|
|
And since we have begun to speak of his strictness, there are many indications of what must be called savagery, rather than strictness, on his part. 2 For, in the first place, soldiers who had forcibly seized anything from the provincials he crucified on the very spot where they had committed the crime. 3 He was the first, moreover, to devise the following means of punishment: after erecting a huge post, •180 feet high, and binding condemned criminals on it from top to bottom, he built a fire at its base, and so burned some of them and killed the others by the smoke, the pain, and even by the fright. 4 Besides this, he had men bound in chains, ten together, and thrown into rivers or even the sea. 5 Besides this, he cut off the hands of many deserters, and broke the legs and hips of others, saying that a criminal alive and p241wretched was a more terrible example than one who had been put to death. 6 Once when he was commanding the army, a band of auxiliaries, at the suggestion of their centurions and without his knowledge, slaughtered 3,000 Sarmatians, who were camping somewhat carelessly on the bank of the Danube, and returned to him with immense plunder. But when the centurions expected a reward because they had slain such a host of the enemy with a very small force while the tribunes were passing their time in indolence and were even ignorant of the whole affair, he had them arrested and crucified, and punished them with the punishment of slaves, for which there was no precedent; "It might," he said, "have been an ambush, and the barbarians' awe for the Roman Empire might have been lost." 7 And when a fierce mutiny arose in the camp, he issued forth clad only in a wrestler's loin-cloth and said: "Strike me if you dare, and add the crime of murder to breach of discipline". 8 Then, as all grew quiet, he was held in well deserved fear, because he had shown no fear himself. 9 This incident so strengthened discipline among the Romans and struck such terror into the barbarians, that they besought the absent Antoninus for a hundred years' peace, since they had seen even those who conquered, if they conquered wrongfully, sentenced to death by the decision of a Roman general.
|
|
|
1 Quoniam de severitate illius dicere coepimus, multa exstant crudelitatis potius quam severitatis eius indicia. 2 nam primum milites qui aliquid provincialibus tulissent per vim, in illis ipsis locis, in quibus peccaverant, in crucem sustulit. 3 primus etiam id supplicii genus invenit, ut stipitem grandem poneret pedum octoginta et centum13 et a summo usque ad imum damnatos ligaret et ab imo focum adponeret incensisque aliis alios fumo, cruciatu, timore etiam necaret. 4 idem denos catenatos in profluentem mergi iubebat vel in mare. 5 idem multis desertoribus manus excidit, aliis crura incidit ac poplites, dicens maius exemplum esse p240viventis14 miserabiliter criminosi quam occisi. 6 cum exercitum duceret, et inscio ipso manus auxiliaria centurionibus suis auctoribus tria milia Sarmatarum neglegentius agentum in Danuvii ripis occidissent et cum praeda ingenti ad eum redissent sperantibus centurionibus praemium, quod perparva manu tantum hostium segnius agentibus tribunis et ignorantibus occidissent, rapi eos iussit et in crucem tolli servilique supplicio adfici, quod exemplum non exstabat, dicens evenire potuisse ut essent insidiae, ac periret Romani imperii reverentia. 7 et cum ingens seditio in exercitu15 orta esset, processit nudus campestri solo tectus et ait, "Percutite," inquit, "me, si audetis, et corruptae disciplinae facinus addite". 8 tunc conquiescentibus cunctis meruit timeri, quia ipse16 non timuit. 9 quae res tantum disciplinae Romanis addidit, tantum terroris barbaris iniecit, ut pacem annorum centum ab Antonino absente peterent; si quidem viderant damnatos Romani ducis iudicio etiam eos qui contra fas vicerant.
|
