[Sidenote:  A.D. 198 (a.u. 951)] [Sidenote:—­9—­] The next thing Severus did was to make a campaign against the Parthians.  While he was busied with civil wars, they had been free from molestation and had thus been able by an expedition in full force to capture Mesopotamia.  They also came very near reducing Nisbis, and would have done so, had not Laetus, who was besieged there, preserved the place.  Though previously noted for other political and private and public excellences, in peace as well as in wars, he derived even greater glory from this exploit.  Severus on reaching the aforesaid Nisibis encountered an enormous boar.  With its charge it killed a horseman who, trusting to his own strength, attempted to run it down, and it was with difficulty stopped and killed by many soldiers,—­thirty being the number required to stop it; the beast was then conveyed to Severus.

The Parthians did not wait for him but retired homeward. (Their leader was Vologaesus, whose brother was accompanying Severus).  Hence Severus equipped boats on the Euphrates and reached him partly by marching, partly by sailing.  The newly constructed vessels were exceedingly manageable and well appointed, for the forest along the Euphrates and those regions in general afforded the emperor an abundant supply of timber.  Thus he soon had seized Seleucia and Babylon, both of which had been abandoned.  Subsequently he captured Ctesiphon and permitted his soldiers to plunder the whole town, causing a great slaughter of men and taking nearly ten myriads alive.  However, he did not pursue Vologaesus nor yet occupy Ctesiphon, but as if the sole purpose of his campaign had been to plunder it, he thereupon departed.  This action was due partly to lack of acquaintance with the country and partly to dearth of provisions.  His return was made by a different route, because the wood and fodder found on the previous route had been exhausted.  Some of his soldiers made their retreat by land along the Tigris, following the stream toward its source, and some on boats.

[Sidenote:  A.D. 199(?)] [Sidenote:—­10—­] Next, Severus crossed Mesopotamia and made an attempt on Hatra, which was not far off, but accomplished nothing.  In fact, even the engines were burned, many soldiers perished, and vast numbers were wounded.  Therefore Severus retired from the place and shifted his quarters.  While he was at war, he also put to death two distinguished men.  The first was Julius Crispus, a tribune of the Pretorians.  The cause of his execution was that indignant at the damage done by the war he had casually uttered a verse of the poet Maro, in which one of the soldiers fighting on the side of Turnus against Aeneas bewails his lot and says:  “To enable Turnus to marry Lavinia we are meanwhile perishing, without heed being paid to us.” [Footnote:  Two and a half lines beginning with verse 371 in Book Eleven of Virgil’s Aeneid.] Severus made Valerius, the soldier who had accused him, tribune in his place.  The other whom he killed was Laetus, and the reason was that Laetus was proud and was beloved by the soldiers.  They often said they would not march, unless Laetus would lead them.  The responsibility for this murder, for which he had no clear reason save jealousy, he fastened upon the soldiers, making it appear that they had ventured upon the act contrary to his will.