Dio's Rome Volume VI Part 2

DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY

78

Antoninus's treacherous campaign against Artaba.n.u.s, 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 Artaba.n.u.s 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 Praesens, 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 Artaba.n.u.s 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, a.s.suming 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, Vatica.n.u.s 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 st.i.tching 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 pa.s.sed 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 Diadumenia.n.u.s [Footnote: His full name was M. Opellius Diadumenia.n.u.s.] must reign.

Macrinus, sent to Rome, had revealed this to Flavius Maternia.n.u.s, 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 ma.s.s of unimportant letters being sent to him while in a hostile country. Another letter written by Ulpius Julia.n.u.s, who then had charge of apprais.e.m.e.nts, 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, Nemesia.n.u.s 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 Carrhae 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 a.s.sa.s.sin 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 Celtae 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 ill.u.s.trate, 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, a.s.suring 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 quant.i.ties 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 a.s.s 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 Maternia.n.u.s 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 a.s.sa.s.sin 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 pet.i.tion 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 ac.u.men and truth, Dio, has Euripides remarked that

"'Neath divers forms the spirit world is lurking, Much pa.s.sing hope the G.o.ds are ever working.

Oft disappointment strikes down sure ambition: The unthought chance G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 Ba.s.sia.n.u.s, [Footnote: He was originally Septimius Ba.s.sia.n.u.s, 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 Caesarians 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 Caesarea, came from most obscure parents [so that with considerable justice he was likened to the a.s.s 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 Plautia.n.u.s, 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 pa.s.sed back and forth along the Flaminian Way.] From Antoninus [after securing some t.i.tles 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 s.p.a.ce 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 att.i.tude 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 emanc.i.p.ations and, by a.s.severating that it was a sacrilege to kill a senator, he succeeded in his appeal for the pardon of Aurelia.n.u.s, 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 Aurelia.n.u.s [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] Aurelia.n.u.s, 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 ma.s.ses 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 Caesarians 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] mult.i.tude [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 a.s.signed 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 surpa.s.sing spirit and their friendship for Caracalla. It was in this way that he came to despatch Agrippa to Dacia and Deccius Triccia.n.u.s [Footnote: _aelius Deccius Triccia.n.u.s_.] 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.

Triccia.n.u.s 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.