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
About Avitus, called also Pseudantoninus, and the slaughter that he
wrought (chapters 1-7).
About his transgression of law and how he married the Vestal (chapters
8-10).
About Eleogabalus [Footnote: It will be noted that the spelling of this
word in the Greek "arguments" of the MSS. differs from that in the
Greek text of the same.] and how he summoned Urania to Rome and united
her in bonds of wedlock with Eleogabalus (chapters 11-12).
About his licentiousness (chapters 13-16).
How he adopted his cousin and also renamed him Alexander (chapters 17,
18).
How he was overthrown and slain (chapters 19-21).
DURATION OF TIME.
The remainder of the consulship of Macrinus and Adventus, together with
four additional years, in which there were the following magistrates,
here enumerated. Pseudantoninus (II) and Q. Tineius Sacerdos. (A.D. 219
= a.u. 972 = Second of Eleogabalus, from June 8th.)
Pseudantoninus (III) and M. Valerius Comazon. (A.D. 220 = a.u. 973 =
Third of Elagabalus.)
C. Vettius Gratus Sabinianus and M. Flavius Vitellius Seleucus. (A.D.
221 = a.u. 974 = Fourth of Elagabalus.)
Pseudantoninus (IV) and M. Amelius Severus Alexander. (A.D. 222 = a.u.
975 = Fifth of Elagabalus to March 11th.)
(BOOK 80, BOISSEVAIN.)
[Sidenote: A.D. 218 (_a.u._ 971)] [Sidenote:--1--] Now Avitus, alias
False Antoninus, alias Assyrian or again Sardanapalus and also Tiberinus
(he secured the last appellation after he had been slain and his body
thrown into the Tiber) [on the very next day after the victory entered
Antioch, first promising the soldiers attending him five hundred denarii
apiece on condition that they should not sack the town,--a thing which
they were very anxious to do. This amount he levied upon the people. And
he sent to Rome such a despatch as might have been expected, speaking
much evil of Macrinus, especially with reference to his low birth and
his plot against Antoninus. Here is a sample of what he said: "He who
was not permitted to enter even the senate-house after the proclamation
debarring everybody other than senators from doing so, this man, I say,
dared treacherously to murder the emperor whom he had been trusted to
guard, dared to appropriate his office and to become emperor before he
was senator." About himself he made many promises, not only to the
soldiers but also to the senate and the people. He asserted that he
should do everything without exception to emulate Augustus (to whose
youth he likened his own) and also Marcus Antoninus. Yes, and he wrote
also the following, alluding to the derogatory remarks made about him
by Macrinus: "He undertook to censure my age, when he himself appointed
a five-year old son."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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