1. Ammianus Marcellinus, History, 18.3.1, 18.3.7, 19.12.14, 19.12.19, 20.11.32, 21.1.6-21.1.14, 21.14.3, 21.14.5, 21.16.21, 22.16.17, 23.5.5, 24.8.4, 25.2.8, 25.3.19, 25.4.17, 26.3.1, 26.3.3-26.3.4, 26.10.17-26.10.19, 27.6.15, 28.1.7, 28.1.15-28.1.16, 28.1.28, 28.1.36, 28.1.42, 28.4.26, 29.1.29, 29.1.32, 29.2.6, 29.2.17, 29.2.22, 30.5.11 (4th cent. CE - 4th cent. CE)
| 18.3.1. While in Gaul the providence of Heaven was reforming these abuses, in the court of Augustus a tempest of sedition arose, which from small beginnings proceeded to grief and lamentation. In the house of Barbatio, then commander of the infantry forces, bees made a conspicuous swarm; and when he anxiously consulted men skilled in prodigies about this, they replied that it portended great danger, 1 This was not always true. Cf. Pliny, N. H. xi. 55 ff.: Tunc (apes) ostenta faciunt privata ac publica, uva dependente in domibus templisque, saepe expiata magnis eventibus. Sedere in ore infantis turn etiam Platonis, suavitatem illam praedulcis eloqui portendentes. Sedere in castris Drusi imperatoris cum prosperrime pugnatum apud Arbalonem est, haud quaquam perpetua haruspicum coniectura, qui dirum id ostentum existimant semper. obviously inferring this from the belief, that when these insects have made their homes and gathered their treasures, they are only driven out by smoke and the wild clashing of cymbals. 18.3.7. He surely was unaware of the wise saying of Aristotle of old, who, on sending his disciple and relative Callisthenes to King Alexander, charged him repeatedly to speak as seldom and as pleasantly as possible in the presence of a man who had at the tip of his tongue the power of life and death. 19.12.14. For if anyone wore on his neck an amulet against the quartan ague or any other complaint, or was accused by the testimony of the evil-disposed of passing by a grave in the evening, on the ground that he was a dealer in poisons, or a gatherer of the horrors of tombs and the vain illusions of the ghosts that walk there, he was condemned to capital punishment and so perished. 19.12.19. At that same time in Daphne, that charming and magnificent suburb of Antioch, a portent was born, horrible to see and to report: an infant, namely, with two heads, two sets of teeth, a beard, four eyes and two very small ears; and this misshapen birth foretold that the state was turning into a deformed condition. 20.11.32. Therefore abandoning his fruitless attempt, he returned to Syria, purposing to winter in Antioch, having suffered severely and grievously; for the losses which the Persians had inflicted upon him were not slight but terrible and long to be lamented. For it had happened, as if some fateful constellation so controlled the several events, that when Constantius in person warred with the Persians, adverse fortune always attended him. Therefore he wished to conquer at least through his generals, which, as we recall, did sometimes happen. 21.1.6. Moreover, now that Gaul was quieted, his desire of first attacking Constantius was sharpened and fired, since he inferred from many prophetic signs (in which he was an adept) and from dreams, that Constantius would shortly depart from life. 21.1.7. And since to an emperor both learned and devoted to all knowledge malicious folk attribute evil arts for divining future events, we must briefly consider how this important kind of learning also may form part of a philosopher’s equipment. 21.1.8. The spirit pervading all the elements, seeing that they are eternal bodies, is always and everywhere strong in the power of prescience, and as the result of the knowledge which we acquire through varied studies makes us also sharers in the gifts of divina- tion; and the elemental powers, Demons, in the Greek sense of the word δαίμονες; of. xiv. 11, 25, substantialis tutela. when propitiated by divers rites, supply mortals with words of prophecy, as if from the veins of inexhaustible founts. These prophecies are said to be under the control of the divine Themis, so named because she reveals in advance decrees determined for the future by the law of the fates, which the Greeks call τεθειμένα; Things fixed and immutable. and therefore the ancient theologians gave her a share in the bed and throne of Jupiter, the life-giving power. 21.1.9. Auguries and auspices are not gained from the will of the fowls of the air which have no knowledge of future events (for that not even a fool will maintain), but a god so directs the flight of birds that the sound of their bills or the passing flight of their wings in disturbed or in gentle passage foretells future events. For the goodness of the deity, either because men deserve it, or moved by his affection for them, loves by these arts also to reveal impending events. 21.1.10. Those, too, who give attention to the prophetic entrails of beasts, which are wont to assume innumerable forms, know of impending events. And the teacher of this branch of learning is one named Tages, who (as the story goes) was seen suddenly to spring from the earth in the regions of Etruria. See xvii. 10, 2, note. 21.1.11. Future events are further revealed when men’s hearts are in commotion, but speak divine words. For (as the natural philosophers say) the Sun, the soul of the universe, sending out our minds from himself after the manner of sparks, when he has fired men mightily, makes them aware of the future. And it is for this reason that the Sibyls often say that they are burning, since they are fired by the mighty power of the flames. Besides these, the loud sounds of voices give many signs, as well as the phenomena which meet our eyes, thunder even and lightning, and the gleam of a star’s train of light. 21.1.12. The faith in dreams, too, would be sure and indubitable, were it not that their interpreters are sometimes deceived in their conjectures. And dreams (as Aristotle declares) are certain and trustworthy, when the person is in a deep sleep and the pupil of his eye is inclined to neither side but looks directly forward. 21.1.13. And because the silly commons oftentimes object, ignorantly muttering such things as these: If there were a science of prophecy, why did one man not know that he would fall in battle, or another that he would suffer this or that : it will be enough to say, that a grammarian has sometimes spoken ungrammatically, a musician sung out of tune, and a physician been ignorant of a remedy, but for all that grammar, music, and the medical art have not come to a stop. 21.1.14. Wherefore Cicero has this fine saying, among others: The gods, says he, show signs of coming events. With regard to these if one err, it is not the nature of the gods that is at fault, but man’s interpretation. Cic., De Nat. Deorum, ii. 4, 12; De Div. i. 52, 118. Therefore, that my discourse may not run beyond the mark (as the saying is) and weary my future reader, let us return and unfold the events that were foreseen. 21.14.3. For the theologians maintain that there are associated with all men at their birth, but without interference with the established course of destiny, certain divinities of that sort, as directors of their conduct; but they have been seen by only a very few, whom their manifold merits have raised to eminence. 21.14.5. Likewise from the immortal poems of Homer Perhaps Iliad, i. 503 ff. we are given to understand that it was not the gods of heaven that spoke with brave men, and stood by them or aided them as they fought, but that guardian spirits attended them; and through reliance upon their special support, it is said, that Pythagoras, Socrates, and Numa Pompilius Referring to the nymph Egeria; cf. Livy, i. 19, 5. became famous; also the earlier Scipio, Africanus, the conqueror of Hannibal. and (as some believe) Marius and Octavianus, who first had the title of Augustus conferred upon him, and Hermes Trismegistus, A surname of the Egyptian Hermes. Here the refer- ence is apparently to a writer of the second century, who under that name tried to revive the old Egyptian, Pythagorean, and Platonic ideas. Apollonius of Tyana, The famous magician of the first century B.C., whose biography was written by Philostratus. and Plotinus, An eclectic philosopher of the third century, whose views entitled τερὶ τοῦ εἰληχότος ἡμᾶς δαίμονος have come down to us (Plot. En., iii, 4). who ventured to discourse on this mystic theme, and to present a profound discussion of the question by what elements these spirits are linked with men’s souls, and taking them to their bosoms, as it were, protect them (as long as possible) and give them higher instruction, if they perceive that they are pure and kept from the pollution of sin through association with an immaculate body. 21.16.21. And as he sat in the carriage that bore the remains, samples of the soldiers’ rations ( probae, as they themselves call them) were presented to him, as they commonly are to emperors, The emperors took pains to see that the soldiers were well fed. Cf. Spartianus, Hadr. 11, 1; Lampridius, Alex. Sev. xv. 5. and the public courier-horses were shown to him, and the people thronged about him in the customary manner. These and similar things foretold imperial power for the said Jovianus, but of an empty and shadowy kind, since he was merely the director of a funeral procession. 22.16.17. And although very many writers flourished in early times as well as these whom I have mentioned, nevertheless not even to-day is learning of various kinds silent in that same city; for the teachers of the arts show signs of life, and the geometrical measuring-rod brings to light whatever is concealed, the stream of music is not yet wholly dried up among them, harmony is not reduced to silence, the consideration of the motion of the universe and of the stars is still kept warm with some, few though they be, and there are others who are skilled in numbers; and a few besides are versed in the knowledge which reveals the course of the fates. 23.5.5. But the emperor, disregarding his cautious counsellor, pushed confidently on, since no human power or virtue has ever been great enough to turn aside what the decrees of fate had ordained. Immediately upon crossing the bridge he ordered it to be destroyed, so that no soldier in his own army might entertain hope of a return. 24.8.4. And since human wisdom availed nothing, after long wavering and hesitation we built altars and slew victims, in order to learn the purpose of the gods, whether they advised us to return through Assyria, or to march slowly along the foot of the mountains and unexpectedly lay waste Chiliocomum, situated near Corduena; but on inspection of the organs it was announced that neither course would suit the signs. 25.2.8. When the emperor scorned this also, as well as many other signs, the soothsayers begged that at least he would put off his departure for some hours; but even this they could not gain, since the emperor was opposed to the whole science of divination, I.e. when it opposed his plans. As Montaigne (Book II, ch. 19) rightly says, he was besotted with the art of divination cf. xxii. 1, 1; xxiii. 3, 3; xxv. 4, 17. but since day had now dawned, camp was broken. 25.3.19. And I shall not be ashamed to admit, that I learned long ago through the words of a trustworthy prophecy, that I should perish by the sword. And therefore I thank the eternal power that I meet my end, not from secret plots, nor from the pain of a tedious illness, nor by the fate of a criminal, but that in the mid-career of glorious renown I have been found worthy of so noble a departure from this world. For he is justly regarded as equally weak and cowardly who desires to die when he ought not, or he who seeks to avoid death when his time has come. 25.4.17. He was somewhat talkative, and very seldom silent; also too much given to the consideration of omens and portents, so that in this respect he seemed to equal the emperor Hadrian. Superstitious rather than truly religious, he sacrificed innumerable victims without regard to cost, so that one might believe that if he had returned from the Parthians, there would soon have been a scarcity of cattle; like the Caesar Marcus, Marcus Aurelius. of whom (as we learn) the following Greek distich was written: We the white steers do Marcus Caesar greet. Win once again, and death we all must meet. 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. 26.3.3. Finally, after many punishments of the kind, a charioteer Such men used poison and magic against the horses of their rivals; cf. xxviii. 1, 27; 4, 25. called Hilarinus was convicted on his own confession of having entrusted his son, who had barely reached the age of puberty, to a mixer of poisons to be instructed in certain secret practices forbidden by law, in order to use his help at home without other witnesses; and he was condemned to death. But since the executioner was lax in guarding him, the man suddenly escaped and took refuge in a chapel of the Christian sect; however, he was at once dragged from there and beheaded. 26.3.4. But efforts were still made to check these and similar offences, and none, or at any rate very few, who were engaged in such abominations defied the public diligence. But later, long-continued impunity nourished these monstrous offences, and lawlessness went so far that a certain senator followed the example of Hilarinus, and was convicted of having apprenticed a slave of his almost by a written contract to a teacher of evil practices to be initiated into criminal secrets; but he bought escape from the death penalty, as current gossip asserted, for a large sum of money. 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. 27.6.15. After this, all rose up to praise the elder and the younger emperor, and especially the boy, who was recommended by the fierier gleam of his eyes, the delightful charm of his face and his whole body, and the noble nature of his heart; these qualities would have completed an emperor fit to be compared with the choicest rulers of the olden time, had this been allowed by the fates and by his intimates, who, by evil actions, cast a cloud over his virtue, which was even then not firmly steadfast. 28.1.7. First, because the prophecies of his father were still warm Cf. xxii. 12, 2; xxii. 16, 17. in his ears, a man exceedingly skilful in interpreting omens from the flight or the notes of birds, who declared he would attain to high power, but would die by the sword of the executioner; secondly, because he had got hold of a man from Sardinia who was highly skilled in calling up baneful spirits and eliciting predictions from the ghosts of the dead. This man he himself afterwards put to death, so the rumour went, in a treacherous fashion,—so long as he survived, Maximinus was more yielding and mild, for fear that he might be betrayed—finally, because while creeping through low places like a serpent under ground I.e., while holding offices of minor importance. he could not yet stir up causes for death on a larger scale. 28.1.15. And since I think that perchance some of my readers by careful examination may note and bring it against me as a reproach that this, and not that, happened first, or that those things which they themselves saw are passed over, I must satisfy them to this extent: that not everything which has taken place among persons of the lowest class is worth narrating; and if this were necessary to be done, even the arrays of facts to be gained from the public records themselves would not suffice, when there was such a general fever of evils, and a new and unbridled madness was mingling the highest with the lowest; for it was clearly evident that it was not a judicial trial which was to be feared, but a suspension of legal proceedings. One of Ammianus’ few word-plays; but see Blomgren, pp. 128 ff. 28.1.16. Then Cethegus, a senator, was accused of adultery and beheaded, Alypius, a young man of noble birth, was banished for a trifling fault, and others of lower rank were publicly put to death; and every one, seeing in their unhappy fate the picture (as it were) of his own danger, dreamt of the torturer and of fetters and lodgings of darkness. 28.1.28. Not even women were more immune from similar calamities. For many of high birth belonging to this sex too were charged with the disgrace of adultery or of fornication, and put to death. Conspicuous among these were Charitas and Flaviana, of whom the latter, when she was led to death, was stripped of the clothing which she wore, being allowed not even to keep sufficient covering for the secret parts of her body. But for that reason the executioner was convicted of having committed a monstrous crime, and was burned alive. 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. 28.1.42. At that time, or not much earlier, the brooms with which the assembly-hall of the nobles was swept were seen to bloom, and this was an omen that some men of the most despised station would be raised to high rank in the offices of state. 28.4.26. In another place a wife by hammering day and night on the same anvil—as the old proverb has it Cf. Cic., De Orat. ii. 39, 162, and xviii. 4, 2. —drives her husband to make a will, and the husband insistently urges his wife to do the same. Skilled jurists are brought in on both sides, one in a bedroom, the other, his rival, in the dining-room to discuss disputed points. These are joined by opposing interpreters of horoscopes, Cf. Lucian, Dial. Mort., 11, 1. on the one side making profuse promises of prefectures and the burial of rich matrons, on the other telling women that for their husbands’ funerals now quietly approaching they must make the necessary preparations. And a maid-servant bears witness, by nature somewhat pale,. . . The rest of this sentence seems hopelessly corrupt and unintelligible. As Cicero says: De Amic. 21, 79. They know of nothing on earth that is good unless it brings gain. of their friends, as of their cattle, they love those best from whom they hope to get the greatest profit. 29.1.29. O most honoured judges, we constructed from laurel twigs under dire auspices this unlucky little table which you see, in the likeness of the Delphic tripod, and having duly consecrated it by secret incantations, after many long-continued rehearsals we at length made it work. Now the manner of its working, whenever it was consulted about hidden matters, was as follows. 29.1.32. When we then and there inquired, what man will succeed the present emperor ?, since it was said that he would be perfect in every particular, and the ring leaped forward and lightly touched the two syllables θεο, adding the next letter, of the name, i.e. δ. The prediction would apply equally well to Theodosius, who actually succeeded Valens. then one of those present cried out that by the decision of inevitable fate Theodorus was meant. And there was no further investigation of the matter; for it was agreed among us that he was the man who was sought. 29.2.6. Amid the crash of so many ruins Heliodorus, that hellish contriver with Palladius of all evils, being a mathematician I.e., an astrologer, a caster of nativities. (in the parlance of the vulgar) and pledged by secret instructions from the imperial court, after he had been cajoled by every enticement of kindness to induce him to reveal what he knew or could invent, now put forth his deadly stings. 29.2.17. At the time Valens added this also to the rest of his glories, that while in other instances he was so savagely cruel as to grieve that the great pain of his punishments could not continue after death, ferret . . . dolores, hexameter rhythm. yet he spared the tribune Numerius, a man of surpassing wickedness! This man was convicted at that same time on his own confession of having dared to cut open the womb of a living woman and take out her unripe offspring, in order to evoke the ghosts of the dead and consult them about a change of rulers; yet Valens, who looked on him with the eye of an intimate friend, in spite of the murmurs of the whole Senate gave orders that he should escape unpunished, and retain his life, his enviable wealth, and his military rank unimpaired. 29.2.22. A certain Festinus of Tridentum, a man of the lowest and most obscure parentage, was admitted by Maximinus Cf. xxviii. 1, 5 ff. even into the ties of affection which true brothers show, for he had been his boon companion and with him had assumed the manly gown. By decree of the fates this man passed over to the Orient, and there in the administration of Syria, and after serving as master of the rolls, Cf. xv. 5, 4, note 3. he left behind him praiseworthy examples of mildness and of respect for law; and when later he was advanced to the governorship of Asia with proconsular authority, he sailed to glory with a fair wind, as the saying is. 30.5.11. And so the emperor remained at Carnuntum, where throughout the entire three summer months he was preparing arms and supplies, intending, if in anyway fortune favoured, to find opportunity to attack the Quadi, the instigators of the terrible uprising. It was in that town that Faustinus, nephew of Viventius, See xxvii. 3, 11. He succeeded Florentius in Gaul. the praetorian prefect, when serving as a state-secretary, after an investigation conducted by Probus, was first tortured and then put to death by the hand of the executioner. The charge was that he had killed an ass, as some of his accusers alleged, for use in secret arts, but as he himself declared, to strengthen the weakness of his hair, which was falling out. For this meaning of fluentium, cf. Celsus, vi. 1; fluor capillorum, Seren. Samm. 6; and on remedies from asses, Plin., N.H. xxviii. 180; cf. xxix. 106. |
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