Scriptores Historiae Augustae, Didius Julianus

Tunc omen quod sibi Iulianus, cum imperium acciperet, fecerat omnibus venit in mentem, nam cum consul designatus de eo sententiam dicens ita pro- nuntiasset: Didium Iulianum imperatorem appellandum esse censeo, Iulianus suggessit Adde et Severum, quod cognomentum avi et proavi sibi Iulianus adsciverat. sunt tamen qui dicant nullum fuisse Iuliani consilium de obtruncando senatu, cum tanta in eum senatus consuluisset. Post senatus consultum statim Didius Iulianus unum ex praefectis, Tullium Crispinum, misit, ipse autem tertium fecit praefectum Veturium Macrinum, ad quem Severus litteras miserat, ut esset praefectus. sed pacem simulatam esse mandatamque caedem Severi Tullio Crispino, praefecto praetorii, et populus locutus est et Severus suspicatus, denique hostem se Iuliano Severus esse maluit quam participem consensu militum. Severus autem statim et ad plurimos Romam scripsit et occulto misit edicta, quae proposita sunt. fuit praeterea in Iuliano haec amentia, ut per magos pleraque faceret, quibus putaret vel odium populi deleniri vel militum arma compesci. nam et quasdam non convenientes Romanis sacris hostias immolaverunt et carmina profana incantaverunt, et ea quae ad speculum dicunt fieri, in quo pueri praeligatis oculis incantato vertice respicere dicuntur, Iulianus fecit, tuncque puer vidisse dicitur et adventum Severi et Iuliani decessionem.

Then the omen that Julianus had made for himself when he received the empire came into everyone's mind. For when the consul designate, giving his opinion about him, had declared: 'I move that Didius Julianus be named emperor', Julianus prompted: 'Add “and Severus” too', a surname that Julianus had taken for himself from his grandfather and great-grandfather. There are, however, those who say that Julianus never had any plan of slaughtering the senate, even though the senate had passed such measures against him. Immediately after the senate's decree Didius Julianus sent one of the prefects, Tullius Crispinus, and he himself made Veturius Macrinus a third prefect, to whom Severus had sent letters telling him to be prefect. But that the peace was a pretence, and that the murder of Severus had been entrusted to Tullius Crispinus, the praetorian prefect, the people said and Severus suspected; and in the end Severus, with the agreement of the soldiers, preferred to be Julianus's enemy rather than his partner. Severus, moreover, at once both wrote to a great many people at Rome and secretly sent edicts, which were posted up. There was besides this madness in Julianus, that he did most things through magicians, by whom he thought either the hatred of the people could be soothed or the arms of the soldiers held in check. For they both sacrificed certain victims not in keeping with Roman rites and chanted profane spells; and Julianus performed the rites that they say are done at a mirror, into which boys are said to look with their eyes bandaged and a spell chanted over the crown of their head; and then the boy is said to have seen both the coming of Severus and the departure of Julianus.