Book 20
4.18
But since he insisted that at the time of his first auspices it was not fitting for him to wear a woman’s adornment, they looked about for a horse’s trapping, so that being crowned with it he might display at least some obscure token of a loftier station. But when he declared that this also was shameful, a man called Maurus, afterwards a count and defeated at the pass of Succi,See xxi. 10, 2, notes 3, 4. but then a standard-bearerSee xvi. 12, 20, note. of the Petulantes, took off the neck-chain which he wore as carrier of the dragonFrom the time of Trajan the standard of the cohorts; see xvi. 10, 7. and boldly placed it on Julian’s head. He, driven to the extremity of compulsion, and perceiving that he could not avoid imminent danger if he persisted in his resistance, promised each man five gold piecesThe aureus was the standard Roman gold coin, equal to 25 denarii or 100 sesterces. and a pound of silver.
4.19
When this was done, troubled with no less anxiety than before and with quick intuition foreseeing the future, he neither wore a diadem, nor dared to appear anywhere or attend to any of the serious matters that were most pressing.
