DURATION OF TIME.

C. Attius Sabinus (II), Cornelius Annullinus (A.D. 216 = a.u. 969 = Sixth of Antoninus.)

C. Bruttius Praesens, T. Messius Extricatus (II). (A.D. 217 = a.u. 970 = Seventh of Antoninus, from Feb. 4th to April 8th.)

M. Opellius Macrinus Aug., Q.M.  Coclatinus Adventus. (A.D. 218 = a.u. 971.  The first year of Macrinus ends April 11th and his second year is abruptly terminated June 8th.)

(BOOK 79, BOISSEVAIN.)

[Sidenote:  A.D. 216 (a.u. 969)] [Sidenote:—­1—­] The next thing was a campaign against the Parthians and the pretext that was used was that Artabanus had refused to view favorably his wooing and give him his daughter in marriage. (But he knew well enough that, while pretending to want to marry her, he in fact was anxious to detach the Parthian kingdom.) So he damaged a large section of the country around Media by means of a sudden incursion, sacked many citadels, won over Arbela, dug open the royal tombs of the Parthians, and flung the bones about.  The Parthians would not engage him at close quarters, and therefore I have had nothing of especial interest to record concerning the doings of that expedition except, perhaps, one anecdote.  Two soldiers who had seized a skin of wine came to him, each claiming the booty as entirely his own.  Being bidden by him to divide the wine equally they drew their swords and cut the wine skin in two, apparently expecting each to get a half with the wine in it.  They so dreaded their emperor that they troubled him even with such details and showed such scrupulousness as to lose both wineskin and wine.

Now the barbarians took refuge in the mountains and across the Tigris in order to perfect their preparations.  But Antoninus suppressed this fact and, assuming that he had utterly vanquished a foe whom he had not even seen, he displayed becoming pride; and, as he himself wrote, he was particularly gratified because a lion ran down from the mountains and fought on his side.

[Sidenote:—­2—­] Not only in other ways did he live unnaturally and transgress laws, but in his very campaigns [[lacuna] but truth; [Footnote:  Here begins the parchment codex, Vaticanus 1288.  See Volume I, page 8.] for I have run across the book written by him about it.  He understood so well how he stood with all the senators that, in spite of many protests, their slaves and freedmen and intimate friends were arrested by him and were asked under torture whether “so-and-so loves me” or “so-and-so hates me.”  For the charts of the stars under which any of his foremost courtiers had been born gave evidence, he said, as to who was friendly to him and who was hostile.  And on this basis he honored many persons and destroyed many others.