John Malalas, Chronography

The Antiochenes raised a marble stele for him in Daphne, having inscribed, "Artabanes, eternal memory." And the same emperor Commodus, having gone to the house of Faustinus, his relative, died suddenly from a bloody humor. And after the reign of Commodus, Pertinax, also known as Lucius Augustus, reigned for 2 months and 18 days. He was tall, with a good chest, with a prominent nose, with straight hair, with large eyes, an old man, completely gray-haired. And he died, having been slaughtered by the soldiers, as he was coming out of the palace to the Campus Martius, being 70 years old. And after the reign of Pertinax, Didius Julianus, also known as Silvius, reigned for 7 months. He was tall, with graying hair, with curly hair, with joined eyebrows, slightly cross-eyed, with fine features, with a honey-colored complexion. And he built in Antioch the Great the so-called Plethrin, since they used to perform the wrestling matches for the Olympic games in the theater. and at the request of the landowners of the city of Antioch, he provided them money to build the same Plethrin; and they built it near the Caesarion, having bought the house of Asabinus, a magistrate, a Jew by religion, near the Xystus and the public bath of Commodus. And the same Didius Julianus was slaughtered by a chamberlain at the fountain of the palace 291 inside Rome, as he was attending to the fish, by a plot of the one after him. He was 60 years old. And after the reign of Didius Julianus, reigned the most divine Severus, also known as Septimius, having been elected by the senate of Rome, during the consulate of Falco and Clarus. And he reigned for 17 years and 9 months. He was of medium height, thin, with a good chest, with a long nose, with fine eyes, dark-skinned, with curly hair, completely gray-haired, with a large beard, suffering in his feet, magnanimous, quick-tempered. And during his reign Albinus the senator became a tyrant; whom the army, as he was warring against the Goths, having been sent by the emperor before him, Didius, proclaimed emperor, acting on its own authority against the senate. And Severus pursued him in Thrace, and having captured him, killed him. And Severus, having come to Byzantium, and having seen that the location of the city was beautiful, raised up Byzopolis, and built a public bath called the Zeuxippon because there stood in the middle of the tetrastoon a bronze column of the Sun, and beneath it he wrote the mystic name of the sun, "to the god Zeuxippos"; for the Thracians thus called the sun. And the people of the city of Byzas thus named the same public bath Zeuxippon according to the name which 292 the place previously had, and no longer, as the emperor said, did they call it the Severion in his own name. And the emperor Severus added the Tetrastoon, in the middle of which the column of the sun stood, to the public bath which he himself built, having built in its place on the acropolis of the same Byzopolis a temple, that is, a shrine, to the Sun, near the other two shrines being there, which had been built previously by Byzas to Artemis with the deer, and by Phidalia to Aphrodite; and Severus, having brought up the statue of the Sun from the Tetrastoon, set it above the shrine, and the same emperor also built opposite the shrine of Artemis a very large hunting-theater, and opposite the shrine of Aphrodite, a theater. And the same most divine Severus set up the Hippodrome in the same Byzantium, having bought up dwellings, and having cleared the existing garden of its trees, he made the Hippodrome for the Byzantines; which he did not manage to complete. And the same Severus renewed the so-called Strategion; for it had formerly been built by Alexander of Macedon, when he campaigned against Darius, who also called the place Strategion; for there, having planned the matters of the war, he set out to the other side against the Persians. And during the reign of the same Severus another senator also became a tyrant, one Niger by name, having gone down against the Persians; and after making a peace pact with

ἀνήγειραν αὐτῷ οἱ Ἀντιοχεῖς στήλην ἐν ∆άφνῃ μαρμαρίνην, ἐπιγράψαντες, Ἀρταβάνης αἰωνία μνήμη. Ὁ δὲ αὐτὸς Κόμμοδος βασιλεὺς ἀπελθὼν εἰς τὸν οἶκον Φαυστίνου, συγγενοῦς αὐτοῦ, ἀπὸ αἱματικοῦ χυμοῦ ἀθρόως ἐτελεύτησε. Μετὰ δὲ τὴν βασιλείαν Κομμόδου ἐβασίλευσε Περτίναξ ὁ καὶ Λούκιος Αὔγουστος μῆνας βʹ καὶ ἡμέρας ιηʹ. ἦν δὲ μακρός, εὐθώραξ, ἐπίρινος, ἁπλόθριξ, μεγαλόφθαλμος, γέρων, ὁλοπόλιος. τελευτᾷ δὲ σφαγεὶς ὑπὸ τῶν στρατιωτῶν, ὡς ἐξήρχετο ἐκ τοῦ παλατίου εἰς τὸν Μάρτιον, ὢν ἐτῶν οʹ. Μετὰ δὲ τὴν βασιλείαν Περτίνακος ἐβασίλευσε ∆ίδιος Ἰουλιανὸς ὁ καὶ Σίλβιος μῆνας ζʹ. ἦν δὲ μακρός, μιξοπόλιος, οὐλόθριξ, σύνοφρυς, ὑπόστραβος, λεπτοχαράκτηρος, μελίχρους. Ἔκτισε δὲ ἐν Ἀντιοχείᾳ τῇ μεγάλῃ τὸ λεγόμενον Πλεθρίν, ἐπειδὴ εἰς τὸ θέατρον ἐπετέλουν τὰς πάλας ἐν τοῖς Ὀλυμπίοις. καὶ διὰ μηνύσεως τῶν τῆς πόλεως Ἀντιοχείας κτητόρων δεηθέντων παρέσχεν αὐτοῖς χρήματα εἰς τὸ κτίσαι τὸ αὐτὸ Πλεθρίν· καὶ ἔκτισαν αὐτὸ πλησίον τοῦ Καισαρίου, ἀγοράσαντες τὴν οἰκίαν Ἀσαβίνου πολιτευομένου, Ἰουδαίου τὴν θρησκείαν, πλησίον τοῦ Ξυστοῦ καὶ τοῦ Κομμοδίου δημοσίου. ἐσφάγη δὲ ὁ αὐτὸς Ἰουλιανὸς ∆ίδιος ὑπὸ κουβικουλαρίου εἰς τὴν πηγὴν τοῦ παλατίου 291 Ῥώμης ἔσω, ὡς προσέχει τοῖς ἰχθύσι, κατὰ συσκευὴν τοῦ μετ' αὐτόν. ἦν δὲ ἐνιαυτῶν ξʹ. Μετὰ δὲ τὴν βασιλείαν ∆ιδίου Ἰουλιανοῦ ἐβασίλευσεν ὁ θειότατος Σέβηρος ὁ καὶ Σεπτίμιος, ὑπὸ τῆς συγκλήτου Ῥώμης ψηφισθείς, ἐπὶ τῆς ὑπατείας Φλάκωνος καὶ Κλάρου. ἐβασίλευσε δὲ ἔτη ιζʹ καὶ μῆνας θʹ. ἦν δὲ διμοιριαῖος τῇ ἡλικίᾳ, λεπτός, εὔστηθος, μακρόρινος, εὐόφθαλμος, μελάγχροος, οὐλόθριξ, ὁλοπόλιος, μεγαλοπώγων, τοὺς πόδας στυφόμενος, μεγαλόψυχος, ὀργίλος. Ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς αὐτοῦ βασιλείας ἐτυράννησεν Ἀλβῖνος ὁ συγκλητικός· ὅντινα ὁ στρατός, ὡς πολεμεῖ τοῖς Γήπεσι πεμφθεὶς παρὰ τοῦ πρὸ αὐτοῦ βασιλέως ∆ιδίου, ἀνηγόρευσε βασιλέα αὐθεντήσας τὴν σύγκλητον. καὶ κατεδίωξεν αὐτὸν ὁ Σέβηρος ἐν τῇ Θρᾴκῃ, καὶ παραλαβὼν αὐτὸν ἐφόνευσεν. Ἐλθὼν δὲ ὁ Σέβηρος ἐπὶ τὸ Βυζάντιον, καὶ ἑωρακὼς τὴν τοποθεσίαν τῆς πόλεως καλήν, ἀνήγειρε τὴν Βυζούπολιν, καὶ ἔκτισε δημόσιον λουτρὸν τὸ λεγόμενον Ζεύξιππον διότι ἐκεῖ ἵστατο ἐν μέσῳ τοῦ τετραστῴου στήλη χαλκῆ τοῦ Ἡλίου, καὶ ὑποκάτω αὐτῆς ἔγραψε τὸ μυστικὸν ὄνομα τοῦ ἡλίου, Ζευξίππῳ θεῷ· οἱ γὰρ Θρᾷκες οὕτως ἔλεγον τὸν ἥλιον. οἱ δὲ τῆς πόλεως Βύζης οὕτως ὠνόμαζον τὸ αὐτὸ δημόσιον Ζεύξιππον κατὰ τὸ ὄνομα ὅπερ 292 εἶχε τὸ πρότερον ὁ τόπος, καὶ οὐκέτι, ὡς εἶπεν ὁ βασιλεύς, εἰς τὸ ἴδιον αὐτοῦ ὄνομα ἐκάλουν αὐτὸ Σεβήριον. ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς Σέβηρος τὸ Τετράστῳον, οὗπερ ἐν μέσῳ ἵστατο ἡ στήλη τοῦ ἡλίου, προσέθηκε τὸ δημόσιον ὃ ἔκτισεν αὐτός, ἀντ' αὐτοῦ κτίσας ἐν τῇ ἀκροπόλει τῆς αὐτῆς Βυζουπόλεως ναόν, ἤτοι ἱερόν, τῷ Ἡλίῳ, πλησίον τῶν ὄντων ἐκεῖ ἄλλων δύο ἱερῶν τῶν κτισθέντων πρῴην ὑπὸ μὲν Βύζου τῇ Ἀρτέμιδι σὺν τῇ ἐλάφῳ, ὑπὸ δὲ Φιδαλίας Ἀφροδίτῃ· καὶ ἀναγαγὼν ἐκ τοῦ Τετραστῴου ὁ Σέβηρος τὸ ἄγαλμα τοῦ Ἡλίου ἔστησεν ἄνωθεν τοῦ ἱεροῦ, καὶ κτίσας ὁ αὐτὸς βασιλεὺς καὶ κατέναντι τοῦ ἱεροῦ τῆς Ἀρτέμιδος κυνήγιον μέγα πάνυ, καὶ κατέναντι τοῦ ἱεροῦ τῆς Ἀφροδίτης θέατρον. τὸ δὲ Ἱππικὸν ἔστησεν εἰς τὸ αὐτὸ Βυζάντιον ὁ αὐτὸς θειότατος Σέβηρος ἀγοράσας οἰκήματα, καὶ τὸν κῆπον τὸν ὄντα ἐκδενδρώσας ἐποίησε τὸ Ἱππικὸν τοῖς Βυζαντίοις· ὅπερ οὐκ ἔφθασε πληρῶσαι. καὶ τὸ δὲ λεγόμενον Στρατήγιον ἀνενέωσεν ὁ αὐτὸς Σέβηρος· πρῴην γὰρ ἦν κτισθὲν ὑπὸ Ἀλεξάνδρου τοῦ Μακεδόνος, ὅτε κατὰ ∆αρείου ἐπεστράτευσεν, ὃς καὶ ἐκάλεσε τὸν τόπον Στρατήγιον· ἐκεῖ γὰρ στρατηγήσας τὰ τοῦ πολέμου ὥρμησεν εἰς τὸ πέραν κατὰ Περσῶν. Ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς βασιλείας τοῦ αὐτοῦ Σεβήρου ἐτυράννησε καὶ ἄλλος συγκλητικὸς Νίγερ τις ὀνόματι, κατελθὼν κατὰ Περσῶν· καὶ μετὰ τὸ ποιῆσαι πάκτα εἰρήνης πρὸς