3. Ammianus Marcellinus, History, 14.6.3, 14.6.8, 16.10.14, 17.7.9-17.7.13, 20.11, 20.11.26-20.11.30, 23.3.3, 25.2.5-25.2.6, 25.10.2-25.10.3, 25.10.5, 26.1.1, 26.3.1, 26.10.15-26.10.19, 28.1.36 (4th cent. CE - 4th cent. CE)
| 14.6.3. At the time when Rome first began to rise into a position of world-wide splendour, destined to live so long as men shall exist, in order that she might grow to a towering stature, Virtue and Fortune, ordinarily at variance, formed a pact of eternal peace; for if either one of them had failed her, Rome had not come to complete supremacy. 14.6.8. Some of these men eagerly strive for statues, thinking that by them they can be made immortal, as if they would gain a greater reward from senseless brazen images than from the consciousness of honourable and virtuous conduct. And they take pains to have them overlaid with gold, a fashion first introduced by Acilius Glabrio, See Livy, xl. 34, 5. after his skill and his arms had overcome King Antiochus. At Thermopylae in 191 B.C. But how noble it is, scorning these slight and trivial honours, to aim to tread the long and steep ascent to true glory, as the bard of Ascra expresses it, Hesiod, Works and Days, 289 ff. τῆς δ᾽ ἀρετῆς ἱδρῶτα θεοὶ προπάροιθεν ἔθηκαν | Ἀθάνατοι· μακρὸς δὲ καὶ ὄρθιος οἶμος ἐπ᾽ αὐτὴν, | καὶ τρηχὺς τὸ πρῶτον· ἐπὴν δ᾽ εἰς ἄκρον ἵκηται, | Ῥηιδίη δὴ ἔπειτα πέλει, χαλεπή περ᾽ ἐοῦσα. is made clear by Cato the Censor. For when he was asked why he alone among many did not have a statue, he replied: I would rather that good men should wonder why I did not deserve one than (which is much worse) should mutter Why was he given one? 16.10.14. For he did not (as in the case of other cities) permit the contests to be terminated at his own discretion, but left them (as the custom is) to various chances. Then, as he surveyed the sections of the city and its suburbs, lying within the summits of the seven hills, along their slopes, or on level ground, he thought that whatever first met his gaze towered above all the rest: the sanctuaries of Tarpeian Jove so far surpassing as things divine excel those of earth; the baths built up to the measure of provinces; the huge bulk of the amphitheatre, strengthened by its framework of Tiburtine stone, Travertine. to whose top human eyesight barely ascends; the Pantheon like a rounded city-district, Regio here refers to one of the regions, or districts, into which the city was divided. vaulted over in lofty beauty; and the exalted heights which rise with platforms to which one may mount, and bear the likenesses of former emperors; The columns of Trajan, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius. The platform at the top was reached by a stairway within the column. the Temple of the City, The double temple of Venus and Roma, built by Hadriian and dedicated in A.D. 135 the Forum of Peace, The Forum Pacis, or Vespasiani, was begun by Vespasian in A.D. 71, after the taking of Jerusalem, and dedicated in 75. It lay behind the basilica Aemilia. the Theatre of Pompey, Built in 55 B.C. in the Campus Martius. the Oleum, A building for musical performances, erected by Domitian, probably near his Stadium. the Stadium, The Stadium of Domitian in the Campus Martius, the shape and size of which is almost exactly preserved by the modern Piazza Navona. and amongst these the other adornments of the Eternal City. 17.7.9. I think the time has come to say a few words about the theories which the men of old have brought together about earthquakes; for the hidden depths of the truth itself have neither been sounded by this general ignorance of ours, nor even by the everlasting controversies of the natural philosophers, which are not yet ended after long study. 17.7.10. Hence in the books of ritual See Cic., De Div. i. 33, 72; Festus, p. 285 M. and in those which are in conformity with the pontifical priesthood, The pontificales libri of Seneca, Epist. 108, 31. nothing is said about the god that causes earthquakes, and this with due caution, for fear that by naming one deity instead of another, The Roman ritual required that in addressing a god, the identity of the god must be made sure and he must be called by his proper name; cf. for example, Horace, Sat. ii. 6, 20, Matutine pater, seu lane libentius audis, and the altar at the foot of the Palatine, sei deo sei deivae sacrum. since it is not clear which of them thus shakes the earth, impieties may be perpetrated. 17.7.11. Now earthquakes take place (as the theories state, and among them Aristotle Meteorologica, ii. 8. is perplexed and troubled) either in the tiny recesses of the earth, which in Greek we call σύριγγαι, Subterranean passages. under the excessive pressure of surging waters; or at any rate (as Anaxagoras asserts) through the force of the winds, which penetrate the innermost parts of the earth; for when these strike the solidly cemented walls and find no outlet, they violently shake those stretches of land under which they crept when swollen. Hence it is generally observed that during an earthquake not a breath of wind is felt where we are, But compare the procellae of § 3, above. because the winds are busied in the remotest recesses of the earth. 17.7.12. Anaximander says that when the earth dries up after excessive summer drought, or after soaking rainstorms, great clefts open, through which the upper air enters with excessive violence; and the earth, shaken by the mighty draft of air through these, is stirred from its very foundations. Accordingly such terrible disasters happen either in seasons of stifling heat or after excessive precipitation of water from heaven. And that is why the ancient poets and theologians call Neptune (the power of the watery element) Ennosigaeos Earthshaker, Juv. x. 182 and Sisichthon. Earthquaker, Gell. ii. 28, 1. 17.7.13. Now earthquakes take place in four ways; for they are either brasmatiae, A Greek word from βράζειν. boil up. or upheavings, which lift up the ground from far within, like a tide and force upward huge masses, as in Asia Delos came to the surface, and Hiera, Anaphe, and Rhodes, called in former ages Ophiusa and Pelagia, and once drenched with a shower of gold; Cf. Claudian, De Cons. Stil. iii. 226, Auratos Rhodiis imbres nascente Minerva indulsisse lovem perhibent: Iliad ii. 670; Pindar, Olymp. 7, 59 ff. (L.C.L. pp. 72 f.) also Eleusis An ancient town of Boeotia near Lake Copais. It was not swallowed up by an earthquake, but destroyed by an inundation (Strabo, ix. 2, 18; Paus. ix. 24, 2); and it was not an island. in Boeotia, Vulcanus in the Tyrrhenian Sea, and many more islands. Or they are climatiae Moving sidewise. which rush along to one side and obliquely, levelling cities, buildings, and mountains. Or they are chasmatiae, or gaping, which with their intensive movement suddenly open abysses and swallow up parts of the earth; as in the Atlantic Ocean an island more extensive than all Europe, Atlantis; see Plato, Timaeus, pp. 24e-25a. and in the Crisaean Gulf, Salona Bay, a part of the Corinthian Gulf; see Diod. xiv. 48, 49. Helice and Bura; and in the Ciminian district of Italy the town of Saccumum; Its exact location is unknown: it was near Lago di Vico. these were all sunk into the deep abysses of Erebus, and lie hidden in eternal darkness. 20.11.26. More than this, rainbows were constantly seen; and how that phenomenon is wont to occur, a brief explanation will show. The warmer exhalations of the earth and its moist vapours are condensed into clouds; these are then dissipated into a fine spray, which, made brilliant by the sun’s rays that fall upon it, rises swiftly and, coming opposite the fiery orb itself, forms the rainbow. And the bow is rounded into a great curve, because it extends over our world, which the science of natural philosophy tells us rests upon a hemisphere. The meaning seems to be that the vault of the heavens is therefore a hemisphere. 20.11.27. Its first colour, so far as mortal eye can discern, is yellow, the second golden or tawny, the third red, the fourth violet, Purple varied from scarlet to violet. and the last blue verging upon green. 20.11.28. It shows this combination of beautiful colours, as earthborn minds conceive, for the reason that its first part, corresponding in colour with the surrounding air, appears paler; the second is tawny, that is, somewhat more vivid than yellow; the third is red, because it is exposed to the brightness of the sun, and in proportion to alternation in the air absorbs its brilliance most purely, being just opposite; I.e. the air is so affected by contact with the first two bands that it becomes more receptive of the effect of the sun’s rays. the fourth is violet, because receiving the brightness of the sun’s rays with a thick rain of spray glittering between, through which it rises, it shows an appearance more like fire; and that colour, the more it spreads, passes over into blue and green. 20.11.29. Others think that the form of the rainbow appears to earthly sight when the rays of the sun penetrate a thick and lofty cloud and fill it with clear light. Since this does not find an outlet, it forms itself into a mass and glows from the intense friction; and it takes the colours nearest to white from the sun higher up, but the greenish shades from resemblance to the cloud just above it. The same thing usually happens with the sea, where the waters that dash upon the shore are white, and those further out without any admixture are blue. 20.11.30. And since the rainbow is an indication of a change of weather (as I have said), from sunny skies bringing up masses of clouds, or on the contrary changing an overcast sky to one that is calm and pleasant, we often read in the poets that Iris is sent from heaven when it is necessary to change the present condition of affairs. There are many other different opinions, which it would be superfluous to enumerate at present, since my narrative is in haste to return to the point from which it digressed. 23.3.3. Here, as Julian slept, his mind was disturbed by dreams, which made him think that some sorrow would come to him. Therefore, both he himself and the interpreters of dreams, considering the present conditions, declared that the following day, which was the nineteenth of March, ought to be carefully watched. But, as was afterwards learned, it was on that same night that the temple of the Palatine Apollo, under the prefecture of Apronianus, was burned in the eternal city; and if it had not been for the employment of every possible help, the Cumaean books These Sibylline books had been kept in the pedestal of the statue of Apollo, in accordance with the desire of Augustus, who built the temple. See Suet., Aug. xxxi. 1 ( L.C.L., i. 170). also would have been destroyed by the raging flames. 25.2.5. That fiery brilliance was of the kind that we call διάσσων, ἀστὴρ διαίσσων, a shooting star ; of. Iliad, iv. 75-77. which never falls anywhere or touches the earth; for anyone who believes that bodies can fall from heaven is rightly considered a layman, I.e. not versed in astronomy. or a fool. But this sort of thing happens in many ways, and it will be enough to explain a few of them. 25.2.6. Some believe that sparks glowing from the ethereal force, are not strong enough to go very far and then are extinguished; or at least that beams of light are forced into thick clouds, and because of the heavy clash throw out sparks, or when some light has come in contact with a cloud. For this takes the form of a star, and falls downward, so long as it is sustained by the strength of the fire; but, exhausted by the greatness of the space which it traverses, it loses itself in the air, passing back into the substance whose friction gave it all that heat. Cf. Seneca, Nat. Quaest. ii. 14. 25.10.2. For the statue of the Caesar Maximianus, which stood in the vestibule of the royal palace, suddenly dropped the brazen ball, in the form of the globe of heaven, which it was holding, Cf. xxi. 14, 1, note. the beams of the council hall gave forth an awful creaking, and in broad daylight comets were seen, about which the views of those versed in natural history are at variance. Cf. Pliny, N.H. ii. 91 ff. 25.10.3. For some think that they are so called because they are numerous stars united in one body, Democritus and Anaxagoras, cf. Arist., Meteor. 1, 1; opposed by Sen. Nat., Quaest. vii. 7. and send out writhing fires resembling hair. The view of Aristotle and the Peripatetics; cometa is from coma (Greek κομη ), hair. This opinion, which is nearest the truth, is attributed by Aristotle and Plutarch to Pythagoras. Others believe that they take fire from the dryer exhalations of the earth, which gradually rise higher. Others again think that the rays streaming from the sun are prevented by the interposition of a heavier cloud from going downward, and when the brightness is suffused through the thick substance, it presents to men’s eyes a kind of star-spangled light. Yet others have formed the opinion that this phenomenon occurs when an unusually high cloud is lit up by the nearness of the eternal fires, or at any rate, that comets are stars like the rest, the appointed times of whose rising and setting I.e. their appearance and disappearance. are not understood by human minds. Many other theories about comets are to be found in the writings of those who are skilled in knowledge of the universe; but from discussing these I am prevented by my haste to continue my narrative. 25.10.5. Though in excessive haste to leave that place, he determined to adorn the tomb of Julian, See 9, 12, above. According to Zonaras and others, Julian’s body was later taken to Constantinople. situated just outside the walls on the road which leads to the passes of Mount Taurus. But his remains and ashes, if anyone then showed sound judgement, ought not to be looked on by the Cydnus, Cf. Curt. iii. 4, 8. although it is a beautiful and clear stream, but to perpetuate the glory of his noble deeds they should be laved by the Tiber, which cuts through the eternal city and flows by the memorials of the deified emperors of old. 26.1.1. Having narrated the course of events with the strictest care up to the bounds of the present epoch, I had already determined to withdraw my foot from the more familiar tracks, partly to avoid the dangers which are often connected with the truth, and partly to escape unreasonable critics of the work which I am composing, who cry out as if wronged, if one has failed to mention what an emperor said at table, or left out the reason why the common soldiers were led before the standards for punishment, or because in an ample account of regions he ought not to have been silent about some insignificant forts; also because the names of all who came together to pay their respects to the city-praetor On the first of January, when he entered upon his office; cf. Pliny, Epist. i. 5, 11, ipse me Regulus convenit in praetoris officio ; Spart., Hadr. 9, 7. were not given, and many similar matters, which are not in accordance with the principles of history; for it is wont to detail the high lights of events, not to ferret out the trifling details of unimportant matters. For whoever wishes to know these may hope to be able to count the small indivisible bodies which fly through space, and to which we give the name of atoms. 26.3.1. While the changing lots of the fates were unfolding these events in the Orient, Apronianus, prefect of the eternal city, a just and strict official, among urgent cares with which that office is often burdened, made it his first main effort that the sorcerers, who at that time were becoming few in number, should be arrested, and that those who, after having been put to the question, were clearly convicted of having harmed anybody, after naming their accomplices, should be punished with death; and that thus through the danger to a few, the remainder, if any were still in concealment, might be driven away through dread of a similar fate. 26.10.15. While that usurper Procopius. of whose many deeds and his death we have told, still survived, on the twenty-first of July in the first consulship of Valentinian with his brother, 365. horrible phenomena suddenly spread through the entire extent of the world, such as are related to us neither in fable nor in truthful history. 26.10.16. For a little after daybreak, preceded by heavy and repeated thunder and lightning, the whole of the firm and solid earth was shaken and trembled, the sea with its rolling waves was driven back and withdrew from the land, so that in the abyss of the deep thus revealed men saw many kinds of sea-creatures stuck fast in the slime; and vast mountains and deep valleys, which Nature, the creator, had hidden in the unplumbed depths, then, as one might well believe, first saw the beams of the sun. 26.10.17. Hence, many ships were stranded as if on dry land, and since many men roamed about without fear in the little that remained of the waters, to gather fish and similar things E.g. shells. with their hands, the roaring sea, resenting, as it were, this forced retreat, rose in its turn; and over the boiling shoals it dashed mightily upon islands and broad stretches of the mainland, and levelled innumerable buildings in the cities and wherever else they were found; so that amid the mad discord of the elements the altered face of the earth revealed marvellous sights. 26.10.18. For the great mass of waters, returning when it was least expected, killed many thousands of men by drowning; and by the swift recoil of the eddying tides a number of ships, after the swelling of the wet element subsided, were seen to have foundered, and the lifeless bodies of shipwrecked persons lay floating on their backs or on their faces. Cf. Pliny, N.H. vii. 77: observatum est. . . virorum cadavera supina fluitare, feminarum prona, velut pudori defunctarum parcente natura. 26.10.19. Other great ships, driven by the mad blasts, landed on the tops of buildings (as happened at Alexandria), and some were driven almost two miles inland, like a Laconian ship which I myself in passing that way saw near the town of Mothone, Called Methone by Thucydides, ii. 25. It was in the southern part of Messenia. There was another Methone in Magnesia. yawning Cf. Virg., Aen. i. 123, rimisque fatiscunt. apart through long decay. 28.1.36. Through these and other equally lamentable crimes, which were a blot on the fair aspect of the Eternal City, this man, to be named only with groans, made his violent way over the ruins of many fortunes, passing beyond the limits afforded by the courts. For he is said to have had a cord hanging from a secluded window of his palace, the lower end of which could pick up certain seemingly incriminating charges, supported, it is true, by no evidence, but nevertheless likely to injure many innocent persons. The text is very uncertain, and probably corrupt; see the crit. note. The general meaning is clear. And sometimes he ordered Mucianus and Barbarus, his attendants, who were most skilled in deception, severally to be cast out of his house. |
|
