then conceived a desire to
compile a record of all other matters of Roman interest. Therefore I
decided no longer to leave that treatise as a separate composition, but to
incorporate it in this present history, in order that in one undertaking I
might write positively everything from the beginning as far as Fortune
sees fit to permit. I have obtained this goddess, it appears, as the guide
of the conduct of my life, and therefore I am dependent on her entirely:
she gives me strength for my historical research when I am respectful and
subdued before her, and wins me back to work by means of dreams when I am
discouraged and give up the task: she grants me delightful hopes in regard
to the future, that time will allow this history to survive and never let
its brightness be dimmed. To gather an account of everything done by the
Romans from the beginning until the death of Severus has taken me ten
years, and to arrange it in literary form twelve years more. The rest will
be written as opportunity offers.

[Sidenote:--24--] Prior to the death of Commodus there were the following
signs. Many ill-boding eagles wandered about the Capitol uttering cries
that portended naught of peace, and an owl hooted there. [Sidenote: A.D.
191 (a.u. 944)] A fire, starting by night in some dwelling, laid hold of
the temple of Peace and spread to the stores of Egyptian and Arabian
wares: then, leaping to a great height, it entered the palace and burned a
very large portion of it, so that the documents belonging to the empire
almost all perished. This as much as anything made it clear that the
injury would not stop in the City but extend over the entire civilized
world. The conflagration could not be extinguished by human hands,
although great numbers of civilians and great numbers of soldiers were
carrying water and Commodus himself came from the suburbs to cheer them
on. Only after it had destroyed everything on which it had fastened did it
spend its force and reach a limit.

DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY
74

Pertinax, through the agency of Eclectus and Laetus, is created emperor by
the soldiers and by the senate (chapter 1).

Commodus is declared an enemy and is made a subject for jest (chapter 2).

Kindness of Pertinax toward Pompeianus, Glabrio, and the senators (chapter
3).

Omens portending supreme power for him (chapter 4).

Pertinax reforms pernicious practices: he sells Commodus's apparatus of
licentiousness (chapter 5, 6).

His mo