[Sidenote:  A.D. 218 (a.u. 971)] This took place at the season under consideration:  but in the autumn and winter, during which Macrinus and Adventus became consuls, they no longer came to blows with each other but kept up an interchange of envoys and heralds until they had reached an agreement.

[Sidenote:—­27—­] For Macrinus, through native cowardice (being a Moor he was tremendously timorous) and by reason of the soldiers’ lack of discipline, did not dare to begin a war.  On the contrary] he expended for the sake of peace enormous amounts, in the shape of both gifts and money, to Artabanus himself and to his assistants in the government, so that the entire outlay came to five thousand myriads. [And the emperor was not unwilling to effect a reconciliation, both for the reasons mentioned and because his soldiers were extremely restive,—­a condition due to their having been away from home an unusual length of time, as well as to the scarcity of food.  No supplies were to be had from stores, since there were no stores ready, nor from the country itself, because part had been devastated and part was controlled by forts.  Macrinus, however, did not forward an exact account of all their proceedings to the senate and consequently triumphal sacrifices were voted him and the name of Parthicus was bestowed.  But this he would not accept, being apparently ashamed to adopt the appellation of an enemy by whom he had been defeated.

Moreover, the war that had been waged in the regions of the Armenian king subsided.  Tiridates received the diadem sent him by Macrinus, and got back his mother (whom Tarautas had confined in prison eleven months), together with the booty captured from Armenia and all the territory that his father possessed in Cappadocia, with hopes of obtaining the annual payment often furnished by the Romans.  And the Dacians, after damaging parts of Dacia, held their hands in spite of a desire for further conflict, and got back the hostages that Caracalla, under the name of an alliance, had taken from them.  This was the course of these events.

[Sidenote:—­28—­] But a new war broke upon the heads of the Romans, and no longer a foreign but a civil strife.  It was the soldiers who were responsible for the outbreak.  They were somewhat irritated by their setbacks, but their behavior was owing still more to the fact that they would no longer endure any hard work if they could help it, but were thoroughly out of training in every respect and wanted to have no emperor that ruled with a firm hand but demanded that they get everything without stint, and chose to perform no task that was fitting for them.  They were further angered by the cutting off of their pay and the deprivation of prizes and exemptions (these last among the privileges of the military), which they had gained from Tarautas, even though they personally were not destined to be affected by these measures.  Their resolution was definitely strengthened by the delay which they had undergone