He therefore summoned Plautianus in haste, as if upon some other business. And Plautianus hurried so, or rather Heaven gave him such an intimation of his approaching destruction, that the mules that brought him dropped in the palace yard. 2 And when he entered, the porters at the latticed gates admitted him alone inside and would permit no one else to go in with him, just as he himself had once done in the case of Severus at Tyana. This caused him to suspect something, and he became alarmed; but as he had no way of withdrawing, he went in. 3 Severus talked to him in a very mild manner, and asked: "Why have you seen fit to do this? Why did you wish to kill us?" He also gave him an opportunity to speak and acted as if intending to listen to his defence. But Antoninus, as Plautianus was making denial and expressing amazement at what was said, rushed up, took away his sword, and  p247 struck him with his fist; 4 and he even wanted to kill him with his own hands, after the other had remarked, "You have forestalled me in killing." But, being prevented by his father, Antoninus ordered one of the attendants to slay Plautianus.

When a portion of the outer circuit had fallen in one place and all the soldiers were eager to force their way inside the remainder, Severus checked them from doing so by ordering the signal for retreat to be clearly sounded on every side. 2 For the place enjoyed great fame, containing as it did a vast number of offering to the Sun-god as well as vast sums of money; and he expected the Arabians to come to terms voluntarily, in order to avoid being forcibly captured and enslaved. 3 At any rate, he allowed one day to pass; then, when no one came to him with any overtures for peace, he commanded the soldiers to assault the wall once more, though it had been built up during the night. But the Europeans, who alone of his army had the ability to do anything, were so angry that not one of them would any longer obey him, and the others, Syrians,  p225 who were compelled to make the assault in their place, were miserably destroyed. 4 Thus Heaven, that saved the city, first caused Severus to recall the soldiers when they could have entered the placed, and in turn caused the soldiers to hinder him from capturing it when he later wished to do so. 5 Severus, in fact, found himself so embarrassed by the situation that, when one of his associates promised, if he would give him only five hundred and fifty of the European soldiers, to destroy the city within the hearing of all: "And where am I to get so many soldiers?" — referring to the soldiers' disobedience.

While he was engaged in this war he put to death two distinguished men. One was Julius Crispus, a tribune of the Pretorians; and the reason was that Crispus, vexed at the war's havoc, had casually quoted some verses of the poet Maro,4 in which one of the soldiers fighting on the side of Turnus against Aeneas bewails his lot and says: "In order that Turnus may marry Lavinia, we are meanwhile perishing all unheeded." And Severus made Valerius, the soldier who accused him, tribune in his place. 3 The other man that he put to death was Laetus, for the reason that Laetus was proud and was beloved by the soldiers, who used to declare they would not go on a campaign unless Laetus led them. He tried to fasten the responsibility for this murder, for which he had no evident reason save jealousy, upon the soldiers, making it appear that they had been rash enough to commit the deed contrary to his will.

The emperor, after viewing the body of Albinus and feasting his eyes  p213 upon it to the full, while giving free rein to his tongue as well, ordered all but the head to be cast away, but sent the head to Rome to be exposed on a pole. 4 As this action showed clearly that he possessed none of the qualities of a good ruler, he alarmed both us and the populace more than ever by the commands that he sent; for now that he had overcome all armed opposition, he was venting upon the unarmed all the wrath that he had stored up against them in the past. He caused us especial dismay by constantly styling himself the son of Marcus and the brother of Commodus and by bestowing divine honours upon the latter, whom but recently he had been abusing. 8 1 While reading to the senate a speech, in which he praised the severity and cruelty of Sulla, Marius and Augustus as the safer course and deprecated the mildness of Pompey and Caesar as having proved the ruin of those very men, he introduced a sort of defence of Commodus 2 and inveighed against the senate for dishonouring that emperor unjustly, in view of the fact that the majority of its members lived worse lives

As for the various cities and private citizens, Severus punished some and rewarded others; of the Roman senators he slew none, but deprived most of them of their property and confined them on islands. He was merciless in his raising of funds; thus, for example, he exacted four times the amount that any individuals or peoples had given to Niger, whether they had done so voluntarily or under compulsion. 5 He himself doubtless perceived that he was ill spoken of because of this, but, as he required large sums of money, he paid no attention to what people said.