[Sidenote:—­37—­] The speaker was one of the ex-consuls, but not of very sound mind, and consequently he caused himself as much exasperation as he did other people.  He also [lacuna] the subscription [lacuna] of letter [lacuna] and to the [lacuna] leather it had been entrusted to read [lacuna] and those [lacuna] and [lacuna] others and also [lacuna] be sent [lacuna] directly as [lacuna] hesitating [lacuna] ordering [lacuna] by the [lacuna] and both to others [lacuna] of foremost to the [lacuna] any care for the common preserver [lacuna] over [lacuna] that the False Antoninus finding in the chests of Macrinus not yet [lacuna] he himself voluntarily [lacuna] published [lacuna] calumny [lacuna] making with reference to the soldiers.  And he marched so quickly against him that Macrinus could with difficulty encounter him in a village of the Antiochians one hundred and fifty stades distant from the city.  There, so far as the zeal of the Pretorians went, he had him conquered (he had taken from them their breastplates scales and their grooved shields and had thus rendered them lighter for the battle):  but he was beaten by his own cowardice, as Heaven had foreshown to him.  For on that day when his first letter about the imperial office was read to us a pigeon had lighted upon an image of Severus (whose name he had applied to himself) that stood in the senate-chamber. [And subsequently, when the communication about his son was sent, we had convened, not at the bidding of the consuls or the praetors (for they did not happen to be present) but of the tribunes,—­a practice which by this time had fallen more or less into disuse.  And he had not written even his name in the preface of the letter, though he termed him Caesar and emperor and indicated that the contents emanated from them both.  Also, in the rehearsal of events, he mentioned the name Diadumenianus, but left out that of Antoninus, though he had this title too.  Such was the state of these [Sidenote:—­38—­] affairs; and, by Jupiter, when he sent word about the uprising of the False Antoninus, the consuls uttered certain formulae against him, as is regularly done under such circumstances, and one of the praetors and another of the tribunes did the same.  War was declared and solemnly proclaimed against the usurper and his cousin and their mothers and their grandmother, and immunity was granted to those that had taken part in the uprising, in case they should submit, according as Macrinus had promised them.  For the conversation he had had with the soldiers was read aloud.] As a result of this, we all condemned still more strongly his abasement and folly. [For one thing] he was most constantly calling himself “father” and Diadumenianus his “son,” and he kept holding up to reproach the age of the False Antoninus, though he had designated as emperor his son, who was much younger. [Now in the battle Gannys hurriedly took possession of the narrow place in front of the village and disposed his soldiers in good order for warfare,