Dio's Rome, Volume 3

[-31-] The testudo, then, is the kind of device just described. As for Antony, he suffered no further harm from the enemy, but underwent severe hardships by reason of the cold. It was now winter, and the mountain districts of Armenia, through which, as the only route open to him, he was actually thankful to be able to proceed, are never free from snow and ice. The wounds, of which the men had many, there created especial discomfort. So many kept perishing and were continually rendered useless for fighting that he would not allow reports of each individual case, but forbade any one to bring him any such news; and although he was angry with the Armenian king for deserting them, and anxious to take vengeance on him, he nevertheless humiliated himself before the monarch and paid court to him for the purpose of obtaining provisions and money from him. Finally, as the soldiers could not hold out to march farther, in the winter time, too, and were at any rate going to have their hardships for nothing since he was minded to return to Armenia before a great while, he flattered the prince tremendously and made him many attractive promises, to get him to allow the men to winter where they were; he said that in the spring he would make another campaign against the Parthians. Money also came to him from Cleopatra, so that to each of the infantrymen was given one hundred denarii54 and to the rest a proportionate allowance. But inasmuch as the amount sent was not enough for them he paid the remainder from his own funds, and though the expense was his own he gave Cleopatra the credit of the favor. For he both solicited contributions from his friends and levied a great deal of money upon the allies.

[-32-] Following these transactions he departed for Egypt. Now the Romans at home were not ignorant of anything that had taken place in spite of the fact that his despatches did not contain the truth; for he concealed all his unpleasant experiences and some of them he described as just the opposite, making it appear that he was progressing famously: but, for all that, rumor reported the truth and Caesar and his circle investigated it carefully and discussed it. They did not, however, make public their evidence, but instead sacrificed cattle and held festivals. Since Caesar at that time was still getting the worst of it against Sextus, the truth of the facts could not be rendered fitting or opportune. Besides his above actions Antony assigned positions of government, giving Gaul to Amyntas, though he had been only the secretary of Deiotarus, and also adding to his domain Lycaonia with portions of Pamphylia, and bestowing upon Archelaus Cappadocia after driving out Ariarathes. This Archelaus on his father's side belonged to those Archelauses who had contended against the Romans, but on his mother's side was the son of Glaphyra, an hetaera. It is quite true that for these appointments Antony, who could be very magnanimous in dealing with the possessions of other people, was somewhat less ill spoken of among the soldiers.

But in the matter of Cleopatra he incurred outspoken dislike because he had taken into his family children of hers,—the elder ones being Alexander and Cleopatra, twins at a birth, and the younger one Ptolemy, called also Philadelphus,—and because he had granted to them a great deal of Arabia, both the district of Malchus and that of the Ituraeans (for he executed Lysanias, whom he had himself made king over them, on the charge that he had favored Paccrus) and also a great deal of Phoenicia and Palestine together with parts of Crete, and Cyrene and Cyprus.

[B.C. 35 (a. u. 719)]

[-33-] These are his acts at that time: the following year, when Pompeius and Cornificius were consuls, he attempted to conduct a campaign against the Armenian prince; and as he placed no little hope in the Mede, because the latter was indignant at Phraates owing to not having received from him much of the spoils or any other honor, and was anxious to punish the Armenian king for bringing in the Romans, Antony sent Polemon to him and requested friendship and alliance. And he was so well satisfied with the business that he both made terms with the Mede and later gave Polemon Lesser Armenia as a reward for his embassy. First he summoned the Armenian to Egypt as a friend, intending to seize him there without effort and make away with him; but when the prince suspected this and did not obey, he plotted to deceive him in another fashion. He did not openly evince anger toward him, in order not to alienate him, but to the end that he might find his foe unprepared set sail from Egypt with the avowed object of making one more campaign against the Parthians. On the way Antony learned that Octavia was arriving from Rome, and went no farther, but returned; this he did in spite of having at once ordered her to go home and later accepting the gifts which she sent, some of them being soldiers which she had begged from her brother for this very purpose.

[-34-] As for him, he became more than ever a slave to the passion and wiles of Cleopatra. Caesar meantime, since Sextus had perished and affairs in Libya required settlement, went to Sicily as if intending to take ship thither, but after delaying there found that the winter made it too late for crossing. Now the Salassi, Taurisci, Liburni, and Iapudes had not for a long time been behaving fairly toward the Romans, but had failed to contribute revenue and sometimes would invade and harm the neighboring districts. At this time, in view of Octavius's absence, they were openly in revolt. Consequently he turned back and began his preparations against them. Some of the men who had been dismissed when they became disorderly, and had received nothing, wished to serve again: therefore he assigned them to one camp, in order that being alone they might find it impossible to corrupt any one else and in case they should wish to show themselves rebellions might be detected at once. As this did not teach them moderation any the more, he sent out a few of the eldest of them to become colonists in Gaul, thinking that thus he would inspire the rest with hopes and win their devotion. Since even then they continued audacious, some of them paid the penalty. The rest displayed rage at this, whereupon he called them together as if for some other purpose, had the rest of the army surround them, took away their arms, and removed them from the service. In this way they learned both their own weakness and Caesar's force of mind, and so they really experienced a change of heart and after urgent supplications were allowed to enter the service anew. For Caesar, being in need of soldiers and fearing that Antony would appropriate them, said that he pardoned them, and he found them most useful for all tasks.

[-35-] It was later that they proved their sincerity. At this time he himself led the campaign against the Iapudes, assigning the rest of the tribes to others to subdue. Those that were on his side of the mountains, dwelling not far from the sea, he reduced with comparatively little trouble, but he overcame those on the heights and beyond them with no small hardship. They strengthened Metulum, the largest of their cities, and repulsed many assaults of the Romans, burned to the ground many engines and laid low Octavius himself as he was trying to step from a wooden tower upon the circuit of the wall. Later, when he still did not desist but kept sending for additional forces, they pretended to wish to negotiate terms and received members of garrisons into their citadel. Then by night they destroyed all of these and set fire to their houses, some killing themselves and some their wives and children in addition, so that nothing whatever remained for Caesar. For not only they but also such as were captured alive destroyed themselves voluntarily shortly afterward.

[-36-] When these had perished and the rest had been subdued without performing any exploit of note, he made a campaign against the Pannonians. He had no complaint to bring against them, not having been wronged by them in any way, but he wanted both to give his soldiers practice and to support them abroad: for he regarded every demonstration against a weaker party as just, when it pleased the man whom weapons made their superior. The Pannonians are settled near Dalmatia close along the Ister from Noricum to European Moesia and lead the most miserable existence of mankind. They are not well off in the matter of land or sky, they cultivate no olives or vines except to the slightest extent, and these wretched varieties, since the greater part of their days is passed in the midst of most rigorous winter, but they drink as well as eat barley and millet. They have been considered very brave, however, during all periods of which we have cognizance. For they are very quick to anger and ready to slay, inasmuch as they possess nothing which can give them a happy life. This I know not by hearsay or reading only, but I have learned it from actual experience as their governor. For after my term as ruler in Africa and in Dalmatia,—the latter position my father also held for a time,—I was appointed55 to Upper Pannonia, so-called, and hence my record is founded on exact knowledge of all conditions among them. Their name is due to the fact that they cut up a kind of toga in a way peculiar to themselves into strips which they call panni, and then stitch these together into sleeved tunics for themselves.

They have been named so either for this or for some other reason; but certain of the Greeks who were ignorant of the truth have spoken of them as Paeones, which is an old word but does not belong there, but rather applies to Rhodope, close to the present Macedonia, as far as the sea. Wherefore I shall call the dwellers in the latter district Paeones, but the others Pannonians, just as they themselves and as the Romans do.

[-37-] It was against this people, then, that Caesar at that time conducted a campaign. At first he did not devastate or plunder at all, although they abandoned their villages in the plain. He hoped to make them his subjects of their free will. But when they harassed him as he advanced to Siscia, he became angry, burned their land, and took all the booty he could. When he drew near the city the natives for a moment listened to their rulers and made terms with him and gave hostages, but afterward shut their gates and accepted a state of siege. They possessed strong walls and were in general encouraged by the presence of two navigable rivers. The one named the Colops56 flows past the very circuit of the wall and empties into the Savus not far distant: it has now encircled the entire city, for Tiberius gave it this shape by constructing a great canal through which it rejoins its ancient course. At that time between the Colops on the one hand, which flowed on past the very walls, and the Savus on the other, which flowed at a little distance, an empty space had been left which had been buttressed with palisades and ditches. Caesar secured boats made by the allies in that vicinity, and after towing them through the Ister into the Savus, and through that stream into the Colops, he assailed the enemy with infantry and ships together, and had some naval battles on the river. For the barbarians prepared in turn some boats made of one piece of wood with which they risked a conflict; and on the river they killed besides many others Menas the freedman of Sextus, and on the land they vigorously repulsed the invader until they ascertained that some of their allies had been ambushed and destroyed. Then in dejection they yielded. When they had thus been captured the remainder of Pannonian territory was induced to capitulate.

[-38-] After this he left Fufius Geminus there with a small force and himself returned to Rome. The triumph which had been voted to him he deferred, but granted Octavia and Livia images, the right of administering their own affairs without a supervisor, and freedom from fear and inviolability equally with the tribunes.

[B.C. 34 (a. u. 720)]

In emulation of his father he had started out to lead an expedition into Britain, and had already advanced into Gaul after the winter in which Antony for the second time and Lucius Libo were consuls, when some of the newly captured and Dalmatians with them rose in revolt. Geminus, although expelled from Siscia, recovered the Pannonians by a few battles; and Valerius Messala overthrew the Salassi and the rest who had joined them in rebellion. Against the Dalmatians first Agrippa and then Caesar also made campaigns. The most of them they subjugated after undergoing many terrible experiences themselves, such as Caesar's being wounded, barley being given to some of the soldiers instead of wheat, and others, who had deserted the standards, being decimated: with the remaining tribes57 Statilius Taurus carried on war.

[-39-] Antony meanwhile resigned his office as soon as appointed, putting Lucius Sempronius Atratinus in his place; consequently some name the latter and not the former in the enumeration of the consuls. In the course of his efforts to take vengeance on the Armenian king with least trouble to himself, he asked the hand of his daughter, pretending to want to unite her in marriage to his son Alexander; he sent on this errand one Quintus Deillius, who had once been a favorite of his, and promised to give the monarch many gifts. Finally, at the beginning of spring, he came suddenly into Nicopolis (founded by Pompey) and sent for him, stating that he wanted to deliberate on and execute with his aid some measures against the Parthians. The king suspecting the plot did not come, so he sent Deillius to have another talk with him and marched with undiminished haste toward Artaxata. In this way, after a long time, partly by persuading him through friends, and partly by scaring him through his soldiers, and writing and acting toward him in every way as thoroughly friendly, he induced him to come into his camp. Thereupon the Roman arrested him and at first keeping the prince without bonds he led him around among the garrisons with whom his treasures were deposited, to see if he could win them without a struggle. He made a pretence of having arrested him for no other purpose than to collect tribute of the Armenians that would ensure both his preservation and his sovereignty. When, however, the guardians of the gold would have nothing to do with him and the troops under arms chose Artaxes, the eldest of his children, king in his stead, Antony bound him in silver chains. It seemed disgraceful, probably, for one who had been a king to be made fast in iron bonds. [-40-] After this, capturing some settlements peaceably and some by force, Antony occupied all of Armenia, for Artaxes after fighting an engagement and being worsted retired to the Parthian prince. After doing this he betrothed to his son the daughter of the Median king with the intention of making him still more his friend; then he left the legions in Armenia and went once more to Egypt, taking the great mass of booty and the Armenian with his wife and children. He sent them ahead with the other captives for a triumph held in Alexandria, and himself drove into the city upon a chariot, and among the other favors he granted to Cleopatra he brought before her the Armenian and his family in golden bonds. She was seated in the midst of the populace upon a platform plated with silver and upon a gilded chair. The barbarians would not be her suppliants nor do obeisance to her, though much coercion was brought to bear upon them and hopes were held out to persuade them, but they merely addressed her by name: this gave them a reputation for spirit, but they were subject to a great deal of ill usage on account of it.

[-41-] After this Antony gave an entertainment to the Alexandrians, and in the assemblage had Cleopatra and her children sit by his side: also in the course of a public address he enjoined that she be called Queen of Monarchs, and Ptolemy (whom he named Caesarion) King of Kings. He then made a different distribution by which he gave them Egypt and Cyprus. For he declared that one was the wife and the other the true son of the former Caesar and he made the plea that he was doing this as a mark of favor to the dead statesman,—his purpose being to cast reproach in this way upon Octavianus Caesar because he was only an adopted and not a real son of his. Besides making this assignment to them, he promised to give to his own children by Cleopatra the following lands,—to Ptolemy Syria and all the region west of the Euphrates as far as the Hellespont, to Cleopatra Libya about Cyrene, and to their brother Alexander Armenia and the rest of the districts across the Euphrates as far as the Indi. The latter he bestowed as if they were already his. Not only did he say this in Alexandria, but sent a despatch to Rome, in order that it might secure ratification also from the people there. Nothing of this, however, was read in public.

[B.C. 32 (a. u. 722)]

Domitius and Sosius were consuls by that time and being extremely devoted to him refused to accede to Caesar's urgent demands that they should publish it to all. Though they prevailed in this matter Caesar won a victory in turn by not having anything that had been written about the Armenian king made known to the public. He felt pity for the prince because he had been secretly in communication with him for the purpose of injuring Antony, and he grudged the latter his triumph. While Antony was engaged as described he dared to write to the senate that he wished to give up his office and put all affairs into the hands of that body and of the people: he was not really intending to do anything of the kind, but he desired that under the influence of the hopes he roused they might either compel Caesar, because on the spot, to give up his arms first, or begin to hate him, if he would not heed them.

[-42-] In addition to these events at that time the consuls celebrated the festival held in honor of Venus Genetrix. During the Feriae, prefects, boys and beardless youths, appointed by Caesar and sprung from knights but not from senators, directed ceremonies. Also Aemilius Lepidus Paulus constructed at his own expense the so-called Porticus Pauli and dedicated it in his consulship; for he was consul a portion of that year. And Agrippa restored from his own purse the so-called Marcian water-supply, which had been cut off by the destruction of the pipes, and carried it in pipes to many parts of the city. These men, though rivals in the outlay of their private funds, still dissembled the fact and behaved sensibly: others who were holding even some most insignificant office strove to get a triumph voted to themselves, some through Antony and some through Caesar; and on this pretext they levied large sums upon foreign nations for gold crowns.

[B.C. 33 (a. u. 721)]

[-43-] The next year Agrippa agreed to be made aedile and without taking anything from the public treasury repaired all the public buildings and all the roads, cleaned out the sewers, and sailed through them underground into the Tiber. And seeing that in the hippodrome men made mistakes about the number of turns necessary, he established the system of dolphins and egg-shaped objects, so that by them the number of times the track had been circled might be clearly shown. Furthermore he distributed to all olive oil and salt, and had the baths open free of charge throughout the year for the use of both men and women. In the many festivals of all kinds which he gave (so many that the children of senators could perform the "Troy" equestrian exercise), he also paid barbers, to the end that no one should be at any expense for their services. Finally he rained upon the heads of the people in the theatre tickets that were good for money in one case, clothes in another, and something else in a third, and he also would place various other large stocks of goods in the squares and allow the people to scramble for them. Besides doing this Agrippa drove the astrologers and charlatans from the city. During these same days a decree was passed that no one belonging to the senatorial class should be tried for piracy, and so those who were under any such charge at the time were released and some were given carte blanche to commit crimes in future. Caesar became consul for the second time with Lucius Tullus as his colleague, but on the very first day, as Antony had done, he resigned; and with the sanction of the senate he introduced some persons from the populace to the rank of patricians. When a certain Lucius Asellius, who was praetor, on account of a long sickness wished to lay down his office, he appointed his son in his stead. And another praetor died on the last day of his term, whereupon Caesar chose another for the remaining hours. At the decease of Bocchus he gave his kingdom to no one else, but enrolled it among the Roman provinces. And since the Dalmatians had been utterly subdued, he erected from the spoils thus gained the porticoes and secured the collection of books called the Octavian, after his sister.

[-44-] Antony meantime had marched as far as the Araxes, presumably to conduct a campaign against the Parthians, but was satisfied to arrange terms with the Median monarch. They made a covenant to serve each other as allies, the one against the Parthians and the other against Caesar, and to cement the compact they exchanged some soldiers; the Median prince received a portion of the newly acquired Armenia and Antony his daughter Iotape, to be united in marriage with Alexander, and the military standards taken in the battle with Statianus; after this Antony bestowed upon Polemon, as I have stated, Lesser Armenia, both made Lucius Flavius consul and removed him (as his colleague), and set out for Ionia and Greece to wage war against Caesar. The Median at first, by employing the Romans as allies, conquered the Parthians and Artaxes who came against him; but as Antony sent for his soldiers and moreover retained those of the prince, the latter was in turn defeated and captured, and so Armenia was lost together with Media.