| 20 27 Neque multo post in Britanniae municipio, cui Eboraci nomen, annis regni duodeviginti morbo exstinctus est. 30 Funus, quod liberi Geta Bassianusque Romam detulerant, mire celebratum illatumque Marci sepulcro, <quem> adeo percoluerat, ut eius gratia Commodum inter Divos referri suaserit fratrem appellans, Bassianoque Antonini vocabulum addiderit, quod ex illo post multos dubiosque eventus auspicia honorum cepisset patrocinio fisci. 32 At posteri, quasi bellum inter se mandatis accepissent, confestim secessere. Ita Geta, cui nomen paterno ab avo erat, cum eius modestiore ingenio frater angeretur, obsessus interiit. 33 Quae victoria Papiniani exitio foedior facta, ut sane putant memoriae curiosi, quippe quem ferunt illo temporis Bassiani scrinia curavisse monitumque, uti mos est, destinanda Romam quam celerrime componeret, dolore Getae dixisse haudquaquam pari facilitate velari parricidium, qua fieret, iccircoque morte affectum. 34 Sed haec improbe absurda sunt, cum constet satis praefecturam praetorio gessisse neque incondite illum virum tantam contumeliam imponere potuisse, cui amori ac magisterio erat.
|
Soon after, he [Septimius Severus] died of illness in a town in Britain called Eboracum, after eighteen years of rule. 30 His body, which his sons Bassianus and Geta had brought back to Rome, received the highest honours, and was buried in the tomb of Marcus Aurelius; he had devoted to the latter such a cult that, because of him, he convinced the Romans to put Commodus among the gods, calling him his brother, and that he gave to Bassianus, in addition to his name, that of Antoninus. It was from Antoninus, in fact, that after many uncertainties he had received the happy omen for his future career, with a post of tax lawyer. 32 But his sons, as if they had been commissioned to make war with each other, immediately fell out. Thus, Geta, who bore the name of his paternal grandfather and whose more moderate character worried his brother, perishes in an ambush. 33 That this victory was made still more shameful by the murder of Papinian is surely only the opinion of history buffs. In fact, they say, Papinian was at that time secretary to Bassianus and he was ordered, according to custom, to compose as quickly as possible a report which was to be addressed to Rome; in the pain caused in him by the murder of Geta, he declared that a parricide was not concealed as easily as it was committed, and for that he was put to death. 34 But these are dishonest and lying words: for it is well established that Papinian was praetorian prefect, and that Bassianus could not grossly inflict such an insult on this great man, who had been the friend and master of Geta.
|
|
21 1 Ceterum Antoninus in cognita munerum specie plebem Romanam adficiens, quod indumenta in talos demissa largiretur, Caracalla dictus, cum pari modo vesti Antoninianas nomen e suo daret. 2 Alamannos, gentem populosam ex equo mirifice pugnantem, prope Moenum amnem devicit. Patiens communis tranquillusque; pari fortuna et eodem matrimonio, quo pater. 3 Namque Iuliam novercam, cuius facinora supra memoravi, forma captus coniugem affectavit, cum illa factiosior aspectui adolescentis, praesentiae quasi ignara, semet dedisset intecto corpore, asserentique: "Vellem, si liceret, uti", petulantius multo (quippe quae pudorem velamento exuerat) respondisset: "Libet? plane licet". 4 Aegypti sacra per eum deportata Romam atque aucta urbs magno accessu viae novae et ad lavandum absoluta opera pulchri cultus. 5 Quibus confectis, cum Syriam circumgrederetur, apud Edessam anno potentiae sexto moritur. 6 Corporis reliqua luctu publico relata Romam atque inter Antoninos funerata sunt.
|
21 1 Now Antoninus, who made gifts of a new kind to the Roman plebs, because he generously distributed clothes which fell to the feet, was called Caracalla; and in their turn, the clothes which he thus gave were called, after his own name, Antonines. 2 He won a complete victory over the Alamans, a large tribe of extraordinary valour in cavalry battles, near the river Main. He was a tough man, accessible to all and calm; he had the same fate and the same wife as his father. 3 For, seduced by her beauty, he sought in marriage his mother-in-law Julia, whose bad behaviour I mentioned above; in fact, this woman, such an intriguer, had offered herself naked to the sight of the young man, pretending to ignore his presence, and, as he said to her: "I would like to use it, if I were permitted", she answered him with much more boldness still (because she had stripped herself of her modesty by taking off her clothes): "Do you like it? You are allowed anything". 4 Caracalla introduced Egyptian cults to Rome and endowed the city with the important access that is the via nova and very luxurious thermal baths. 5 This work accomplished, during a journey through Syria, he died in Edessa in the sixth year of his reign. 6 His remains were brought back to Rome in public mourning and buried with those of the Antonines.
|