Dio's Rome, Volume 2: An Historical Narrative Originally Composed in Greek During the Reigns of Septimius Severus, Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus: and Now Presented in English FormCassius Dio Cocceianus
History
Dio's Rome, Volume 2: An Historical Narrative Originally Composed in Greek During the Reigns of Septimius Severus, Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus: and Now Presented in English Form
Cassius Dio Cocceianus
Rome -- History
[-48-] Caesar took great pride in the victory,--more, indeed, than in any
other, in spite of the fact that it had not been very glorious,--because
on the same day and at one and the same hour he had come to the enemy,
had seen him, and had conquered him. All the spoils, though of great
magnitude, he bestowed upon the soldiers, and he set up a trophy to
offset one which Mithridates had raised to commemorate the defeat of
Triarius.[80] He did not dare to take down that of the barbarians
because it had been dedicated to the gods of war, but by the erection of
his own he overshadowed and to a certain extent demolished the other.
Next he gained possession of all the region belonging to the Romans and
those bound to them by oath which Pharnaces had ravaged, and restored it
to the individuals who had been dispossessed, except a portion of
Armenia, which he granted to Ariobarzanes. The people of Amisus he
rewarded with freedom, and to Mithridates the Pergamenian he gave a
tetrarchy in Galatia with the name of kingdom and allowed him to wage
war against Asander, so that by conquering him, because he had proved
base toward his friend Mithridates might get Bosporus also.
[-49-] After accomplishing this and bidding Domitius arrange the rest he
came to Bithynia and from there to Greece, whence he sailed for Italy,
collecting all the way great sums of money from everybody, and upon
every pretext, just as before. On the one hand he levied all that
individuals had promised in advance to Pompey, and on the other he asked
for still more from outside sources, bringing some accusation against
the places to justify his act. All votive offerings of Heracles at Tyre
he removed, because the people had received the wife and child of Pompey
when they were fleeing. Many golden crowns, also, commemorative of
victories, he took from potentates and kings. This he did not out of
malice but because his expenditures were on a vast scale and because he
was intending to lay out still more upon his legions, his triumph, and
everything else that could add to his brilliance. Briefly, he showed
himself a money-getter, declaring that there were two things which
created and protected and augmented sovereignties,--soldiers and money;
and that these two were dependent upon each other. By proper support
armies were kept together, and this support was gathered by the use of
arms: and if either the one or the other were lacking, the second of
them would be overthrown at the same time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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