display wickedness in one more case.

Again he made way with Thrasea Priscus, a person second to none in
family or intelligence.

Many others also, previously friends of his, he put to death.]

[Sidenote:--6--]

"Nay, I could not recite nor give the names all over"

[Footnote: From Homer's Iliad, II, verse 488.] of the distinguished men
whom he killed without any right. Dio, because the slain were very well
known in those days, even makes a list of them. For me it suffices to
say that he crushed the life out of everybody he chose, without
exception,

"whether the man was guilty or whether he was not ";

[Footnote: From Homer's Iliad, XV, verse 137.] and that he simply
mutilated Rome, by rendering it bereft of excellent men. [Antoninus was
allied to three races. And he possessed not a single one of their good
points, but included in himself all their vices. The lightness, the
cowardice, and recklessness of Gaul were his, the roughness and cruelty
of Africa, the abominations of Syria (whence he was on his mother's
side).] Veering from slaughter to sports, he pursued his murderous
course no less in the latter. Of course one would pay no attention to
an elephant, rhinoceros, tiger, and hippotigris being killed in the
theatre, but he took equal pleasure in having gladiators shed the
greatest amount of one another's blood. One of them, Bato, he forced