributing
[lacuna] prætors [lacuna] that it was not permissible for him to put any
vote about anything, in order that they might avoid the consul's
jealousy. This procedure was contrary to precedent, for it was not
lawful that there should take place in the senate-chamber an inquiry
into any matter, except at the command of the emperor.
[Sidenote:--20--] The crowd, because they could obscure their identity
at the contest and by their numbers, gained the greater boldness, raised
a loud cry at the horse-race on the birthday of Diadumenianus, which
fell on the fourteenth of September: they uttered many lamentations,
asserting that they alone of all mankind were destitute of a leader,
destitute of a king; and they invoked the name of Jupiter, declaring
that he alone should be their leader and uttering aloud these words: "As
a master thou wert angry, as a father take pity on us." Nor would they
pay any heed at first to either the equestrian or the senatorial order
[lacuna] and commending the emperor and the Cæsar to the extent of
[lacuna] in Greek saying: "Ah, what a glorious day is to-day! What noble
kings!" and desiring that the others also should share their opinion.
But they stretched out their arms toward the sky and exclaimed:
"[lacuna]. this is the Roman Augustus: having him we have all!" So true
it is that among mankind respect is a distinct characteristic of the
better element and contempt a characteristic of the worse. For these two
now regarded Macrinus and Diadumenianus as henceforth absolutely
non-existent and trampled upon their claims as though they were already
dead. This was one great reason why his soldiers despised him, and paid
no heed to what was done to win their favor. Another still more
important cause lay in the frequent and extraordinary insolence shown
toward him by the Pergamenians, who were deprived of what they had
formerly received from Tarautas; and for this conduct he imposed upon
them public sentence of loss of citizenship. [Sidenote:--21--] The
attitude of the soldiers is straightway to be described. At this time
Macrinus neither sent to the senate, as they were demanding, nor
published otherwise any document of the informers, saying either truly
or falsely (to avoid a great disturbance) that none such had been found
in the royal residence. For Tarautas had either destroyed the majority
of those containing any accusation or had returned them to the senders
themselves, as I have stated, [Footnote: The passage to which Dio refers
is lost.] to the end that no proof of his baseness should be left. But
he did reveal the names of three senators whom, from what he had himself
discovered, he deemed to be especially deserving of hatred. These were
Manilius and Julius, and moreover Sulpicius Arrhenianus, who had
blackmailed, among others, Bassus, the son of Pomponius, whose
lieutenant he had been when Bassus was governor of Moesia. These men
were banished to islands, as the emperor expressly forbade their being
put to death. "We would avoid,"--he wrote--these were his very
words,--"ourselves appearing to do the things for which we censure
them."--And Lucius Priscillianus [whose name was presented by the senate
itself,] was as much renowned for his insulting behavior as he was for
his killing of wild beasts. [He fought them at Tusculum every now and
then, and contended with so many each time that he bore the scars of
their bites.] Once he, unassisted, joined battle with a bear and
panther, a lioness and lion at once, but far more numerous were the men,
both knights and senators, whom he destroyed as a result of his
slanders. [For both of these achievements] he was greatly honored by
Caracalla [was enrolled among the ex-prætors and became (contrary to
precedent) governor of Achæa. He incurred the violent hatred of the
senate, was summoned for trial] and was confined upon an island. These
men, then, came to their end as described.
[Sidenote:--22--] And Flaccus was entrusted also with the dispensation
of food stuffs,--an office which Manilius had formerly held,--for he had
secured [Footnote: Reading [Greek: eilaephos] (Reimar).] it (with the
added ratification of Macrinus) as a reward of his information against
him; and he was subsequently made superintendent of the distribution of
dole which took place at the games given by the major prætors, save
those celebrated in honor of Flora [lacuna] moreover the iuridici
possessing authority in Italy had to stop rendering decisions outside
the traditional limits set by Marcus. [Footnote: The text of the early
part of this chapter may be characterized as "jagged." The sentences
lack clearness and the relation of the individual words is not always
certain. The reader may be interested to see a translation of
Hirschfeld's interpretation of the section, taken from his book entitled
_Untersuchungen auf dem Gebiete der Roemischen Verwaltungsgeschichte_
(pp. 117-120).
a [Flaccus]--It is here a question of a high senatorial office, which
can only be the _præfectura alimentorum_.
b [The iuridici]--Perhaps the person entrusted with the execution of
this ruling was C. Octavius Sabinus, who had the title of _electus ad
corrigendum statum Italiæ_.
c [The orphans]--Probably during the latter portion of Caracalla's
reign, as also under Commodus, the funds for food had been available
either not at all or at irregular intervals, and therefore the
restitution of district prefects was determined upon.
From these Food Prefects for a particular district those officials must
be distinguished who bear the general title of _præfectus alimentorum_
without any local limitation, and show a marked difference from the rest
in that they are invariably of consular rank, whereas the position of
district prefect, like that of curator of roads, was usually held by a
candidate that had only passed the prætorship. The inscriptions of these
_consular_ prefects begin not earlier than the end of the reign of
Marcus Aurelius, perhaps not till Commodus, and extend to the time of
Macrinus, while during this whole time (a period, that is, of about
forty years) all trace of the district prefects vanishes. Under these
circumstances the conclusion seems to me inevitable that towards the end
of the second century (probably from the first years of Marcus Aurelius
on) the district prefecture was abolished and the administration was
centralized in Rome under a consular _præfectus alimentorum_, whose
authority extended over the whole of Italy.
Now very probably it was the introduction under Marcus Aurelius of the
_iuridici_ which occasioned this change, even if not immediately, and
that these duties of distribution, as well as other administrative
functions, were placed in their hands; one thing that would seem to
recommend this view particularly is that their position in general
tended to make them official examiners of the affairs of the
_municipia_. When, in addition, we have evidence that Macrinus in the
year 217 reduced the authority of the _iundici_ to the limits originally
imposed by Marcus Aurelius and that further the same emperor instituted
certain rulings for the amelioration of food distribution; when,
moreover, we consider in connection with this the coincidence of the
disappearance of the _consular food prefects_ for Italy on the one hand
and the reappearance of the _pretorial district prefects_ on the other,
it will not appear overbold to suppose that Macrinus, in the course of
the reform affecting the _iuridici_, also detached from them the right
to supervise foods, restored it to the curators of roads (as in the
original arrangement) and abolished the central bureau in Rome.]--A
certain Domitius Florus had formerly had charge of the senate records
and ought to have been next appointed ædile, but before entering upon
office had been deprived of all hope on account of Plautianus; he now
had recourse to sedulous office-seeking, recovered his lost standing and
was appointed tribune. Anicius Faustus was sent into Asia to govern in
place of Asper. The latter had at first obtained very great honor from
Macrinus, who thought he could settle affairs in Asia: afterwards, when
he was already _en route_ and was approaching the province (Macrinus had
not accorded a favorable reception to the petition forwarded to
Caracalla and delivered to him, in which the inhabitants begged that
Asper be not sent them as proconsul), the emperor offered him a terrible
affront in rejecting him. It was reported to the prince that Asper had
made some improper remarks, and moreover he affected to think that old
age and disease constituted a second reason for relieving him of his
duties, and therefore he delivered Asia into the keeping of Faustus, a
man who had been overlooked in the order of allotment by Severus. As the
time for him to govern turned out to be short, Macrinus bade him hold
the office for the following year in place of Aufidius Fronto. To the
latter he would entrust neither Africa (which he had drawn by lot),
because the Africans begged that he be not allowed to come, nor yet
Asia, though he had first transferred him thither. As a fitting
recognition, however, Macrinus proposed that twenty-five myriads be
given him to stay at home. Fronto, however, would not accept that,
saying that he wanted not money but a position of authority, and
accordingly later he received the province from Sardanapalus.
Besides these events aid was extended to the orphans, whose hopes of
support were small, from the [lacuna] age of childhood to military
years. [Footnote: See note 2c, page 58.]
[Sidenote:--23--] Now Julia, the mother of Tarautas, chanced to be in
Antioch, and at the first information of her son's death she was so
affected that she struck herself violently and undertook to starve
herself to death. The presence of this very same man, whom she hated
alive, became the object of her longings now that he had ceased to
exist; yet not because she desired him to live, but because she was
furious at having to return to private life; and this led her to abuse
Macrinus also long and bitterly. Subsequently, as no change was made in
her royal suite or in the guard of Pretorians attending her, and the new
emperor sent her a kind message (not having yet heard what she had
said), she took courage, laid aside her longing for death, and, without
writing him any response, held some negotiations with the soldiers she
had about her, especially [lacuna] and as they were angry with Macrinus
[lacuna] as they had a pleasanter remembrance of her son, how she might
attain the imperial position, rendering herself the peer of Semiramis
and Nitocris, since she came in a way from the same regions as
they; [Footnote: Boissevain's conjecture for the succeeding sentences
(valuable, of course, only as the guess of an expert) is the following:
But when nobody would cooperate with her and letters came from Macrinus
making certain announcements at which, in view of her circumstances, she
felt herself depressed in spirits, she renounced her ambitions out of
fear that she might be deprived of the title of Augusta and be forced to
depart to her native land, and al [lacuna] drea [lacuna] wom [lacuna] ad
[lacuna] eake [lacuna] and mos [lacuna] any one behol [lacuna] she
decided to do just the reverse and submit lest she be forced eventually
to return to Rome and be there compelled by Macrinus to remain at home
for the future for appearing to be opposed to his policy. Afterwards,
however, she was intending to take measures that would enable her to get
away by ship, if possibility still offered, when he ordered her, etc.]
as [lacuna] coöperated [lacuna] and letters [lacuna] of Macrinus
[lacuna] some for which [lacuna] judgment [lacuna] fearing that she
might be deprived of the title of Augusta and to [lacuna] native country
be forced to return [lacuna] to fear [lacuna] go to Rome [lacuna]
Macrinus [lacuna] seeming to do the opposite [lacuna] how [lacuna] might
depart and he ordered her to depart from Antioch with all speed and go
whithersoever she would. [And when she heard what was said in Rome about
her son] she no longer cared to live. The cancer in her breast, which,
for a very long time had remained stationary in its progress, had been
made angry and inflamed by the blow which she struck her chest on
hearing of her son's death; this helped to undermine her constitution
and she made sure of her demise by voluntary starvation.
[Sidenote:--24--][And so this queen, sprung from a family of common
people and raised to a high station, who had lived during her husband's
reign in great unhappiness on account of Plautianus, who had beheld her
younger son butchered in her own lap and had borne ill-will to her elder
son while he lived, finally receiving such tidings of his assassination,
withdrew from power while in the full flush of life and thereafter did
herself to death. Hence a person reviewing her career could not deem
infallibly happy all those who attain great authority; indeed, in no
case unless some true and undefiled pleasure in life belongs to them,
and unswerving, permanent good fortune.--This, then, was the fate of
Julia. Her body was taken to Rome and placed in the tomb of Gaius and
Lucius. Later, however, both her bones and those of Geta were
transferred by her sister Mæsa to the precinct of Antoninus.