When the Marcomani sent envoys to him, Marcus, in view of the fact that they had fulfilled all the conditions imposed of them, albeit grudgingly and reluctantly, restored to them one-half of the neutral zone along their frontier, so that they might now settle to within a distance of five miles10 from the Ister; and he established the places and the days for their trading together (for these had not been previously fixed) and exchanged hostages with them.

Envoys were sent to Marcus by the Iazyges to request peace, but they did not obtain anything. For Marcus, both because he knew their race to be untrustworthy and also because he had been deceived by the Quadi, wished to annihilate them utterly. For the Quadi had not only fought on the side of the Iazyges at this time, but on an earlier occasion, too, had received in their own and any Marcomanian fugitives who were hard pressed while that tribe was still at war with the Romans. Moreover, they were not carrying out any of their agreements; in particular, they had not restored all the captives, but only a few, and these such as they could neither sell nor employ at any labour. Or, if they ever did give up any of those who were in good physical  p27 condition, they would keep their relatives back in order that the men given up might desert again to rejoin these. They also expelled their king Furtius, and on their own responsibility made Ariogaesus their king instead. In consequence, the emperor neither recognized Ariogaesus as their legally constituted king nor renewed the treaty of peace, though they promised to give up fifty thousand captives if he would do so.

6 The emperor, as often as he had leisure from war, would hold court; he used to allow abundant time to the speakers,3 and entered into the preliminary inquiries and examinations at great length, so as to ensure strict justice by every possible means. In consequence, he would often be trying the same case for as much as eleven or twelve days, even though he sometimes held court at night. For he was industrious and applied himself diligently to all the duties of his office; and he neither said, wrote, nor did anything as if it were a minor matter, but  p23 sometimes he would consume whole days over the minutest point, not thinking it right that the emperor should do anything hurriedly. For he believed that if he should slight even the smallest detail, this would bring reproach upon all his other actions. Yet he was so frail in body that at first he could not endure the cold, but even after the soldiers had assembled at his command he would retire before addressing a word to them; and he took but very little food and that always at night. It was never his practice to eat during the daytime, unless it were some of the drug called theriac. This drug he took, not so much because he feared anything, as because his stomach and chest were in bad condition; and it is reported that this practice enabled him to endure both this and other maladies.

Many of the Germans, too, from across the Rhine, advanced as far Italy and inflicted many injuries upon the Romans. They were in turn attacked by Marcus, who opposed to them his lieutenants Pompeianus and Pertinax; and Pertinax (who later became emperor) greatly distinguished himself. Among the corpses of the barbarians there were  p13 found even women's bodies in armour. 3 Yet, though a mighty struggle had taken place and a brilliant victory had been won, the emperor nevertheless refused the request of the soldiers for a donative, declaring that whatever they obtained over and above the regular amount would be wrung from the blood of their parents and kinsmen; 4 as for the fate of the sovereignty, Heaven alone could determine that.1 So temperately and so firmly did he rule them, that, even when involved in so many and so great wars, he did naught that was unseemly either by way of flattery or as the result of fear. 11 Marcus Antoninus remained in Pannonia in order to give audience to the embassies of the barbarians; for many came to him at this time also. Some of them, under the leadership of Battarius, a boy twelve years old, promised an alliance; these received a gift of money and succeeded in restraining Tarbus, a neighbouring chieftain, who had come into Dacia and was demanding money and threatening to make war if he should fail to get it. Others, like the Quadi, asked for peace, which was granted them, both in the hope that they might be detached from the Marcomani, and also because they gave him many horses and cattle and promised to surrender all the deserters and the captives, besides, — thirteen thousand at first, and later all the others as well. The right to attend the markets, however, was not  p15 granted to them, for fear that the Iazyges and the Marcomani, whom they had sworn not to receive nor to allow to pass through their country, should mingle with them, and passing themselves off for Quadi, should reconnoitre the Roman positions and purchase provisions. Besides these that came to Marcus, many others sent envoys, some by tribes and some by nations, and offered to surrender. Some of them were sent on campaigns elsewhere, as were also the captives and deserters who were fit for service; others received land in Dacia, Pannonia, Moesia, the province of Germany, and in Italy itself. Some of them, now, who settled at Ravenna, made an uprising and even went so far as to seize possession of the city: and for this reason Marcus did not again bring any of the barbarians into Italy, but even banished those who had previously come there.

Cassius, however, was ordered by Marcus to have charge of all Asia. The emperor himself fought for a long time, almost his entire life, one might say, with the barbarians in the region of the Ister, with both the Iazyges and the Marcomani, one after the other, using Pannonia as his base.

Marcus Antoninus, the philosopher, upon obtaining the throne at the death of Antoninus, his adoptive father, had immediately taken to share his power Lucius Verus, the son of Lucius Commodus. 2 For he was frail in body himself and devoted the greater part of his time to letters. Indeed it is reported that even when he was emperor he showed no shame or hesitation about resorting to a teacher, but became a pupil of Sextus, the Boeotian philosopher,1 and did not hesitate to attend the lectures of Hermogenes on rhetoric; 3 but he was most inclined to the doctrines of the Stoic school. Lucius, on the other hand, was a vigorous man of younger years and better suited for military enterprises. Therefore Marcus made him his son-in‑law by marrying him to his daughter Lucilla and sent him to conduct the war against the Parthians.

As a result, great numbers pretended to pursue philosophy, hoping that they might be enriched by the emperor.

he passed away on the seventeenth of March, not as a result of the disease from which he still suffered, but by the act of his physicians, as I have been plainly told, who wished to do Commodus a favour.

Now if Marcus had lived longer, he would have subdued that entire region

Marcus gave audience to those whom came as envoys from outside nations, but did not receive them all on the same footing; for this varied according as the several states were worthy to receive citizenship, or freedom from taxes, or perpetual or temporary exemption from the tribute, or even to enjoy permanent support. And when the Iazyges proved most useful to them, he released them from many of the restrictions that had been imposed upon them, — in fact, from all save those affecting their assembling and trading together and the requirements that they should not used boats of their own and should keep away from the islands in the Ister. And he permitted them to pass through Dacia  p61 in order to have dealings with the Rhoxolani, as often as the governor of Dacia should give them permission.

When Marcus had come to Athens and had been initiated into the Mysteries,

For surely Cilicians, Syrians, Jews, and Egyptians have never proved superior to you and never will, even if they should muster as many tens of thousands more than you as they now muster fewer.

Fellow-soldiers

10 Dio goes on to say that when the rain poured down, at first all turned their faces upwards and received the water in their mouths; then some held out their shields and some their helmets to catch it, and they not only took deep draughts themselves  p33 but also gave their horses to drink. And when the barbarians now charged upon them, they drank and fought at the same time; and some, becoming wounded, actually gulped down the blood that flowed into their helmets, along with the water. So intent, indeed, were most of them on drinking that they would have suffered severely from the enemy's onset, had not a violent hail-storm and numerous thunderbolts fallen upon the ranks of the foe.

Marcus, both because he knew their race to be untrustworthy and also because he had been deceived by the Quadi, wished to annihilate them utterly.

The emperor, as often as he had leisure from war, would hold court; he used to allow abundant time to the speakers,3 and entered into the preliminary inquiries and examinations at great length, so as to ensure strict justice by every possible means. In consequence, he would often be trying the same case for as much as eleven or twelve days, even though he sometimes held court at night. For he was industrious and applied himself diligently to all the duties of his office; and he neither said, wrote, nor did anything as if it were a minor matter, but  p23 sometimes he would consume whole days over the minutest point, not thinking it right that the emperor should do anything hurriedly. For he believed that if he should slight even the smallest detail, this would bring reproach upon all his other actions. Yet he was so frail in body that at first he could not endure the cold, but even after the soldiers had assembled at his command he would retire before addressing a word to them; and he took but very little food and that always at night. It was never his practice to eat during the daytime, unless it were some of the drug called theriac. This drug he took, not so much because he feared anything, as because his stomach and chest were in bad condition; and it is reported that this practice enabled him to endure both this and other maladies.

At first, arrayed in women's garments,

Marcomani

Iazyges

Among the corpses of the barbarians there were  p13 found even women's bodies in armour.

the Rhine

the Ister

Rivers are bridged by the Romans with the greatest ease, since the soldiers are always practising bridge-building, which is carried on like any other warlike exercise, on the Ister, the Rhine, and the Euphrates.

For he was frail in body himself and devoted the greater part of his time to letters. Indeed it is reported that even when he was emperor he showed no shame or hesitation about resorting to a teacher, but became a pupil of Sextus, the Boeotian philosopher,1 and did not hesitate to attend the lectures of Hermogenes on rhetoric; 3 but he was most inclined to the doctrines of the Stoic school.

his adoptive father