th the result
that it swells the size of the Nile at harvest time. This is the river's
source, as is evidenced by the crocodiles and other beasts that are born
alike on both sides of it. Let no one be surprised that we have made
pronouncements unknown to the ancient Greeks. The Macennitae live near
lower Mauretania and many of the people who go on campaigns there also
visit Atlas. It is thus that the matter stands.

[Sidenote:--14--] Plautianus, who enjoyed the special favor of Severus and
had the authority of prefect, besides possessing the fullest and greatest
influence on earth, had put to death many men of renown and his own
peers [Lacuna] [After killing Aemilius Saturninus he took away all the
most important prerogatives belonging to the minor officers of the
Pretorians, his subordinates, in order that none of them might be so
elated by his position of eminence as to lie in wait for the captaincy of
the body-guards. Already it was his wish to be not simply the only but a
perpetual prefect.] He wanted everything, asked everything from everybody,
and got everything. He left no province and no city unplundered, but
sacked and gathered everything from all sides. All sent a great deal more
to him than they did to Severus. Finally he sent centurions and stole
tiger-striped horses sacred [Footnote: Supplying [Greek: therous] (Reiske's
conjecture).] to the Sun God from the island in the Red Sea. This mere
statement, I think, must instantly make plain all his officiousness and
greediness. Yet, on second thought, I will add one thing more. At home he
castrated one hundred nobly born Roman citizens, though none of us knew of
it until after he was dead. From this fact one may comprehend the extent
alike of his lawlessness and of his authority. He castrated not merely
boys or youths, but grown men, some of whom had wives; his object was that
Plautilla his daughter (whom Antoninus afterward married) should be waited
upon entirely by eunuchs [and also have them to give her instruction in
music and other branches of art. So we beheld the same persons eunuchs and
men, fathers and impotent, gelded and bearded. In view of this one might
not improperly declare that Plautianus had power beyond all men, over even
the emperors themselves. For one thing, his portrait statues were not only
far more numerous but also larger than theirs, and this not simply in
outside cities but in Rome itself, and they were at this time reared not
merely by