] and women against each other.

9

So at this time he feasted the populace as described, but on another occasion he entertained the foremost men of the senate and the knights in the following fashion. He prepared a room that was pitch black on every side, ceiling, walls and floor, and had ready bare couches, all alike, resting on the uncovered ground; then he invited in his guests alone, at night, without their attendants. And first he set beside each of them a slab shaped like a gravestone, bearing a person's name and also a small lamp, such as hangs in tombs. Next well-shaped, naked boys, likewise painted black, entered after the manner of phantoms, and, after passing around the guests in a kind of terrifying dance, took up their stations at their feet. After that, whatever is commonly dedicated in the course of offerings to departed spirits was set before them also, all black, and in dishes of a similar hue. Consequently, every single one of the guests feared and trembled and every moment felt certain that he was to be slain, especially as on the part of everybody save Domitian there was dead silence, as if they were already in the realms of the dead, and the emperor himself limited his conversation to matters pertaining to death and slaughter. Finally he dismissed them. But he had previously removed their servants, who stood at the doorway, and gave them in charge of other, unknown slaves, to convey either to carriages or litters, and by this act he filled them with far greater fear. Scarcely had each one reached home and was beginning to a certain extent to recover his spirits, when a message was brought him that some one was there from the Augustus. While they were expecting, as a result of this, that now at last they should surely perish, one person brought in the slab, which was of silver, then another something else, and another one of the dishes set before them at the dinner, which proved to be made of some costly material. Finally came [

[50]

] that particular boy who had been each one's familiar spirit, now washed and decked out. Thus, while in terror all night long, they received their gifts.

Such was the triumph or, as the crowd said, such was the expiatory service that Domitian celebrated for those who had died in Dacia and in Rome. Even at this time, too, he killed off some of the foremost men. And he took away the property of whoever buried the body of any one of them, because the victim had died on ground belonging to the sovereign.

10

Here are some more events worth recording, that took place in the Dacian War. Julianus, assigned by the emperor to take charge of the war, made many excellent regulations, one being his command that the soldiers should inscribe their own names and those of the centurions upon their shields, in order that those of them who committed any particular good or bad action might be more readily observed by him. Encountering the enemy at Tapai, [