Behind
him tramped, in serried ranks, an entire legion of the Pannonian troops,
in full armor with their great shields gleaming and the sun sparkling on
their gilded helmets and their spear-points.
Behind them came ten of the elephants with which Julianus, in his futile,
bungling attempts at preparations for resistance, had had some of his men
drill. Each now carried in his tower eight Danubians, four tall Dacian
spearmen and four Scythian archers, bow in hand, leaning over the edge of
the howdah.
Behind the elephants came Norican legionaries carrying the surrendered
standards of the disbanded Praetorian Guard; not held aloft, but trailed,
half inverted.
Then, amid roars of cheers, came Severus himself, habited not in his
general's regalia, but in the gorgeous Imperial robes, as if already in
the Palace and about to give a public levee. Though thus clad as in time
of peace and walking all the way on foot, he was hedged about by his
faithful six hundred, every man stepping alertly, helmet-plumes waving,
helmets glittering, shields gleaming, spear-points asparkle, kilt-straps
flapping, scabbards clanking, a grim advertisement of irresistible power.
After this guard walked our entire Senate, and, as the Emperor and Senate
acknowledged the acclamations of the onlookers, passing amid thunders of
cheering, behind we saw a long serpent ribbon of Illyrian legionaries,
every man fully armed and armored as for instant battle, their even tramp
sounding grim and monotonous when the cheerers paused for breath, their
resistless might manifest.
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