him, answered without hesitation: "Call me Not Lord, for I am a Lady."
Then Sardanapalus immediately took a bath with him, and, finding his
guest when stripped to correspond to the report of him, burned with even
greater lust, reposed upon his breast, and took dinner, like some loved
mistress, in his bosom. Hierocles began to fear that Zoticus would bring
the emperor into a greater state of subjection than he himself was able
to effect, and that he might suffer some terrible fate at his hands, as
often happens in the case of rival lovers. Therefore he had the
wine-bearers, who were well-disposed to him, administer some drug that
abated the visitor's ferocity. And so Zoticus after a whole night of
embarrassment, being unable to secure an erection, was deprived of all
that he had obtained, and was driven out of the palace, out of Rome, and
later out of the remainder of Italy; and this saved his life. [However,
the emperor drove himself to such a frenzy of lewdness that he asked the
physicians to contrive a woman's vagina in his person by means of an
incision, and held out to them the hope of great pay for this
achievement.]

[Sidenote:--17--] Sardanapalus himself was destined not much later to
receive his well-deserved pay for his own defilement. For his acting in
this way and for making himself the object of these actions he became
hated by the populace and by the soldiers to whom he was most attached,
and at last he was slain by them in the very camp.

¶The False Antoninus was despised and put out of the way by the
soldiers. When any persons, particularly if armed, have accustomed
themselves to feel contempt for their rulers, they set no limits on
their right to do what they please but keep their arms ready to use even
against the very man who gave them whatever rights they possess.