Dio's Rome Volume VI Part 4

There, so far as the zeal of the Pretorians went, he had him conquered (he had taken from them their breastplates scales and their grooved shields and had thus rendered them lighter for the battle): but he was beaten by his own cowardice, as Heaven had foreshown to him. For on that day when his first letter about the imperial office was read to us a pigeon had lighted upon an image of Severus (whose name he had applied to himself) that stood in the senate-chamber. [And subsequently, when the communication about his son was sent, we had convened, not at the bidding of the consuls or the praetors (for they did not happen to be present) but of the tribunes,--a practice which by this time had fallen more or less into disuse. And he had not written even his name in the preface of the letter, though he termed him Caesar and emperor and indicated that the contents emanated from them both. Also, in the rehearsal of events, he mentioned the name Diadumenia.n.u.s, but left out that of Antoninus, though he had this t.i.tle too. Such was the state of these [Sidenote:--38--] affairs; and, by Jupiter, when he sent word about the uprising of the False Antoninus, the consuls uttered certain formulae against him, as is regularly done under such circ.u.mstances, and one of the praetors and another of the tribunes did the same. War was declared and solemnly proclaimed against the usurper and his cousin and their mothers and their grandmother, and immunity was granted to those that had taken part in the uprising, in case they should submit, according as Macrinus had promised them. For the conversation he had had with the soldiers was read aloud.] As a result of this, we all condemned still more strongly his abas.e.m.e.nt and folly. [For one thing] he was most constantly calling himself "father" and Diadumenia.n.u.s his "son," and he kept holding up to reproach the age of the False Antoninus, though he had designated as emperor his son, who was much younger. [Now in the battle Gannys hurriedly took possession of the narrow place in front of the village and disposed his soldiers in good order for warfare, regardless of the fact that he was most inexperienced in military matters. Of such surpa.s.sing importance is good fortune in comparison with other qualifications, that it actually bestows understanding upon the ignorant.] But his army made a very weak fight and the men would not have stood their ground, had not Maesa and Soaemias [for they were already in the boy's retinue] leaped down from their vehicles and, rushing among the fugitives, by their lamentations restrained them from flight, and had not the lad himself been seen by them (by some divine disposition of affairs) with drawn sword on horseback charging the enemy. Even so they would have turned their backs again, had not Macrinus fled at sight of their resistance.

[Sidenote:--39--] The latter, having been thus defeated on the eighth of June, sent his son in charge of Epagathus and some other attendants, to Artaba.n.u.s, 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 aegae 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 a.s.sistance 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: thnheschontast].] have changed their att.i.tude 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, Caecilius 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 Caesar)], 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 Marcia.n.u.s 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 hara.s.s 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 t.i.tle 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 Sabinia.n.u.s 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 a.s.syrian 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 a.s.serted 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 Caesar, son of Antoninus, grandson of Severus, Pius, Felix, Augustus, proconsul, and holder of the tribunician power, a.s.suming these t.i.tles 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] Caesar [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 a.s.signed [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 pa.s.sed 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 inst.i.tutions.

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 a.s.sa.s.sination 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 Caesia.n.u.s, [Footnote: _P.

Numicius Pica Caesia.n.u.s_.] 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 a.s.signed 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 Eutychia.n.u.s. 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.

Triccia.n.u.s 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 a.s.sociation 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 Triccia.n.u.s 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 Fuscia.n.u.s, 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.] Valeria.n.u.s Paetus 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 Ba.s.sus [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 st.u.r.dily 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 att.i.tude on the part of the senators.

The cause in] the case of Ba.s.sus was that he had a wife both fair to look upon and of n.o.ble 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]

Caesarians [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 Maesa and Soaemias, 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 Caesar. 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 a.s.signed 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 t.i.tles 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 a.s.suming 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 G.o.d 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 circ.u.mcising 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 circ.u.mcision which he actually accomplished was a part of the priestly requirements of Elagabalus. Hence he mutilated in like manner numerous of his a.s.sociates.] A further offence was his being frequently seen in public clad in the barbaric dress which the Syrian priests employ, a circ.u.mstance which had more to do than anything else with his getting the name of "The a.s.syrian."

[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 G.o.dlike 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.