so that it became a very ordinary thing for those who so wished to hazard the chance of fomenting rebellion and becoming emperor.  They were encouraged partly by the fact that many persons had entered upon the supreme office without expecting or deserving it.  Let no one be incredulous of my statements, for the facts about the private citizens I ascertained from men who are worthy of confidence, and of what I have written about the fleet I gained an exact knowledge in Pergamum, close at hand, the affairs of which, as also of Smyrna, I managed, having been assigned to duty there by Macrinus.  And in view of this attempt none of the others seemed at all incredible to me.

[Sidenote:—­8—­] This is what he did in the way of murders.  His acts which varied from our ancestral precedents, however, were of simple character and inflicted no great harm upon us.  Some noteworthy innovations were his applying to himself certain titles connected with his sovereignty before they had been voted, as I have already described, [Footnote:  See Chapter 2.] and again his enrolling himself in the consulship in place of Macrinus when he had not been elected to it and did not enter upon any of its duties (the time expiring too soon):  yet at first, in three letters, he had referred to the year by the name of Adventus, as if assuming that the latter had been sole consul.  Other points were that he undertook to be consul a second time, without having secured any office previously or the privileges of any office, and that while consul in Nicomedea he did not employ the triumphal costume on the Day of Vows. [Footnote:  Translated by Sturz “votivorum ludorum die.”  What festival is meant is uncertain, but it is probably not the Compitalia (III.  Non.  Ian.). [Sidenote:—­11—­] With his infractions of law is connected also the matter of Elagabalus.  The offence consisted, not in his introducing a foreign god into Rome, or in his exalting him in very strange ways, but in his placing him before even Jupiter and having himself voted his priest, in his circumcising his foreskin and abstaining from swine’s flesh [on the ground that his devotion would be purer by this means.  He had thought of cutting off his genitals altogether, but that was an idea prompted by salaciousness; the circumcision which he actually accomplished was a part of the priestly requirements of Elagabalus.  Hence he mutilated in like manner numerous of his associates.] A further offence was his being frequently seen in public clad in the barbaric dress which the Syrian priests employ, a circumstance which had more to do than anything else with his getting the name of “The Assyrian.”

[Sidenote:—­12—­] ¶ A golden statue of False Antoninus was erected, distinguished by its great and varied adornment.

¶ Macrinus, though he found considerable money in the treasury, squandered it all, and incomes did not suffice for expenditures.