Dios Rome, Vol. 6 | Page 7

entertain a contempt for them and
would not keep his hands off this tribe even; but, whereas he had been
saying that he had come as an ally, he accorded them treatment to be
expected of a most implacable foe. He called a meeting of their men of
military age under promise that they were to receive pay, and then at a
given signal,--his raising aloft his own shield,--he had them surrounded
and cut down; he also sent cavalry around and arrested all others not
present.
¶Antoninus commended in the senate by means of a letter Pandion, a
fellow who had previously been an understudy of charioteers but in the
war against the Alamanni drove his chariot for him and in this capacity
was his comrade and fellow soldier. And he asserted that he had been
saved by this man from a portentous danger and was not ashamed to
evince greater gratitude to him than to the soldiers, whom in their turn
he regarded as our superiors.[Footnote: There is a gap of a word or two
here (Dindorf text), filled by reading [Greek: hêlen hechôn] (with
Boissevain).]
¶Some of the most distinguished men whom Antoninus slew he ordered
to be cast out unburied.
¶He made a search for the tomb of Sulla and repaired it, and reared a
cenotaph to Mesomedes, who had written a compilation of citharoedic
modes. He honored the latter because he was himself learning to sing to

the zither and the former because he was emulating his cruelty.]
Still, in cases of necessity and urgent campaigns, he was simple and
frugal, toiling with painstaking care in menial offices as much as the
rest. He trudged beside the soldiers and ran beside them, not taking a
bath nor changing his clothing, but helping them in every labor and
choosing absolutely the same food as they had. Often he would send to
distinguished champions on the enemy's side and challenge them to
single combat. The details of generalship in which he certainly ought to
have been most versed he managed least well, as if he thought that
victory lay in the performance of those services mentioned and not in
this science of commanding.
[Sidenote:--14--] He conducted war also against a certain Celtic tribe of
Cenni. These warriors are said to have assailed the Romans with the
utmost fierceness, using their mouths to pull from their flesh the
missiles with which the Osrhoeni wounded them, that they might give
their hands no respite in slaughtering the foe. Nevertheless even they,
after selling the name of defeat at a high figure, made an agreement
with him to go into Germany on condition of being spared. Their
women [and those of the Alamanni] all who were captured [would not,
in truth, await a servile doom, but] when Antoninus asked them
whether they desired to be sold or slain, chose the latter alternative.
Afterward, as they were offered for sale, they all killed themselves and
some of their children as well. [Many also of the people dwelling close
to the ocean itself, near the mouth of the Albis, sent envoys to him and
asked his friendship, when their real concern was to get money. For
after he had done as they desired, they would frequently attack him,
threatening to begin a war; and with all such he came to terms. Even
though his offer was contrary to their principles, yet when they saw the
gold pieces they were captivated. To them he gave true gold pieces, but
the silver and gold money with which he provided the Romans was
alloyed.] He manufactured the one of lead with a silver plating and the
other of bronze with a gold plating.
[Sidenote:--15--] [The same ruler published some of his devices
directly, pretending that they were excellent and worthy of
commendation, however base their actual character. Other intentions he
rather unwillingly made known through the very precautions which he
took to conceal them, as, for example, in the case of the money. He

plundered the whole land and the whole sea and left nothing whatever
unharmed. The chants of the enemy made Antoninus frenzied and
beside himself, hearing which some of the Alamanni asserted that they
had used charms to put him out of his mind.] He was sick in body,
partly with ordinary and partly with private diseases, and was sick also
in mind, suffering from distressing visions; and often he thought he was
being pursued by his father and his brother, armed with swords.
Therefore he called up spirits to find some remedy against them, among
others the spirit of his father and of Commodus. But not one would
speak a word to him except Commodus. [Geta, so they say, attended
Severus, though unsummoned. Yet not even he offered any suggestion
to relieve the emperor,