passages which he cites entirely apposite, and yet some of the points
urged are important. I can only say that the impression left in my
mind by a rapid reading of the Greek is that Dio was consul while
Severus reigned; if such be the case, he probably held the rank of
_consul suffectus_ ("honorary" or "substitute"). All who refuse to
admit that he could have obtained so high an office at that time place
the date of his first consulship anywhere from 219 to 223 A.D. because
of his own statement that in 224 he was appointed to the (regularly
proconsular) governorship of Africa.

The son of Severus, Caracalla or Antoninus, drew Dio from his
homekeeping and took him with him on an eastern expedition in 216, so
that our historian passed the winter of 216-217 as a member of
Caracalla's retinue at Nicomedea (Book 77, 17 and 18) and joined there
in the annual celebration of the Saturnalia (Book 78, 8). Dio takes
occasion to deplore the emperor's bestial behavior as well as the
considerable pecuniary outlay to which he was personally subjected,
but at the same time he evidently did not allow his convictions to
become indiscreetly audible. Much farther than Nicomedea Dio cannot
have accompanied his master; for he did not go to the Parthian war,
presently undertaken, and he was not present either at Caracalla's
death (217) or at the overthrow of Macrinus (218). This Macrinus, one
of the short-time emperors, gave Dio the post of _curator ad
corrigendum statum civitatium_, with administrative powers over the
cities of Pergamum and Smyrna (Book 79, 7), and his appointee remained
in active service during much of the reign of Elagabalus,--possibly,
indeed, until the accession of Alexander Severus (see Book 78, 18,
end). Mammaea, the mother of the new sovereign, surrounded her son with
skilled helpers of proved value, and it was possibly due to her wisdom
that Dio was first sent to manage the proconsulate of Africa, and, on
his return, to govern the imperial provinces of Dalmatia and Upper
Pannonia. Somewhat later, in the year 229, he became consul for the
second time, _consul ordinarius_, as colleague of Alexander himself.
But Dio's disciplinary measures in Pannonia had rendered him unpopular
with the pampered Pretorians, and heeding at once his own safety and
the emperor's request he remained most of the time outside of Rome.
This state of affairs was not wholly satisfactory, and it is not
surprising that after a short time Dio comp