Dio's Rome, Volume 3: 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 3: 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
The Egyptians and Alexandrians were all spared, and Caesar did not injure
one of them. The truth was that he did not see fit to visit any extreme
vengeance upon so great a people, who might prove very useful to the
Romans in many ways. He nevertheless offered the pretext that he wished
to please their god Serapis, Alexander their founder, and, third, Areus
a citizen, who was a philosopher and enjoyed his society. The speech in
which he proclaimed to them his pardon he spoke in Greek, so that they
might understand him. After this he viewed the body of Alexander and also
touched it, at which a piece of the nose, it is said, was crushed. But he
would not go to see the remains of the Ptolemies, though the Alexandrians
were extremely anxious to show them, for he said: "I wanted to see a
king, and not corpses." For the same reason he would not enter the
presence of Apis, declaring that he was "accustomed to worship gods and
not cattle." [-17-] Soon after he made Egypt tributary and gave it in
charge of Cornelius Gallus. In view of the populousness of both cities
and country, and the facile, fickle character of the inhabitants, and the
importance of grain supplies and revenue, so far from daring to entrust
the land to any senator he would not even grant one permission to live in
it, unless he made the concession to some one _nominatim_. On the other
hand, he did not allow the Egyptians to be senators in Rome, but
after considering individual cases on their merits he commanded the
Alexandrians to conduct their government without senators; with such
capacity for revolution did he credit them. And of the system then
imposed upon them most details are rigorously preserved to the present
day, but there are senators in Alexandria, beginning first under the
emperor Severus, and they also may serve in Rome, having first been
enrolled in the senate in the reign of his son Antoninus.
Thus was Egypt enslaved. All of the inhabitants who resisted were subdued
after a time, as, indeed, Heaven very clearly indicated to them would
occur. For it rained not only water, where previously no drop had ever
fallen, but also blood. At the same time that this was falling from the
clouds glimpses were caught of armor. Elsewhere there was the clashing of
drums and cymbals and the notes of flutes and trumpets. A serpent of huge
size was suddenly seen and gave a hiss incredibly loud. Meanwhile comet
stars came frequently into view and ghosts of the dead took shape. The
statues frowned: Apis bellowed a lament and shed tears. Such was the
status of things in that respect.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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