he had previously removed their servants, who stood at the doorway, and gave them in charge of other, unknown slaves, to convey either to carriages or litters, and by this act he filled them with far greater fear.  Scarcely had each one reached home and was beginning to a certain extent to recover his spirits, when a message was brought him that some one was there from the Augustus.  While they were expecting, as a result of this, that now at last they should surely perish, one person brought in the slab, which was of silver, then another something else, and another one of the dishes set before them at the dinner, which proved to be made of some costly material.  Finally came [Footnote:  Verb supplied by Xylander.] that particular boy who had been each one’s familiar spirit, now washed and decked out.  Thus, while in terror all night long, they received their gifts.

Such was the triumph or, as the crowd said, such was the expiatory service that Domitian celebrated for those who had died in Dacia and in Rome.  Even at this time, too, he killed off some of the foremost men.  And he took away the property of whoever buried the body of any one of them, because the victim had died on ground belonging to the sovereign.

[Sidenote:—­10—­] Here are some more events worth recording, that took place in the Dacian War.  Julianus, assigned by the emperor to take charge of the war, made many excellent regulations, one being his command that the soldiers should inscribe their own names and those of the centurions upon their shields, in order that those of them who committed any particular good or bad action might be more readily observed by him.  Encountering the enemy at Tapai, [Footnote:  Pape thinks that the proper Latin form of this word be Tabae.] he killed a very great number of them.  Among them Vezinas, who ranked next to Decebalus, since he could not get away alive, fell down purposely as if dead.  In this way he escaped notice and fled during the night.  Decebalus, fearing that the Romans now they had conquered would proceed against his residence, cut down the trees that were on the site and attached weapons to the trunks, to the end that his foes might think them soldiers, and so be frightened and withdraw.  This actually took place.

[Sidenote:—­11—­] Antonius, a certain commander of this period in Germany, revolted against Domitian:  him Lucius Maximus overcame and overthrew.  For his victory he does not deserve any remarkable praise; [for many others have unexpectedly won victories, and his soldiers contributed largely to his success:] but for his burning all the documents that were found in the chests of Antonius, thus esteeming his own safety as of slight importance in comparison with having no blackmail result from them, I do not see how I may celebrate his memory as it deserves.  But Domitian, as he had got a pretext from that source, proceeded to a series of slaughters even without the documents, and no one could well say how many he killed.