erve
as a warning to judges. In every quarter of the city which had been
adorned at the expense of different emperors he inscribed his own name,
and that, not as if he were the restorer of old works, but their
founder. This same fault is said to have characterized the emperor
Trajan, from which the people in jest named him "The Pellitory of the
wall."

8. While he was prefect he was disturbed by frequent commotions, the
most formidable being when a vast mob of the lowest of the people
collected, and with firebrands and torches would have burnt his house
near the baths of Constantine, if they had not been driven away by the
prompt assistance of his friends and neighbours, who pelted them with
stones and tiles from the tops of the houses.

9. And he himself, being alarmed at a sedition, which on this occasion
had become so violent, retired to the Mulvian bridge (which the elder
Scaurus is said to have built), and waited there till the discontent
subsided, which indeed had been excited by a substantial grievance.

10. For when he began to construct some new buildings, he ordered the
cost to be defrayed, not from the customary sources of revenue, but if
iron, or lead, or copper, or anything of that kind was required, he sent
officers who, pretending to try the different articles, did in fact
seize them without paying any price for them. This so enraged the poor,
since they suffered repealed losses from such a practice, that it was
all he could do to escape from them by a rapid retreat.

11. His successor had formerly been a quaestor of the palace, his name
was Juventius, a man of integrity and prudence, a Pannonian by birth.
His administration was tranquil and undisturbed, and the people enjoyed
plenty under it. Yet he also was alarmed by fierce seditions raised by
the discontented populace, which arose from the following occurrence.

12. Damasus and Ursinus, being both immoderately eager to obtain the
bishopric, formed parties and carried on the conflict with great
asperity, the partisans of each carrying their violence to actual
battle, in which men were wounded and killed. And as Juventius was
unable to put an end to, or even to soften these disorders, he was at
last by their violence compelled to withdraw to the suburbs.

13. Ultimately Damasus got the best of the strife by the strenuous
efforts of his partisans. It is certain that on one day one hundred and
thirty-seven dead bodies were found in the Basilica of S