HERODIAN

HISTORY OF THE EMPIRE FROM THE TIME OF MARCUS AURELIUS

This section from BOOK V

Translated by C. R. Whittaker for the Loeb Classical Library (Harvard University 1970)

Book V was copied with permission from the web site Heliogabby.  Heliogabby is a site devoted to Elagabalus.

As she viewed these developments, Maesa suspected that the soldiers were revolted by this kind of behaviour by the emperor. Her fears were that, if anything happened to him, she would again be reduced to the status of an ordinary person. So, since he was in most matters a thoughtless, silly young man, she persuaded him by flattery to adopt and appoint as Caesar his cousin, her own grandchild by her daughter Mamaea. Her argument was that of course the emperor should keep himself free to carry out his priestly office and worship the god, since he was dedicated to his ecstatic and orgiastic rites and his divine duties. Someone else should look after worldly affairs so as to leave him free from the cares and worries of the principate. This being so, rather than looking for an outsider from another family, the task should be put in the hands of his cousin. Alexianus changed his name from that inherited from his grandfather to Alexander, the name of the Macedonian so admired and honoured by the alleged father of the two cousins. Both the daughter of Maesa, and the old lady herself, used to boast of the adultery of Antoninus (Severus' son), to make the troops think the boys were his sons and so favour them.

Alexander was appointed Caesar and shared the consulship with Antoninus. When the latter entered the senate to have it ratified, everyone made a complete farce of it by voting as they were told and declaring the emperor himself to be a father at his age of about sixteen, and Alexander his son, when now in his twelfth year. After Alexander's appointment as Caesar, Antoninus wanted him to be trained in his own pursuits of leaping and dancing, and to share in his priesthood by wearing the same dress and following the same practices. But his mother, Mamaea, removed him from contact with such activities which were shameful and unbecoming for emperors. In private she summoned teachers of all the arts, and trained him in the exercise of self-control, introducing him to the wrestling schools and manly exercises, and gave him both a Latin and a Greek education. Antoninus was absolutely furious about this and regretted the adoption of Alexander and his participation in the empire. He cleared out all Alexander's teachers from the court, executing some of the extremely distinguished ones and driving others into exile. Ridiculous charges were brought against them, that they were corrupting his adopted son by not allowing him to dance or go into a frenzy, but teaching him moderation and manly arts. The emperor was driven to such extremes of lunacy that he took men from the stage and the public theatres and put them in charge of most important imperial business. A man, who in his youth had been a dancer in public in the theatre at Rome, was appointed military prefect. Similarly, another was raised from the stage and put in charge of the training and morals of the youth and the census qualifications of members of the senatorial and equestrian orders. He assigned positions of the highest responsibility in the empire to charioteers and comedy actors and mimes.  His slaves and freedmen, who perhaps excelled in some foul activity, he appointed as governors of consular provinces.

When all that was once held in respect was reduced in this way to a state of dishonour and frenzied madness, everyone, and particularly the soldiers, began to grow bitterly angry. They were revolted at the sight of the emperor with his face made up more elaborately than a modest woman would have done, and effeminately dressed up in golden necklaces and soft clothes, dancing for everyone to see in this state. So they inclined more favourably towards Alexander, expecting better things of a boy who was receiving such a modest and serious education. And, realizing that Antoninus was plotting against the boy, they kept a close watch over him. Mamaea, his mother, would not allow him to taste any food or drink sent by the emperor. The boy did not make use of cooks and cupbearers who were in general employment in the palace -- only men selected by Mamaea and approved for their complete loyalty. Mamaea also privately handed over some money for a clandestine distribution to the soldiers. In this way she hoped to capture the loyalty of the soldiers with money as well, always the most attractive inducement for the men.

When Antoninus discovered this activity he began a full-scale campaign to plot against Alexander and his mother. But all his plans were frustrated and checked by Maesa, the two young men's grandmother. She was a woman who, in addition to being enterprising, had many years of experience of living at the imperial palace [as the sister of Julia, Severus' wife with whom she spent her entire time at the palace]. She missed none of Antoninus' machinations, since his behavior was naturally unsubtle and he was totally indiscreet about his plans in words and actions. With the failure of his contrivances, Antoninus planned to remove the boy from his position as Caesar, and no longer was he to be seen at public salutations or at the head of processions. But the soldiers demanded his presence, and were angry that he had been removed (so they said) from power. Antoninus spread a report to the effect that Alexander was on the point of dying, in an attempt to see how the soldiers would take the rumour. Since they failed to see the boy and were deeply upset by the news, the soldiers angrily refused to mount their usual guard over Antoninus. They shut themselves up in the camp and demanded Alexander's visible presence at their shrine. Antoninus in absolute terror got hold of Alexander, sat beside him in the imperial litter, (which was richly inlaid with gold and precious stones) and went to the camp [with the boy]. The soldiers opened the gates to receive them, before conducting them to the camp shrine. But, whereas they greeted Alexander with enthusiastic shouts of good wishes, they ignored Antoninus. He was furious at such treatment, and, after spending a night fuming and raging at the soldiers in the camp shrine, he began to issue orders that those who had openly and enthusiastically acclaimed Alexander should be seized for punishment, as well as those supposedly guilty of sedition and riot. This inflamed the soldiers, who were already antagonistic to Antoninus and anxious to be rid of an emperor who was a disgrace. Now they also thought that they should give help to those who were being held as prisoners. Believing the opportunity was right and their case just, they killed Antoninus and Soaemis (who was with him as Augusta and his mother) and all his retinue that were caught inside, who were thought to be the attendants and confederates in his crimes. The bodies of Antoninus and Soaemis were handed over to those who wished to drag them around and desecrate them. After being dragged through the city for a long time and mutilated, they were thrown into the sewers which run down to the River Tiber.

So in the sixth year of his rule, after a life such as has been described above, Antoninus and his mother were murdered. Alexander, though extremely young and very much under the tutelage of his mother and grandmother, was greeted as emperor by the soldiers and conducted up to the palace.

This section from BOOK VI

6.7.1  The emperor calculated that, since Persian affairs were dormant in an unofficial peace, this acted as an obstacle to the barbarian king and caused him to hesitate in making a second invasion with his army. For, if once the Persian disbanded his army, it was difficult to reassemble, because it was not an organized standing force. Being really a horde of men rather than an army, with as much food supplies as each person on arrival brought for his own needs, they were difficult and reluctant to be torn away and leave their wives and families or their own land.
2. But no sooner had Alexander made this calculation than dispatch-carriers and their communiqués demoralized him and threw him in a  greater state of anxiety. The message from the governors in Illyria was that the Germans were on the march across the Rhine and Danube, devastating the Roman empire, over-running the garrisons on the river banks, and also the cities and villages, with a large force and putting the Illyrians who bordered Italy as neighbors in considerable danger.
3. Therefore, they said, the presence of Alexander and the entire army he had with him was essential. This news dismayed Alexander and caused distress to the soldiers transferred from Illyricum. They felt they had suffered a double tragedy, first in their misfortunes of the Persian war and then in the reports they received individually about the destruction of their families by the Germans. They turned their anger on Alexander, blaming him for his betrayal of their cause in the East through his negligence or cowardice and his hesitant procrastination over the northern crisis.
4. Alexander and the advisers who accompanied him were by this time even concerned about Italy, rating the German menace as very different from the Persians. The inhabitants of the eastern territories, separated as they are by a wide stretch of land and sea, hardly hear about Italy. But the Illyrian provinces are a narrow stretch of land that do not occupy much of Roman territory. This makes the Germans practically adjacent neighbors of the Italians.
5. Reluctantly and sadly (through sheer necessity) Alexander issued the proclamation of an expedition. A force was left behind, sufficiently large, in his opinion, to defend the Roman side of the river; the camps and outposts were given more efficient defenses and their full complement of soldiers. The rest of the force Alexander himself took with him and marched against the Germans.
6. After completing the journey at great speed, the emperor reached the banks of the Rhine, where he began to prepare for the German war. The river was filled with boats, which, when lashed together, he believed would provide the troops with a convenient crossing by way of a bridge. The Rhine and the Danube are the two largest northern rivers, the one bordering Germany and the other Pannonia. In summer their depth and breadth provide a navigable channel, but in winter they are frozen over because of the low temperatures, and are used by horses as though they were firm ground.
7. So hard and solid does the river, at one time a flowing current, now become that it does not just support the weight of horses' hooves and men's feet but, if any one wants to draw water they do not bring water jugs and empty bowls but axes and mattocks to hack it out and carry it home like a stone in their hands without a bowl.
8. So much for the description of the rivers. Alexander had brought with him very many Moroccans and a huge force of archers from the East; the latter came from Osrhoene, though some were Parthian deserters and mercenaries that had enlisted to serve the emperor. This force Alexander began to train to use against the Germans. An army of this kind is particularly harassing to them because the Mauretanians, with their long-range javelin throwing, used their tactics of light-armed attack and withdrawal, and the archers found the Germans' bare heads and large bodies an easy long-distance target for their arrows. If they charged into close combat, they were stubborn fighters and often the equals of the Romans.
9. Such was Alexander's position. He decided, however, to send a mission to the Germans to discuss peace terms, with a promise to meet all their requirements and saying that he had plenty of money. This was the most effective bargaining counter with the Germans, who were avaricious and always ready to trade peace with the Romans in exchange for gold. That was why Alexander attempted to buy terms from them rather than risk the danger of war.
10. But the soldiers bitterly resented this ridiculous waste of time. In their opinion Alexander showed no honorable intention to pursue the war and preferred chariot-racing and a life of easy, when he should have marched out to punish the Germans for their previous insolence.
6.8.1. In the army there was a man called Maximinus, from one of the semi-barbarous tribes of the interior of Thrace. He is reported to have come from a village where he was a shepherd-boy once. As he grew to manhood, he was drafted into the army as a horseman because of his size and strength. Soon, with the help of of a bit of luck, he progressed through all the ranks in the army and was given charge of legions and commands over provinces.
2. Because of this military experience, Alexander put Maximinus in charge of all the recruits to give them military training and turn them out fit for battle. He discharged his trust extremely conscientiously, earning great popularity among the troops because he did not confine himself only to teaching them what to do but also took the lead in all the tasks. As a result they were not just pupils but copied his example of courage.
3. He also won their allegiance still more by awarding them prizes and all kinds of honors. So the young men, of whom the greater majority were Pannonians, admired Maximinus' courage and despised Alexander for being under his mother's control and for the fact that business was conducted on the authority and advice of a woman while he himself presented a picture of negligence and cowardice in his conduct of war. They reminded themselves of the eastern disasters due to his procrastination and how he had shown no sign of bravery or enthusiasm when he came to Germany.
4. On top of their general inclination to revolt, the soldiers found the current state of the empire annoying because of the length of Alexander's rule, and unprofitable now that all his munificence had dried up. But they were optimistic that the near future would be profitable for them and bring desirable honors to the man who unexpectedly benefited. They planned to do away with Alexander and declare Maximinus emperor and Augustus, because he was their fellow soldier and camp-mate, and seemed the ideal choice for the present war with his experience and courage.
5. They gathered in the open, wearing their armor as though for their usual training, and, as Maximinus came forward to supervise them, they threw the purple, imperial cloak over him and proclaimed him emperor, though it is not clear whether Maximinus himself was unaware of what was happening or whether he had planned this secretly.
6. His first reaction was to refuse and throw off the purple cloak, but when they insisted at the point of the sword, threatening to kill him, he preferred to avoid the immediate danger rather than one in the future, and accepted the honor (though the story is that oracles and dreams had frequently in the past predicted such a fortune for him). He addressed his soldiers and advised them that, although he accepted under protest in spite of himself, because he bowed to their desire, they must back up their decisions by action.
7. They must get gold of their arms and quickly overpower Alexander before the news arrived, while he was still in the dark. The object was to overcome his attendant soldiers and his bodyguard, and either persuade them to acquiesce or compel them to do so without difficulty, catching them unprepared by the unexpectedness of the event.
8. To assure his popularity and their enthusiasm, Maximinus doubled their pay, promised an enormous bonus of cash and kind, and cancelled all punishments and marks of disgrace against them. Then he marched them out on their journey. The position of the camp Alexander and his retinue was not far away.

6.9.1 When Alexander was told what had happened, he was panic-stricken and utterly dumbfounded by the extraordinary news. He came rushing out of the imperial tent like a man possessed, weeping and trembling and raving against Maximinus for being unfaithful and ungrateful, recounting all the favors that had been showered upon him.
2. He blamed the recruits for daring to do such a rash thing in violation of their oaths of allegiance; he promised he would give them anything they wanted and put right any complaint. All that day Alexander's own soldiers stood by him with expressions of loyalty and promising they would protect him with all their strength.
3. After the passage of the night, at dawn reports came in to say that Maximinus was approaching, because there was a cloud of dust in sight a long way off and a sound could be heard from the shouts of a sizeable body of men. Going out on to the parade ground again, Alexander mustered his troops and begged them to fight for him and protect the emperor whom they had brought up and under whose rule they had lived for fourteen years without complaint. After appealing to everyone's sympathy and pity, he gave the order to arm and take up positions out in the battle line.
4. In spite of their first promises, the soldiers began to back out one by one and refuse to take up their weapons. Some of them demanded the execution of the military prefect and Alexander's household on the grounds that they had been responsible for the retreat. Others criticized his mother's rapacity and miserliness over money. As a result of this parsimonious attitude and unreadiness to distribute largess Alexander was disliked.
5. Thus the soldiers remained where they were for some time shouting out different complaints. Maximinus' army was by now in sight and the young recruits began to call out, urging their fellow soldiers to desert their "mean little sissy" or "their timid little lad tied to his mother's apron strings" and to come over to the side of a man who was brave and moderate, always their companion in battle and devoted to a life of military action. The soldiers were persuaded, and abandoning Alexander, they joined Maximinus, who was universally acclaimed as emperor.
6. Trembling and terrified out of his wits, Alexander just managed to get back to his tent. There, the reports say, he waited for his executioner, clinging to his mother and weeping and blaming her for his misfortunes. After Maximinus had been hailed with the title of Augustus by the whole army, he sent a tribune with some centurions to kill Alexander and his mother and any of his entourage that showed resistance.
7. On arrival they burst into the tent and slaughtered the emperor, his mother and all those thought to be his friends or favorites. Some of them managed to escape or hide for a brief time, but Maximinus soon caught them and killed them all.
8. So Alexander [and his mother] met his end after a rule of fourteen years which, as far as his subjects were concerned, was without fault or bloodshed. Murder, cruelty and injustice were not part of his nature; his inclination was towards humane and benevolent behavior. Indeed, his reign would have been notable for its complete success, but for the blame he incurred though his mother's faults of avarice and meanness.