he himself voluntarily [lacuna] published [lacuna] calumny [lacuna]
making with reference to the soldiers. And he marched so quickly against
him that Macrinus could with difficulty encounter him in a village of
the Antiochians one hundred and fifty stades distant from the city.
There, so far as the zeal of the Pretorians went, he had him conquered
(he had taken from them their breastplates scales and their grooved
shields and had thus rendered them lighter for the battle): but he was
beaten by his own cowardice, as Heaven had foreshown to him. For on that
day when his first letter about the imperial office was read to us a
pigeon had lighted upon an image of Severus (whose name he had applied
to himself) that stood in the senate-chamber. [And subsequently, when
the communication about his son was sent, we had convened, not at the
bidding of the consuls or the prætors (for they did not happen to be
present) but of the tribunes,--a practice which by this time had fallen
more or less into disuse. And he had not written even his name in the
preface of the letter, though he termed him Cæsar and emperor and
indicated that the contents emanated from them both. Also, in the
rehearsal of events, he mentioned the name Diadumenianus, but left out
that of Antoninus, though he had this title too. Such was the state of
these [Sidenote:--38--] affairs; and, by Jupiter, when he sent word
about the uprising of the False Antoninus, the consuls uttered certain
formulæ against him, as is regularly done under such circumstances, and
one of the prætors and another of the tribunes did the same. War was
declared and solemnly proclaimed against the usurper and his cousin and
their mothers and their grandmother, and immunity was granted to those
that had taken part in the uprising, in case they should submit,
according as Macrinus had promised them. For the conversation he had had
with the soldiers was read aloud.] As a result of this, we all condemned
still more strongly his abasement and folly. [For one thing] he was most
constantly calling himself "father" and Diadumenianus his "son," and he