in practically one and the same spot while wintering in Syria on account of the war.  It should be stated that Macrinus seemed to have shown good generalship and to have acted sensibly in debarring the men in arms from no privilege, but preserving to them intact all the rights allowed by his predecessor, whereas he gave notice to such as intended to enlist anew that they would be enrolled only upon the old schedule published by Severus.  He hoped that these recruits, entering the army a few at a time, would hold aloof from rebellion, at first through peaceful inclinations and fear and later through the influence of time and custom, and that by having no corrupting effect upon the rest they would quiet them.

[Sidenote:—­29—­] If this had been done after the members of the army had retired to their individual fortresses and were consequently scattered, it would have been a correct move.  Perhaps some of them would not have shown indignation, believing that they would really be put at no disadvantage because temporarily they suffered no loss:  and even if they had been vexed, yet, each body being few in number and subservient to the commanders sent by the senate, they could have accomplished no great harm.  But, united in Syria, they suspected that they should be liable to innovations if they separated;—­for the time being they could well believe they were being pampered on account of the demands of war.  And again [lacuna] So the others killed certain soldiers and ravaged portions of Mesopotamia, and these men butchered not a few of their own number and also overthrew their emperor; and, what is still worse, they set up another similar ruler, by whom nothing was done save what was evil and base. [Sidenote:—­30—­] It seems to me that this occurrence had been foreshadowed more clearly, perhaps, than any previous event.  A very distinct eclipse of the sun [had taken place] about that time, [and the comet-star was seen for a considerable period.  And another] luminary, whose tail extended from the west to the east, for several nights caused us terrible alarm, so that this verse of Homer’s was ever on our lips: 

 “Rang the vast welkin with clarion calls, and Zeus heard the tumult.”
  [Footnote:  From Homer’s Iliad, XXI, verse 388.]

It was brought about in the following way: 

Maesa, the sister of Julia Augusta, had two daughters, Soaemias and Mammaea, by her husband Julius, an ex-consul.  She had also two male grandchildren.  One was Avitus, the child of Soaemias and Varius Marcellus, a man of the same race,—­he was from Apamea,—­who had been occupied in procuratorships, had been enrolled in the senate, and soon after died.  The other was Bassianus, the child of Mammaea and Gessius Marcianus, who was himself also a Syrian, from a city called Arca, and had been assigned to various positions as procurator.  Now Maesa at home in Emesa her life [lacuna] her sister Julia, with whom she had made her abode during the