16
He was slow-moulded but strong, though he eventually grew very weak from gout: mentally he was very keen and very firm. He wished for more education than he got and for this reason he was sagacious rather than a good talker. Toward friends not forgetful, to enemies most oppressive, he was capable of everything that he desired to accomplish but careless of everything said about him. Hence he gathered money from every source (save that he killed no one to get it) [and met all necessary expenditures quite ungrudgingly. He restored very many of the ancient buildings and inscribed upon them his own name to signify that he had repaired them so as to be new structures, and from his private funds. Also he spent a great deal uselessly upon renovating and repairing other places] , erecting, for instance, to Bacchus and Hercules a temple of huge size. Yet, though his expenses were enormous, he left behind not merely a few myriad denarii, easily reckoned, but a great many. Again, he rebuked such persons as were not chaste, even going to the extent of enacting certain laws in regard to adultery, with the result that there were any number of prosecutions for that offence. When consul I once found three thousand entered on the docket. But inasmuch as very few persons appeared to conduct their cases, he too ceased to trouble his head about it. Apropos of this, a quite witty remark is reported of the wife of Argentocoxus, a Caledonian, to Julia Augusta, when the latter after the treaty was joking her about the free intercourse of her sex in Britain with men. Thereupon the foreigner asserted: "We fulfill the necessities of nature in a much better way than you Roman women. We have dealings openly with the best men, whereas you let yourselves be debauched in secret by the vilest." This is what the British woman said.
17
The following is the style of life that Severus led in time of peace. He was sure to be doing something before dawn, while it was still night, and after this he would go to walk, telling and hearing of the interests of the empire. Then he held court, and separately (unless there were some great festival); and indeed, he did this very well. Those on trial were allowed plenty of water [
158
] and he granted us, his coadjutors, full liberty to speak.--He continued to preside till noonday. After that he went riding as much as he could. Next he took some kind of exercise and a bath. He then consumed a not meagre lunch, either by himself or with his children. Next, as a rule, he enjoyed a nap. Later he rose, attended to his remaining duties of administration, and while walking about occupied himself with discussions of both Greek and Latin lore. Then, toward evening, he would bathe again and dine with his attendants. Very seldom did he have any outsider to dinner and only on days when it was quite unavoidable did he arrange expensive banquets.--He lived sixty-five years, nine months, and twenty-five days, for he was born on the eleventh of April. Of this he had ruled seventeen years, eight months and three days. In fine, he showed himself so active that even expiring he gasped: "Come, give it to us, if we have anything to do!"
Footnote 1:C. Iulius Montanus C.F.(Cp. Suetonius, Life of Nero, chapter 60).Footnote 2: χτηνη of the MSS. was changed to χητη on the conjecture of Sylburgius, who was followed by Bekker, Dindorf, and Boissevain. (Compare also Suetonius, Life of Nero, chapter 12).Footnote 3: Adopting Reiske's conjecture,nv.Footnote 4:L. Iunius Gallio.Footnote 5: The title of one of Nero's poems.Footnote 6: Compare Tacitus, Annals, XIV, 32 ("visamque speciem in aestuario Tamesae subversae Coloniae").Footnote 7: It would seem natural to supply "for the uprising," as does Reiske.Footnote 8: The meaning of this phrase (αχουσιν) is not wholly clear. Naber purposes to substitute αιτυσιν ("that they were asking for").Footnote 9: Known commonly as Boadicea.Footnote 10: Reading χεχλημενους (van Herwerden).Footnote 11: Corruptions in the text emended by Reiske.Footnote 12: Not much information is preserved regarding this indigenous goddess of Britain. Reimar asserts that she is practically identical with Boccharte, Astarte, or Venus.Footnote 13:Foenius Rufus.Footnote 14:Rubellirs Plautus.Footnote 15: Compare Book Fifty-seven, chapter 18.Footnote 16: Reading υπαρχον (Boissevain) for υπατον.Footnote 17: A slight gap in the MS. exists here, filled by a doubtful conjecture of Boissevain's.Footnote 18:Salvidienus Orfitus(according to Suetonius, Life of Nero, chap. 37).Footnote 19:C. Cassius Longinus(ibid).Footnote 20: This proper name is the result of an emendation by Reimar.Footnote 21: Literally "victor of the periodos." This was a name applied to an athlete who had conquered in the Pythian, Isthmian, Nemean and Olympian games.Footnote 22: ου supplied by Reiske.Footnote 23,24: The two kinds of footwear mentioned here appear in the Greek as χοθορνος and εμβατης respectively. These words are often synonymous, and both may refer, as a rule, tohighboots. In the present passage, however, some kind of contrast is evidently intended, and the most acceptable solution of the question is that given by Sturz, in his edition, who says that the χοθορνος seems to have been used by Nero only in singing, whereas he wore the εμβατης (as also the mask) while acting.Footnote 25: τα πραγματα supplied by Polak.Footnote 26:P. Petronius Turpilianus.Footnote 27: Reading απεψθον (Reimar, Cobet et al.).Footnote 28,29: Piso and Galba are meant.Footnote 30:Q. Vibius Crispus.Footnote 31: This little phrase is taken direct from Plato'sCritias, 115 B.Footnote 32:M. Antonius Primus.Footnote 33:A. Caevina Alienus.Footnote 34: The epitome of Dio spells uniformlyCerealius.Footnote 35: Properly Simon Bar-Giora (patronymic).Footnote 36: This sentiment is expressed in the Greek by "to the crows."Footnote 37: Reading υποδιεψθειρον (Dindorf).Footnote 38: i.e., the hollowed hand (compare Suetonius Vespasian, chapter 23).Footnote 39: This refers to conveniences in the public streets.Footnote 40: This Agrippa, known also as Herodes II, was an intimate friend of the Jewish historian Josephus and a companion of Titus at the siege of Jerusalem. It was before him, moreover, that the apostle Paul made his defence in A.D. 60.Footnote 41: The meaning is clear. Cobet (Mnemosyne, N.S.X). thinks that ephorathae expresses the idea more accurately than the commonly accepted ephanerothae (Boissevain also ephorathae).Footnote 42: These are mineral springs, chiefly sulphurous in nature, both hot and cold, situated near the town of Cutiliae, famous for its pool with the "floating island." Celsus (On Medicine, Book Four, chapter 5 (=12)) recommends bathing and standing in such cold mineral springs as those at Cutiliae in cases where a patient suffers from inability of the stomach to assimilate food.--The town itself is between Reate and Interocrea among the Sabines. (And compare Suetonius, Vespasian, chapter 24).Footnote 43: L. Flavius Silva Nonius Bassus.Footnote 44: Asinius Pollio Verrucosus.Footnote 45: A gap must probably be construed here. Bekker (followed by Dindorf) regarded it as coming after "secretly" and consisting of but a word or two (e.g. "he hated them") but Boissevain locates it as indicated above and believes that considerably more is missing.Footnote 46: Reading εμελλον (Dindorf, Boissevain).Footnote 47: ProbablyCn. Suellius Flaccus.Footnote 48:Cornelius Fuscus, pretorian prefect.Footnote 49: Reading νανους (Dindorf)Footnote 50: Verb supplied by Xylander.Footnote 51: Pape thinks that the proper Latin form of this word beTabae.Footnote 52: Reading αλλα (Dindorf).Footnote 53: Hartman (Mnemosyne, N. S. XXI, p. 395) would read αστιον for ασχω ν. "Maternus met his death because he had made some witty remark against tyrants." H. maintains that Domitian could not know what Maternus said in his closet; but to the present translator the MS. tradition seems to lend to this incident a greater homogeneousness of detail with the preceding, and he retains it simply on that basis.Footnote 54: An error of the excerptor. The Lygians lived north of Moesia.Footnote 55: His sister's daughter.Footnote 56: An error, possibly emanating from Dio. The man's right name isT. Manlius Valens.Footnote 57: Probably the person who is called Saturius in Suetonius, Domitian, chapter 17.Footnote 58: Compare Book Forty-eight, chapter 44.Footnote 59: As the MS tradition of this sentence is corrupt, the emendations of Polak have been adopted.Footnote 60: The name is suspicious and possibly a corrupt reading.Footnote 61: Compare Book Sixty-three, chapter 25 of Dio, and also Tacitus,HistoriaeI, 9.Footnote 62: Compare also Pliny's Letters, Book Six, number 10.Footnote 63: From Homer's Iliad, Book One, verse 42.Footnote 64: Dio means byItalianone born in Italy, byItaliotone who settles in Italy.Footnote 65: Reading προβεβιω χει (Boissevain).Footnote 66: Latin,pileati. The distinction drawn is that between the plebeians and thenobles, to whom reference is made respectively by the terms "unshorn" and "covered." Compare here the make up of the Marcomanian embassy in Book Seventy-two, chapter two.Footnote 67: Reading αυτομολω ν τινα (Boissevain).Footnote 68: Saburanus. (?)Footnote 69:L. Publilius Celsus.Footnote 70:Exedares.Footnote 71:Osrhoes.Footnote 72: Some puzzling corruption in the MS.Footnote 73: Probably in the days of Domitian.Footnote 74: Reading ασελινον (Bekker) = "without the parsley crown" (such as was bestowed upon victors in some of the Greek games).Footnote 75: ερυθρα from Erythras, who was said to have been drowned in it (as if in English we should invent a King Redd).Footnote 76: The Tauchnitz reading, εν πλοιω will not fit the context. Just below ιθους (Bekker) has to be read for μυθους.Footnote 77: Boissevain's reading.Footnote 78: Reading επι (Dindorf) instead of περι.Footnote 79: Compare Appian, Civil Wars, Book Two, chapter 86 (also Spartianus, 14, 4).Footnote 80: Not the same person as is mentioned in the previous chapter.Footnote 81: i.e., "we natives of Bithynia" (Dio's country).Footnote 82: It is impossible to determine, from the date of this fragment, whether the subject should be Hadrian or Antoninus Pius.Footnote 83: Seventeen, according to the common tradition.Footnote 84: IV, 9.Footnote 85: Compare also Zonaras V, 12 (p. 80, II. 3-11 Dind.). It is not certain whether this earthquake properly belongs to the reign of Pius or that of Marcus. If to the former, it must have occurred between 150 and 155 B.C. SeeHermesXXVI, pages 444-446 (Boissevain:Zonaras Quelle für die Romische Kaisergeschichte von Nerva bis Severus Alexander) and XXXII, pages 497-508 (B. Keil:Kyzikenisches); alsoByzantinische ZeitschriftI, page 30 ff. (article by de Boor).Footnote 86: "Sextus of Chaeronea, grandson of Plutarch" (Capitolinus,Vita M. Antoni Philosophi, 3, 2).Footnote 87: Or perhapsOsi.Footnote 88:M. Macrinius Avitus Catonius Vindex.Footnote 89:M. Iallius Bassus.Footnote 90: Or perhapsBadomarius.Footnote 91:Sex. Cornelius Clemens.Footnote 92: Omitting χαι.Footnote 93: This refers to the contrivance known as the clepsydra or water-clock, which measured time by the slow dropping of water from an upper into a lower vessel, somewhat on the plan of the hour-glass.Footnote 94: See Galen, On Antidotes, Book Two, chapter 17, and On Theriac (to Piso), chapter 2.Footnote 95: Reading εξελειν (Boissevain) in place of the MS. εξελθειν.Footnote 96:P. Martius Verus.Footnote 97: The reference is evidently to Book Fifty-five, chapter 23, but it should be observed that the names, though very possibly having the same sense, are not identical. The legion is here called χεραυνοψολος (= Fulminatrix or Fulminata) but in 55, 23 χεραυνοψορος (= Fulminifera).Footnote 98: Cp. Mommsen,Staatsrecht, 12, p. 123 (or 13, p. 124); also III, p. 1108.Footnote 99: From Euripides, The Suppliants, verse 119.Footnote 100: Or five miles.Footnote 101: Reading ημαλλον (Boissevain).Footnote 102:C. Avidius Heliodorus(cp. Book Sixty-nine, chapter 3).Footnote 103: Reimar suggested that perhaps Pudens was secretary of the Greek letters of Cassius, as Manlius (Book Seventy-two, chapter 7) was of his Latin letters.Footnote 104: Reading επ εμου (Dindorf).Footnote 105: The reference here made by Dio may very possibly be to a passage reproduced by Zonaras (XII, 1), regarding the authenticity of which Boissevain is nevertheless somewhat doubtful. For the sake of completeness a translation is here given (ουμην [Lacuna] εβιασατο):"Yet he was not thereby induced to secure money from the subject nations. On one occasion, indeed, with wars impending, he had come short for funds and still did not devise any new tax nor endure to ask money from any one. Instead, he exposed in the Forum all the heirlooms of the palace, even down to this or that piece of finery belonging to his wife, and solicited their purchase by any person so disposed. This brought him a store of coin, which he distributed to the soldiers. By success in the war he gained many times the amount in question, and he issued a proclamation to the effect than any one so disposed among the purchasers of the imperial property might return the article purchased and receive its value. Some did so, but the majority declined. And nobody was compelled to restore any object thus acquired."Footnote 106: Supplying, with Reiske, επετρεπον.Footnote 107: What this name was no one knows. Sylburgius conjectured that it might beAequanimitas.Footnote 108: Since Apollonius was really from Chalcedon, an error may here charged to Dio's or some one else's account.Footnote 109: Reading χατιω μενην (Dindorf, following Reiske).Footnote 110,111,112: The MS. is here very possibly corrupt.Footnote 113:P. Salvius Julianus.Footnote 114: Vitrasia Faustina by name.Footnote 115: Boissevain suggests that the "Roman Hercules" perhaps feared that Alexander might diminish his glory.Footnote 116: See Book Sixty-seven, chapter 11.Footnote 117: It is just barely possible that the o = riginal gave some different idea from "his contests were" (cp. the text of Boissée).Footnote 118: Supplying ους (after Reimar).Footnote 119: Reading εμηνυσαν (Dindorf, after H. Stephanus).Footnote 120: Reading επηγγειλατο (Dindorf, after Bekker).Footnote 121: Reading ερρω το (Dindorf).Footnote 122: Pertinax is meant.Footnote 123: Reading ογχο (Reimar) for the MS. ορχο.Footnote 124: A slight gap in the MS., where we should perhaps read: "all of us who had done any favors for Pertinax or anything to displease Julianus" (Boissevain).Footnote 125: Reading λελουμενοι (Reiske) for the MS. δεδουλωμενοι.Footnote 126: The name, so far as can be discerned in the MS., may be Fulvius or Flavius or Fabius. The position and import of the fragment are alike doubtful.Footnote 127: Located on the Capitol, and established by Hadrian.Footnote 128: Reading πομπευοντες (Dindorf, after Bekker).Footnote 129: Compare Plato, Republic, 399 C.Footnote 130: Reading πενθιχως (Sylburgius, Boissevain et al.).Footnote 131:P. Cornelius Anullinus.Footnote 132: Compare Xenophon'sAnabasis, I, 4, 4-5.Footnote 133: The MS. text is faulty, and the translation, ventured independently, corresponds approximately to a suggestion by van Herwerden in Boissevain's edition.Footnote 134: Supplying, with Reiske, σοι [Lacuna] χολασθηναι.Footnote 135: The MS. is corrupt. Adiabene, Atrene and Arbelitis have all been suggested as the district to which Dio actually referred here.Footnote 136: Omitting αυτου (as Dindorf).Footnote 137: Some words appear to have fallen out at this point (so Dindorf).Footnote 138:C. Iulius Erucius Clarus Vibianus.Footnote 139: Two and a half lines beginning with verse 371 in Book Eleven of Virgil's Aeneid.Footnote 140: Compare Book Seventy-four, chapter 11.Footnote 141: Compare the beginning of Book Thirty-six (supplied from Xiphilinus).Footnote 142: Supplying θερους (Reiske's conjecture).Footnote 143: Reading γυμνιχων for γυναιχων, which is possibly corrupt.Footnote 144: Reading Αλαμανναι for αλουμεναι, which is undoubtedly corrupt.Footnote 145: Hesychius says of this beast merely that it is a quadruped of Aethiopia. Strabo calls it a cross between wolf and dog.Pliny (Natural History, VIII, 21 (30)) gives the following description:"Crocottas are apparently the offspring of dog and wolf; they crush all their food with their teeth and forthwith gulp it down to be assimilated by the belly."Again, of the Leucrocotta:"A most destructive beast about the size of an ass, with legs of a deer, the neck, tail and breast of a lion, a badger's head, cloven hoof, mouth slit to the ears, and, in place of teeth, a solid line of bone."Also, in VIII, 30 (45), he says:"The lioness of Ethiopia by copulation with a hyaena brings forth the crocotta."Capitolinus (Life of Antoninus Pius, 10, 9) remarks that the first Antoninus had exhibited the animal in Rome.Further, see Aelian, VII, 22.Footnote 146: These cages were often made in various odd shapes and opened automatically. Compare the closing sentences of the preceding book.Footnote 147: Reading αυτοχρατορων (emendation of H. Stephanus).Footnote 148: This person's name is properlyM. Plautius Quintillus.Footnote 149: Compare Book Sixty-nine, chapter 17.Footnote 150: The phrase φαλαχρου παραχυψεως has a humorous ring to it, and I am inclined to believe, especially considering the situation, that Dio had in his mind while writing this the familiar proverb ονου παραχυψεως, a famous response given by a careless ass-driver, whose animal being several rods in advance of its lagging master had stuck its head into an open doorway and thereby scattered the nucleus of a promising aviary. The fellow was haled to court to answer to a charge of contributory negligence and when some bystander asked him for what misdeed he had been brought to that place, he rejoined with a great air of injured innocence: "For an ass's peeping!"Footnote 151:A. Pollenius Auspex.Footnote 152: The significance of this happening is explained as follows. Taking the Greek form of Severus, namely ΣΕΒΗΡΟΣ and erasing the first three letters you have left ΗΡΟΣ = ΗΡΩΣ =heros, "hero." When a thunderbolt substitutes the word "hero" for the emperor's name, the supposition naturally arises that the ruler will soon be numbered among the heroes, that is, that he will cease to exist as a mortal man.Footnote 153: The reading is a little doubtful. Possibly "in such cases" (παρα ταυτα). (Boissevain).Footnote 154: Compare Book Thirty-nine, chapter 50, which, in turn, refers to Book Sixty-six, chapter 20.Footnote 155: Compare Tacitus,Agricola, chapter 12 (two sentences, Dierum [Lacuna] affirmant).Footnote 156: Reading υποτετηχς (suggestion of Boissevain, who does not regard Naber's emendation, Mnemosyne, XVI, p. 113, as feasible).Footnote 157: Homer's Iliad, VI, verse 57, with a slight change at the end.Footnote 158: The water-clock again. Compare Book Seventy-one, chapter 6.
"Yet he was not thereby induced to secure money from the subject nations. On one occasion, indeed, with wars impending, he had come short for funds and still did not devise any new tax nor endure to ask money from any one. Instead, he exposed in the Forum all the heirlooms of the palace, even down to this or that piece of finery belonging to his wife, and solicited their purchase by any person so disposed. This brought him a store of coin, which he distributed to the soldiers. By success in the war he gained many times the amount in question, and he issued a proclamation to the effect than any one so disposed among the purchasers of the imperial property might return the article purchased and receive its value. Some did so, but the majority declined. And nobody was compelled to restore any object thus acquired."
"Crocottas are apparently the offspring of dog and wolf; they crush all their food with their teeth and forthwith gulp it down to be assimilated by the belly."
"A most destructive beast about the size of an ass, with legs of a deer, the neck, tail and breast of a lion, a badger's head, cloven hoof, mouth slit to the ears, and, in place of teeth, a solid line of bone."
"The lioness of Ethiopia by copulation with a hyaena brings forth the crocotta."