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
[Footnote 15: A gap exists in the Medicean MS. because the first leaf in
the third quaternion is lacking. The omission may be partly filled out
from Xiphilinus (p. 7):
"He returned from Armenia and arbitrated disputes besides conducting
other business for kings and potentates who came to him. He confirmed
some in possession of their kingdoms, added to the principalities of
others, and curtailed and humbled the excessive powers of a few. Hollow
Syria and Phoenicia which had lately ridden themselves of their rulers
and had been made the prey of the Arabians and Tigranes were united.
Antiochus had dared to ask them back, but he did not secure them.
Instead, they were combined into one province and received laws so that
their government was carried on in the Roman fashion."
As to the words at the end of chapter 7, "although her child was with,"
an inkling of their significance may be had from Appian, Mithridates,
chapter 107. Stratonice had betrayed to Pompey a treasurehouse on the
sole condition that if he should capture Xiphares, a favorite son of
hers, he should spare him. This disloyalty to Mithridates enraged the
latter, who gained possession of the youth and slew him, while the
mother beheld the deed of revenge from a distance.]
[Footnote 16: L. _Annius Bellienus_.]
[Footnote 17: L. _Luscius_.]
[Footnote 18: Or "and these were" (according to the MS. reading
selected).]
[Footnote 19: Xiphilinus adds: "after approaching and offering him
this."]
[Footnote 20: I.e., Jehovah.]
[Footnote 21: Sol and Luna: or the sun and moon. The words appear in the
text without any article and may be personified.]
[Footnote 22: Dio attempts in chapters 18 and 19 to explain why the days
of the week are associated with the names of the planets. It should be
borne in mind that the order of the planets with reference to their
distance from the earth (counting from farthest to nearest) is as
follows: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon. The custom of
naming the days may then have arisen, he says, (1) by regarding the gods
as originally presiding over separate _days_ assigned by the principle
of the tetrachord (I.e., skipping two stars in your count each time as
you go over the list) so that you get this order: the day of Saturn, of
the Sun, of the Moon, of Mars, of Mercury, of Jupiter, of Venus
(Saturday to Friday, inclusive); or (2) by regarding the gods as
properly gods of the _hours_, which are assigned in order, beginning
with Saturn, as in the list above,--and allowing it to be understood
that that god who is found by this system to preside over the _first
hour_ shall also give his name to the day in question.]
[Footnote 23: See Book Thirty-six, chapter 43.]
[Footnote 24: After "join him" there is a gap in the MS. The words
necessary to complete this sentence and to begin the next were supplied
by Reiske.]
[Footnote 25: Cobet (Mnemosyne N.S., X, p. 195) thinks that there is
here a reminiscence of Cicero, _Ad Atticum_, I, 16, 5.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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