Dio's Rome, Volume 6: 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 6: 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
[Sidenote:--34--] [lacuna] Marcianus [lacuna] Macrinus [lacuna] (for
Marcellus was dead) he put this person to death; but, lacking courage to
proceed further on his own responsibility without Macrinus, he sent for
the latter. Macrinus came quickly to the Alban soldiers at Apamea and
appointed his son emperor in spite of the lad's being but ten years old,
in order that with this excuse he might mollify the soldiers by various
means, chief among which should be the promise of five thousand denarii;
he assigned them a thousand each on the spot and restored to the rest
complete allowances of food and everything else of which they had been
deprived: in this way he hoped to appease them. With this same end in
view he bestowed upon the populace a dinner worth one hundred and fifty
denarii a head before revealing to them anything about the uprising; for
he wanted it to be thought that he was banqueting them not because of
that event but to show honor to his son. And on that occasion first one
of the revolted soldiers approached him carrying the head of Julianus
(who had been found somewhere in hiding and slain), in many linen cloths
and tied up very strongly indeed with ropes, pretending it was the head
of the False Antoninus. He had sealed the package with the finger ring
of Julianus. After doing that the soldier ran out when the head was
uncovered. Macrinus, upon discovering what had been done, no longer
dared either to stay where he was or to assault the fortification, but
returned to Antioch with all speed. So the Alban legion and the rest who
were wintering in that region likewise revolted. The opposing parties
continued their preparations and both sides sent messengers and letters
to the provinces and to the legions. As a result perturbation was caused
in many places by the first communication of each side about the other
and by the constant messages contradicting each other. In the course of
the uncertainty numerous letter-carriers on both sides lost their lives,
and numbers of those who had slain the followers of Antoninus, or had
not immediately attached themselves to their cause, were censured. Some
perished on this account and some merely incurred a small loss. Hence I
will pass over most of this (it is all very much alike and permits of no
considerable description in detail) and will give a summary of what took
place in Egypt.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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