[Sidenote: A.D. 168(?)] Yet, when a most violent struggle and brilliant victory had taken place, the emperor nevertheless refused the petition of the soldiers for money, making this statement: "Whatever excess they obtain above the customary amount will be wrung from the blood of their parents and their kinsmen. For respecting the fate of the empire Heaven alone can decide."--And he ruled them so temperately and firmly that even in the course of so many and great wars he was impelled neither by flattery nor by fear to do aught that was unfitting. [Sidenote: A.D. 172 (a.u. 925)] After conquering them Marcus received the title of Germanicus. We give the name "Germans" to those who dwell in the northern regions. [Sidenote:--4--] The so-called Bucoli began a disturbance in Egypt, and under the leadership of Isidorus, a priest, [Footnote: Omitting [Greek: kai].] caused the rest of the Egyptians to revolt. They had first, arrayed in women's garments, deceived the Roman centurion, making him think that they were Bucoli women and wanted to give him gold pieces in exchange for their husbands, and then striking him down when he approached them. His companion they sacrificed, and after taking a common oath over his entrails they devoured them. Isidorus surpassed in bribery all his contemporaries. Next, having conquered the Romans in Egypt in regular battle they came very near capturing Alexandria, and would have done so, had not Cassius been sent against them from Syria as directing general. He succeeded in spoiling the concord that existed among them and sundering them one from another, for on account of their numbers and desperation he had not ventured to attack them united. So when they fell into factional disputes he easily subdued them. [Sidenote:--5--] Now it was in Marcus's war against the Germans (if mention ought to be made of these matters), that a captive lad on being asked some questions by him rejoined: "I can not answer you because of the cold. So if you want to find out anything, command that a coat be given me, if you have one."--And a soldier one night, who was doing guard duty on the Ister, hearing a shout of his fellow-soldiers in captivity on the other side, at once swam the stream just as he was, released them, and brought them back. One prefect of Marcus's was Bassaeus Rufus, a good man on the whole, but uneducated and boorish, having been brought up in poverty in his early youth. [Wherefore he had been disinclined to go on the campaign, and what Marcus said was incomprehensible to him.] Once some one had interrupted him in the midst of trimming a vine that wound about a tree, and when he did not come down at the first bidding, the person rebuked him, and said: "Come down there, prefect." This he said thinking to humiliate him for his previous haughtiness; yet later Fortune gave him this title to wear.