“I do not assist the populace:  for it has not called upon me.”

[Sidenote:—­14—­] Julianus after seizing the power in this way managed affairs in a servile fashion, paying court to the senate as well as to men of any influence.  Sometimes he made offers, again he bestowed gifts, and he laughed and sported with anybody and everybody.  He was constantly going to the theatre and kept getting up banquets:  in fine, he left nothing undone to win our favor.  However, he was not trusted; his servility was so abject that it made him an object of suspicion.  Everything out of the common, even if it seems to be a kindness to somebody, is regarded by men of sense as a trap.

The senate had at one time voted him a golden statue and he refused to accept it, saying:  “Give me a bronze one so that it may last; for I perceive that the gold and silver statues of the emperors that ruled before me have been torn down, whereas the bronze ones remain.”  In this he was not right:  since ’tis excellence that safeguards the memory of potentates.  And the bronze statue that was bestowed upon him was torn down after he was overthrown.

This was what went on in Rome.  Now I shall speak about what happened outside and the various revolutions.  There were three men at this time who were commanding each three legions of citizens and many foreigners besides, and they all asserted their claims,—­Severus, Niger, and Albinus.  The last-named governed Britain, Severus Pannonia, and Niger Syria.  These were the three persons darkly indicated by the three stars that suddenly came to view surrounding the sun, when Julianus in our presence was offering the Sacrifices of Entrance in front of the senate-house.  These heavenly bodies were so very brilliant that the soldiers kept continually looking at them and pointing them out to one another, declaring moreover that some dreadful fate would befall the usurper.  As for us, however much we hoped and prayed that it might so prove, yet the fear of the moment would not permit us to gaze at them, save by occasional glances.  Such are the facts that I know about the matter.

[Sidenote:—­15—­] Of the three leaders that I have mentioned Severus [was] the shrewdest [in being able to foresee the future with accuracy, to manage present affairs successfully, to ascertain everything concealed as well as if it had been laid bare and to work out every complicated situation with the greatest ease.] He understood in advance that after deposing Julianus the three would fall to blows with one another and offer combat for the possession of the empire, and therefore determined to win over the rival who was nearest him.  So he sent a letter by one of his trusted managers to Albinus, creating him Caesar.  Of Niger, who was proud of having been invoked by the people, he had no hopes.  Albinus on the supposition that he was going to share the empire with Severus remained where he was:  Severus made all strategic points in Europe, save Byzantium, his own and hastened toward Rome.  He did not venture outside a protecting circle of weapons, having selected his six hundred most valiant men in whose midst he passed his time day and night; these did not once put off their breastplates until they reached Rome.