ld be enjoined. He then
arrested him and questioned him publicly about Trajan's plans. As the
Roman would not yield at all, he took him about with him under guard,
though not in bonds. And [Decebalus sending an envoy to Trajan, asked that
he might get back the territory as far as the Ister and receive indemnity
for all the money he had spent on the war,] in recompense for restoring
Longinus to him. An ambiguous answer was returned, of a kind that would
not make Decebalus think that the emperor regarded Longinus as of either
great value or small, the object being to prevent his being destroyed on
the one hand, or being preserved on excessive terms, on the other. So
Decebalus delayed, still considering what he should do.

Meanwhile Longinus, having [through his freedman] secured a poison [--he
had promised Decebalus that he would reconcile Trajan to the proposition,
in order that the Dacian should be as far as possible from suspecting what
was to happen, and so not keep an especially careful watch over him. Also,
to enable his servant to attain safety, he wrote a letter containing a
supplication, and gave it to the freedman to carry to Trajan. Then, when
he had gone, at night he took the poison,] drank it and died. [After this
event Decebalus asked Trajan to give him back his freedman, promising to
give him in return the body of Longinus and ten captives. He sent at once
the centurion who had been captured with the dead general, assuming that
this man would arrange the matter for him; and it was from the centurion
that the whole story of Longinus was learned. However, Trajan neither sent
him back, nor surrendered the freedman, deeming his safety more valuable
for establishing the dignity of the empire than the of Longinus.]

[Sidenote:--13--] Now, Trajan constructed over the Ister a stone bridge,
for which I cannot sufficiently admire him. His other works are most
brilliant, but this surpasses them. There are twenty square pieces of
stone, the height of which is one hundred and fifty feet above the
foundations and the breadth sixty, and these, standing at a distance of
one hundred and seventy feet from one to another, are connected by arches.
How then could one fail to be astonished at the expenditure made upon
them? Or the manner in which each of them was placed in a river so deep,
in water so full of eddies, on ground so slimy? It was impossible, you
note, to divert the course of the river in any direction. I have spoken