Divus Aurelianus

1. At the festival of the Hilaria, when all the customary observances—which we know ought both to be performed and to be spoken of as solemn occasions—had been duly carried out, the prefect of the City, the illustrious Junius Tiberianus, a man to be named with the reverence I have already expressed, took me up in his own carriage, the official chariot of his office; and there, while his mind was free and at leisure from lawsuits and from public business, he kept up a long conversation from the Palatine all the way to the Gardens of Varius, and in it he spoke especially about the lives of the emperors. When we had come to the Temple of the Sun, consecrated by the emperor Aurelian—since he himself drew no small part of his lineage from Aurelian's stock—he asked me who had recorded that emperor's life in writing. When I answered him that no Latin author had been read by me on the subject, but that I had read certain Greek writers, that holy man poured out the grief of his sorrow in these words: "Shall we then know well, and shall posterity dwell upon, a Thersites, a Sinon, and all those other monstrosities of antiquity—while the deified Aurelian, that most illustrious emperor, that most stern commander, by whom the whole world was restored to the Roman name, shall be unknown to those who come after us? God avert such madness! And yet, if I remember rightly, we have his daily journals written down, and also his wars set forth in the style of formal history; these I should like you to obtain and to write up in their proper order, adding what concerns his life. All this you will learn, with your accustomed diligence, from the linen books, in which he himself had given orders that his daily doings be recorded. I will see to it that the linen books too are brought out for you from the Ulpian Library. As for you, I should like you to set down Aurelian in writing exactly as he was, so far as you are able." I obeyed your instructions, my dear Ulpianus: I obtained the Greek books and took into my hands everything I needed, and from these I gathered into a single little book the things that were worth recording. I should like you to think kindly of my offering; and if you are not content with this, then read the Greek authors and call for the linen books as well, which the Ulpian Library will furnish you whenever you wish.

2. And since our conversation in that same carriage had turned to Trebellius Pollio—who has handed down to memory the emperors from the two Philips down to the deified Claudius and his brother Quintillus, both the famous ones and the obscure—Tiberianus maintaining that Pollio had set down much carelessly and much too briefly, while I argued on the other side that there is no writer, so far as history is concerned, who has not invented something, and pointing out moreover on what points Livy, on what points Sallust, on what points Cornelius Tacitus, and finally on what points Trogus could be convicted by plain witnesses—at this he came over to my opinion and held out his hand, and joking besides he said: "Write as you please. You may say whatever you wish in safety, for you will have as companions in your falsehoods those whom we admire as masters of historical eloquence."

3. And now, that I may not weave into my preface much that is trivial and so make myself tedious, the deified Aurelian was born, as most say, at Sirmium of rather obscure family, or, as some hold, in Dacia Ripensis. I myself recall having read an author who declared that he was born in Moesia. And indeed it happens that the native soil of those men is unknown who, born themselves in a humble station, often touch upon a humble birthplace too—so that they may lend to posterity a splendor borrowed from the renown of places. Yet in the case of great emperors the chief thing to know is not where each was born, but what sort of man he was in the commonwealth. Is Plato commended more because he was an Athenian than because he shone forth as the one unique gift of wisdom? Or are Aristotle of Stagira, and Zeno of Elea, or Anacharsis the Scythian found to be the lesser because they were born in tiny villages, when the whole virtue of philosophy raised them to the heavens?

4. But, to return to my subject: Aurelian, born of humble parents, from his earliest years most lively in spirit and famous for his strength, never let a single day pass—however festive, however idle—on which he did not exercise himself with the javelin, with arrows, and with all the other duties of arms. As for his mother, Callicrates of Tyre, by far the most learned of Greek writers, says that she was a priestess of the temple of the Sun of that village in which his parents lived; and that she possessed no small gift of divination, so that once, when quarreling with her husband, she flung at him—while reproaching both his foolishness and his low estate—the words: "Behold, the father of an emperor!" From which it is clear that this woman knew the decrees of fate. The same author says that these were the omens of Aurelian's empire: first, that a serpent often coiled around the basin of the boy and could never be killed; and finally that his very mother, who had seen this, refused to kill the serpent, regarding it as a familiar of the household. To this is added that the priestess, his mother, is said to have made playthings for her son out of a purple mantle which the emperor of that time had offered to the Sun. He adds also this, that an eagle harmlessly lifted Aurelian, bound in his swaddling-band, from the cradle and set him on an altar which happened to stand without fire near the little shrine. The same author records that a calf of marvelous size was born to his mother, white but with purple spots, so arranged that on

5. one side it had the word "Hail" and on the other a crown. I remember reading in the same author much that is superfluous; for he even asserts that, when Aurelian was born, purple roses sprang up in that woman's courtyard, of rosy scent and golden bloom. There were also afterward many omens of the empire to come, as the event showed, while he was already serving as a soldier. For as he was entering Antioch in a carriage—since because of a wound he could not then sit upon a horse—the purple cloak which had been spread out in his honor fell in such a way that it covered his shoulders; and when he wished to pass over to a horse, since it was then invidious to use carriages in the city, the emperor's own horse was brought up to him, and in his haste he mounted it; but when he learned the truth, he moved himself over to his own. There was given to him besides, when he had gone as envoy to the Persians, a bowl such as is wont to be given to an emperor by the king of the Persians, on which was engraved the Sun in that very guise in which he was worshipped in the temple where Aurelian's mother had been a priestess. There was given to him too a remarkable elephant, which he presented to the emperor; and Aurelian alone of all private citizens was the owner of an elephant.

6. But to pass over these and like things: he was comely and handsomely manly in his grace, rather tall in stature, of most powerful sinews, somewhat too fond of wine and food, rare in lust, of immense sternness, of singular discipline, and eager to draw the sword. For since there were in the army two tribunes named Aurelian—this one and another, who was captured along with Valerian—the army had given this one the nickname "hand on steel," so that, if perchance it were asked which Aurelian had done or accomplished anything, the answer might be supplied: "Aurelian hand-on-steel," and he might be recognized. Many remarkable exploits of his while still a private citizen survive on record. For when the Sarmatians broke out into Illyricum, he alone ground them down with three hundred garrison-troops. Theoclius, a writer of the times of the Caesars, reports that in the Sarmatian war Aurelian killed forty-eight men with his own hand in a single day, and over the course of many different days more than nine hundred and fifty—so much so that the boys composed dance-songs and little ditties about Aurelian, of the following sort, which they would sing while dancing in soldierly fashion on festival days: "A thousand, a thousand, a thousand we have beheaded. One man, a thousand we have beheaded. May he drink a thousand who has killed a thousand. No one has so much wine as he has shed blood."

7. These things I see to be utterly trivial; but since the author cited above inserted them, just as they are, in Latin into his own writings, I did not think they ought to be passed over in silence. The same man, when tribune of the Sixth Gallican legion at Mainz, so crushed the Franks who were bursting in, as they ranged over the whole of Gaul, that of these he took three hundred captive and slew seven hundred, and sold them under the crown. Whence again a little song was made about him: "A thousand Sarmatians, a thousand Franks we have killed once and again; a thousand Persians we are seeking." He, however, as we have said above, was so much an object of fear to the soldiers that under him, after he had once corrected with tremendous severity the offenses committed in camp, no one offended at all. He alone, in fine, of all men, punished a soldier who had committed adultery with his host's wife in such a way that he bent down the tops of two trees, bound them to the soldier's feet, and suddenly let them go, so that the man, torn apart, hung from both sides. This deed struck great fear into all. A military letter of his, addressed to his deputy, is of the following kind: "If you wish to be a tribune—nay, if you wish to live—restrain the hands of the soldiers. Let no one snatch another man's chicken, let no one touch a sheep, let no one carry off a grape-cluster, let no one trample down a crop; let no one demand oil, salt, or wood; let each be content with his own ration. Let them get their living from the spoil of the enemy, not from the tears of the provincials. Let their arms be polished, their iron tools sharpened, their boots strong; let a new garment crowd out the old. Let a man keep his pay in his belt, not in the tavern; let him put aside the neck-chain, the armlet, the ring. Let him rub down his own horse and pack-animal; let him not sell the fodder of his beast; let them tend in common the centurion's mule. Let one yield to another as a soldier, not as a slave; let them be treated by the physicians for free; let them give nothing to the soothsayers; let them conduct themselves chastely in their billets; and whoever stirs up a quarrel, let him be flogged."

8. I lately found in the Ulpian Library, among the linen books, a letter of the deified Valerian written about the emperor Aurelian, which, as was fitting, I have inserted word for word. "Valerian Augustus to Antoninus Gallus the consul: You blame me in a friendly letter because I entrusted my son Gallienus to Postumus rather than to Aurelian, since assuredly both a boy and an army ought to have been committed to the more stern of the two. But you will judge this differently, if you know well how great is Aurelian's severity. He is excessive, he is too much, he is harsh, and he is not suited to these times of ours. I call all men to witness that I even feared lest he might form some too-severe design against my son as well, if the boy did anything wrong—since, as his nature is inclined to amusements, he would think too lightly of it." This letter shows how great was Aurelian's severity, since Valerian even says that he himself was afraid of him.

9. There is another letter of the same Valerian which contains his praises, which I have brought forth from the archives of the urban prefecture. For when Aurelian came to Rome, the salary of his rank was decreed to him. Here is a copy of the letter: "Valerian Augustus to Ceionius Albinus, prefect of the City. We should indeed wish to bestow upon each and every man most devoted to the commonwealth far greater emoluments than his rank requires, especially where his honor is commended by his life—for there ought to be some recompense of merit beyond mere rank—but the public stringency makes it impossible for anyone to receive from the contributions of the provinces more than the grade of his order allows. We have appointed Aurelian, that bravest of men, to inspect and put in order all the camps; and to him so much is owed by us and by the whole commonwealth, by the common confession of the entire army, that gifts worthy of him would scarcely be even excessively great. For what about him is not illustrious? What is not to be compared with the Corvini and the Scipios? He is the liberator of Illyricum, he is the restorer of the Gauls, he is a general altogether worthy to be a great example. And yet I can add nothing to so great a man beyond these things by way of a gift's favor; a soberly and well-administered commonwealth does not allow it. Therefore your Sincerity, my dearest father, will add for the aforesaid man, so long as he is at Rome: sixteen fine military loaves, forty camp military loaves, forty sextarii of table wine, half a young pig, two fowls, thirty pounds of pork, forty pounds of beef, one sextarius of oil and likewise one sextarius of fish-sauce, one sextarius of salt, and as many garden vegetables as suffice. And since something must be decreed for him especially, you will assign him extra fodder so long as he is at Rome; and for his own expenses, two gold Antoninian coins a day, fifty small silver Philippean coins, a hundred copper denarii. The rest shall be furnished through the prefects of the treasury."

10. These things will perhaps seem to someone trivial and too slight; but curiosity refuses nothing. He held, then, many commands, very many tribunates, and at different times nearly forty deputyships for generals and tribunes—so much so that he even took the place of Ulpius Crinitus (who traced himself from the stock of Trajan, and was in truth a most valiant man and most like Trajan, who is painted together with this same Aurelian in the Temple of the Sun, and whom Valerian had resolved to treat in the position of a Caesar): he took his place, led the army, restored the frontiers, gave booty to the soldiers, enriched the Thracian provinces with cattle, horses, and captive slaves, placed the spoils in the Palatine, and heaped up on Valerian's private estate five hundred slaves, two thousand cows, a thousand mares, ten thousand sheep, fifteen thousand she-goats. For then Ulpius Crinitus, in public at Byzantium, gave thanks to Valerian as he sat in the baths, saying that a great judgment had been passed upon him in that Aurelian had been given to him as deputy; wherefore he resolved to adopt him.

11. It is worth while to know the letters written about Aurelian and the adoption itself. The letter of Valerian to Aurelian: "If there were any other, most charming Aurelian, who could fill the place of Ulpius Crinitus, I would confer with you about his valor and diligence. As it is, since I could find no other, do you—undertake the war on the side of Nicopolis, lest the illness of Crinitus harm us. Do whatever you can; I say no more. The command of the soldiery shall be in your power. You have three hundred Ituraean archers, six hundred Armenians, a hundred and fifty Arabs, two hundred Saracens, four hundred Mesopotamian auxiliaries; you have the Third legion, the Fortunate, and eight hundred mailed cavalry. With you will be Hariomundus, Haldagates, Hildomundus, Charioviscus. The necessary supplies have been established by the prefects in all the camps. It is for you, according to your valor and skill, to arrange there the winter and summer quarters where nothing will be lacking to you; and besides, to discover where the enemy's wagon-fort is, and to know truly how many and of what kind they are, so that neither the food-supply may be consumed nor weapons hurled in vain, in which things the conduct of war is established. I have such hope of you, God favoring, as the commonwealth could have of Trajan, were he alive; for he is no lesser man, into whose place and stead I have chosen you. It is fitting that you hope to share the consulship for the following year, from the eleventh day before the Kalends of June, with this same Ulpius Crinitus, in the place of Gallienus and Valerian, at public expense. For the poverty of those men ought to be relieved who, after long living in the service of the commonwealth, are poor—and of none more than these."

By these letters too it is shown how great Aurelian was; and indeed, for no one ever attained the summit of affairs who had not from his earliest age climbed up by the steps of virtue.

12. The letter about the consulship: "Valerian Augustus to Aelius Xiphidius, prefect of the treasury. To Aurelian, on whom we have conferred the consulship, on account of his poverty—by which he is great, and greater than the rest—you shall give for the staging of the games in the Circus three hundred gold Antoninian coins, three thousand small silver Philippean coins, in copper five million sesterces, ten men's tunics of fine wool, twenty Egyptian linen garments, two pairs of Cyprian towels, ten dark rugs, ten Moorish coverlets, a hundred swine, a hundred sheep. And you shall order a public banquet to be given to the senators and the Roman knights, with two larger victims and four smaller." And since I had said that I would set down also something about the adoption that pertained to so great a prince, I beg I may not seem too tedious or too wordy in this matter, which I thought ought to be inserted for the sake of credibility, from the books of Acholius, who was master of admissions to the emperor Valerian, in the ninth book of his records:

13. When Valerian Augustus had taken his seat in the baths at Byzantium, in the presence of the army and also of the Palace staff, with Nummius Tuscus, the consul for the year, sitting beside him, and Baebius Macer, the praetorian prefect, and Quintus Ancharius, governor of the East; and sitting also on the left side Avulnius Saturninus, commander of the Scythian frontier, and Murrentius Mauricius, appointed to Egypt, and Julius Trypho, commander of the eastern frontier, and Maecius of Brundisium, prefect of the grain-supply of the East, and Ulpius Crinitus, commander of the Illyrican and Thracian frontier, and Fulvius Boius, commander of the Raetian frontier—Valerian Augustus said: "The commonwealth gives you thanks, Aurelian, because you have freed her from the power of the Goths. Through you we abound in booty, we abound in glory and in all those things by which Roman prosperity grows. Take, then, for your exploits, four mural crowns, five rampart crowns, two naval crowns, two civic crowns, ten headless spears, four two-colored banners, four red ducal tunics, two proconsular cloaks, a bordered toga, a palm-embroidered tunic, an embroidered toga, a deep undertunic, an ivory chair. For I designate you consul this day, and I shall write to the Senate to assign you the staff, and to assign you the fasces as well; for these things an emperor is not wont to give, but to receive from the Senate when he becomes consul."

14. After these words of Valerian, Aurelian rose and came forward to clasp his hands, giving thanks in soldierly words, which I have determined to set down here, as themselves appropriate. Aurelian said: "And I too, my lord Valerian, emperor Augustus, have done all things for this reason, have patiently endured wounds for this reason, have worn out both my horses and my comrades-in-arms for this reason: that the commonwealth and my own conscience might give me thanks. But you have done more. I give thanks, therefore, to your goodness and accept the consulship which you grant. May God bring it to pass—and a sure God—that the Senate too may so judge of me." When, then, all the bystanders were giving thanks, Ulpius Crinitus rose and made this speech: "Among our ancestors, Valerian Augustus—and this was friendly and proper to my own family—the bravest of men were always chosen by all the best to fill the place of sons, so that the fruitfulness of a substituted offspring might adorn families either growing old or already fallen barren in their marriages. This, then, which Cocceius Nerva did in adopting Trajan, which Ulpius Trajan did in the case of Hadrian, which Hadrian did in the case of Antoninus, and the rest in succession on a proposed motion, I have judged ought to be revived in adopting Aurelian, whom you have made my deputy by the authority of your judgment. Order, then, that the matter proceed by law, and that Aurelian be heir of the rites, of the name, of the goods, and of the entire right of Ulpius Crinitus—now a man of consular rank, and himself, by your judgment, at once of consular rank."

15. It is too long to weave all the threads together. For both thanks were given to Crinitus by Valerian, and the adoption was completed, as was the custom. I remember that I read in a certain Greek book—which I did not think ought to be passed over in silence—that Crinitus was instructed by Valerian to adopt Aurelian, chiefly for the reason that he was poor; but I think this should be left undecided. And since I set down above the letter by which the expense-allowance was conferred on Aurelian for his consulship, I thought I ought to explain why I have set down a matter as it were trivial. Lately we saw the consulship of Furius Placidus staged in the Circus with such display that it seemed not prizes were being given to the charioteers but whole fortunes, since there were given silk-bordered tunics, linen garments with gold borders, given even horses—while frugal men groaned. For it has come to pass that the consulship is now a matter of riches, not of men, since assuredly, if it is conferred for virtue, it ought not to strip the giver bare. Those chaste old times have perished, and they are likely to perish all the more through popular ambition. But we, as is our custom, will leave this matter too undecided.

16. Supported, then, by all these many and great preliminaries and gifts, in the days of Claudius he shone forth so greatly that after him—when Claudius's brother Quintillus too had been killed—he alone held the empire, Aureolus having been slain, with whom Gallienus had made peace. On this point there is so great a divergence among the historians, and indeed among the Greeks, that some say Aureolus was killed by Aurelian against Claudius's will, others that it was at Claudius's command and with his consent, others that this same man was slain by Aurelian when he was already emperor, others again when he was still a private citizen. But these matters too we will leave undecided, to be sought from those through whom they were put into writing. This, however, is certain: that the deified Claudius entrusted the whole war against the Maeotians to no one more than to Aurelian.

17. There exists a letter which I, as is my custom, for the sake of credibility—nay, just as I see that the other writers of annals have done—thought ought to be inserted: "Flavius Claudius to his own Valerius Aurelian, greeting. Our commonwealth demands of you your accustomed service. Set to it. Why do you delay? I wish the soldiers to be employed under your command, the tribunes under your leadership. The Goths must be assaulted, the Goths must be driven from the Thracian provinces. For most of them, who fled when you were fighting, are now harassing Haemimontus and Europa. I place in your power all the Thracian armies, all the Illyrican, and the whole frontier. Show us, then, your accustomed valor. With you too will be your brother Quintillus, when he meets you. I, occupied with other matters, entrust the conduct of that war to your valor. I have sent you ten horses, two breastplates, and the other things with which necessity compels a man going to war to equip himself." Employing, then, successful battles under the auspices of Claudius, he restored the commonwealth to its former wholeness; and he himself at once, as we said above, was made emperor by the consent of all the legions.

18. All the cavalry, indeed, before he held the empire, Aurelian commanded under Claudius. When they had incurred the displeasure of their master, because they had rashly fought when Claudius did not so order—Likewise Aurelian fought most fiercely against the Suebi and the Sarmatians at the same time, and won a most flourishing victory. A defeat, it is true, was suffered under Aurelian at the hands of the Marcomanni, through an error; for while he neglects to confront them in front when they suddenly burst out, and while he prepares to pursue them from the rear, everything around Milan was grievously ravaged. Afterward, however, the Marcomanni too were themselves overcome. But in that alarm, in which the Marcomanni were laying everything waste, enormous riots arose at Rome, all men dreading that the same things would befall as had happened under Gallienus. Wherefore even the Sibylline Books, famed for their benefits to the state, were consulted, and it was found that in certain places sacrifices should be performed which the barbarians could not pass. In the end, those things were done which had been prescribed in the various kinds of ceremonies, and so the barbarians were held back, all of whom Aurelian, as they roamed in scattered bands, killed piecemeal. I am pleased to set forth the very form of the decree of the Senate by which the authority of that most illustrious order ordered the Books to be consulted:

19. On the third day before the Ides of January, Fulvius Sabinus, the urban praetor, said: "We refer to you, Conscript Fathers, the recommendation of the pontiffs and the letter of the emperor Aurelian, by which it is ordered that the fatal Books be consulted, in which is contained the hope of ending the war by the sacred command of the gods. For you yourselves know that, as often as any rather serious disturbance has arisen, they have always been consulted, and that the public calamities have never ceased before the sanction for sacrifices proceeded from them." Then Ulpius Silanus, who was to speak first, rose and spoke thus: "Too late, Conscript Fathers, are we consulted about the safety of the commonwealth; too late do we have regard to the fatal commands, after the manner of the languishing, who do not send for the best physicians except in utter despair—as if greater care should be taken for the more skilled men, when it is better to meet all diseases at once. For you remember, Conscript Fathers, that I have often said in this order, even at the very moment when it was first announced that the Marcomanni had broken out, that the decrees of the Sibyl should be consulted, that the benefits of Apollo should be employed, that we should serve the precepts of the immortal gods—but that certain men refused, and refused with enormous slander, when by flattery they said that the valor of the emperor Aurelian was so great that there was no need to consult the gods: as if even that great man does not worship the gods, does not hope in the immortal gods. What more? We have heard the letter in which he asked the help of the gods, which is never base for anyone—that the bravest of men might be aided. Come, then, pontiffs: pure, clean, holy, fit in dress and in sacred mind, ascend the temple, set up the laurel-decked seats, with veiled hands unroll the Books, search out the destinies of the commonwealth, which are eternal, and let the hymn be appointed for boys whose fathers and mothers are living. Let us appoint the expense for the rites, the equipment for the sacrifices, the Ambarvalia for the fields."

20. After this, most of the senators, when questioned, gave their opinions, which it would be long to weave in. Then, with some holding out their hands and others going by their feet into the divisions, and most agreeing by word, the decree of the Senate was framed. They went then to the temple, the Books were consulted, the verses were brought forth, the city was purified, the hymns were sung, the Amburbium was celebrated, the Ambarvalia were promised, and so the solemn rite which had been ordered was completed. The letter of Aurelian about the Sibylline Books—for this too I have inserted, for the credibility of the matter: "I marvel, holy Fathers, that you have hesitated so long about opening the Sibylline Books, as though you were deliberating in a church of the Christians and not in the temple of all the gods. Come, then, and by the purity of the pontiffs and by the solemn ceremonies aid your prince as he labors under public necessity. Let the Books be consulted; if anything must be done, let it be performed. Whatever expense, captives of whatever nation, whatever royal animals—I do not refuse them, but freely offer them; for it is no disgrace to conquer with the gods aiding. Thus among our ancestors many wars were ended, thus begun. If there is any expense, I have given orders, by a letter sent to the prefect of the treasury, for it to be decreed. There is besides the public chest, which is yours to dispose of by your authority, and which I find more full than I could wish."

21. But when Aurelian wished to engage all the enemy at once, with his army packed close together, so great a defeat was suffered near Placentia that the Roman empire was almost dissolved. And indeed the cause of this peril was the treachery and cunning of the barbarian movement. For when they could not engage in open battle, they betook themselves into the densest woods, and so threw our men into confusion as evening came on. In the end, had not the barbarians, by divine aid, after the consultation of the Books and the care of the sacrifices, been entangled by certain portents and divine apparitions, there would have been no Roman victory. When the Marcomannic battle was finished, Aurelian, since he was by nature rather fierce, full of wrath, sought Rome eager for the vengeance which the harshness of the riots suggested. Using his power, in the end, too uncivilly—though a man otherwise most excellent—he put to death the authors of the riots and crushed too bloodily those things which ought to have been treated more gently. For some even of the noble senators were killed, when one witness, or a trivial or worthless one, charged against them some slight thing which a milder prince could have despised. In short, that great empire—both what it had already been, and what was not in vain hoped of it—he stained with the blow of a darker infamy. The best of princes began to be feared, not loved, since some said that such a prince ought to be utterly hated, not desired, others that he was indeed a good physician, but one who cured by a bad method. When this was done, since he saw it could happen that something of the kind that had befallen under Gallienus might recur, he took counsel with the Senate and enlarged the walls of the city of Rome; he did not, however, add to the pomerium at that time, but afterward. And to the pomerium no prince is permitted to add except one who has enriched the Roman commonwealth with some part of barbarian territory. Augustus added to it, Trajan added to it, Nero added to it—under whom Pontus Polemoniacus and the Cottian Alps were assigned to the Roman name.

22. When, then, the matters that pertained to the enclosures and to the state of the city and to civil affairs had been settled, he turned his march against the Palmyrenes—that is, against Zenobia, who was holding the empire of the East in the name of her sons. Many and great kinds of wars he accomplished on the march; for in the Thracian provinces and in Illyricum he conquered the barbarians who met him, and indeed he slew the leader of the Goths, Cannabas or Cannabaudes, with five thousand men beyond the Danube. And from there, through Byzantium, he made his crossing into Bithynia and gained it without any contest. Many and great things of his were both done and said; but we can neither—out of avoidance of tedium—nor do we wish to weave them all into the book; yet, in order to understand his character and his valor, a few must be touched upon. For when he had come to Tyana and found it closed against him, he is said to have said in anger: "I will not leave a dog in this town." Then, with the soldiers pressing the more fiercely in hope of booty, and with a certain Heraclammon, out of fear lest he be killed among the rest,

23. betraying his own native city, the city was captured. But Aurelian at once showed two outstanding things from his imperial mind, the one to display severity, the other clemency. For both he wisely, as victor, killed Heraclammon, the betrayer of his own native city, and, when the soldiers, in accordance with that saying by which he had declared to the people of Tyana that he would not leave a dog, demanded the overthrow of the city, he answered them: "I said," he said, "that I would not leave a dog in this city; kill all the dogs." A great saying of the prince, a greater deed of the soldiers; for the prince's jest, by which booty was denied, saved the city, and the whole army received it as though they were being enriched. The letter about Heraclammon: "Aurelian Augustus to Mallius Chilo. I allowed him to be killed by whose service, as it were, I recovered Tyana; but I could not love a traitor, and I gladly bore it that the soldiers killed him. For he could not have kept faith with me, who did not spare his native city. In short, of all the city that was besieged, only the open field received him. I cannot deny that he was a rich man; but his goods I have given back to his children, lest anyone charge me with having allowed a rich man to be killed for the sake of money."

24. And the city was captured in a marvelous way. For when Heraclammon had pointed out a place, a mound swelling with a natural appearance, by which Aurelian, well equipped, might ascend, he climbed it and, raising his purple cloak, showed himself to the citizens within and to the soldiers without; and so the city was captured, as though Aurelian's whole army had been upon the walls. A matter that pertains to the fame of this venerable man ought not to be passed over in silence. For it is reported that Aurelian truly spoke, truly thought, about the destruction of the city of Tyana; but that Apollonius of Tyana, a sage of most celebrated fame and authority, an ancient philosopher, a true friend of the gods, himself even to be frequented as a divinity, suddenly stood before him in the form in which he is seen, as he was retiring to his tent, and spoke these words in Latin, that the man, being a Pannonian, might understand: "Aurelian, if you wish to conquer, there is no reason for you to think upon the slaughter of my fellow-citizens. Aurelian, if you wish to rule, abstain from the blood of the innocent. Aurelian, act mercifully, if you wish to live." Aurelian knew the face of the venerable philosopher, and had seen his image in many temples; in the end, at once thunderstruck, he promised him an image and statues and a temple, and returned to a better mind. These things I have both learned from grave men and read again in the books of the Ulpian Library, and have believed the more because of the majesty of Apollonius. For what among men was more holy, more venerable, more ancient, more divine than that man? He restored life to the dead; he both did and said many things beyond the power of men, which anyone who wishes to know should read the Greek books that have been written about his life. I myself, however, if life lasts and the favor of that very man shall still be pleased to allow it, will at least briefly put the deeds of so great a man into writing—not because that man's deeds need the service of my discourse, but that the things which are to be wondered at may be proclaimed by the voice of all.

25. When Tyana had been recovered, Aurelian, after offering impunity to all, gained Antioch after a brief contest at Daphne, and from there—following, so far as can be proved, the precepts of the venerable Apollonius—he was more humane and more clement. After this, the supreme issue was fought out against Zenobia and her ally Zaba near Emesa in a great battle; and when Aurelian's cavalry, now wearied, were almost giving way and turning their backs, suddenly, by the power of a divinity—which was afterward revealed—with a certain divine form urging them on, the cavalry were restored even by means of the infantry. Zenobia was put to flight along with Zaba, and the victory was most fully won. When, then, the state of the East had been recovered, Aurelian entered Emesa as victor and at once made for the Temple of Heliogabalus, as though to pay his vows by a common duty. But there he found that very form of the divinity which he had seen favoring him in the war. Wherefore there too he founded temples, setting up enormous offerings, and at Rome he set up a temple to the Sun, consecrated with greater magnificence, as we shall say in its proper place.

26. After this he turned his march to Palmyra, that, when it was taken, an end might be put to his labors. But on the march, with his army frequently roughly handled by Syrian brigands, he endured much, and in the siege he was endangered even to the point of being struck by an arrow. A letter of his own survives, sent to Mucapor, in which—beyond imperial modesty—he confesses the difficulty of this war: "The Romans say that I am now waging war against a woman, as though Zenobia alone and with her own strength were fighting against me—when there are as many enemies as if a man had to be assaulted by me, while she, with a conscience and a fear far worse, is the more dangerous. It cannot be told how many arrows there are here, what apparatus of war, how many missiles, how many stones; there is no part of the wall that is not occupied by two or three ballistae; fires also are hurled by the engines. What more? She fears like a woman, she fights like one who fears punishment. But I believe that the gods will truly aid the Roman commonwealth, who have never failed our undertakings." In the end, wearied and exhausted by the troubles, he sent a letter to Zenobia, demanding her surrender, promising her life, of which I have inserted a copy: "Aurelian, emperor of the Roman world and recoverer of the East, to Zenobia and the rest whom the partnership of war holds. You ought of your own accord to have done that which is now contained in my letter; for I command surrender, with impunity of life offered—on this condition, that you, Zenobia, shall pass your life with your people where I shall settle you according to the opinion of the most august Senate. You shall bring your jewels, gold, silver, silk, horses, and camels into the Roman treasury. To the Palmyrenes their own right shall be preserved."

27. On receiving this letter, Zenobia wrote back more proudly and insolently than her fortune demanded—I believe to inspire terror; for I have inserted a copy of her letter too: "Zenobia, queen of the East, to Aurelian Augustus. No one until now except you has sought by letter what you demand. Whatever must be done in matters of war must be done by valor. You demand my surrender, as though you did not know that queen Cleopatra preferred to perish rather than to live in any rank whatever. To us the aid of the Persians is not lacking, which we now expect; for us are the Saracens, for us the Armenians. The Syrian brigands, Aurelian, have conquered your army. What, then, if that force shall come which is expected from every side? You will surely lay down that arrogance with which you now command my surrender, as though you were a victor on every side." Nicomachus says that he translated this letter into Greek from the Syrian tongue, dictated by Zenobia herself; for that earlier letter of Aurelian was sent in Greek.

28. On receiving this letter, Aurelian did not blush but grew angry, and at once, gathering his army and his generals, besieged Palmyra on all sides; nor did the brave man leave anything that might seem either unfinished or uncared for. For he both intercepted the auxiliaries that had been sent by the Persians, and corrupted the Saracen and Armenian squadrons and brought them over to himself, now fiercely, now subtly; in short, with great force he conquered that most powerful woman. Conquered, then, Zenobia, as she fled on the camels which they call dromedaries and was making her way to the Persians, was captured by horsemen sent after her, and brought into Aurelian's power. So Aurelian, as victor and now master of the whole East, while he held Zenobia in chains, dealt with the Persians, Armenians, and Saracens more proudly and insolently—he did those things which the reason of the time demanded. Then were brought in those garments, which we see in the Temple of the Sun, set close with jewels; then the Persian dragons and tiaras; then that kind of purple which afterward no nation has produced and the Roman world has not seen.

29. Of which I should like to say at least a few words. For you remember that there was in the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus Capitolinus a short purple woolen cloak, beside which, when the matrons and Aurelian himself joined their own purples, the rest seemed to be discolored to the appearance of ash, in comparison with that divine radiance. This gift the king of the Persians, having obtained it from the inner Indians, is said to have given to Aurelian, writing: "Take the purple, such as is found among us." But this was false. For afterward both Aurelian and Probus, and most recently Diocletian, sending out most diligent dye-makers, sought such a kind of purple and yet could not find it. For it is said that the Indian sandyx produces such a purple, if it is properly prepared.

30. But to return to what we began: there was nonetheless a great clamor of all the soldiers demanding Zenobia for punishment. But Aurelian, judging it unworthy that a woman be put to death, when most of those by whose counsel she had stirred up, prepared, and waged the war had been killed, reserved the woman for his triumph, that she might be a spectacle to the eyes of the Roman people. Grave, it is reported, was the case among those who were slain concerning the philosopher Longinus, whom she is said to have used as her teacher for Greek letters, and whom indeed Aurelian is said to have killed for this reason: that the proud letter was said to have been dictated by his counsel, although it was composed in the Syrian tongue. The East, then, being pacified, Aurelian returned as victor into Europe, and there crushed the forces of the Carpi; and when the Senate, in his absence, hailed him as Carpicus, he is said to have sent word in jest: "It remains, Conscript Fathers, for you to call me also Carpisculus." For it is well enough known that carpisculum is a kind of footwear. This surname seemed unbecoming, since he was already styled Gothicus and Sarmaticus and Armeniacus and Parthicus and Adiabenicus.

31. It is rare that Syrians keep faith—nay, it is difficult. For the Palmyrenes, who had already been conquered and crushed, rebelled to no slight degree while Aurelian was occupied with European affairs. For they killed Sandario, whom Aurelian had placed there in garrison, together with six hundred archers, preparing the empire for a certain Achilleus, a kinsman of Zenobia. But Aurelian—prepared as he was—returned so swiftly from Rhodope and overthrew the city, since it so deserved. The cruelty, in the end, of Aurelian—or, as some say, the severity—was carried to such a point that a letter of his is reported which displays the confession of a most savage fury, of which this is a copy: "Aurelian Augustus to Cerronius Bassus. The swords of the soldiers ought not to advance further; enough of the Palmyrenes has already been slain and cut down. We have not spared the women, we have killed the infants, we have slaughtered the old men, we have destroyed the peasants. To whom shall we leave the land, to whom the city henceforth? Those who remain must be spared; for we believe that so few have been corrected by the punishments of so many. As for the Temple of the Sun at Palmyra, which the eagle-bearers of the Third legion, together with the standard-bearers and the dragon-bearer and the horn-blowers and trumpeters, plundered, I wish it to be restored to the form which it had. You have three hundred pounds of gold from Zenobia's caskets, you have eighteen hundred pounds of silver from the goods of the Palmyrenes, you have the royal jewels. Of all these, see that the temple is adorned; you will do a thing most pleasing to me and to the immortal gods. I shall write to the Senate, asking that it send a pontiff to dedicate the temple." This letter, as we see, shows that the savagery of the harsh prince was sated.

32. With greater security, in the end, he returned again into Europe, and there crushed, with that famous valor of his, all the enemies who were wandering about. Meanwhile, while Aurelian was achieving great things throughout the Thracian provinces and all Europe, a certain Firmus arose, who claimed Egypt for himself without the insignia of empire, as though it were to be a free state. Against him Aurelian at once returned, nor did his accustomed good fortune fail him there; for he at once recovered Egypt and, as he was fierce of spirit, having avenged the design, raging vehemently because Tetricus still held the Gauls, he made for the West; and with Tetricus himself betraying his own army—because he could not bear its crimes—he obtained the legions that surrendered to him. So Aurelian, prince of the whole world, with the East and the Gauls pacified and victor everywhere on earth, turned his march to Rome, that he might display before the eyes of the Romans a triumph over Zenobia and Tetricus—that is, over the East and the West.

33. It is not beside the purpose to learn what Aurelian's triumph was; for it was most splendid. There were three royal chariots; among them one was Odenathus's, wrought and adorned with silver, gold, and jewels; another, which the king of the Persians had given as a gift to Aurelian, was likewise fashioned with equal workmanship; the third, which Zenobia had made ready for herself, hoping that she would see the city of Rome in it. And in this she was not deceived; for she did enter the city in it, conquered and led in triumph. There was another chariot yoked with four stags, which is said to have belonged to the king of the Goths. In this, as many have handed down to memory, Aurelian was conveyed up to the Capitol, that he might there slay the stags, which together with that same chariot he had captured and was reported to have vowed to Jupiter Optimus Maximus. There went before him twenty elephants, two hundred tamed beasts of Libya and Palestine of various kinds, which Aurelian at once gave to private persons, lest he burden the treasury with their food; four tigers, giraffes, elks, and other such creatures led in order; eight hundred pairs of gladiators, besides the captives of the barbarian nations. Blemmyes, Axomitae, Arabs Eudaemones, Indians, Bactrians, Iberians, Saracens, Persians, each with their gifts; Goths, Alans, Roxolani, Sarmatians, Franks, Suebi, Vandals, Germans, captives with bound hands, went before. Among these went also those of the Palmyrenes who had survived,

34. the chiefs of the city, and the Egyptians, on account of their rebellion. There were led also ten women, whom he had captured fighting in men's dress among the Goths, when many had been killed—whom a placard declared to be of the race of the Amazons; for placards were carried before, containing the names of the nations. Among these was Tetricus, adorned with a scarlet cloak, a yellow-green tunic, and Gallic trousers, with his son joined to him, whom he had proclaimed emperor in Gaul. There walked also Zenobia, adorned with jewels and with golden chains, which others held up. Before were carried the golden crowns of all the cities, set forth with prominent placards. Now the Roman people itself, now the banners of the guilds and of the camps and the mailed soldiers and the royal treasures and the whole army and the Senate (though somewhat sadder, because they saw senators being led in triumph) had added much to the procession. In the end, scarcely at the ninth hour did he reach the Capitol, and late to the Palace. On the following days, pleasures were given to the people—scenic games, circus games, hunts, gladiators, a mock sea-battle.

35. It does not seem fit to pass over what both the people hold in memory and historical credit has confirmed: that Aurelian, at the time when he was setting out for the East, promised the people crowns of two pounds' weight if he should return as victor; and when the people hoped for golden ones, and Aurelian neither could nor would, he made crowns of bread—which are now called siligineous—and gave one to each man, so that each received his siligineous bread daily, his whole life long, and left it to his descendants. For the same Aurelian also distributed pork to the Roman people, which is divided out to this very day. He enacted very many laws, and indeed beneficial ones. He arranged the priesthoods, founded the Temple of the Sun, and strengthened the pontiffs; he also decreed allowances for repairs and for the ministers. When these things had been accomplished, having set out for the Gauls, he freed the Vindelici from a barbarian siege; then he returned to Illyricum, and with an army made ready—great rather than enormous—he declared war on the Persians, whom he had already most gloriously conquered even at that time when he overcame Zenobia. But as he was making his way, at Caenophrurium, a halting-place which is between Heraclea and Byzantium, he was slain by the wickedness of his secretary and the hand of Mucapor.

36. And what the cause of his killing was, and how he was killed, I will briefly explain, lest so great a matter remain hidden. Aurelian—which cannot be denied—was a severe, savage, bloodthirsty prince. He, when he had stretched his severity so far that he killed even his sister's daughter on no great nor sufficiently fitting cause, first of all came into the hatred of his own people. It happened, moreover—as affairs proceed by fate—that he made a certain Mnestheus, whom he had employed as secretary of his confidential matters, his freedman (as some say), more hostile to himself by threatening him, because he had conceived some suspicion of him. Mnestheus, who knew that Aurelian was not wont to threaten in vain, nor, if he threatened, to forgive, drew up a short list of names, mixing those with whom Aurelian was truly angry together with those against whom he was thinking nothing harsh, adding even his own name, that he might the more gain credit for the anxiety he had stirred up; and he read the list to each of those whose names it contained, adding that Aurelian had arranged to kill them all, and that they, indeed, if they were men, ought to come to the aid of their own lives. When these men had been inflamed—by fear, those who deserved his displeasure; by grief, the innocent, because Aurelian seemed ungrateful for kindnesses and services—they suddenly set upon the prince as he was journeying in the aforesaid place and killed him.

37. This was the end of Aurelian, a prince necessary rather than good. When he had been killed and the deed was made known, both a huge tomb and a temple were dedicated to him by those very men by whom he had been slain. Mnestheus, indeed, was afterward seized and bound to a stake and thrown to the beasts, as the marble statues placed on both sides in that same spot indicate, where also on columns statues were set up to the deified Aurelian. The Senate bore his death grievously, but the Roman people more grievously still, who commonly said that Aurelian was the schoolmaster of the senators. He reigned six years less a few days, and, after great deeds accomplished, was numbered among the gods. Since it pertains to Aurelian, I ought not to keep silent about what has been recorded in history: for many relate that Quintillus, the brother of Claudius, when he was in command of the Italian garrison, on hearing of Claudius's death assumed the empire; but afterward, when he learned that Aurelian was reigning, he was deserted by the whole army; and when he harangued against him and was not listened to by the soldiers, he cut his own veins and perished on the twentieth day of his rule. Whatever, indeed, there was of crime, whatever of evil conscience or of deadly arts, whatever, in fine,

38. of factions, Aurelian utterly purged from the whole world. This too I think pertains to the matter: that Zenobia held the empire which she held in the name of her son Vaballathus, not of Timolaus and Herennianus. There was under Aurelian also a war of the mint-workers, instigated by Felicissimus the accountant, which he put down most fiercely and severely, yet with the loss of seven thousand of his own soldiers, as a letter shows, sent to Ulpius Crinitus, three times consul, who had previously adopted him: "Aurelian Augustus to his father Ulpius. As though some fate were upon me, that all the wars whatsoever I have waged, all the disturbances, grow heavier, so too an intramural sedition has bred for me a most grievous war. The mint-workers, at the instigation of Felicissimus, the lowest of slaves, to whom I had entrusted the procuratorship of the treasury, raised rebellious spirits. These have been suppressed with the loss of seven thousand men of the river-craft and the riparian troops and the camp-troops and the Dacian troops. Whence it appears that no victory has been granted to me by the immortal gods without difficulty."

39. Tetricus, after leading him in triumph, he made corrector of Lucania, while his son remained in the Senate. He established a most magnificent Temple of the Sun. He so enlarged the walls of the city of Rome that the circuit of his walls embraces nearly fifty thousand feet. He likewise pursued with enormous severity the false accusers and informers. He ordered the public records to be burned once and for all in the Forum of Trajan, for the security of private citizens. An amnesty too for public offenses was decreed under him, after the example of the Athenians, of which thing Tullius also makes mention in his Philippics. The provincial thieves, accused of extortion and embezzlement, he pursued beyond military measure, so that he punished them with enormous penalties and tortures. In the Temple of the Sun he placed much gold and many jewels. When he saw Illyricum laid waste and Moesia ruined, he abandoned the Transdanuvian province of Dacia, established by Trajan, withdrawing the army and the provincials, despairing that it could be held; and he settled the peoples removed from it in Moesia, and called it Dacia—which now divides the two Moesias. He is said, moreover, to have been of such cruelty that he charged most senators with a feigned faction of conspiracy and tyranny, so that he might the more easily kill them. Some add that it was his sister's son, not daughter, who was killed by him; most, however, say it was even his sister's son.

40. How difficult it is to choose an emperor in place of a good prince, both the gravity of the holier Senate proves and the authority of the prudent army. For when the most severe prince had been killed, the army referred the choice of an emperor to the Senate, for the reason that it thought none of those ought to be made emperor who had killed so good a prince. But the Senate poured this same election back upon the army, knowing that the soldiers were now not glad to accept as emperors those whom the Senate had chosen. In the end this was done three times, so that for six months the Roman world had no emperor, and all the judges remained who had been chosen either by the Senate or by Aurelian—except that as proconsul of Asia Faltonius Probus was chosen in place of Arellius Fuscus.

41. It is not unpleasant to insert the very letter which the army sent to the Senate: "The fortunate and brave armies to the Senate and people of Rome. Our emperor Aurelian has been killed by the treachery of one man and the error of good and bad men. Place him among the gods, holy lords, Conscript Fathers, and send us one of your own number as prince—but one worthy of your judgment; for we suffer no one to rule us of those who have either erred or done wrong." Rescript by decree of the Senate: When, on the third day before the Nones of February, the most august Senate had assembled in the Curia Pompiliana, the consul Aurelius Gordianus said: "We refer to you, Conscript Fathers, the letter of the most fortunate army." When this had been read, Aurelius Tacitus, the senator to speak first, spoke thus (this, moreover, is the man who after Aurelian was named emperor by the opinion of all): "Rightly and duly would the immortal gods have provided, Conscript Fathers, if good princes had stood inviolable by the sword, so as to lead a longer life, and there were no power against them in the hands of those who conceive unspeakable murders with a most baleful mind. For then the prince Aurelian would be alive, than whom no one was braver or more useful. Surely our commonwealth had begun to breathe again after the misfortune of Valerian, after the evils of Gallienus, while Claudius reigned; and that same breathing-space had been restored by Aurelian, conquering throughout the whole world. He gave us the Gauls, he freed Italy, he removed from the Vindelici the yoke of barbarian servitude; while he conquered, Illyricum was restored, the Thracian provinces were given back to Roman laws. He—oh shame!—restored to our jurisdiction the East, pressed by a woman's yoke; he routed, put to flight, and crushed the Persians, who still insulted over the death of Valerian. Him the Saracens, Blemmyes, Axomitae, Bactrians, Seres, Iberians, Albanians, Armenians, and even the peoples of the Indians venerated almost as a present god. With his gifts, which he earned from barbarian nations, the Capitol is filled; fifteen thousand pounds of gold from his liberality one temple holds; all the shrines in the city gleam with his gifts. Wherefore, Conscript Fathers, I rightly arraign even the gods themselves, who suffered such a prince to perish—unless perhaps they preferred that he be with them. I decree, then, divine honors, and I judge that you will all do the same. As for choosing an emperor, I move that it be referred to the same army; for in such a kind of decree, unless what is said be done, there will be both peril for the chosen and odium for the chooser." The opinion of Tacitus was approved; yet, when the matter was sent back again and again, by a decree of the Senate—of which we shall speak in the Life of Tacitus—Tacitus was made emperor.

42. Aurelian left a single daughter, whose descendants are even now at Rome. For Aurelian, proconsul of Cilicia, an excellent senator, of truly his own right and of venerable life, who now passes his life in Sicily, is his grandson. What shall I say this is—that so few good princes have existed, when there have already been so many Caesars? For from Augustus to Diocletian and Maximian, what a series of purple-clad rulers there is, the public register records. But among these the best are Augustus himself, Flavius Vespasian, Flavius Titus, Cocceius Nerva, the deified Trajan, the deified Hadrian, the Antonines Pius and Marcus, Severus the African, Alexander son of Mamaea, the deified Claudius, and the deified Aurelian. Valerian, indeed, though he was most excellent, his misfortune set apart from all. See, I pray, how few good princes there are—so that it was well said by a certain comic jester in the days of this same Claudius that the good princes could be inscribed and depicted upon a single ring. But, on the contrary, what a series of bad ones! For—to pass over the Vitellii, the Caligulas, and the Neros—who could endure the Maximini and the Philips and that dregs of an unruly mob? Though I ought to except the Decii, whose life and death are to be compared with those of the ancients.

43. And it is indeed asked what it is that makes bad princes. First of all, my friend, license; then abundance of means; besides, wicked friends, detestable attendants, most greedy eunuchs, courtiers either foolish or detestable, and—what cannot be denied—ignorance of public affairs. But I have heard from my father that Diocletian, when already a private citizen, said that nothing is more difficult than to rule well. Four or five men band together and form a single plan to deceive the emperor; they tell him what ought to be approved. The emperor, who is shut up at home, does not know the truth; he is forced to know only what they tell him; he makes judges who ought not to be made, removes from the commonwealth those whom he ought to retain. What more? As Diocletian himself used to say, a good, careful, excellent emperor is sold. These are the words of Diocletian, which I have inserted for this reason: that your prudence might know that nothing is more difficult than to be a good prince.

44. And Aurelian, indeed, many place neither among the good nor among the bad princes, for the reason that clemency—the first endowment of emperors—was lacking in him. Verconnius Herennianus, praetorian prefect of Diocletian, on the testimony of Asclepiodotus, often used to say that Diocletian frequently said—when he reproached the harshness of Maximian—that Aurelian ought rather to have been a general than a prince; for his excessive ferocity displeased him. It seems perhaps marvelous what Asclepiodotus is reported to have said he had learned from Diocletian; but of this let posterity judge. For he used to say that at a certain time Aurelian consulted the Gallic Druidesses, asking whether the empire would remain among his descendants; and that they answered, he said, that no name in the commonwealth would be more illustrious than that of the descendants of Claudius. And indeed there is now Constantius the emperor, a man of the same blood, whose descendants I think will attain to that glory which was pronounced by the Druidesses—which I have therefore set down in the Life of Aurelian, because these answers were given to Aurelian himself as he consulted.

45. Aurelian established for the city of Rome an eternal tribute from Egypt of glass, paper, linen, tow, and exportable goods. He prepared to build winter baths in the Trans-Tiberine region, because there was a lack of colder water there. He began to found a forum of his own name at Ostia, by the sea, in which afterward a public praetorium was established. His friends he enriched honorably and moderately, that they might escape the miseries of poverty and avoid the odium of riches by the moderation of their estate. A garment of pure silk he neither kept in his own wardrobe nor gave to another to use; and when his wife asked him to allow her to use a single purple-silk cloak, he answered: "Far be it that threads should be weighed against gold." For a pound of silk was then worth a pound of gold.

46. He had it in mind that gold should be put neither in ceilings nor in tunics nor in skins nor in silver, saying that there is more gold than silver in the nature of things, but that gold is wasted through the various uses of gold-leaf, threads, and meltings, whereas silver remains in its own use. He had likewise granted permission that those who wished might use vessels and cups of gold. He gave, besides, the power to private persons to have silvered carriages, whereas before the carriages had been bronze-fitted and ivory-fitted. He likewise allowed that matrons might have purple-silk tunics and other garments, whereas before they had had colored ones, and many of opal hue. That common soldiers might have golden brooches, he was the first to grant, whereas before they had had silver ones. Gold-bordered garments he himself first gave to the soldiers, whereas before they had received only straight purple ones; and indeed to some single-striped, to others double-striped, to others triple-striped, and up to five-striped—such as are nowadays the linen garments.

47. To the bread-loaves of the city of Rome he added an ounce from the Egyptian tribute, as he himself even boasts in a certain letter addressed to the prefect of the grain-supply of the city: "Aurelian Augustus to Flavius Arabianus, prefect of the grain-supply. Among the other things by which, the gods favoring, we have aided the Roman commonwealth, nothing is to me more magnificent than that by the addition of an ounce I have helped every kind of the city's grain-supply. That this might be permanent, I have established new Nile shippers in Egypt and river-shippers at Rome; I have built up the banks of the Tiber, I have dug out the shallow of the swelling channel, I have instituted vows to the gods and to Eternity, I have consecrated kindly Ceres. Now it is your duty, most charming Arabianus, to labor that my arrangements come not to nothing; for nothing can be more joyful than a Roman people that is well fed."

48. He had resolved also to give wine free to the Roman people, so that, just as oil and bread and pork are furnished free, so too wine might be given, which he had conceived as a permanent arrangement on this plan: In Etruria, along the Aurelian Way as far as the Maritime Alps, there are enormous fields, and these fertile and wooded. He had resolved, then, to give a price to the owners of the uncultivated lands—those, at least, who were willing—and to settle captive households there, to plant the hills with vines, and from that work to give wine, so that the treasury should receive no revenue from it but grant the whole to the Roman people. A reckoning had been made of the staves, the casks, the ships, and the works. But many say that Aurelian was forestalled, so that he did not do it; others, that he was prevented by his own praetorian prefect, who is reported to have said: "If we give wine too to the Roman people, it remains for us to give them chickens and geese as well." It is an argument that Aurelian truly thought of this—nay, even arranged to do it, or did it in some part—that in the porticoes of the Temple of the Sun fiscal wines are placed, not to be distributed free to the people but at a price. It should be known, however, that he gave largesses three times, and gave also to the Roman people white tunics with sleeves from various provinces, and pure African and Egyptian linens; and that he himself first gave napkins to the Roman people, which the people might use to show their favor.

49. It displeased him, when he was at Rome, to dwell in the Palace, and it pleased him more to live in the Gardens of Sallust or in those of Domitia. In the end he adorned a thousand-pace portico in the Gardens of Sallust, in which he daily wearied both his horses and himself, though he was of no good health. Slaves and servants who offended he ordered to be beaten in his presence, as most say, for the sake of maintaining severity; as others say, from a zeal for cruelty. A maidservant of his, who had committed adultery with a fellow-slave, he punished with death. Many slaves of his own household who had offended he gave to be heard by the public courts according to the laws. He had wished a senate, or "little senate," to be restored to the matrons, so that the first place there should belong to those who had earned priesthoods by the Senate's authority. He took from all men red, waxen, white, and ivy-colored shoes, and left them to the women. He granted to senators that their runners should be in the same dress in which he himself was. He forbade freeborn women to be kept as concubines. He fixed a limit on eunuchs in proportion to the senatorial professions, for the reason that they had come to enormous prices. A silver vessel of his never exceeded thirty pounds. His banquets consisted chiefly of roasts. He was most delighted with red wine.

50. A physician he never summoned to himself when he was ill, but cured himself chiefly by abstinence from food. To his wife and daughter he assigned a yearly allowance for the Sigillaria, as though he were a private citizen. To his slaves he, as emperor, gave the same garments as he had given as a private citizen, except for two old men, on whom, as though they were freedmen, he bestowed very much—Antistius and Gillo, who after him were manumitted by the opinion of the Senate. He was indeed rare in his pleasures, but in a marvelous way he was delighted by mimes; and most vehemently was he delighted by a glutton, who ate so much that in a single day, before his table, he consumed a whole boar, a hundred loaves, a wether, and a young pig, and drank, with a funnel set to his mouth, more than an urn's-full. He had—apart from certain domestic disturbances—a most fortunate time. The Roman people loved him, the Senate both feared and loved him.