came in great amount and violence, accomplish anything. The force of
both kinds of water was exhausted by the power of the thunderbolts, and
to a certain extent, at least, the building only received additional
injury; [Footnote: Reading [Greek: prosesineto](Bekker).] wherefore the
gladiatorial spectacle was held in the stadium for many years.

This naturally seemed to foreshow what was to be. There were other fires
besides and imperial possessions were burned especially often during his
reign,--a thing which in itself has always been regarded as of ill omen;
but the fact that it seemed to have overthrown the horse-race of Vulcan
had a direct bearing upon the emperor. This accordingly gave rise to a
feeling that something out of the ordinary was in process of
consummation, and the idea was strengthened by the behavior on that same
day of the Tiber, which rose until it invaded the Forum and the roads
leading to it with such impetus as to sweep away even human beings. And
a woman, as I have heard, grim and gigantic, was seen by some persons
and declared that these disasters were insignificant as compared with
what was destined to befall them.

[Sidenote:--26--] And so it proved, for the evil did not confine itself
to the City alone, but took possession of the whole world under its
dominion, with whose inhabitants the theatre was customarily filled. The
Romans, defeated, gave up their war against the barbarians and likewise
received great detriment from the greed and factional differences of the
soldiers. The progress of both these evils I am now to describe.]
Macrinus, seeing that Artabanus was exceedingly angry at the way he had
been treated and had invaded Mesopotamia with a large force, at first of
his own accord sent him the captives and used friendly language, urging
him to accept peace and laying the blame for the past upon Tarautas. But
the other would not entertain his proposition and furthermore bade him