ainst Aeneas
bewails his lot and says: "To enable Turnus to marry Lavinia we are
meanwhile perishing, without heed being paid to us." [Footnote: Two and a
half lines beginning with verse 371 in Book Eleven of Virgil's Aeneid.]
Severus made Valerius, the soldier who had accused him, tribune in his
place. The other whom he killed was Laetus, and the reason was that Laetus
was proud and was beloved by the soldiers. They often said they would not
march, unless Laetus would lead them. The responsibility for this murder,
for which he had no clear reason save jealousy, he fastened upon the
soldiers, making it appear that they had ventured upon the act contrary to
his will.

[Sidenote: A.D. 200(?)] [Sidenote:--11--] After laying in a large store of
food and preparing many engines he in person again led an attack upon
Hatra. He deemed it a disgrace, now that other points had been subdued,
that this one alone, occupying a central position, should continue to
resist. And he lost a large amount of money and all his engines except
those of Priscus, as I stated earlier, [Footnote: Compare Book
Seventy-four, chapter 11.] besides many soldiers. Numbers were annihilated
in foraging expeditions, as the barbarian cavalry (I mean that of the
Arabians) kept everywhere assailing them with precision and violence. The
archery of the Atreni, too, was effective over a very long range. Some
missiles they hurled from engines, striking many of Severus's men-at-arms,
for they discharged two missiles in one and the same shot and there were
also many hands and many arrows to inflict injury. They did their
assailants the utmost damage, however, when the latter approached the
wall, and in an even greater degree after they had broken down a little of
it. Then they threw at them among other things the bituminous naphtha of
which I wrote above [Footnote: Compare the beginning of Book Thirty-six
(supplied from Xiphilinus).] and set fire to the engines and all the
soldiers that were struck with it. Severus observed proceedings from a
lofty tribunal. [Sidenote:--12--] A portion of the outer circuit had
fallen in one place and all the soldiers were eager to force their way
inside the remainder, when Severus checked them from doing so by giving
orders that the signal for retreat be sounded clearly on all sides. The
fame of the place was great, since it contained enormous offerings to the
Sun God and vast stores of valuables; and he expected that the Arabians
wo