[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."