In the meantime Longinus, having secured poison with the aid of the freedman, promised Decebalus to win Trajan over, hoping the king would thus have no suspicion of what he was going to do and so would not keep a very strict watch over him; also, in order to enable the freedman to gain safety, he wrote a letter containing a petition in his behalf and gave it to him to carry to Trajan. Then, when the other had gone, he drank the poison at night and died.
Edition :
Dio's Roman History. Cassius Dio Cocceianus. Earnest Cary. Herbert Baldwin Foster. William Heinemann, Harvard University Press. London; New York. 1914-.
Remark :
long-term consequence: Decebalus afterwards tried to ransom the body of Longinus together with 10 captives in trade for the freedman who had assisted Longinus, but Trajan refused. (68.12.4-5)
