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 individuals but by no less a body than the senate itself.  All the soldiers and the senators took oaths by his Fortune and all publicly offered prayer for his preservation.

[Sidenote:—­15—­] The person principally responsible for this state of affairs was Severus himself.  He yielded to Plautianus in all matters to such a degree that the latter occupied the position of emperor and he himself that of prefect.  In short, the man knew absolutely everything that Severus said and did, but not a person was acquainted with any of Plautianus’s secrets.  The emperor made advances to his daughter on behalf of his own son, passing by many other maidens of high rank.  He appointed him consul and virtually showed an anxiety to have him for successor in the imperial office.  Indeed, once he did say in a letter:  “I love the man so much that I pray to die before he does.”]

[Lacuna] so that [Lacuna] some one actually dared to write to him as to a fourth Caesar.

Though many decrees in his honor were passed by the senate he accepted only a few of them, saying to the senators:  “It is through your hearts that you show your love for me, not through your decrees.”

At temporary stopping-places he endured seeing him located in superior quarters and enjoying better and more abundant food than he.  Hence in Nicaea (my native country) when he once wanted a hammer-fish, large specimens of which are found in the lake, he sent to Plautianus to get it.  So if he thought at all of doing aught to diminish this minister’s leadership, yet the opposite party, which contained far greater and more brilliant members, saw to it that any such plan was frustrated.  On one occasion Severus went to visit him, when he had fallen sick at Tyana, and the soldiers attached to Plautianus would not allow the visitor’s escort to enter with him.  Moreover, the person who arranged cases to be pled before Severus was once ordered by the latter in a moment of leisure to bring forward some case or other, whereupon the fellow refused, saying:  “I can not do this, unless Plautianus bid me.”