Antioch, first promising the soldiers attending him five hundred denarii
apiece on condition that they should not sack the town,--a thing which
they were very anxious to do. This amount he levied upon the people. And
he sent to Rome such a despatch as might have been expected, speaking
much evil of Macrinus, especially with reference to his low birth and
his plot against Antoninus. Here is a sample of what he said: "He who
was not permitted to enter even the senate-house after the proclamation
debarring everybody other than senators from doing so, this man, I say,
dared treacherously to murder the emperor whom he had been trusted to
guard, dared to appropriate his office and to become emperor before he
was senator." About himself he made many promises, not only to the
soldiers but also to the senate and the people. He asserted that he
should do everything without exception to emulate Augustus (to whose
youth he likened his own) and also Marcus Antoninus. Yes, and he wrote
also the following, alluding to the derogatory remarks made about him
by Macrinus: "He undertook to censure my age, when he himself appointed
a five-year old son."

[Sidenote:--2--] Besides forwarding this communication to the senate, he
sent to the senate the records discovered among the soldiers and the
letters of Macrinus written, to Maximus, and sent them likewise to the
legions, hoping that these would cause them to hold the preceding
emperor's memory in greater detestation, and to feel greater affection
for him. In both the despatch to the senate and the letter to the people
he subscribed himself as emperor and Cæsar, son of Antoninus, grandson
of Severus, Pius, Felix, Augustus, proconsul, and holder of the
tribunician power, assuming these titles before they were voted,[lacuna]
the [lacuna] not the [lacuna] but the [lacuna] of [lacuna]
used [Footnote: Illegible MS.--Boissevain conjectures: "And he used not
the name of Avitus, but that of his father."] [lacuna] the records of