What happened next? I will tell you. An illness of all unusual and painful character befell Romanus. Actually, the whole of his body became festering and corrupted inside. At any rate, from then onwards, he lost most of his appetite, and sleep, poised on his eyelids, quickly flitted away. All the ill-humours fell upon him together — harshness of character, peevishness of spirit, anger and wrath and shouting, things unknown in him before.
All his life, from his earliest years, he had been a friendly sort of man; now, it became not only hard to get into his presence, but hard to get a civil reply to one’s questions. Laughter deserted him, and his former graciousness and pleasant nature. He trusted nobody at all, nor did he seem to others trustworthy himself. Each party suspected and was suspected by the other. His lack of generosity now became more pronounced. The distributions of money that he made were niggardly in any case, and he was savagely angry at every request for it.
Clothed himself in magnificent robes
Every tale of pity only succeeded in irritating him. Yet, despite the dreadful condition of his health, he neither neglected the usual court ceremonial nor did he overlook the importance of the imperial processions. He even clothed himself in magnificent robes shot with gold and put on the rest of the paraphernalia proper to these occasions. It was like a heavy load to him, in his weakened condition, and after returning to the palace with difficulty, he was more ill than ever.
I have often seen him myself when he was distressed during these processions (at the time I was just under sixteen years of age) and he differed little from a man who was dead. His whole face was swollen and the colour of it was no more handsome to look upon than that of men three days dead in the tombs. His breathing was fast, and after moving a few paces he had to rest.
Most of the hairs on his head had fallen out, as though he were a corpse, but a few strands, scattered here and there, were tousled round his forehead, moved, I suppose, by his breathing. The others despaired of his life, but he himself was by no means without hope. He had put himself in the hands of the doctors and he expected to be restored to health by their skill.
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