bereft of a ruler possessing authority, though without the people’s knowing it.  He communicated with the soldiers in every direction,—­that is to say, the ones who were in Mesopotamia on account of the war but instead of being in one body were scattered all about; and he won their allegiance through the agency of his [Footnote:  Reading [Greek:  ohi] (Dindorf) instead of [Greek:  hos].] friends], among his various offers being a suggestion that they might secure a respite from the war, which was an especial cause of dissatisfaction to them:  and so on the fourth day [the anniversary of Severus’s birthday] he was chosen emperor by them [after making a show of resistance].

[Sidenote:—­12—­] [He delivered an address full of good points and held out hopes of many advantages to the rest of mankind as well.  Those who had been doomed to some life punishment for an act of impiety, of the kind that is so named with reference to attitude toward emperors, were absolved from their sentence; and complaints of that nature which were pending were dismissed.  He rescinded the measures enacted by Caracalla relating to inheritances and emancipations and, by asseverating that it was a sacrilege to kill a senator, he succeeded in his appeal for the pardon of Aurelianus, whose surrender was demanded by the soldiers because he had proved most obnoxious to them in many previous campaigns.  Not for long, however, was it in his power to behave as an honest man [lacuna] and Aurelianus [lacuna] soldiers [lacuna] this man [lacuna] by him [lacuna] absolute power [lacuna] wrath [lacuna] and two hundred and fifty denarii [lacuna] there had been public notice of giving more [lacuna] fearing that [lacuna] Aurelianus, the only one then present not only of ex-consuls but of those who were senators at all [lacuna] by aid of money [lacuna] upon him [lacuna] glad to divert the blame for Caracalla’s death [lacuna] and about the [lacuna] them [lacuna] the [lacuna] the [lacuna] great masses both of furniture and of property of the emperors.  But as not even this on account of the soldiers sufficed for the [lacuna] of senators [lacuna] kill [lacuna] no one, but putting some under guard [lacuna] of the knights and the freedmen and the Caesarians and [lacuna] causing those who erred in even the slightest respect to be punished, so that to all [lacuna] of them [lacuna] the procuratorships and the excessive expenditures and the majority of the burdens recently laid upon them by Tarautas [lacuna] of the games [lacuna] multitude [lacuna], gathering the presents which had unnecessarily been bestowed upon any persons, and he forbade any silver image of him being made over five pounds in weight, or any golden image of over three.  Greatest of all, the hire of those serving in the pretorian guard [lacuna] to that appointed [lacuna] by Severus [lacuna]