June, sent his son in charge of Epagathus and some other attendants, to
Artabanus, king of the Parthians. He himself went to Antioch, giving out
that victory was his, to the end that he might be offered shelter there.
Then, when the news of his defeat became noised abroad, in the midst of
many consequent slaughters both along the roads and in the city,
springing from somebody's favoring the one side or the other, he made
his escape. From Antioch he proceeded by night, on horseback, with his
head and whole chin shaved, and attired in a dark garment worn over his
purple robe in order that he might, so far as possible, resemble an
ordinary citizen. In this way, with a few companions, he reached Ægæ in
Cilicia, and there, by pretending to be one of the soldiers that carried
messages, he got a wagon, on which he drove through Cappadocia and
Galatia and Bithynia as far as the shipyard of Eribolus, which is
opposite the city of Nicomedea. It was his intention to make his way
back to Rome, expecting that there he could gain some assistance from
the senate and from the people. And, if he had escaped thither, he would
certainly have accomplished something. For their disposition was
decidedly more favorable to him, in view of the hardihood of the
Syrians, the age of the False Antoninus, and the uncontrolledness of
Gannys and Comazon, so that even the soldiers would either
voluntarily [Footnote: Reading [Greek: 'hechhontast'] instead of
[Greek: thnhêschontast].] have changed their attitude or, refusing to do
so, would have been overpowered. As it turned out, however, if any one
recognized him in the course of his journey so far described, at least
no one ventured to lay hands on him: but he came to grief on his voyage
from Eribolus to Chalcedon. He did not dare to enter Nicomedea [through
fear of the governor of Bithynia, Cæcilius Aristo], and so he sent to
one of the procurators asking for money, and in this way he became
known. He was overtaken [while still] in Chalcedon and, on the arrival
of those sent by the False Antoninus in order that [lacuna] now if ever
[lacuna] he was arrested [by Aurelius Celsus, a centurion,] and taken to
Cappadocia [like a man held in no honor]. Ascertaining there that his
son had also been captured [(Claudius Pollio, the centurion of the
legion, had arrested him while driving through Zeugma, where, in the
course of a previous journey, he had been designated Cæsar)], he threw
himself from the conveyance (for he had not been bound) and at the time
suffered a fracture of his shoulder; but subsequently (though not a
great deal later) being sentenced to die before entering Antioch, he was
slain by Marcianus Taurus, a centurion, and his body remained unburied
until the False Antoninus could come from Syria into Bithynia and gloat
over it.
[Sidenote:--40--] So Macrinus, when an old man,--for he was fifty-four
years of age [lacking three or five days],--and eminent in experience of
affairs, displaying some degree of excellence and commanding so many
legions, was overthrown by a mere child of whose very name he had
previously been ignorant,--even as the oracle had foretold to him;
[[lacuna]] for upon his applying [to Zeus Belus] it had answered him:
"Old man, verily warriors young harass and exhaust thee:
Utterly spent is thy strength, and a grievious eld comes upon thee!"
[Footnote: From Homer's Iliad, VIII, verses 102-103.]
And fleeing [lacuna] or [lacuna], having played part of runaway slave
through the provinces which he had ruled, arrested like some robber by
common officers, beholding himself with villains most dishonored
[lacuna] guarded before whom often many senators had been brought; and
_his_ death was ordered who had the authority to punish or to release
any Roman whomsoever, and he was arrested and beheaded by centurions,
when he had authority to put to death both them and others, inferior and
superior. And his son likewise perished.
[Sidenote:--41--] This proves that no one, even of those whose
foundations seem unshakable, is sure of his position, but the exceeding
prosperous, equally with the rest, are poised in the balance.
And this man would have been lauded beyond all mankind, if he had not
himself desired to become emperor, but had chosen some person enrolled
in the senate to stand at the head of the Roman empire and had
appointed him emperor; and only in this way could he have avoided blame
for the plot against Caracalla, for by such action he would have
demonstrated that he resorted to it to secure his own safety and not on
account of a desire for supremacy. Whereas, instead, he got himself into
disrepute and ruined his career, becoming subject to reproach, and
finally falling a victim to a disaster that he richly deserved. And
having grasped at sole sovereignty before he had even the title of
senator, he lost it very quickly and in the most disappointing way. He
had ruled only a year and two months, lacking three days (a result
obtained by reckoning to the date of the battle).
DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY
79
Dio's Roman History 79:--
About Avitus, called also Pseudantoninus, and the slaughter that he
wrought (chapters 1-7).
About his transgression of law and how he married the Vestal (chapters
8-10).
About Eleogabalus [Footnote: It will be noted that the spelling of this
word in the Greek "arguments" of the MSS. differs from that in the
Greek text of the same.] and how he summoned Urania to Rome and united
her in bonds of wedlock with Eleogabalus (chapters 11-12).
About his licentiousness (chapters 13-16).
How he adopted his cousin and also renamed him Alexander (chapters 17,
18).
How he was overthrown and slain (chapters 19-21).
DURATION OF TIME.
The remainder of the consulship of Macrinus and Adventus, together with
four additional years, in which there were the following magistrates,
here enumerated. Pseudantoninus (II) and Q. Tineius Sacerdos. (A.D. 219
= a.u. 972 = Second of Eleogabalus, from June 8th.)
Pseudantoninus (III) and M. Valerius Comazon. (A.D. 220 = a.u. 973 =
Third of Elagabalus.)
C. Vettius Gratus Sabinianus and M. Flavius Vitellius Seleucus. (A.D.
221 = a.u. 974 = Fourth of Elagabalus.)
Pseudantoninus (IV) and M. Amelius Severus Alexander. (A.D. 222 = a.u.
975 = Fifth of Elagabalus to March 11th.)
(BOOK 80, BOISSEVAIN.)
[Sidenote: A.D. 218 (_a.u._ 971)] [Sidenote:--1--] Now Avitus, alias
False Antoninus, alias Assyrian or again Sardanapalus and also Tiberinus
(he secured the last appellation after he had been slain and his body
thrown into the Tiber) [on the very next day after the victory entered
Antioch, first promising the soldiers attending him five hundred denarii
apiece on condition that they should not sack the town,--a thing which
they were very anxious to do. This amount he levied upon the people. And
he sent to Rome such a despatch as might have been expected, speaking
much evil of Macrinus, especially with reference to his low birth and
his plot against Antoninus. Here is a sample of what he said: "He who
was not permitted to enter even the senate-house after the proclamation
debarring everybody other than senators from doing so, this man, I say,
dared treacherously to murder the emperor whom he had been trusted to
guard, dared to appropriate his office and to become emperor before he
was senator." About himself he made many promises, not only to the
soldiers but also to the senate and the people. He asserted that he
should do everything without exception to emulate Augustus (to whose
youth he likened his own) and also Marcus Antoninus. Yes, and he wrote
also the following, alluding to the derogatory remarks made about him
by Macrinus: "He undertook to censure my age, when he himself appointed
a five-year old son."
[Sidenote:--2--] Besides forwarding this communication to the senate, he
sent to the senate the records discovered among the soldiers and the
letters of Macrinus written, to Maximus, and sent them likewise to the
legions, hoping that these would cause them to hold the preceding
emperor's memory in greater detestation, and to feel greater affection
for him. In both the despatch to the senate and the letter to the people
he subscribed himself as emperor and Cæsar, son of Antoninus, grandson
of Severus, Pius, Felix, Augustus, proconsul, and holder of the
tribunician power, assuming these titles before they were voted,[lacuna]
the [lacuna] not the [lacuna] but the [lacuna] of [lacuna]
used [Footnote: Illegible MS.--Boissevain conjectures: "And he used not
the name of Avitus, but that of his father."] [lacuna] the records of
the soldiers [lacuna] for of Macrinus [lacuna] Cæsar [lacuna] Pretorians
and Alban legionaries who were in Italy [lacuna] and as consul should
proclaim [Footnote: "He sent another letter to the Pretorians and to the
Alban legionaries who were in Italy, in which he stated incidentally
that he was consul and high-priest." (Boissevain's conjecture.)]
[lacuna] and the [lacuna] Marius Censorinus [lacuna] superintendence
[lacuna] accepted [lacuna] Macrinus [lacuna] himself since not
sufficiently by his own voice [lacuna] public [lacuna] read [lacuna] the
letters of Sardanapalus [lacuna] registered among the ex-consuls and
gave him injunctions that if any one should resist him he should use the
band of soldiers. As a consequence, though against its will, it read
everything to those [lacuna] [Footnote: "Most of it Marius Censorinus,
who was their commandant, read aloud, but the news about Macrinus he
suppressed, because he thought that his single voice could not give it
sufficient publicity; at the same time, however, he took it upon himself
to have the letter of Sardanapalus read to the senate through the medium
of Claudius Pollio, who had been enrolled among the ex-consuls; thus, if
any opposition should develop, he would be in a position to use the band
of soldiers. As a consequence the senate, though against its will, read
everything to those enlisted." (Boissevain's conjecture.)]
For, by reason of the necessity thrust upon them, they were not able to
do anything that they should or had better have done [lacuna] but were
panic-stricken by fear [lacuna] and Macrinus, whom they had often
commended, they voted should be regarded as a public enemy and they
abused him, together with his son; and Tarautas, whom they had often
wished to declare an enemy, they now exalted and of course prayed that
his son might be like him.
[Sidenote:--3--] This was in Rome. And Avitus assigned [lacuna] Pollio
to govern [lacuna] Germany [lacuna] since the latter had very rapidly
reduced Bithynia to subjection. He himself, after sojourning some months
in Antioch until he had established his authority there in every
direction, went into Bithynia, coadjutor [lacuna] often [lacuna] making
Gannys, as had been his custom in the case of Antioch.
Having passed the winter here he proceeded into Italy through Thrace and
Moesia and both the Pannonias, and there he abode to the end of his
life. One action of his was worthy of a thoroughly good emperor: for,
whereas many individuals and communities alike,
including the Romans themselves,
both knights and senators,
had privately and publicly, by word and deed, heaped insults upon [both
Caracalla and] himself as a result of the letters of Macrinus, he
[neither threatened to make reprisals] in the case of a single person,
nor did he make reprisals. But on the other hand he drifted into all the
most obscene and lawless and bloodthirsty practices. [Some of them never
before known in Rome, took root and grew like ancestral institutions.
Others, taken up tentatively from one time [Footnote: Reading [Greek:
allote] (Bekker, Dindorf) in place of [Greek: alla te].] to another by
various individuals] flourished for the three years and nine months and
four days during which he ruled (to compute from the battle in which he
gained supreme control). [In Syria, he caused the assassination of
Nestor and Fabius Agrippinus, the governor of the country, as well as of
the foremost knights belonging to the party of Macrinus; but he
inflicted a similar fate upon men in Rome who were on most friendly
terms with him. In Arabia, he executed Pica Cæsianus, [Footnote: _P.
Numicius Pica Cæsianus_.] entrusted with the administration, because he
had not immediately declared his allegiance; and, in Cyprus, Claudius
Attalus, because he had fallen out with Comazon. Attalus had once been
governor of Thrace, had been expelled from the senate by Severus in the
war with Niger, but was restored to it by Tarautas, and had at this time
been assigned to Cyprus, as the lot directed. He had incurred Comazon's
ill-will by having formerly reduced him to the position of rower in a
trireme as a punishment for some villany which the latter committed
while serving in Thrace.]
[Sidenote:--4--] This incident sheds some light on the character of
Comazon, who got this name from mimes and buffoonery. [Footnote: This
statement is an error on the part of Xiphilinus, who thought that
"Comazon" (in Greek=The Reveler) was a nickname for a certain
Eutychianus. Investigations, however, show that there was a M. Valerius
Comazon prominent at this time and that the word should be taken as a
proper and not as a vulgar noun.] He commanded the Pretorians and,
though holding no position of management or superintendence whatever,
except over the camp, [he obtained the consular honors] and subsequently
actually became consul. [Also he became city prefect] not merely once,
but twice and thrice, as could be recorded in no other case. Wherefore
this, too, must be enumerated among the most illegal proceedings. [It
was on his account, then, that Attalus was put to death.
Triccianus came to his end on account of the Alban legion, which he
commanded with good discipline during Macrinus's reign, and Castinus
[Footnote: _C. Iulius Septimius Castinus_.] because he was energetic and
was known to many soldiers in consequence of the commands he had held
and his association with Antoninus. He had accordingly been sent out in
advance by Macrinus without reference to other events and was living in
Bithynia. The emperor put him to death in spite of having written
concerning him to the senate that Triccianus had been banished from
Rome, like Julius Asper, by Macrinus, and that he had restored him. He
took similar vengeance on Sulla, who had been governing Cappadocia but
had relinquished it, because Sulla both meddled in some matters that did
not concern him and when summoned to Rome by Elagabalus had managed to
meet the Celtic soldiers returning home after their winter in Bithynia,
a period during which they had raised some little disturbance. These men
perished for the reasons specified and no statements about them were
communicated to the senate. Seius Carus, the descendant of Fuscianus,
who had been city prefect, was killed because he was rich, great, and
sensible, on the pretext that he was forming a league of some of the
soldiers belonging to the Alban legion; and, on the basis of some
charges preferred by the emperor alone, he was accused in the palace,
where he was also slain.] Valerianus Pætus lost his life because he had
stamped some likeness of himself upon gold pieces to serve as ornaments
for his mistresses. [This led to the accusation that he intended to
remove to Cappadocia, a country bordering on his own (he was a Gaul),
for the purpose of starting a revolution, and that this was why he made
gold pieces bearing his own figure.
[Sidenote:--5--] On these charges] Silius Messala and Pomponius Bassus
[also were condemned to death by the senate: they] incurred blame
because they were not pleased with what he was doing. He did not
hesitate to write this statement about them to the senate, and called
them investigators of his habits of life and censors of proceedings in
the palace. ["The proofs of their plot I have not sent you," he said,
"because it would be useless to read them, in view of the fact that the
men are already dead."] There was another cause of dislike underlying
[the case against Messala,--the point, namely, that he sturdily made
public many facts in the senate. This was what led the emperor at the
outset to send for him to come to Syria, pretending to have very great
need of him, whereas his real fear was that Messala might bring about a
change of attitude on the part of the senators.
The cause in] the case of Bassus was that he had a wife both fair to
look upon and of noble rank; she was a descendant of Claudius Severus
and of Marcus Antoninus. Indeed, the prince married her, not allowing
her even to mourn the catastrophe. Now of his marriages, in which he
both married and was bestowed in marriage, an account will be given
presently. He appeared both as man and as woman, and performed the
functions of both in the most licentious fashion [lacuna] about [lacuna]
and [lacuna] by whom [lacuna] own [lacuna] Sergius [lacuna] and [lacuna]
out of [lacuna] any [lacuna] making [lacuna] him [lacuna] blame for
[lacuna] slaughter the [Sidenote:--6--] [lacuna] and of knights [lacuna]
Cæsarians [lacuna] [lacuna] were destroyed [lacuna] nothing [lacuna] but
by killing in Nicomedea at the very start of his reign Gannys, who had
arranged the uprising, who had introduced him into the camp and had
likewise caused [the soldiers to revolt, who had presented him with the
victory over Macrinus, one who had reared and managed him,--by this act
he came to be regarded as the most impious of men. To be sure, Gannys
was living rather luxuriously and was fond of accepting bribes, but for
all that he brought no injury upon anybody and bestowed many benefits
upon many people. Most of all, he always showed a deep respect for the
emperor, and he was thoroughly satisfactory to Mæsa and Soæmias, suiting
the former because she had brought him up and the latter because he
practically lived with her. But these were not the reasons why the
emperor put him out of the way, seeing that he was willing to give him a
marriage contract and appoint him Cæsar. It was rather that Gannys
compelled him to live temperately and prudently. And his own hand was
the first to give his minister a mortal blow, since no one of the
soldiers had the hardihood to take the initiative in his murder.--These
events, then, took place in this way.
[Sidenote:--7--] [lacuna] Another pair executed were Verus, who had
likewise mustered courage to make an attempt upon the sovereignty while
in the midst of the third (Gallic) legion, which he was commanding; and
Gellius Maximus, on the same sort of charge, though he was lieutenant in
Syria proper and at the head of the fourth (Scythian) legion. For to
such an extent had everything got upside down, that these men, too, one
of whom had been enrolled in the senate from the ranks of the centurions
and the other of whom was the son of a physician, took it into their
heads to aim at the imperial office. I have mentioned them alone by
name, not so much because they were the only ones who appeared entirely
insane as because they belonged to the senate; for other attempts were
made. A certain centurion's son undertook to throw into disorder the
same Gallic legion, and another, a worker in wool, tampered with the
Fourth, and a third, a private citizen, with the fleet in harbor at
Cyzicus when the False Antoninus was wintering at Nicomedea. And there
were many others elsewhere, so that it became a very ordinary thing for
those who so wished to hazard the chance of fomenting rebellion and
becoming emperor. They were encouraged partly by the fact that many
persons had entered upon the supreme office without expecting or
deserving it. Let no one be incredulous of my statements, for the facts
about the private citizens I ascertained from men who are worthy of
confidence, and of what I have written about the fleet I gained an exact
knowledge in Pergamum, close at hand, the affairs of which, as also of
Smyrna, I managed, having been assigned to duty there by Macrinus. And
in view of this attempt none of the others seemed at all incredible to
me.
[Sidenote:--8--] This is what he did in the way of murders. His acts
which varied from our ancestral precedents, however, were of simple
character and inflicted no great harm upon us. Some noteworthy
innovations were his applying to himself certain titles connected with
his sovereignty before they had been voted, as I have already described,
[Footnote: See Chapter 2.] and again his enrolling himself in the
consulship in place of Macrinus when he had not been elected to it and
did not enter upon any of its duties (the time expiring too soon): yet
at first, in three letters, he had referred to the year by the name of
Adventus, as if assuming that the latter had been sole consul. Other
points were that he undertook to be consul a second time, without having
secured any office previously or the privileges of any office, and that
while consul in Nicomedea he did not employ the triumphal costume on the
Day of Vows. [Footnote: Translated by Sturz "_votivorum ludorum die_."
What festival is meant is uncertain, but it is probably _not_ the
Compitalia (III. Non. Ian.). [Sidenote:--11--] With his infractions of
law is connected also the matter of Elagabalus. The offence consisted,
not in his introducing a foreign god into Rome, or in his exalting him
in very strange ways, but in his placing him before even Jupiter and
having himself voted his priest, in his circumcising his foreskin and
abstaining from swine's flesh [on the ground that his devotion would be
purer by this means. He had thought of cutting off his genitals
altogether, but that was an idea prompted by salaciousness; the
circumcision which he actually accomplished was a part of the priestly
requirements of Elagabalus. Hence he mutilated in like manner numerous
of his associates.] A further offence was his being frequently seen in
public clad in the barbaric dress which the Syrian priests employ, a
circumstance which had more to do than anything else with his getting
the name of "The Assyrian."
[Sidenote:--12--] ¶ A golden statue of False Antoninus was erected,
distinguished by its great and varied adornment.
¶ Macrinus, though he found considerable money in the treasury,
squandered it all, and incomes did not suffice for expenditures.
[Sidenote: A.D. 219 (_a.u._ 972)] [Sidenote:--9--] As to his marriage.
He espoused Cornelia Paula in order that he might sooner (these are his
words) become a father,--he, who could not even be a man. On the
occasion of his marriage not only the senate and the equestrian order
but also the wives of the senators received some distribution of
presents. The people were given a banquet at the per capita rate of one
hundred and fifty denarii, and the soldiers had one that cost a hundred
more. There were contests of gladiators at which the prince wore a
purple-bordered toga, the same as he had done at the ludi votivi.
Various beasts were slain, among them an elephant and fifty-one tigers,
a greater number than had ever yet been despatched at one time.
Afterwards he dismissed Paula on the pretext that she had some blemish
on her person and cohabited with Aqulia Severa,--a most flagrant breach
of law. She was consecrated to Vesta and yet he most sinfully ravished
her and actually dared to say: "I did it in order that godlike children
may spring from me, the high-priest, and from her, the high-priestess."
He felicitated himself on an act which was destined to lead to his being
maltreated in the Forum and thrown into prison and subsequently put to
death. However, he did not keep even this woman for long, but married a
second, and then a third, and still another; after that he went back to
Severa.
[Sidenote:--10--] Portents had been taking place in Rome, one of them on
the statue of Isis, which is borne upon a dog above the pediment of her
temple: it consisted in her turning her face towards the
interior.--Sardanapalus was conducting games and numerous spectacles,
in which Helix, the athlete, won renown. How far he surpassed his
adversaries is shown by his wishing to contend in both wrestling and
pancratium at Olympia, and by his winning victories in both at the
Capitolina. The Eleans, being jealous of him, and through fear that he
might prove the eighth from Hercules (as the saying is), [Footnote:
The history and significance of this proverb are not known.] would not
call any wrestler into the stadium, in spite of their having inscribed
this contest on the bulletin-board. But in Rome he won each of the two
games,--a feat that no one else had accomplished.
[Sidenote:--11--] And here I must omit mention of the barbaric chants
which Sardanapalus chanted to Elagabalus, and his mother and
grandmother, all three, as also of the secret sacrifices that he offered
to him: at these he slaughtered boys, and used charms, besides shutting
up in the god's temple a live lion and monkey and snake, throwing in
among them human genitals, and practicing other unholy rites, while he
wore invariably innumerable amulets. [Sidenote:--12--] But to run
briefly over these matters, he actually (most ridiculous of all) courted
a wife for Elagabalus, on the assumption that the god wanted marriage
and children. Such a wife might be neither poor nor low-born, and so he
chose the Carthaginian Urania, summoned her to come thence, and
established her in the palace. He gathered wedding gifts for her from
all his subjects, as he might have done in the case of his own wives.
All these presents that were given during his lifetime were exacted
later, but in the way of dowry he declared that nothing should be
brought save the gold lions, which were melted down.