About Avitus, called also the False Antoninus, and the murders that he committed (chaps. 1-7).
About his lawless deeds and how he married the Vestal (chaps. 9, 11).
About Eleogabalus and how he summoned Urania to Rome and united her in marriage with Eleogabalus.
About his licentiousness (chaps. 13-16).
How he adopted his cousin and changed his name to Alexander (chaps. 17-18).
How he was overthrown and slain (chaps. 19-21).
Duration of time, the remainder of the consulship of Macrinus and
Adventus, together with four additional years, in which there were the
magistrates (consuls) here enumerated:— A.D. 219 The False Antoninus
(II) and Q. Tineius Sacerdos. 220 The False Antoninus (III) and M.
Valerius Comazon. 221 C. Vettius Gratus Sabinianus and M. Flavius
Vitellius Seleucus. 222 The False Antoninus (IV) and M. Aurelius
Severus Alexander.
LXXIX
Now Avitus, otherwise known as the False Antoninus, or the Assyrian, or
Sardanapalus, or even Tiberinus (this last appellation he received
after he had been slain and his body had been thrown into the Tiber),
at the time of which we are speaking entered Antioch on the day
following the victory, after first promising two thousand sesterces
apiece to the soldiers with him to prevent them from sacking the city,
a thing which they were very anxious to do. This amount he collected in
part from the people. And he sent to Rome such a despatch as was to be
expected, making many derogatory remarks about Macrinus, especially
with reference to his low birth and his plot against Antoninus. For
example, he said among other things: "This man, to whom it was not
permitted even to enter the senate-house after the proclamation
debarring all others than senators, dared treacherously to murder the
emperor whom he had been trusted to guard, dared to appropriate his
office and to become emperor before he had been senator." About himself
he made many promises, not only to the soldiers but also to the senate
and to the people, asserting that he would always and in all things
emulate Augustus, to whose youth he likened his own, and Marcus
Antoninus. He also wrote the following, alluding to the derogatory
remarks spread broadcast about him by Macrinus: "He undertook to
disparage my age, when he himself had appointed his five-year-old son
emperor."
Besides this communication that he forwarded to the senate, he sent not
only to the senate but also to the legions the notebooks found among
the soldiers and the letters of Macrinus written to Maximus, hoping
that these would cause them to hold his predecessor's memory in even
greater detestation and to feel greater affection for him. In both the
message to the senate and the letter to the people he styled himself
emperor and Caesar, the son of Antoninus, the grandson of Severus,
Pius, Felix, Augustus, proconsul, and holder of the tribunician power,
assuming these titles before they had been voted, and he used, not the
name of Avitus, but that of his pretended father, . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . the notebooks of the soldiers . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . for Macrinus' . . . . . . . Caesar
. . . . . . . . . to the Pretorians and to the Alban legionaries who
were in Italy he wrote . . . . . and that he was consul and high
priest (?) . . . and the . . . . . . Marius Censorinus ..
leadership .. read . . . of Macrinus . . . . . . . himself, as if
not sufficiently by his own voice able to make public . . . . the
letters of Sardanapalus to be read . . . by (?) Claudius Pollio, whom
he had enrolled among the ex-consuls, and commanded that it anyone
resisted him, he should call on the soldiers for assistance;
accordingly, the senate, though unwillingly, read everything to those
.. For, by reason of the necessity hanging over them, they were unable
to do any of the things that were proper or expedient .. but were
panic-stricken by fear . . . and Macrinus, whom they had often
commended, they now reviled, together with his son, regarding him in
the light of a public enemy; while as for Tarautas, whom they had often
wished to declare a public enemy, they now exalted him and prayed that
his alleged son should be like him.
This was what was taking place in Rome. As for Avitus, he appointed
Pollio to govern . . . Germany .. since Pollio had very ...ly subdued
Bithynia. He himself, after remaining some months in Antioch, until he
had established his authority on all sides, went to Bithynia, where he
frequently employed Gannys as his associate in the government, as he
had been accustomed to do at Antioch. After passing the winter there,
he proceeded into Italy through Thrace, Moesia, and but the Pannonias,
and there he remained until the end of his life. One action of his was
worthy of a thoroughly good emperor; for, although many individuals and
communities alike, including the Romans themselves (?), both knights
and senators, had privately and publicly, by word and by deed, heaped
insults upon both Caracallus and himself, as a result of the letters of
Macrinus, he neither threatened to make reprisals nor actually did make
any in a single instance. But, on the other hand, he drifted into all
the most shameful, lawless, and cruel practices, with the result that
some of them, never before known in Rome, came to have the authority of
tradition, while others, that had been attempted by various men at
different times, flourished merely for the three years, nine months and
four days during which he ruled,— reckoning from the battle in which he
gained the supreme power. For example, while still in Syria, he slew
Nestor and Fabius Agrippinus, the governor of the province, as well as
the foremost knights among Macrinus's followers; and he visited the
same punishment upon the men in Rome who had been most intimate with
Macrinus. In Arabia he put to death Pica Caerianus, who was in charge
of that province, because he had not immediately declared his
allegiance to the new ruler; and in Cyprus, Claudius Attalus, because
he had offended Comazon. Attalus had once been governor of Thrace, had
been expelled from the senate by Severus during the war with Niger, but
had been restored to it by Tarautas, and had at this time been assigned
by the lot to Cyprus. He had incurred Comazon's ill will by having once
sent him to the galleys for some wrongdoing of which he was guilty
while serving in Thrace. Yet this Comazon, in spite of having such a
character and a name derived from mimes and buffoonery, now commanded
the Pretorians, though he had been tried in no position of
responsibility or command whatever, except that over the camp; and he
obtained the rank of consul and later actually became consul, and also
city prefect, and that not once only, but even a second and a third
time — a thing that had never before happened in the case of anybody
else; hence this will be counted as one of the greatest violations of
precedent.
Attalus, then, was put to death on Comazon's account. Triccianus,
however, lost his life because of the Alban legion, which he had
commanded with a firm hand during Macrinus's reign. And Castinus
perished because he was energetic and was known to many soldiers in
consequence of the commands he had held and of his intimate association
with Antoninus; he had accordingly been living in Bithynia, whither he
had been sent ahead for other reasons. The emperor now put him to
death, in spite of the fact that he had written concerning him to the
senate that he had restored this man who had been banished from Rome by
Macrinus, just as he had done in the case of Julius Asper. He also slew
Sulla, who had been governor of Cappadocia but had left the province,
because Sulla had meddled in some matters that did not concern him and
also because, when summoned from Rome by the emperor, he had contrived
to meet the German troops returning home after their winter in
Bithynia, a period during which they had created some little
disturbance. These men, then, perished for the reasons I have given,
and no statements about them were communicated to the senate. On the
other hand, Seius Carus, the grandson of Fuscianus, the former prefect
of the city, was killed because he was rich, influential, and prudent,
but on the pretext that he was forming a league of some of the soldiers
stationed near the Alban Mount; he heard the emperor alone prefer
certain charges against him in the palace, and there he was also slain.
Valerianus Paetus lost his life because he had stamped some likenesses
of himself and plated them with gold to serve as ornaments for his
mistresses. This led to the charge that he was intending to go off to
Cappadocia, which bordered on his native land (he was a Galatian), for
the purpose of starting a rebellion, and that this was the reason why
he was making gold pieces bearing his own likeness.
Following these murders, Silius Messalla and Pomponius Bassus were
condemned to death by the senate, on the charge of being displeased at
what the emperor was doing. For he did not hesitate to write this
charge against them even to the senate, calling them investigators of
his life and censors of what went on in the palace. "The proofs of
their plots I have not sent you," he wrote, "because it would be
useless to read them, as the men are already dead." There was a further
ground of complaint against Messalla, the fact, namely, that he
resolutely laid bare many facts before the senate. This was what led
the emperor in the first place to send for him to come to Syria,
pretending to have great need of him, whereas he really feared that
Messalla might take the lead in bringing about a change of mind on the
part of the senators. In the case of Bassus, the real motive lay in the
fact that he had a wife both fair to look upon and of noble rank; for
she was a descendant of Claudius Severus and of Marcus Antoninus. At
all events, the emperor married her, not allowing her even to mourn her
loss. An account will be given presently of his marriages, in which he
both married and was bestowed in marriage; for he appeared both as man
and as woman, and in both relations conducted himself in the most
licentious fashion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . about . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . and . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . by whom . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . own . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sergius . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .making . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . of him . . . . . . . . . . blame for . . . . . .
slaughter the . . . . . . . . . . . . and of knights . . .
. . . imperial freedmen . . . . . . were destroyed . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . nothing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . but
because of his slaying at Nicomedeia at the very outset of his reign
Gannys, the man who had brought about the uprising, who had taken him
to the camp, who had also caused the soldiers to revolt, who had given
him the victory over Macrinus, and who had been his foster-father and
guardian, he was 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 did no one any harm and bestowed many benefits upon
many people. Most of all, he showed great zeal for the emperor and was
thoroughly satisfactory to Maesa and Soaemis, to the former because he
had been reared by her, and to the latter because he was virtually her
husband. But it was not at all because of this that the emperor put him
out of the way, inasmuch as he had wished to give him a marriage
contract and appoint him Caesar; it was rather because he was forced by
Gannys to live temperately and prudently. And he himself was the first
to give Gannys a mortal blow with his own hand, since no one of the
soldiers had the hardihood to take the lead in murdering him.
Such, then, was the fate of these men. Others to be executed were . . .
Verus, who had also ventured to seek the throne while in the midst of
the third legion (Gallica) which he was commanding, and Gellius
Maximus, on the same charge, though he was but a lieutenant of the
fourth legion (Scythica) in Syria proper. To such an extent, indeed,
had everything got turned topsy-turvy that these men, 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 supreme power. I have mentioned these men alone by name, not
because they were the only ones that took leave of their senses, but
because they belonged to the senate; for other attempts we made. For
example, the son of a centurion undertook to stir up that same Gallic
legion; another, a worker in wool, tampered with the fourth legion, and
a third, a private citizen, with the fleet stationed at Cyzicus, when
the False Antoninus was wintering at Nicomedeia; and there were many
others elsewhere, as it was the simplest thing in the world for those
who wished to rule to undertake a rebellion, being encouraged thereto
by the fact that many men had entered upon the supreme rule contrary to
expectation and to merit. And let no one be incredulous of my
statements; for what I have written about the other attempts of private
citizens I ascertained from trustworthy men, and the information about
the fleet I personally learned by accurate investigation in Pergamum,
close at hand, when I was in charge of that city, as well as of Smyrna,
having been appointed by Macrinus; and in view of this attempt none of
the others seemed incredible to me.
Such were his actions that were tainted with bloodshed. As for his
violations of precedent, they were of simple character and did us no
great harm, save that they were innovations upon established usage.
Thus, he applied to himself certain titles connected with his imperial
office before they had been voted, as I have already mentioned; he
entered his name in the list as consul in place of Macrinus, though he
had not been elected to the office and had not entered upon it at all,
as the term had already expired, and though at first in three letters
he had referred to the year by the name of Adventus, as if Adventus had
been sole consul; again, he undertook to be consul for the second time
without having held any office previously or even the title of any
office; and, finally, while acting as consul in Nicomedeia, he did not
wear the triumphal dress on the Day of Vows.
Closely related to these irregularities was his conduct in 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 even before Jupiter himself and causing himself to be voted
his priest, also in his circumcising himself and abstaining from
swine's flesh, on the ground that his devotion would thereby be purer.
He had planned, indeed, to cut off his genitals altogether, but that
desire was prompted solely by his effeminacy; the circumcision which he
actually carried out was a part of the priestly requirements of
Elagabalus, and he accordingly mutilated many of his companions in like
manner. Furthermore, he was frequently seen even in public clad in the
barbaric dress which the Syrian priests use, and this had as much to do
as anything with his receiving the nickname of "The Assyrian."
A gold statue of the False Antoninus was erected, distinguished by its great and varied adornment.
Macrinus, though he found a large amount of money in the imperial
treasury, squandered it all, and the revenues did not suffice for
expenditures.
The False Antoninus married Cornelia Paula, in order, as he said, that
he might sooner become a father — he who could not even be a man! On
the occasion of his marriage not only the senate and the people
equestrian order but also the wives of the senators received a largess;
the populace was banqueted at a cost of six hundred sesterces apiece,
and the soldiers at a cost of four hundred more; there were contests of
gladiators, at which the emperor wore a purple-bordered toga, just as
he had done at the ludi votivi; and various wild beasts were slain,
including an elephant and fifty-one tigers — a larger number than had
ever before been despatched at one time. Afterwards he divorced Paula
on the ground that she had some blemish on her body, and cohabited with
Aquilia Severa, thereby most flagrantly violating the law; for she was
consecrated to Vesta, and yet he most impiously defiled her. Indeed, he
had the boldness to say: I did it in order that godlike children might
spring from me, the high priest, and from her, the high-priestess."
Thus he plumed himself over an act for which he ought to have been
scourged in the Forum, thrown into prison, and then put to death.
However, he did not keep even this woman long, but married a second, a
third, a fourth, and still another; after that he returned to Severa.
Portents had been taking place in Rome, one of them being given by the
statue of Isis, who is represented as riding on a dog above the
pediment of her temple; for she turned her face toward the interior of
the temple. Sardanapalus was conducting games and numerous spectacles
in which Aurelius Helix, the athlete, won renown. This man so far
surpassed his competitions, that he desired to contend in both
wrestling and the pancratium at Olympia, and actually did win in both
events at the Ludi Capitolini. But the Eleans were jealous of him,
fearing that he might prove to be "the eighth from Hercules," as the
saying has it, and so would not call any wrestler into the stadium,
even though they had announced this contest on the bulletin-board; in
Rome, however, he won both events, a feat that no one else had
accomplished.
I will not describe the barbaric chants which Sardanapalus, together
with his mother and grandmother, chanted to Elagabalus, or the secret
sacrifices that he offered to him, slaying boys and using charms, in
fact actually shutting up alive in the god's temple a lion, a monkey,
and a snake, and throwing in among them human genitals, and practising
other unholy rites, while he invariably wore innumerable amulets. But,
to pass over these matters, he went to the extreme absurdity of
courting a wife for Elagabalus — as if the god had any need of marriage
and children! And, as such a wife might be neither poor nor low-born,
he chose the Carthaginian Urania, summoned her thence, and established
her in the palace; and he collected wedding gifts for her from all his
subjects, as he had done in the case of his own wives. Now all these
presents that were given during his lifetime were reclaimed later; as
for the dowry, he declared that he had received none from her, except
two gold lions which was accordingly melted down.
But this Sardanapalus, who saw fit to make even the gods cohabit under
due form of marriage, lived most licentiously himself from first to
last. He married many women, and had intercourse with even more without
any legal sanction; yet it was not that he had any need of them
himself, but simply that he wanted to imitate their actions when he
should lie with his lovers and wanted to get accomplices in his
wantonness by associating with them indiscriminately. He used his body
both for doing and allowing many strange things, which no one could
endure to tell or hear of; but his most conspicuous acts, which it
would be impossible to conceal, were the following. He would go to the
taverns by night, wearing a wig, and there ply the trade of a female
huckster. He frequented the notorious brothels, drove out the
prostitutes, and played the prostitute himself. Finally, he set aside a
room in the palace and there committed his indecencies, always standing
nude at the door of the room, as the harlots do, and shaking the
curtain which hung from gold rings, while in a soft and melting voice
he solicited the passers-by. There were, of course, men who had been
specially instructed to play their part. For, as in other matters, so
in this business, too, he had numerous agents who sought out those who
could best please him by their foulness. He would collect money from
his patrons and give himself airs over his gains; he would also dispute
with his associates in this shameful occupation, claiming that he had
more lovers than they and took in more money. This is the way, now,
that he behaved alike toward all alike who had such relations with him;
but he had, besides, one favourite "husband," whom he wished to appoint
Caesar for that very reason.
He also used to drive a chariot, wearing the Green uniform, privately
and at home, — if one can call that place home where the judges were
the foremost men of his suite, both knights and imperial freedmen, and
the very prefects, together with his grandmother, his mother and the
women, and likewise various members of the senate, including Leo, the
city prefect,— and where they watched him playing charioteer and
begging gold coins like any ordinary contestant and saluting the
presidents of the games and the members of his faction.
When trying someone in court he really had more or less the appearance
of a man, but everywhere else he showed affectations in his actions and
in the quality of his voice. For instance, he used to dance, not only
in the orchestra, but also, in a way, even while walking, performing
sacrifices, receiving salutations, or delivering a speech. And
finally,— to go back now to the story which I began,— he was bestowed
in marriage and was termed wife, mistress, and queen. He worked with
wool, sometimes wore a hair-net, and painted his eyes, daubing them
with white lead and alkanet. Once, indeed, he shaved his chin and held
a festival to mark the event; but after that he had the hairs plucked
out, so as to look more like a woman. And he often reclined while
receiving the salutations of the senators. The husband of this "woman"
was Hierocles, a Carian slave, once the favourite of Gordius, from whom
he had learned to drive a chariot. It was in this connexion that he won
the emperor's favour by a most remarkable chance. It seems that in a
certain race Hierocles fell out of his chariot just opposite the seat
of Sardanapalus, losing his helmet in his fall, and being still
beardless and adorned with a crown of yellow hair, he attracted the
attention of the emperor and was immediately rushed to the palace; and
there by his nocturnal feats he captivated Sardanapalus more than ever
and became exceedingly powerful. Indeed, he even had greater influence
than the emperor himself, and it was thought a small thing that his
mother, while still a slave, should be brought to Rome by soldiers and
be numbered among the wives of ex-consuls. Certain other men, too, were
frequently honoured by the emperor and became powerful, some because
they had joined in his uprising and others because they committed
adultery with him. For he wished to have the reputation of committing
adultery, so that in this respect, too, he might imitate the most lewd
women; and he would often allow himself to be caught in the very act,
in consequence of which he used to be violently upbraided by his
"husband" and beaten, so that he had black eyes. His affection for this
"husband" was no light inclination, but an ardent and firmly fixed
passion, so much so that he not only did not become vexed at any such
harsh treatment, but on the contrary loved him the more for it and
wished to make him Caesar in very fact; and he even threatened his
grandmother when she opposed him in this matter, and he became at odds
with the soldiers largely on this man's account. This was one of the
things that was destined to lead to his destruction.
Aurelius Zoticus, a native of Smyrna, whom they also called "Cook,"
after his father's trade, incurred the emperor's thorough love and
thorough hatred, and for the latter reason his life was saved. This
Aurelius not only had a body that was beautiful all over, seeing that
he was an athlete, but in particular he greatly surpassed all others in
the size of his private parts. This fact was reported to the emperor by
those who were on the look-out for such things, and the man was
suddenly whisked away from the games and brought to Rome, accompanied
by an immense escort, larger than Abgarus had had in the reign of
Severus or Tiridates in that of Nero. He was appointedcubicularius
before he had even been seen by the emperor, was honoured by the name
of the latter's grandfather, Avitus, was adorned with garlands as at a
festival, and entered the palace lighted by the glare of many torches.
Sardanapalus, on seeing him, sprang up with rhythmic movements, and
then, when Aurelius addressed him with the usual salutation, "My Lord
Emperor, Hail!" he bent his neck so as to assume a ravishing feminine
pose, and turning his eyes upon him with a melting gaze, answered
without any hesitation: "Call me not Lord, for I am a Lady." Then
Sardanapalus immediately joined him in the bath, and finding him when
stripped to be equal to his reputation, burned with even greater lust,
reclined on his breast, and took dinner, like some loved mistress, in
his bosom. But Hierocles fearing that Zoticus would captivate the
emperor more completely than he himself could, and that he might
therefore suffer some terrible fate at his hands, as often happens in
the case of rival lovers, caused the cup-bearers, who were well
disposed toward him, to administer a drug that abated the other's manly
prowess. And so Zoticus, after a whole night of embarrassment, being
unable to secure an erection, was deprived of all the honours that he
had received, and was driven out of the palace, out of Rome, and later
out of the rest of Italy; and this saved his life.
He carried his lewdness to such a point that he asked the physicians to
contrive a woman's vagina in his body by means of an incision,
promising them large sums for doing so.
Sardanapalus himself was destined not much later to receive a
well-deserved reward for his debauchery. For in consequence of doing
and submitting to these things he became hated by the populace and by
the soldiers, to whom he was most attached, and at least he was slain
by them in the very camp.
Avitus, according to Dio, besought his physician to employ his skill to make him bisexual by means of an anterior incision.
The false Antoninus was despised and put out of the way by the
soldiers. Thus it is that persons, particularly if armed, when they
have once accustomed themselves to feel contempt for their rulers, set
no limit to their right to do what they please, but keep their arms
ready to use against the very man who gave them that power.
This is how it came about. He brought his cousin Bassianus before the
senate, and having caused Maesa and Soaemis to take their places on
either side of him, formally adopted him as his son; and he
congratulated himself on becoming suddenly the father of so large a
boy,— though he himself was not much older than the other,— and
declared that he had no need of any other child to keep his house free
from despondency. He said that Elagabalus had ordered him to do this
and further to call his son's name Alexander. And I, for my part, am
persuaded that all this did come about in very truth by some divine
arrangement; though I infer this, not from what he said, but from the
statement made to him by someone else, to the effect that an Alexander
should come from Emesa to succeed him, and again from what happened in
Upper Moesia and in Thrace. For shortly before this time a spirit,
claiming to be the famous Alexander of Macedon, and resembling him in
looks and general appearance, set out from the regions along the Ister,
after first appearing there in some manner or other, and proceeded
through Moesia and Thrace, revelling in company with four hundred male
attendants, who were equipped with thyrsi and fawn skins and did no
harm. It was admitted by all those who were in Thrace at the time that
lodgings and all provisions for the spirit were donated at public
expense, and none — whether magistrate, soldier, procurator, or the
governors of the provinces — dared to oppose the spirit either by word
or deed, but it proceeded in broad daylight, as if in a solemn
procession, as far as Byzantium, as it had foretold. Then taking ship,
it landed in the territory of Chalcedon, and there, after performing
some sacred rites by night and burying a wooden horse, it vanished.
These facts I ascertained while still in Asia, as I have stated, number
before anything had been done at all about Bassianus at Rome.
One day this same emperor made this statement: "I do not want titles
derived from war and bloodshed. It is enough for me that you call me
Pius and Felix."
The False Antoninus, on being praised by the senate, remarked: "Yes,
you love me, and so, by Jupiter, does the populace, and also the
legions abroad; but I do not please the Pretorians, to whom I keep
giving so much."
So long as Sardanapalus continued to love his cousin, he was safe. But
when he became suspicious of all men and learned that their favour was
turning entirely to the boy, he ventured to change his mind and did
everything to bring above his destruction.
When some persons who were acting as advocates along with the False
Antoninus remarked how fortunate he was to be consul together with his
son, he replied: "I shall be more fortunate next year; for then I am
going to be consul with a real son."
When, however, Sardanapalus attempted to destroy Alexander, he not only
accomplished nothing but came near being killed himself. For Alexander
was sedulously guarded by his mother and his grandmother and by the
soldiers, and the Pretorians, also, on becoming aware of the attempt of
Sardanapalus, raised a terrible tumult; and they did not stop rioting
until Sardanapalus, accompanied by Alexander, came to the camp and
poured out his supplications and under compulsion surrendered such of
his companions in lewdness as the soldiers demanded. In behalf of
Hierocles he offered piteous pleas and bewailed him with tears; then,
pointing to his own throat, he cried: "Grant me this one man, whatever
you may have been pleased to suspect about him, or else slay me." Thus
with difficulty he succeeded in appeasing them; and for the time being
he was saved himself, though with difficulty. Even his grandmother
hated him because of his deeds, which seemed to show that he was not
the son of Antoninus at all, and was coming to favour Alexander, as
being really sprung from him. Later he again formed a plot against
Alexander, and when the Pretorians raised an outcry at this, he went
with him to the camp. But he then became aware that he was under guard
and awaiting execution, as the mothers of the two youths, being more
openly at variance with each other than before, were inflaming the
spirits of the soldiers; so he made an attempt to flee, and would have
got away somewhere by being placed in a chest, had he not been
discovered and slain, at the age of eighteen. His mother, who embraced
him and clung tightly to him, perished with him; their heads were cut
off and their bodies, after being stripped naked, were first dragged
all over the city, and then the mother's body was cast aside somewhere
or other, while his was thrown into the river.
With him perished, among others, Hierocles and the prefects; also
Aurelius Eubulus, who was an Emesene by birth and had gone so far in
lewdness and debauchery that his surrender had been demanded even by
the populace before this. He had been in charge of the fiscus, and
there was nothing that he did not confiscate. So now he was torn to
pieces by the populace and the soldiers; and Fulvius, the city prefect,
perished at the same time with him. Comazon had succeeded Fulvius, even
as he had succeeded Fulvius' predecessor; for just as a mask used to be
carried into the theatres to occupy the stage during the intervals in
the acting, when it was left vacant by the comic actors, so Comazon was
put in the vacant place of the men who had been city prefects in his
day. As for Elagabalus himself, he was banished from Rome altogether.
Such was the fate of Tiberinus; and none of those who had helped him
plan his uprising, and had gained great power in consequence, survived,
either, save perhaps a single person.
Alexander became emperor immediately after him, and entrusted to one
Domitius Ulpian the command of the Pretorians and the other business of
the empire.
Thus far I have described events with as great accuracy as I could in
every case, but for subsequent events I have not found it possible to
give an accurate account, for the reason that I did not spend much time
in Rome. For, after going from Asia into Bithynia, I fell sick, and
from there I hastened to my province of Africa; then, on returning to
Italy I was almost immediately sent as governor first to Dalmatia and
then to Upper Pannonia, and though after that I returned to Rome and to
Campania, I at once set out for home. For these reasons, then, I have
not been able to compile the same kind of account of subsequent events
as of the earlier ones. I will narrate briefly, however, all that
occurred up to the time of my second consulship.
Ulpian corresponded many of the irregularities introduced by
Sardanapalus; but after putting to death Flavianus and Chrestus, that
he might succeed them, he was himself slain ere long by the Pretorians,
who attached him in the night; and it availed him naught that he ran to
the palace and took refuge with the emperor himself and with the
emperor's mother. Even during his lifetime a great quarrel had arisen
between the populace and the Pretorians, from some small cause, with
the result that they fought together for three days and many lost their
lives on both sides. The soldiers, on getting the worst of it, directed
their efforts to setting fire to buildings; and so the populace,
fearing the whole city would be destroyed, reluctantly came to terms
with them. Besides these occurrences, Epagathus, who was believed to
have been chiefly responsible for the death of Ulpian, was sent to
Egypt, ostensibly as governor, but really in order to prevent any
disturbance from taking place in Rome, as it would if he were punished
there. From Egypt he was taken to Crete and executed.
Many uprisings were begun by many persons, some of which caused great alarm, but they were all put down.
But the situation in Mesopotamia became still more alarming and
inspired a more genuine fear in all, not merely the people in Rome, but
the rest of mankind as well. For Artaxerxes, a Persian, after
conquering the Parthians in three battles and killing their king,
Artabus, made a campaign against Hatra, in the endeavour to capture it
as a base for attacking the Romans. He actually did make a breach in
the wall, but when he lost a good many soldiers through an ambuscade,
he moved against Media. Of this country, as also of Parthia, he
acquired no small portion, partly by force and partly by intimidation,
and then marched against Armenia. Here he suffered a reverse at the
hands of the natives, some Medes, and the sons of Artabanus, number
either fled, as some say, or, as others assert, retired to prepare a
larger expedition. He accordingly became a source of fear to us; for he
was encamped with a large army so as to threaten not only Mesopotamia
but also Syria, and he boasted that he would win back everything that
the ancient Persians had once held, as far as the Grecian Sea, claiming
that all this was his rightful inheritance from his forefathers. The
danger lies not in the fact that he seems to be of any particular
consequence in himself, but rather in the fact that our armies are in
such a state that some of the troops are actually joining him and
others are refusing to defend themselves. They indulge in such
wantonness, licence, and lack of discipline, that those in Mesopotamia
even dared to kill their commander, Flavius Heracleo, and the
Pretorians complained of me to Ulpianus, because I ruled the soldiers
in Pannonia with a strong hand; and they demanded my surrender, through
fear that someone might compel them to submit to a régime
similar to that of the Pannonian troops.
Alexander, however, paid no heed to them, but, on the contrary,
honoured me in various ways, especially by appointing me to be consul
for the second time, as his colleague, and taking upon himself
personally the responsibility of meeting the expenditures of my office.
But as the malcontents evinced displeasure at this, he became afraid
that they might kill me if they saw me in the insignia of my office,
and so he bade me spend the period of my consulship in Italy, somewhere
outside of Rome. And thus later I came both to Rome and to Campania to
visit him, and spent a few days in his company, during which the
soldiers saw me without offering to do me any harm; then, having asked
to be excused because of the ailment of my feet, I set out for home,
with the intention of spending all the rest of my life in my native
land, as, indeed, the Heavenly Power revealed to me most clearly when I
was already in Bithynia. For once in a dream I thought I was commanded
by it to write at the close of my work these verses:
"Hector anon did Zeus lead forth out of range of the missiles,
Out of the dust and the slaying of men and the blood and the uproar."
FRAGMENT
When the false Antoninus had been put out of the way, Alexander, the
son of Mamaea, and his cousin, inherited the supreme power. He
immediately proclaimed his mother Augusta, and she took over the
direction of affairs and gathered wise men about her son, in order that
his habits might be correctly formed by them; she also chose the best
men in the senate as advisers, informing them of all that had to be
done.
End of Etext Cassius Dio Roman History Epitome of Book LXXX
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