had to justice or impartiality in meting out punishment for
offences, each faction being eager to gain the favour of the Emperor,
neither party was able to keep quiet. They alternately abandoned
themselves to the madness of despair or presumptuous vanity, according
as they failed or succeeded in ingratiating themselves with him.
Sometimes they attacked one another _en masse_, sometimes in small
bands, sometimes in single combat, or set ambuscades for each other at
every opportunity. For thirty-two years without intermission they
inflicted horrible cruelties upon one another. They were frequently
put to death by the Praefect of the city, although punishment for
offences fell most heavily upon the Green faction. The punishment of
the Samaritans also, and other so-called heretics, deluged the Roman
Empire with blood. Let it suffice, on the present occasion, to recall
briefly what I have already narrated in greater detail. These
calamities, which afflicted the whole world, took place during the
reign of this demon in the form of a man, for which he himself, when
Emperor, was responsible. I will now proceed to relate the evils he
wrought by some hidden force and demoniacal power.

During his control of the Empire, numerous disasters of various kinds
occurred, which some attributed to the presence and artifices of his
evil genius, while others declared that the Divinity, in detestation
of his works, having turned away in disgust from the Roman Empire, had
given permission to the avenging deities to inflict these misfortunes.
The river Scirtus overflowed Edessa, and brought the most grievous
calamities upon the inhabitants of the district, as I have already
related. The Nile, having overflown its banks as usual, did not
subside at the ordinary time, and caused great suffering among the
people. The Cydnus was swollen, and nearly the whole of Tarsus lay for
several days under water; and it did not subside until it had wrought
irreparable damage to the city.

Several cities were destroyed by earth-quake--Antioch, the chief city
of the East, Seleucia, and Anazarbus, the most famous town in Cilicia.
Who could calculate the numbers of those who were thereby destroyed?
To these cities we may add Ibora, Amasea (the chief city of Pontus),
Polybotus in Phrygia (called Polymede by the Pisidians), Lychnidus in
Epirus, and Corinth, cities which from ancient times had been thickly
populated. All these cities were overthrown at that time by