Dios Rome, Vol. 4

Dio's Rome, Vol. 4

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Title: Dio's Rome, Vol. 4 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
Author: Cassius Dio
Release Date: January 31, 2004 [EBook #10883]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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DIO'S ROME

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
BY
HERBERT BALDWIN FOSTER, A.B. (Harvard), Ph. D. (Johns
Hopkins), Acting Professor of Greek in Lehigh University
FOURTH VOLUME
Extant Books 52-60 (B.C. 29-A.D. 54).
1905
PAFRAETS BOOK COMPANY TROY NEW YOKK

VOLUME CONTENTS
Book Fifty-two Book Fifty-three Book Fifty-four Book Fifty-five Book
Fifty-six Book Fifty-seven Book Fifty-eight Book Fifty-nine Book
Sixty
DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY
52
VOL. 4-1
The following is contained in the Fifty-second of Dio's Rome:
How Cæsar formed a plan to lay aside his sovereignty (chapters 1-40).
How he began to be called emperor (chapters 41-43).
Duration of time, the remainder of the consulship of Cæsar (5th) and
Sextus Apuleius. (B.C. 29 = a. u. 725.)
_(BOOK 52, BOISSEVAIN)_
[-1-] My record has so far stated what the Romans both did and
endured for seven hundred and twenty-five years under the monarchy,
as a democracy, and beneath the rule of a few. After this they reverted
to nothing more nor less than a state of monarchy again, although
Cæsar had a plan to lay down his arms and entrust affairs to the senate
and the populace. He held a consultation on the subject with Agrippa
and Mæcenas, to whom he communicated all his secrets. Agrippa, first
of the two, answered him as follows:--
[-2-] "Be not surprised, Cæsar, if I try to turn your mind away from
monarchy, in spite of the fact that I might enjoy many advantages from
it if you held the place. If it were going to prove serviceable to you, I
should be thoroughly enthusiastic for it. But those who hold supreme
power are not in a like position with their friends: the latter without

incurring jealousy or danger reap all the benefits they please, whereas
jealousies and dangers are the lot of the former. I have thought it right,
as in other cases, to look forward not for my own interest but for yours
and the public's. Let us consider leisurely all the features of the system
of government and turn whichever way our reflection may direct us.
For it will not be asserted that we ought to choose it under any and all
circumstances, even if it be not advantageous. Otherwise we shall seem
to have been unable to bear good fortune and to have gone mad through
our successes, or else to have been aiming at it long since, to have used
our father and our devotion to him as a mere screen, to have put "the
people and the senate" forward as an excuse. Our object will seem to
have been not to free them from conspirators but to enslave them to
ourselves. Either supposition entails censure. Who would not be
indignant to see that we had spoken words of one tenor, but to ascertain
that we had had something different in mind? How much more would
he hate us now than if we had at the outset laid bare our desires and
aimed straight at the monarchy! It has come to be generally believed
that to adopt some violent course belongs somehow to the nature of
man, even if it involves taking an unfair advantage. Every person who
excels in any business thinks it right that he should enjoy more
advantages than his inferior. If he meets with a success he ascribes it to
the force of his individual temperament, and if he fails in anything he
refers it to the workings of the supernatural. A man, however, who tries
to gain advancement by plots and injuries is in the first place held to be
crafty and crooked, malicious and vicious: (and this I know you would
allow no one to say or think about you, even if you might rule the
whole world by it): again, if he succeeds, he is thought to have gained
an unjust advantage, and if he fails, to have