Cassius Dio, Roman History: a Standard history source. Covers AD 166 – 229, with 158 events in chronological order. Text license and provenance included.
| Type | Standard history |
|---|---|
| Viewpoint | Insider account |
| Years covered | AD 166 – 229 |
| Events | 158 events, 124 placed on the map |
| Author | Cassius Dio |
| Original title | Ῥωμαϊκὰ (Cassius Dio, Roman History) |
Regions: Southern Europe 89 · West Asia 53 · Western Europe 11 · Egypt & North Africa 5
| Year | Place | Event | Passage |
|---|---|---|---|
| AD 166 – 167 | Pannonia | 6,000 Langobardi and Obii crossed the Ister (Danube) but were utterly routed by the cavalry and infantry; the Marcomanni sent envoys to Iallius Bassus, governor of Pannonia, swore oaths and made peace | 72(71).3.1 |
| AD 169 – 170 | Germans crossed the Rhine and invaded as far as Italy, causing damage; Marcus sent Pompeianus and Pertinax to drive them back, and Pertinax won renown | 72(71).3.2 | |
| AD 171 – 172 | Dacia (province) | The Astingi under chiefs Raus and Raptus came to Dacia with their families seeking money and land; refused, they conquered the Costoboci and ravaged Dacia, but the Lacringi ambushed them and won a great victory over Clemens, who held their wives and children | 72(71).12 |
| AD 172 – 173 | Pannonia | Marcus stayed in Pannonia and received barbarian envoys: the Quadi made peace (13,000 captives returned), an alliance was made with the boy tribe of the Batavarii, and access to markets was denied | 72(71).11 |
| AD 172 – 173 | Ravenna | Barbarians settled in Italy rose in revolt at Ravenna and seized the city; Marcus never again admitted barbarians into Italy and even expelled those already settled | 72(71).11 |
| AD 172 – 173 | Pannonia | The Marcomanni won a battle in which Marcus Vindex, the praetorian prefect, was killed; Marcus set up three statues for him and, after defeating the enemy, received the title Germanicus | 72(71).3.5 |
| AD 172 | The Egyptian herdsmen (Boukoloi) revolted under the priest Isidorus, stirring up the Egyptians | 72(71).4.1 | |
| AD 172 | Alexandria | The Boukoloi defeated the Roman army and nearly took Alexandria; Cassius, coming from Syria, split them apart and pacified them | 72(71).4.2 |
| AD 172 | The Quadi surrounded the Romans, who suffered from thirst and heat; a sudden downpour with hail and lightning saved Rome (attributed to the Egyptian magician Arnuphis or to a Christian legion) | 72(71).8 | |
| AD 172 | After the rain victory Marcus was hailed imperator for the seventh time by the soldiers; breaking Senate custom, he accepted it as a gift and sent a dispatch | 72(71).10 | |
| AD 173 – 174 | On the frozen Ister the Romans defeated the Iazyges, planting their feet on their shields to avoid slipping and fighting as in wrestling | 72(71).7 | |
| AD 174 – 175 | Pannonia | When the Marcomanni had fulfilled all conditions, Marcus returned half of the neutral border zone, fixed places and days for trade, and exchanged hostages | 72(71).15 |
| AD 175 | After the Iazyges' defeat, King Zanticus came before Marcus as a suppliant and received the same treaty as the Quadi and Marcomanni, returning 100,000 captives and providing 8,000 cavalry | 72(71).16 | |
| AD 175 | Syria (Roman province) | Cassius revolted in Syria; Marcus, alarmed, summoned his son Commodus from Rome and had him assume the toga virilis; Faustina is said to have urged it | 72(71).22.1 |
| AD 175 | Syria (Roman province) | On a false report of Marcus's death, Cassius immediately proclaimed himself emperor; even after learning the truth he quickly seized the lands south of the Taurus | 72(71).23.1 |
| AD 175 | Pannonia | Marcus addressed the soldiers about Cassius's revolt, lamenting fate rather than showing anger, and said he would forgive Cassius | 72(71).24 |
| AD 175 | Cassius was struck down on foot by the centurion Antonius and died; his severed head was sent to the emperor (a revolt of 3 months and 6 days) | 72(71).27.2 | |
| AD 175 | Marcus refused to look at Cassius's severed head and ordered it buried | 72(71).28 | |
| AD 175 – 176 | Empress Faustina died, said to be from gout, though some say she sought to avoid exposure of her complicity with Cassius | 72(71).29 | |
| AD 176 | Athenae | At Athens Marcus was initiated into the Mysteries, favored the Athenians and established state-paid chairs for teachers of every branch of learning | 72(71).31.3 |
| AD 176 | Roma | Marcus returned to Rome and made a speech; to a crowd shouting for 8 aurei he gave 800 sesterces each, and burned 45 years of state debt records in the Forum | 72(71).32 |
| AD 177 | Smyrna | He granted money to Smyrna, heavily damaged by an earthquake, and other cities, and entrusted the rebuilding to a senator of praetorian rank | 72(71).32.3 |
| AD 177 | Roma | With affairs in the Scythian (northern) lands pressing again, Marcus hurriedly married his son Commodus to Crispina | 72(71).33.1 |
| AD 178 | Roma | Marcus set out after the rite of hurling the bloody spear at the temple of Bellona, sent Paternus with a large army to the front, and was hailed imperator for the tenth time | 72(71).33.3 |
| AD 179 | Envoys of the Iazyges asked for exemption from part of the agreement and were granted some concessions; together with the Buri, they demanded guarantees that Marcus would fight to the end | 72(71).18 | |
| AD 179 | The Quadi, unable to endure the garrisoning of their forts, tried a mass migration to the land of the Semnones; Marcus blocked the road and stopped them | 72(71).20 | |
| AD 180 | Marcus died (17 March); it was said the physicians killed him to please Commodus; his dying watchword was: "Go to the rising sun, for I am already setting" | 72(71).33 | |
| AD 180 | Commodus rejected his guardians' advice, made a truce with the barbarians and hurried back to Rome | 73(72).1.2 | |
| AD 180 | When the Marcomanni, suffering famine and depopulation, sent envoys, Commodus made peace though he could easily have destroyed them: they returned deserters and captives, supplied troops, and met once a month in the presence of a centurion | 73(72).2 | |
| AD 180 | Dacia (province) | Commodus granted peace to the Buri, accepting hostages and captives and making them swear to keep a five-mile strip of the Dacian frontier empty; Sabinianus pacified 12,000 expelled Dacians | 73(72).3 |
| AD 181 | Roma | Commodus came to Rome and made trivial remarks in the Senate, boasting of having saved his father from the mud | 73(72).4.2 |
| AD 182 | Roma | At the amphitheater entrance Claudius Pompeianus (Lucilla's lover) menaced Commodus with a dagger, saying "This is what the Senate sends you"; the plot was Lucilla's and the assassination failed | 73(72).4.4 |
| AD 182 – 183 | Capreae | Commodus exiled Crispina for adultery and Lucilla for plotting his murder to the island of Capri, and later had them executed | 73(72).4.6 |
| AD 182 – 183 | Commodus killed, together with one son, the Quintilii brothers Condianus and Maximus, famed for learning, military skill and brotherly love | 73(72).5.3 | |
| AD 183 – 185 | Roma | Commodus killed Salvius Julianus, Tarutenius Paternus, a noblewoman and many others; Julianus had commanded a great army but never plotted revolt | 73(72).5.1 |
| AD 183 | Syria (Roman province) | Maximus's son Sextus Condianus, hearing of the death sentence in Syria, vomited hare's blood, feigned death, had a sheep's carcass burned in his place and fled; an impostor later appeared | 73(72).6.1 |
| AD 183 – 184 | Mallus (Mallos) | Dio, accompanying his father, governor of Cilicia, learned at the dream oracle of Amphilochus at Mallus the meaning of a picture drawn by Sextus (a boy strangling two snakes, a lion chasing a stag) | 73(72).7.1 |
| AD 184 | Dacia (province) | War with barbarians beyond Dacia: Albinus and Niger, later rivals of Severus, won fame | 73(72).8.1 |
| AD 184 | Britannia (province) | British tribes crossed the wall, plundered and destroyed a general and his troops; alarmed, Commodus sent Ulpius Marcellus | 73(72).8.2 |
| AD 185 | Roma | The British legion sent 1,500 spearmen to Italy to accuse Perennis; Commodus handed the praetorian prefect over to them | 73(72).9.2 |
| AD 185 | Roma | The praetorian prefect Perennis was beaten to death by soldiers, and his wife, children and sister also died | 73(72).9.4 |
| AD 189 – 190 | Roma | Plague in Rome: on some days 2,000 died, and criminals spread infection with poisoned needles throughout the empire | 73(72).14.3 |
| AD 190 | Roma | During a famine, a riot erupted at the circus when children led by a girl shouted; terrified, Commodus had Cleander and his son killed, and the crowd dragged their bodies about | 73(72).13.6 |
| AD 190 | Emesa | Julius Alexander killed his would-be assassins by night and slew his enemies at his native Emesa, then fled toward the barbarians but was overtaken because of his boy lover and killed himself | 73(72).14.2 |
| AD 191 – 192 | Roma | Commodus renamed Rome "Colonia Commodiana" and the legions "Commodian", styled himself Hercules, and changed even the names of the twelve months to his own titles | 73(72).15.2 |
| AD 191 | Roma | Omen of Commodus's death: a night fire near the Temple of Peace spread and destroyed part of the palace and most of the state archives | 73(72).24.1 |
| AD 192 | Roma | Commodus held 14 consecutive days of spectacles in the amphitheater; on the first day he killed 100 bears single-handed while the Senate, Dio among them, watched | 73(72).18.1 |
| AD 192 | Roma | After poison failed, Laetus, Eclectus and Marcia had the athlete Narcissus strangle Commodus in his bath (reign of 12 years, 9 months and 14 days) | 73(72).22.5 |
| AD 193 | Roma | Pertinax secretly went to the praetorian camp, promised each man 12,000 sesterces, and that night declared in the Senate "the soldiers call me emperor, but I will resign"; the Senate sincerely acclaimed him | 74(73).1 |
| AD 193 | Roma | Pertinax was declared emperor and Commodus a public enemy; the mob that tried to tear up his body, told he was already buried, only mutilated his statues | 74(73).2 |
| AD 193 | Roma | The treasury held only one million sesterces; Pertinax sold Commodus's ancestral items, weapons, furniture and favorites to pay the praetorians the promised sum and gave each citizen 100 denarii | 74(73).5 |
| AD 193 | Roma | The praetorians and Laetus plotted to make the consul Falco emperor; Pertinax returned from inspecting the grain supply, informed the Senate and spared Falco's life | 74(73).8 |
| AD 193 | Roma | 200 soldiers burst into the palace; Pertinax went out to persuade them and was killed, and only Eclectus fought and died beside him (nearly 67 years old, reign of 87 days) | 74(73).10 |
| AD 193 | Roma | An auction of the empire before the praetorian camp: Julianus offered 25,000 sesterces per man, outbid Sulpicianus and was accepted as emperor | 74(73).11 |
| AD 193 | Roma | At the circus the crowd denounced Julianus day and night and cried out to Niger in Syria for deliverance | 74(73).13.5 |
| AD 193 | Three commanders, Severus (Pannonia), Niger (Syria) and Albinus (Britain), each with three legions, vied for supremacy; at Julianus's sacrifice three stars appeared around the sun as an omen | 74(73).14.3 | |
| AD 193 | Severus conciliated Albinus by sending him the title of Caesar and, holding Europe except Byzantium, marched on Rome, keeping 600 picked men at his side day and night | 74(73).15 | |
| AD 193 | Roma | Julianus had the Senate declare Severus a public enemy and built a rampart in the suburbs, turning the city into a camp (elephants and marines from Misenum were mobilized) | 74(73).16.1 |
| AD 193 | Ravenna | Severus reached Italy and took Ravenna without a fight | 74(73).16.5 |
| AD 193 | Roma | The soldiers arrested Pertinax's murderers and the Senate condemned Julianus to death and acclaimed Severus; Julianus was killed in the palace (66-day reign) | 74(73).17 |
| AD 193 | Roma | Before entering Rome, Severus surrounded the praetorians who had killed Pertinax, stripped them of arms and horses and expelled them from Rome | 75(74).1 |
| AD 193 | Roma | Severus entered in cavalry dress up to the gates and then on foot in civilian dress; the city was decked with flowers and laurel, and the whole army paraded under arms | 75(74).1.3 |
| AD 193 | Roma | In the Forum Severus held a funeral for Pertinax's wax effigy and deified him; when the three-tiered pyre in the Campus Martius was lit, an eagle flew up | 75(74).4 |
| AD 193 – 194 | Perinthus | War began between Severus and Niger; Niger advanced from Byzantium to Perinthus but, after ill omens, returned to Byzantium | 75(74).6.3 |
| AD 193 – 196 | Byzantium | Byzantium held out for three years against the armies of the world with ingenious defenses, such as divers cutting anchor cables and towing off enemy ships | 75(74).12.1 |
| AD 194 | Cyzicus | Severus's generals defeated and killed Niger's lieutenant Aemilianus near Cyzicus | 75(74).6.4 |
| AD 194 | Nicaea (Bithynia) | A great battle in the narrow pass between Nicaea and Cius: Candidus first won, Niger appeared and reversed it, then Candidus turned his men again and gained the upper hand | 75(74).6.4 |
| AD 194 | Issus | A great battle at Issus near the Cilician Gates: Niger's army had the advantage, but a storm struck their faces and Valerianus attacked from behind, putting them to flight | 75(74).7.1 |
| AD 194 | Issus | This battle was the war's worst disaster; 20,000 of Niger's men fell | 75(74).8.1 |
| AD 194 | Antioch on the Orontes | Antioch fell and Niger fled toward the Euphrates but was beheaded by pursuers; his head was sent to Byzantium and hung on a pole | 75(74).8.3 |
| AD 194 | Severus punished the cities and individuals who sided with Niger: senators were not killed but had property confiscated and were exiled to islands, and he collected four times what they had given Niger | 75(74).8.4 | |
| AD 195 – 196 | Byzantium | Starving Byzantines fled by ship during a storm, but the Roman fleet slaughtered them at sea; the sea was covered with corpses and wreckage | 75(74).13.2 |
| AD 195 | Severus crossed the Euphrates into enemy land and nearly lost his soldiers to thirst and dust storms, but raised morale by drinking water himself | 75(75).2.1 | |
| AD 195 | Nisibis | Severus camped at Nisibis and sent generals to plunder the lands of Osrhoene, Adiabene and the Arabs | 75(75).2.3 |
| AD 195 | Nisibis | Severus gave Nisibis a new status and put an equestrian governor in charge; he boasted of adding a bulwark for Syria, but Dio criticized it as the cause of endless wars | 75(75).3.2 |
| AD 196 | Byzantium | Byzantium surrendered: soldiers and officials were executed, the city lost its independence and was made subject to Perinthus, and its walls were demolished (Dio himself saw the fallen walls) | 75(74).14 |
| AD 196 | Roma | At the last horse race before the Saturnalia the crowd cried out together "How long will we suffer this, how long will we make war?"; ill omens such as fire in the sky and silver rain appeared | 76(75).4.2 |
| AD 196 | The schoolteacher Numerianus posed as a senator, gathered an army in Gaul, killed Albinus's cavalry and sent 70 million sesterces to Severus | 76(76).5.1 | |
| AD 196 – 197 | In an earlier battle Albinus defeated Severus's general Lupus and killed many of his soldiers | 76(76).6.2 | |
| AD 197 | Lugdunum (Lyon) | Severus and Albinus fought a decisive battle near Lugdunum, each with 150,000 men, and both leaders took the field | 76(76).6.1 |
| AD 197 | Lugdunum (Lyon) | Severus's army fell into a trap (hidden ditches) on Albinus's right wing and was nearly routed; Severus lost his horse, drew his sword to rally the men, and Laetus's cavalry finished the job | 76(76).6.6 |
| AD 197 | Lugdunum (Lyon) | Albinus hid in a house by the Rhone and killed himself when surrounded; Severus sent his head to Rome on a pole | 76(76).7.3 |
| AD 197 | Roma | After a speech praising the harshness of Sulla, Marius and Augustus and defending Commodus, Severus released 35 of Albinus's partisans and executed 29 (including Pertinax's father-in-law Sulpicianus) | 76(76).8 |
| AD 197 – 198 | Britannia (province) | When Caledonia broke its promises and moved to help the Maeatae, Lupus, while Severus was busy with other wars, bought peace from the Maeatae with a large sum and recovered some captives | 76(75).5.4 |
| AD 197 – 198 | Nisibis | Severus's Parthian campaign: Parthia occupied Mesopotamia and Laetus rescued Nisibis from siege; at Nisibis Severus saw a huge boar | 76(75).9.1 |
| AD 198 | Severus built ships on the Euphrates; some troops embarked and others marched along the riverbank | 76(75).9.3 | |
| AD 198 | Seleucia on the Tigris | Severus took Seleucia and Babylon, abandoned by the Parthian army | 76(75).9.3 |
| AD 198 | Babylon | Babylon, too, was abandoned and passed to Severus | 76(75).9.3 |
| AD 198 | Ctesiphon | Severus took Ctesiphon, plundering and massacring, with 100,000 captives; Vologaesus did not pursue and withdrew for lack of supplies | 76(75).9.4 |
| AD 198 | Hatra | Severus crossed Mesopotamia and attacked Hatra, but his siege engines were burned and he lost many soldiers and withdrew | 76(75).10.1 |
| AD 198 – 202 | Tyana | When Plautianus fell ill at Tyana, his soldiers blocked the emperor's attendants from entering; an anecdote of the emperor living under his domination | 76(75).15.4 |
| AD 199 | Hatra | Severus attacked Hatra again with large stocks of food and siege engines, but Arab cavalry and bitumen (naphtha) attacks destroyed many engines and soldiers | 76(75).11 |
| AD 199 | Hatra | When part of the wall collapsed and the soldiers wanted to rush in, Severus sounded the recall; ordered to attack again next day, the European troops refused and only the Syrian troops were sacrificed | 76(75).12.1 |
| AD 199 | After a 20-day siege he went to Palestine and sacrificed to the ghost of Pompey | 76(75).13.1 | |
| AD 199 – 200 | Alexandria | Severus sailed up the Nile to inspect Egypt, collected the secret books in the temples and sealed Alexander's tomb | 76(75).13.2 |
| AD 202 | Roma | Tenth anniversary of Severus's reign: he gave citizens and praetorians gold coins by the number of years of his reign, held the wedding of Antoninus and Plautilla, and staged a 7-day spectacle hunting 700 wild beasts | 77(76).1.1 |
| AD 203 – 204 | Vesuvius | Mount Vesuvius erupted violently and its roar was heard as far as Capua, where Dio lived in Italy; Plautianus's downfall followed soon after | 77(76).2.1 |
| AD 205 | Roma | Plautianus, summoned over an accusation of a plot contrived by Antoninus, was killed in the palace; his body was thrown into the street and buried by Severus's order | 77(76).4.5 |
| AD 205 | Lipara | Plautianus's children Plautilla and Plautius were exiled to the island of Lipara (and executed under Caracalla) | 77(76).6.3 |
| AD 205 – 207 | Bulla, with a band of 600 brigands, plundered Italy for two years without being caught, until he was arrested in a cave thanks to a knight's mistress; "Why did you become a brigand?" "Why are you a prefect?" | 77(76).10.1 | |
| AD 208 | Britannia (province) | Severus, seeing his sons' debauchery and the legions' laziness, left for the British campaign knowing he would not return | 77(76).11.1 |
| AD 209 | Caledonia (region) | Severus invaded Caledonia, felling forests and bridging marshes as he advanced, but the enemy wore the army down by leaving flocks of sheep as bait, and 50,000 died | 77(76).13.1 |
| AD 210 | Britannia (province) | Severus went to the island's far end to observe daylight at the solstices, returned, and the Britons made peace on condition of ceding a considerable part of their territory | 77(76).13.4 |
| AD 210 | Caledonia (region) | On the road to truce talks with Caledonia, Antoninus tried to draw his sword behind his father's back but stopped at the shouts of the party; Severus did not punish his son | 77(76).14.4 |
| AD 211 | Britannia (province) | When the Britons revolted again and Caledonia joined the Maeatae, Severus was preparing to fight in person but fell ill and died on 4 February; some say Antoninus helped bring it about | 77(76).15.2 |
| AD 211 | Britannia (province) | Antoninus made peace with the enemy, evacuated the territory and abandoned the forts; he dismissed Papinianus and killed Euodus, Castor, Plautilla and others | 78(77).1.1 |
| AD 211 | Roma | Antoninus, pretending to reconcile his brother Geta, called him to their mother's rooms and had centurions kill Geta in her arms (aged 22 years 9 months) | 78(77).2.2 |
| AD 211 – 212 | Roma | Antoninus rushed to the camp and showered the soldiers with promises, then killed some 20,000 freedmen and soldiers (men and women) of Geta's party in the palace, and murdered notables such as Papinianus | 78(77).4.1 |
| AD 213 | Campaign against the Alamanni: he ordered forts and cities founded in his own name wherever he liked, and massacred young men conscripted as mercenaries by surrounding them on a shield signal | 78(77).13.4 | |
| AD 213 | War with the Germanic Cenni: captured women killed themselves when sold, and killed their children; the Cenni accepted defeat for a large sum | 78(77).14.1 | |
| AD 214 | Ilium/Troia | Antoninus crossed Thrace and the Hellespont at risk, sacrificed at the tomb of Achilles with an armed race, gave soldiers gold and set up statues | 78(77).16.7 |
| AD 214 | Pergamum | Antoninus arrived at Pergamum and, delighted that the verse "the beast of Ausonia will enter the land of Telephus" was an oracle, had many people executed | 78(77).16.8 |
| AD 214 – 215 | Nicomedia | Wintering at Nicomedia, Antoninus trained a Macedonian phalanx and built two dismountable siege engines for an Armenian and Parthian campaign | 78(77).18.1 |
| AD 215 | Pretext for the Parthian campaign: Vologaesus refused to hand over Tiridates and Antiochus (a Cilician posing as a Cynic philosopher) | 78(77).19.1 | |
| AD 215 | Antioch on the Orontes | At Antioch Antoninus lived in luxury and wrote a letter scolding the Senate as feeble: "I have arms and soldiers" | 78(77).20.1 |
| AD 215 | Armenia (region) | Fearing the Parthian king, he surrendered Tiridates and Antiochus and the campaign was disbanded; the freedman general Theocritus, sent to Armenia, suffered a great defeat | 78(77).21.1 |
| AD 215 – 216 | Alexandria | Antoninus came to Alexandria, pretended to welcome the leading citizens who received him outside the city with a banquet, killed them, and then loosed the whole army on the city to massacre | 78(77).22.2 |
| AD 215 – 216 | Alexandria | The massacre continued day and night across the city, and he hid the death toll from the Senate; foreigners and their attendants also fell and temples were plundered | 78(77).22.3 |
| AD 215 – 216 | Alexandria | Antoninus directed the massacre from the Temple of Serapis and dedicated to the god the sword used to kill his brother; he abolished Alexandria's spectacles and common meals and divided the city with a cross wall | 78(77).23.3 |
| AD 216 | Parthian campaign: pretext that Artabanus had refused to give his daughter; in truth he aimed at the Parthian kingdom | 79(78).1.1 | |
| AD 216 | Arbela (Assyria) | Antoninus plundered Media by surprise attack, destroyed several forts, took Arbela and dug up the Parthian royal tombs, scattering the bones; the Parthians did not fight | 79(78).1.1 |
| AD 217 | Carrhae | On 8 April, on the road from Edessa to Carrhae, Antoninus dismounted to relieve himself and Martialis stabbed him with a dagger, after which his escort officers finished him off | 79(78).5.4 |
| AD 217 | Antioch on the Orontes | Julia Domna, at Antioch, beat her breast on hearing of her son's death, which reactivated her breast cancer, and she died by fasting | 79(78).23.1 |
| AD 217 | After two days' interval following Antoninus's death, on the fourth day (Severus's birthday) the soldiers in Mesopotamia acclaimed Macrinus as emperor | 79(78).11 | |
| AD 217 | Antioch on the Orontes | Diadumenianus, passing among the soldiers at Antioch to meet his father, was proclaimed Caesar by the soldiers and also received the name Antoninus | 79(78).19 |
| AD 217 | Roma | On the day of the Vulcanalia lightning struck the amphitheater and burned both the upper tiers and the arena, and not even draining the aqueducts put it out; the Tiber flooded the same day | 79(78).25.2 |
| AD 217 | Nisibis | Artabanus invaded Mesopotamia; Macrinus marched toward Nisibis and lost a battle that began over water sources, and his camp was saved by the baggage carriers | 79(78).26 |
| AD 217 – 218 | Macrinus bought peace by giving Artabanus and his entourage 200 million sesterces in gifts and gold; he did not tell the Senate the full story and accepted victory sacrifices | 79(78).27.1 | |
| AD 218 | Armenia (region) | King Tiridates of Armenia accepted the crown sent by Macrinus and recovered his mother and the spoils that Caracalla had held for 11 months, ending the war | 79(78).27.4 |
| AD 218 | Emesa | At dawn on 16 May the family of Maesa took the thirteen-year-old Avitus to the camp, deceiving the troops that he was Caracalla's illegitimate son, and incited the soldiers to revolt | 79(79).31 |
| AD 218 | Emesa | The praetorian prefect Julianus attacked the camp, but the recruits killed their officers and went over to the false Antoninus | 79(79).32 |
| AD 218 | Apamea (Syria) | Macrinus went to the Alban legion at Apamea, made his nine-year-old son co-emperor and distributed 4,000 sesterces per man; learning the rebels' head was a fake, he retreated to Antioch | 79(79).34 |
| AD 218 | Basilianus, prefect of Egypt, killed the envoys of the false Antoninus; news of Macrinus's defeat set off riots in which many civilians and soldiers died, and Basilianus fled and was caught near Brundisium | 79(79).35 | |
| AD 218 | Antioch on the Orontes | On 8 June Macrinus was defeated at a village of the Antiochenes (24 miles from the city); the praetorians had the advantage, but Maesa and Soaemias rallied the fleeing soldiers and turned the battle | 79(79).37 |
| AD 218 | Antioch on the Orontes | The defeated Macrinus shaved his head and beard and rode out of Antioch at night, passing through Aegae, Cappadocia, Galatia and Bithynia | 79(79).39 |
| AD 218 | Chalcedon | Macrinus was exposed and arrested at Chalcedon while asking for money; the centurion Aurelius Celsus seized him and dragged him as far as Cappadocia | 79(79).39 |
| AD 218 | Zeugma | Macrinus's son, passing through Zeugma, was arrested by the centurion Claudius Pollio | 79(79).40 |
| AD 218 | Macrinus was beheaded by the centurion Marcianus Taurus before entering Antioch; his body went unburied until the false Antoninus passed by and mocked it | 79(79).40 | |
| AD 218 | Antioch on the Orontes | Avitus (the false Antoninus) entered Antioch the day after the victory, promising soldiers 2,000 sesterces each to prevent plunder, and sent the Senate a letter slandering Macrinus | 80(79).1.1 |
| AD 218 – 219 | Cyprus (island) | Elagabalus executed Macrinus's supporters in Syria, Arabia and Cyprus; the governor of Cyprus, Claudius Attalus, died because of Comazon's grudge | 80(79).3.5 |
| AD 219 | Nicomedia | Elagabalus stayed several months in Antioch, then went to Bithynia (Nicomedia) for the winter, where he personally stabbed Gannys to death | 80(79).3.1 |
| AD 219 | Cyzicus | While wintering at Nicomedia, attempts at revolt by several legions, including a commoner who plotted a mutiny of the fleet stationed at Cyzicus; Dio investigated personally as governor of Pergamum | 80(79).7.3 |
| AD 219 | Thracia | After wintering, Elagabalus went through Thrace, Moesia and the two Pannonias to Italy and stayed there until his death; because of Macrinus's letters, he took no revenge on those who had insulted him | 80(79).3.2 |
| AD 219 – 220 | Roma | Cult of Elagabalus: he placed the god above Jupiter, became its priest himself, observed circumcision and the pork taboo, and was called "the Assyrian" | 80(79).11.1 |
| AD 220 | Roma | Elagabalus married Cornelia Paula (with a feast, gladiators and the slaughter of 51 tigers), then divorced her and lived with the Vestal Aquilia Severa | 80(79).9.1 |
| AD 220 – 221 | Roma | Elagabalus summoned Urania of Carthage as wife of the god Elagabalus, kept her in the palace and collected wedding gifts | 80(79).12 |
| AD 221 | Roma | Elagabalus brought his cousin Bassianus to the Senate with Maesa and Soaemias at his sides, adopted him and renamed him Alexander by the god's command | 80(79).17.2 |
| AD 221 – 222 | Thracia | A spirit resembling Alexander the Great appeared on the Ister's banks and, with a procession of 400 men with thyrsi, passed through Moesia and Thracia in daylight as far as Byzantium, with no official or soldier stopping it | 80(79).18.1 |
| AD 221 – 222 | Chalcedon | The spirit of Alexander crossed by ship to Chalcedonian territory, performed night rites, buried a wooden horse and vanished | 80(79).18.3 |
| AD 222 | Roma | Elagabalus's attempt to harm Alexander caused unrest among the praetorians; he tried to escape hidden in a chest in the camp but was found and killed at 18, his mother died with him, and the bodies were dragged about and thrown into the Tiber | 80(79).20.2 |
| AD 222 | Roma | Alexander immediately became emperor and entrusted the praetorians and the affairs of the empire to Domitius Ulpianus | 80(80).1.1 |
| AD 223 | Roma | Ulpianus killed Flavianus and Chrestus and took over their posts, but was soon attacked at night by the praetorians, fled to the palace and was killed | 80(80).2.2 |
| AD 223 | Roma | While Ulpianus was alive, citizens and praetorians fought street battles for three days over a trifle; when the soldiers tried to set buildings on fire, the citizens made peace | 80(80).2.3 |
| AD 226 – 229 | Hatra | Artaxerxes of Persia defeated Parthia in three battles and killed King Artabanus, then attacked Hatra; he breached the walls but lost soldiers to an ambush and went to Media | 80(80).3.2 |
| AD 226 – 229 | Armenia (region) | Artaxerxes gained a considerable part of Media and Parthia, then went to Armenia and was defeated by the natives, the Medes and Artabanus's sons; he either fled or was preparing a larger expedition | 80(80).3.3 |
| AD 226 – 229 | Mesopotamia (region) | The garrison in Mesopotamia killed its commander Flavius Heracleo; with military discipline collapsed, some soldiers joined the Persians | 80(80).4.2 |
| AD 229 | Alexander made Dio consul for the second time and, because of the praetorians' threats, had him spend his term outside Rome, in Italy | 80(80).5.1 | |
| AD 229 | Dio, citing a foot ailment, asked to be relieved, left to return to his homeland (Bithynia) to spend the rest of his life, and ends the book with this verse | 80(80).5.2 |
Cassius Dio, Roman History, tr. Earnest Cary (Loeb, 1927); text by Bill Thayer, LacusCurtius
PD (Loeb Cary 1927, LacusCurtius 명시)
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/home.html