Page:The Amazing Emperor Heliogabalus.djvu/119

 CHAPTER IV

 by the whole army on the evening of 8th June 218, the young Emperor. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, set out to cover the 20 odd miles which separated Immae from Antioch, the Eastern capital. Next morning, we are told by Dion, he entered the city amidst the customary rejoicings. It had been a principle with the late Caracalla to give conquered cities over to the rapacity of the soldiers, and here the conquering host imagined, nay, strongly urged, that this laudable custom should be revived, but the present Antonine saw no reason for any such proceeding. With a singular lack of subservience, which is, we are told, the first mark of a born sovereign, he informed them that a regular toll would be taken from the citizens instead, and each man paid a sum of 500 drachmae from the imperial exchequer ; he thus satisfied their natural expectation of reward, and promised the population that no pillage would take place ; that, on the other hand, the ordinary contributions to the exchequer (the marks of settled government in times of peace)