Dio's Rome, Volume 5, Books 61-76 (A.D. 54-211) - An Historical Narrative Originally Composed in Greek During - The Reigns of Septimius Severus, Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, - Elagabalus and Alexander Severus: and Now Presented in English - Form By Herbe by Cassius Dio
page 83 of 310 (26%)
page 83 of 310 (26%)
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great trouble [save a few whom he compensated for it]. Yet the same
persons would not regularly entertain him the entire day, but one set of men furnished breakfast, another lunch, another dinner, and still another certain viands for dessert calculated to stimulate a jaded appetite. [Footnote: This little phrase is taken direct from Plato's _Critias_, 115 B.] [For all who were able were eager to entertain him.] It is said that after the elapse of a few days he spent a hundred myriads upon a dinner. [His birthday celebration lasted over two days and numbers of beasts and of men were slain.] [Sidenote:--6--] [Though his life was of this kind he was not entirely without good deeds. For example, he retained the coinage minted under Nero and Galba and Otho, evincing no displeasure at their images; and whatever gifts had been bestowed upon any persons he held to be valid and deprived no one of any such possession. He did not collect any sums still owing of former public contributions, and he confiscated no one's property. A very few of those who sided with Otho he put to death but did not withhold even the property of these from their relatives. Upon the kinsmen of those previously executed he bestowed all the funds that were found in the public treasury. He did not obstruct the execution of the wills of such as had fought against him and had fallen in the battles. Furthermore he forbade the senators and the knights to fight as gladiators or to appear in any spectacle in the orchestra. And for these measures he was commended.] [Sidenote:--7--] He was a constant attendant of the theatres, and this won the attachment of the populace. He ate with the most influential men on free and easy terms, and this gained their favor to an even greater degree. His old companions he never failed to remember and honored them greatly, not (like some others) disdaining to appear to recognize any of |
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