4. Ammianus Marcellinus, History, 14.9.6, 14.11.12, 14.11.24-14.11.26, 15.5.37, 17.1.16, 17.9.4, 17.11.5, 17.12.17-17.12.21, 18.4.5, 19.2.1, 19.10.4, 19.12.9, 19.12.16, 19.12.20, 20.8.11, 20.11.32, 21.1.8, 21.12.19, 21.13.11, 21.13.13, 21.13.15, 21.15.2, 21.16.11, 21.16.21, 22.3.7, 22.3.12, 22.10.6, 22.16.17, 23.1.2-23.1.3, 23.1.7, 23.5.4-23.5.5, 23.5.9, 23.5.17, 23.5.23, 24.4.23, 24.8.4-24.8.5, 25.3.6, 25.3.9, 25.3.19, 25.4.1, 25.4.8, 25.4.19, 25.5.7, 25.9.2, 25.10.11-25.10.12, 26.4.1, 26.6.7, 26.6.9, 26.7.13, 26.9.10, 26.10.2, 26.10.9-26.10.12, 27.5.10, 27.6.15, 28.1.57, 28.4.22, 28.6.1, 28.6.25, 29.1.6-29.1.7, 29.1.15-29.1.16, 29.1.18, 29.1.27-29.1.42, 29.2.2, 29.2.4-29.2.18, 29.2.20-29.2.22, 29.6.7, 30.2.9, 30.5.15, 31.1.1-31.1.3, 31.14.2-31.14.3, 31.14.6, 31.15.7 (4th cent. CE - 4th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •fatum, in ammianus Found in books: Davies (2004) 271, 272, 273, 274, 275, 276, 277, 278, 279, 280, 281, 282 | 14.9.6. And when, being acquainted with the law, he persistently called for his accuser and the usual formalities, Caesar, being informed of his demand and regarding his freedom of speech as arrogance, ordered that he be tortured as a reckless traducer. And when he had been so disembowelled that he had no parts left to torture, calling on Heaven for justice and smiling sardonically, he remained unshaken, with stout heart, neither deigning to accuse himself nor anyone else; and at last, without having admitted his guilt or been convicted, he was condemned to death along with his abject associate. And he was led off to execution unafraid, railing at the wickedness of the times and imitating the ancient stoic Zeno, who, after being tortured for a long time, to induce him to give false witness, tore his tongue from its roots and hurled it with its blood and spittle into the eyes of the king of Cyprus, who was putting him to the question. 14.11.12. And since, when the fates lay hands upon men, their senses are apt to be dulled and blunted, Gallus was roused by these blandishments to the hope of a better destiny, and leaving Antioch under the lead of an unpropitious power, he proceeded to go straight from the smoke into the fire, as the old proverb has it; and entering Constantinople as if in the height of prosperity and security, he exhibited horse-races and crowned Thorax the charioteer as victor. 14.11.24. But the justice of the heavenly power was everywhere watchful; for not only did his cruel deeds prove the ruin of Gallus, but not long afterwards a painful death overtook both of those whose false blandishments and perjuries led him, guilty though he was, into the snares of destruction. of these Scudilo, because of an abscess of the liver, Augustus was cured of this disease by Antonius Musa (Suet., Aug. 81, 1). vomited up his lungs and so died; Barbatio, who for a long time had invented false accusations against Gallus, charged by the whispers of certain men of aiming higher than the mastership of the infantry, was found guilty and by an unwept end made atonement to the shades of the Caesar, whom he had treacherously done to death. 14.11.25. These and innumerable other instances of the kind are sometimes (and would that it were always so!) the work of Adrastia, See Index. the chastiser of evil deeds and the rewarder of good actions, whom we also call by the second name of Nemesis. She is, as it were, the sublime jurisdiction of an efficient divine power, dwelling, as men think, above the orbit of the moon; or as others define her, an actual guardian presiding with universal sway over the destinies of individual men. The ancient theologians, regarding her as the daughter of Justice, say that from an unknown eternity she looks down upon all the creatures of earth. 14.11.26. She, as queen of causes and arbiter and judge Cf. Cic., Acad. ii. 28, 91, veri etfalsi quasi disceptatricem et iudicem. of events, controls the urn with its lots and causes the changes of fortune, Cf. Ovid, Metam. xv. 409, alternare vices. and sometimes she gives our plans a different result than that at which we aimed, changing and confounding many actions. She too, binding the vainly swelling pride of mortals with the indissoluble bond of fate, and tilting changeably, as she knows how to do, the balance of gain and loss, now bends and weakens the uplifted necks of the proud, and now, raising the good from the lowest estate, lifts them to a happy life. Moreover, the storied past has given her wings in order that she might be thought to come to all with swift speed; and it has given her a helm to hold and has put a wheel beneath her feet, in order that none may fail to know that she runs through all the elements and rules the universe. With this description cf. that of Fortune in Pacuvius, inc. xiv., Ribbeck (p. 144), and Horace, Odes , i. 34. 15.5.37. After this turn of affairs, Constantius, as one that now touched the skies with his head and would control all human chances, was puffed up by the grandiloquence of his flatterers, whose number he himself increased by scorning and rejecting those who were not adepts in that line; as we read of Croesus, Cf. Herodotus, i. 33. that he drove Solon headlong out of his kingdom for the reason that he did not know how to flatter; and of Dionysius, that he threatened the poet Philoxenus Cf. Diod. Sic. xv. 6, and see Index. with death, because when the tyrant was reading aloud his own silly and unrythmical verses, and every one else applauded, the poet alone listened unmoved. 17.9.4. Where are we being dragged, robbed of the hope of a better lot? We have long endured hardships of the bitterest kind to bear, in the midst of snows and the pinch of cruel frosts; but now (Oh shameful indignity!), when we are pressing on to the final destruction of the enemy it is by hunger, the most despicable form of death, that we are wasting away. 17.11.5. While these things were thus happening, at Rome Artemius, who held the office of vice-prefect, also succeeded Bassus, Junius Bassus died in 359; according to Prudentius, contra Symm. i. 559, he was the first of his family to become a Christian. who a short time after he had been promoted to be prefect of the city had died a natural death. His administration suffered from mutinous disturbances, but had no remarkable incident which is worth relating. 17.12.17. These affairs once set in order, his attention was turned to the Sarmatians, who were deserving rather of pity than of anger; and to them this situation brought an incredible degree of prosperity; so that the opinion of some might well be deemed true, that fortune is either mastered or made by the power of a prince. 17.12.18. The natives of this realm were once powerful and noble, but a secret conspiracy armed their slaves for rebellion; and since with savages all right is commonly might, they vanquished their masters, being their equals in courage and far superior in number. 17.12.19. The defeated, since fear prevented deliberation, fled to the Victohali, Since Julius Capitolinus, Ant. Phil. xiv. 1, mentions them in connection with the Marcomanni, they probably lived in the region of Bohemia. who dwelt afar off, thinking that to submit to protectors (considering their evil plight) was preferable to serving slaves. Bewailing this situation, after they had gained pardon and been assured of protection they asked that their freedom be guaranteed; whereupon the emperor, deeply moved by the injustice of their condition, in the presence of the whole army called them together, and addressing them in gracious terms, bade them yield obedience to none save himself and the Roman generals. 17.12.20. And to give their restoration to freedom an increase of dignity, he set over them as their king Zizais, See p. 373, above. a man even then surely suited for the honours of a conspicuous fortune and (as the result showed) loyal; but no one was allowed, after these glorious achievements, to leave the place, until (as had been agreed) the Roman prisoners should come back. 17.12.21. After these achievements in the savages’ country, the camp was moved to Bregetio, Apparently Flecken Szöny in Hungary, not far from Komorn. to the end that there also tears or blood might quench what was left of the war of the Quadi, who were astir in those regions. Then their prince Vitrodorus, son of King Viduarius, and Agilimundus, his vassal, along with other nobles and officials For this meaning of iudices see Index of officials, s.v. governing various nations, seeing the army in the heart of their kingdom and native soil, prostrated themselves before the marching soldiers, and having gained pardon, did what was ordered, giving their children as hostages by way of pledge that they would fulfil the conditions imposed upon them. Then, drawing their swords, which they venerate as gods, they swore that they would remain loyal. 18.4.5. Through disgust with these and their kind, I take pleasure in praising Domitian of old, for although, unlike his father and his brother, he drenched the memory of his name with indelible detestation, yet he won distinction by a most highly approved law, by which he had under heavy penalties forbidden anyone within the bounds of the Roman jurisdiction to geld a boy; Suetonius, Dom. vii. for if this had not happened, who could endure the swarms of those whose small number is with difficulty tolerated? 19.2.1. After the body had been burned and the ashes collected and placed in a silver urn, since the father had decided that they should be taken to his native land to be consigned to the earth, they debated what it was best to do; and it was resolved to propitiate the spirit of the slain youth by burning That is, the burned city should take the place of the bustum where his body was burned; see A.J.P. liv. pp. 362f. and destroying the city; for Grumbates would not allow them to go farther while the shade of his only son was unavenged. 19.10.4. And presently by the will of the divine power that gave increase to Rome from its cradle and promised that it should last forever, while Tertullus was sacrificing in the temple of Castor and Pollux at Ostia, a calm smoothed the sea, the wind changed to a gentle southern breeze, and the ships entered the harbour under full sail and again crammed the storehouses with grain. 19.12.9. Among the first, then, to be summoned was Simplicius, son of Philippus, a former prefect and consul, who was indicted for the reason that he had (as was said) inquired about gaining imperial power; and by a note On elogium, see p. 31, note 3. of the emperor, who in such cases never condoned a fault or an error because of loyal service, he was ordered to be tortured; but, protected by some fate, he was banished to a stated place, According to Marcianus, Digest , xlviii. 22, 5, there were three kinds of exile; exclusion from certain places specifically named ( liberum exsilium ); confinement to a designated place ( lata fuga ); banishment to an island ( insulae vinculum ). but with a whole skin. 19.12.16. Therefore the palace band of courtiers, ingeniously fabricating shameful devices of flattery, declared that he would be immune to ordinary ills, loudly exclaiming that his destiny had appeared at all times powerful and effective in destroying those who made attempts against him. 19.12.20. Portents of this kind often see the light, as indications of the outcome of various affairs; but as they are not expiated by public rites, as they were in the time of our forefathers, they pass by unheard of and unknown. 20.8.11. This is a full account of what took place, and I pray that you will receive it in a spirit of peace. Do not suspect that anything different was done, or listen to malicious and pernicious whisperers, whose habit it is to excite dissension between princes for their own profit; but rejecting flattery, the nurse of vices, turn to justice, the most excellent of all virtues, and accept in good faith the fair conditions which I propose, convincing yourself that this is to the advantage of the rule of Rome Cf. Cic. De Rep. I. 49. as well as to ourselves, who are united by the tie of blood and by our lofty position. 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. 21.1.8. 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. 21.12.19. When this was heard, the gates were opened, and after their long torment all poured forth and gladly met the peace-making general. Trying to excuse themselves, they presented Nigrinus as the author of the whole outrage, along with a few others, asking that by the execution of these men the crime of treason and the woes of their city might be expiated. 21.13.11. At the time when Magnentius, whom your valorous deeds overthrew, was obstinately bent upon making general confusion in the state, I raised my cousin Gallus to the high rank of Caesar and sent him to defend the Orient. When he by many deeds abominable to witness and to rehearse had forsaken the path of justice, he was punished by the laws’ decree. 21.13.13. Julian, to whom we entrusted the defence of Gaul while you were fighting the foreign nations that raged around Illyricum, presuming upon some trivial battles which he fought with the half-armed Germans, exulting like a madman, has involved in his ambitious cabal a few auxiliaries, whom their savagery and hopeless condition made ready for a destructive act of recklessness; and he has conspired for the hurt of the state, treading under foot Justice, the mother and nurse of the Roman world, who, as I readily believe from experience and from the lessons of the past, will in the end, as the punisher of evil deeds, take vengeance on them, and will blow away their proud spirits like ashes. 21.13.15. For, as my mind presages, and as Justice promises, who will aid right purposes, I give you my word that, when we come hand to hand, they will be so benumbed with terror as to be able to endure neither the flashing light of your eyes nor the first sound of your battle-cry. 21.15.2. When autumn was already waning he began his march, and on coming to a suburban estate called Hippocephalus, distant three miles from the city, he saw in broad daylight on the right side of the road the corpse of a man with head torn off, lying stretched out towards the west. The omen seems to consist, in part at least, in the position of the body, stretched out towards the setting Terrified by the omen, although the fates were preparing his end, he kept on with the greater determination and arrived at Tarsus. There he was taken with a slight fever, but in the expectation of being able to throw off the danger of his illness by the motion of the journey he kept on over difficult roads to Mobsucrenae, the last station of Cilicia as you go from here, situated at the foot of Mount Taurus; but when he tried to start again on the following day, he was detained by the increasing severity of the disease. Gradually the extreme heat of the fever so inflamed his veins that his body could not even be touched, since it burned like a furnace; and when the application of remedies proved useless, as he breathed his last he lamented his end. However, while his mind was still unimpaired he is said to have designated Julian as the successor to the throne. 21.16.11. And in such affairs he showed deadly enmity to justice, although he made a special effort to be considered just and merciful. And as sparks flying from a dry forest even with a light breeze of wind come with irresistible course and bring danger to rural villages, so he also from trivial causes roused up a mass of evils, unlike that revered prince Marcus, Marcus Aurelius. who, when Cassius had mounted to imperial heights in Syria, and a packet of letters sent by him to his accomplices had fallen into the emperor’s hands through the capture of their bearer, at once ordered it to be burned unopened, in order that, being at the time still in Illyricum, he might not know who were plotting against him, and hence be forced to hate some men against his will. Cf. Dio, lxii. 26, 38. 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. 22.3.7. In like manner Euagrius, count of the privy purse, and Saturninus, former steward of the Household, and Cyrinus, a former secretary, were all exiled. But for the death of Ursulus, count of the sacred largesses, Justice herself seems to me to have wept, and to have accused the emperor of ingratitude. For when Julian was sent as Caesar to the western regions, to be treated with extreme niggardliness, being granted no power of making any donative to the soldiers to the end that he might be exposed to more serious mutinies of the army, this very Ursulus wrote to the man in charge of the Gallic treasury, ordering that whatever the Caesar asked for should be given him without hesitation. 22.3.12. Eusebius besides, who had been made Constantius’ grand chamberlain, a man full of pride and cruelty, was condemned to death by the judges. This man, who had been raised from the lowest station to a position which enabled him almost to give orders like those of the emperor himself, See xviii. 4, 3, and Introd., p. xxxvi. and in consequence had become intolerable, Adrastia, the judge of human acts, Cf. xiv. 11, 25. had plucked by the ear (as the saying is) and warned him to live with more restraint; and when he demurred, she threw him headlong, as if from a lofty cliff. 22.10.6. And these and similar instances led to the belief, as he himself constantly affirmed, that the old goddess of Justice, Astraea, who left the earth in the iron age; cf. Ovid, Metam. i. 150 f., Victa iacet pietas et virgo caede madentes Ultima caelestum terras Astraea reliquit. whom Aratus takes up to heaven That is, was represented by Aratus, a Greek poet of Soli in Cilicia ( circ. 276 B.C.), as leaving the earth; of. Aratus, 130, καὶ τότε μισήσασα δίκη κείνων γένος ἀνδρῶν ἔπταθ᾽ ὑπουρανίη : Cic., Arat. Phaen. 137 ff. (lines 1, 3 and 4 in the supplement of Grotius): Tune, mortale exosa genus, dea in alta volavit Et Iovis in regno caelique in parte resedit, Illustrem sortita locum, qua nocte serena Virgo conspicuo fulget vicina Boötae. because she was displeased with the vices of mankind, had returned to earth during his reign, were it not that sometimes Julian followed his own inclination rather than the demands of the laws, and by occasionally erring clouded the many glories of his career. 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. 23.1.2. And although he weighed every possible variety of events with anxious thought, and pushed on with burning zeal the many preparations for his campaign, yet turning his activity to every part, and eager to extend the memory of his reign by great works, he planned at vast cost to restore the once splendid temple at Jerusalem, which after many mortal combats during the siege by Vespasian and later by Titus, had barely been stormed. He had entrusted the speedy performance of this work to Alypius of Antioch, who had once been vice-prefect of Britain. 23.1.3. But, though this Alypius pushed the work on with vigour, aided by the governor of the province, terrifying balls of flame kept bursting forth near the foundations of the temple, and made the place inaccessible to the workmen, some of whom were burned to death; and since in this way the element persistently repelled them, the enterprise halted. 23.1.7. Besides these, other lesser signs also indicated from time to time what came to pass. For amid the very beginning of the preparations for the Parthian campaign word came that Constantinople had been shaken by an earthquake, which those skilled in such matters said was not a favourable omen for a ruler who was planning to invade another’s territory. And so they tried to dissuade Julian from the untimely enterprise, declaring that these and similar signs ought to be disregarded only in the case of attack by an enemy, when the one fixed rule is, to defend the safety of the State by every possible means and with unremitting effort. Just at that time it was reported to him by letter, that at Rome the Sibylline books had been consulted about this war, as he had ordered, and had given the definite reply that the emperor must not that year leave his frontiers. 23.5.4. But while Julian was lingering at Cercusium, to the end that his army with all its followers might cross the Abora on a bridge of boats, he received a sorrowful letter from Sallustius, prefect of Gaul, begging that the campaign against the Parthians might be put off, and that Julian should not thus prematurely, without having yet prayed for the protection of the gods, expose himself to inevitable destruction. 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. 23.5.9. And, in fact, we read of other ambiguous oracles, the meaning of which only the final results determined: as, for example, the truth of the Delphic prediction which declared that Croesus, after crossing the river Halys, would overthrow a mighty kingdom; This oracle is often quoted; see Hdt. i. 53, where the envoys announced to Croesus: ἢν στρατεύηται ἐπὶ πέρσας, μεγάλην ἀρχήν μιν καταλύσειν: Cic., Div. ii. 56, 115, Croesus Halyn penetrants magnam pervertet opum vim. and another which in veiled language designated the sea as the place for the Athenians to fight against the Medes; The oracle bade the Greeks defend themselves with wooden walls. In general, see Cic., Div. ii. 26, 56. and a later one than these, which was in fact true, but none the less ambiguous: Aeacus’ son, I say, the Roman people can conquer. Cf. Ennius, Ann. 174, Remains of Old Latin, L.C.L. , i. 23.5.17. But to leave ancient times, I will disclose what recent history has transmitted to us. Trajan, Verus, and Severus returned from here victorious and adorned with trophies, Tropaeati seems to be a word coined by Ammianus. and the younger Gordianus, Emperor from 238-244; see Index I., vol. i., s.v. Gordiani. In 242 he made a campaign against the Per- sians, at first with success; but his troops, incited by Philippus, mutinied and put him to death. whose monument we just now looked upon with reverence, would have come back with equal glory, after vanquishing the Persian king and putting him to flight at Resaina, A town of Osdroëne. had he not been struck down by an impious wound inflicted by the faction of Philippus, the praetorian prefect, and a few wicked accomplices, in the very place where he now lies buried. But his shade did not long wander unavenged, for as if their deeds were weighed in the scales of Justice, all who had conspired against him perished by agonising deaths. Cf. Capit., Gordian. 33, and Suet., Jul. 89, of the as- sassins of Julius Caesar. 23.5.23. Therefore rouse, I pray you, at once rouse your courage, both in the anticipation of great success, since you will undergo whatever difficulty arises on equal terms with me, and with the conviction that victory must always attend the just cause. 24.4.23. When these matters were arranged as had been determined, and the defenders were fully occupied, the mines were opened and Exsuperius, a soldier of a cohort of the Victores, leaped out; next came Magnus, a tribune and Jovianus, a notary, followed by the whole daring band. They first slew those who were found in the room through which they had come into daylight; then advancing on tiptoe they cut down all the watch, who, according to the custom of the race, were loudly praising in song the justice and good fortune of their king. 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. 24.8.5. Nevertheless it was decided, since all hope of anything better was cut off, to seize upon Corduena. Accordingly, on the sixteenth day of June, camp was broken, and the emperor was on his way at break of day, when smoke or a great whirling cloud of dust was seen; so that one was led to think that it was herds of wild asses, of which there is a countless number in those regions, and that they were travelling together so that pressed body to body they might foil the fierce attacks of lions. 25.3.6. Julian, careless of his own safety, shouting and raising his hands tried to make it clear to his men that the enemy had fled in disorder, and, to rouse them to a still more furious pursuit, rushed boldly into the fight. His guards, See Index II., vol. i, s.v. candidati ; cf. xv. 5, 16. who had scattered in their alarm, were crying to him from all sides to get clear of the mass of fugitives, as dangerous as the fall of a badly built roof, when suddenly—no one knows whence Libanius said that he was killed by some Christian in his own army, but some other writers agree with Ammianus. —a cavalryman’s spear grazed the skin of his arm, pierced his ribs, and lodged in the lower lobe of his liver. 25.3.9. But since Julian’s strength was not equal to his will, and he was weakened by great loss of blood, he lay still, having lost all hope for his life because, on inquiry, he learned that the place where he had fallen was called Phrygia. He had been told in a dream that he would die in Phrygia; see Zonaras, xiii. 13, A. For he had heard that it was fate’s decree that he should die there. 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. 25.4.1. He was a man truly to be numbered with the heroic spirits, distinguished for his illustrious deeds and his inborn majesty. For since there are, in the opinion of the philosophers, four principal virtues, Cicero, De off. i. 5, 15. moderation, wisdom, justice, and courage and corresponding to these also some external characteristics, such as knowledge of the art of war, authority, good fortune, and liberality, these as a whole and separately Julian cultivated with constant zeal. 25.4.8. By what high qualities he was distinguished in his administration of justice is clear from many indications: first, because taking into account circumstances and persons, he was awe-inspiring but free from cruelty. Secondly, because he checked vice by making examples of a few, and also because he more frequently threatened men with the sword than actually used it. 25.4.19. But yet, in spite of this, his own saying might be regarded as sound, namely, that the ancient goddess of Justice, whom Aratus Cf. xxii. 10, 6. raised to heaven because of her impatience with men’s sins, returned to earth again during his rule, were it not that sometimes he acted arbitrarily, and now and then seemed unlike himself. 25.5.7. But if any onlooker of strict justice with undue haste blames such a step taken in a moment of extreme danger, he will, with even more justice, reproach sailors, if after the loss of a skilled pilot, amid the raging winds and seas, they committed the guidance of the helm of their ship to any companion in their peril, whoever he might be. 25.9.2. And when all were commanded to leave their homes at once, with tears and outstretched hands they begged that they might not be compelled to depart, declaring that they alone, without aid from the empire in provisions and men, were able to defend their hearths, trusting that Justice herself would, as they had often found, aid them in fighting for their ancestral dwelling-place. But suppliantly as the council and people entreated, all was spoken vainly to the winds, since the emperor (as he pretended, while moved by other fears) did not wish to incur the guilt of perjury. 25.10.11. When the emperor had entered Ancyra, after the necessary arrangements for his procession had been made, so far as the conditions allowed, he assumed the consulship, taking as his colleague in the office his son Varronianus, who was still a small child Previous emperors had had their sons or Caesars declared by the Senate to be of sufficient age for office. This is the first instance of the choice of a minor. ; and his crying and obstinate resistance to being carried, as usual, on the curule chair, were an omen of what presently occurred. 25.10.12. From here also the destined day for ending his life drove Jovian swiftly on. For when he had come to Dadastana, which forms the boundary between Bithynia and Galatia, he was found dead that night. As to his taking-off, many doubtful points have come up. 26.4.1. Now Valentinian was chosen emperor in Bithynia (as we have said before). He gave the signal for the march for the next day but one, and assembling the chief civil and military officials, as if ready to follow safe and sound advice rather than his own inclination, inquired who ought to be chosen as partner in the rule. When all the rest were silent, Dagalaifus, at that time commander of the cavalry, boldly answered: If you love your relatives, most excellent emperor, you have a brother; if it is the state that you love, seek out another man to clothe with the purple. 26.6.7. To the emperor’s cruelty deadly incentive was given by his father-in- law The wife of Valens was Albia Dominica. Petronius, who from the command of the Martensian legion Apparently so named from the Marteni, a people of Babylonia. On the praepositi, see vol. i., Index II. had by a sudden jump been promoted to the rank of patrician. See Introd., vol. i, p. xxviii. He was a man ugly in spirit and in appearance, who, burning with an immoderate longing to strip everyone without distinction, condemned guilty and innocent alike, after exquisite tortures, to fourfold indemnities, looking up debts going back to the time of the emperor Aurelian, He ruled from 270-275. and grieving excessively if he was obliged to let any one escape unscathed. 26.6.9. These lamentable occurrences, which under Valens, aided and abetted by Petronius, closed the houses of the poor and the palaces of the rich in great numbers, added to the fear of a still more dreadful future, sank deeply into the minds of the provincials and of the soldiers, who groaned under similar oppression, and with universal sighs everyone prayed (although darkly and in silence) for a change in the present condition of affairs with the help of the supreme deity. 26.7.13. While these things were thus going on, Valens, shocked by the terrible news and already returning through Galatia, on hearing what had happened at Constantinople advanced with distrust and fear. His sudden terror made him unfit for all ways of precaution, and his spirit had sunk so low that he even thought of casting aside his imperial robes as a heavy burden; and he would actually have done so, had he not been kept by the remonstrances of his intimates from the shameful intention and given courage by the advice of better men; accordingly, he ordered two legions, named the Jovii and the Victores, to go on ahead and attack the rebels in their camp. 26.9.10. In the same heat of resentment Florentius and Barchalba, who had brought Procopius in, were at once put to death without consideration of reason. For if they had betrayed a legitimate prince, even Justice herself would declare that they were justly executed; but if he whom they betrayed was a rebel and a disturber of the public peace, as he was said to be, they ought to have been given great rewards for a noteworthy deed. 26.10.2. For if this man of rude nature, burning with a cruel desire to hurt, had survived the victory, being dear to Valens because of their likeness of character and their common fatherland, and well aware of the secret wishes of a prince inclined to cruelty, he would have caused the death of many innocent people. 26.10.9. To these events were added other more serious matters, far more to be feared than those of wartime. For executioner, instruments of torture, and bloody inquisitions raged without any distinction of age or of rank through all classes and orders, and under the mantle of peace Implying that in time of war the laws were suspended. abominable robbery was carried on, while all cursed the ill-omened victory, which was worse than any war, however destructive. 26.10.10. For amid arms and clarions, equality of condition makes dangers lighter; the force of martial valour either destroys what it attacks, or ennobles it; and death (if it comes) is attended with no sense of shame and brings with it at once an end of life and of suffering. But when the laws and statutes are pretexts for impious designs, and judges take their seats in false imitation of the character of a Cato or a Cassius, See xxii. 9, 9, note; and cf. Cic. In Verr. ii. 3, 62, 146 non quaero indices Cassianos, veterem iudiciorum severitatem non requiro. but everything is decided according to the will of men of swollen powers, and by their caprice the question of the life or death of all those who come before them is weighed, then, destruction results that is deadly and sudden. 26.10.11. For when any one at that time had become powerful for any reason, and having almost royal authority and being consumed with longing to seize the goods of others, accused some clearly guiltless person, he was welcomed as an intimate and loyal friend, of the emperor. The text and exact meaning are uncertain, although the general sense is clear; regio imperio prope accedens can hardly mean having access to the court, or hastening to the court, as the vulgate reading regiae prope accedens did. who was to be enriched by the ruin of other men. 26.10.12. For the emperor, rather inclined himself to do injury, lent his ear to accusers, listened to death-dealing denunciations, and took unbridled joy in various kinds of executions; unaware of that saying of Cicero’s which asserts that those are unlucky who think that they have power to do anything they wish. 27.5.10. When this had been arranged and hostages received, Valens returned to Constantinople, where later Athanaricus, driven from his native land by a faction of his kinsmen, died a natural death and was buried after our fashion with splendid rites. See p. 32, note 1. 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. 28.1.57. But the final curses of his victims did not sleep. For, under Gratian, as shall be told later at the proper time, Ammianus does not say more about him, except for a casual reference in xxix. 3, 1. His death was in 376. not only did this same Maximinus, because of his intolerable arrogance, fall victim to the executioner’s sword, but Simplicius also was beheaded in Illyricum. Doryphorianus, too, was charged with a capital crime and thrown into the prison called Tullianum, The dungeon at Rome; cf. Sail., Cat. 55, 3 ff. but Gratian, at the suggestion of his mother, had him taken from there, and on his return home put him to death with tremendous tortures. But let us return to the point from which we made this digression. This, if I may say so, was the state of affairs in Rome. Cf. Florus, ii. 6, 8 (i. 22, 8, L.C.L. ). 28.4.22. Some lie in wait for men of wealth, old or young, childless or unmarried, or even for those who have wives or children—for no distinction is observed in this respect—enticing them by wonderful trickeries to make their wills; and when they have set their last decisions in order and left some things to these men, to humour whom they have made their wills in their favour, they forthwith die; so that you would not think that the death was brought about by the working of the allotment of destiny, nor could an illness easily be proved by the testimony of witnesses; nor is the funeral of these men attended by any mourners. 28.6.1. From here, as if moving to another part For this partitive use of the adjective 363 ff. A.D. cf. Hor., Odes , iii. 23, 8, pomifer anncus ;; Sall., Jug. 107, 1, nudum et caecum corpus. of the world, let us come to the sorrows of the African province of Tripolis, over which (I think) even Justice herself has wept; and from what cause these blazed out like flames will appear when my narrative is completed. 28.6.25. In consequence of this remarkable end of the affair, Tripolis, though harassed by disasters from without and from within, remained silent, but not without defence; for the eternal eye of Justice watched over her, as well as the last curses Cf. 1, 57, note 2. of the envoys and the governor. For long afterwards the 376 A.D. following event came to pass: Palladius was dismissed from service, and stript of the haughtiness with which he swelled, and retired to a life of inaction. 29.1.6. But when they came to a vigorous investigation of the deed, or the attempt, Palladius boldly cried out that those matters about which they were inquiring were trivial and negligible; that if he were allowed to speak, he would tell of other things more important and fearful, which had already been plotted with great preparations, and unless foresight were used would upset the whole state. And on being bidden to tell freely what he knew, he uncoiled an endless cable of crimes, Cf. Cic., De Div. i. 56, 127, est quasi rudentis explicatio. declaring that the ex-governor Fidustius, and Pergamius, with Irenaeus, by detestable arts of divination, had secretly learned the name of the man who was to succeed Valens. 29.1.7. Fidustius was seized on the spot—for he chanced to be near by —and was brought up secretly, and on being faced with the informer, he did not attempt to veil with any denial a matter already publicly known, but disclosed the deadly details of the whole plot; he freely admitted that he had, with Hilarius and Patricius, men skilled in divination, of whom the former had served in the household troops, sought information about the succession, and that the predictions inspired by secret arts had both foretold the naming of an excellent prince, and for the questioners themselves a sad end. 29.1.15. And because that man does not seem less deceitful who knowingly passes over what has been done, than one who invents things that never happened, I do not deny—and in fact there is no doubt about it—that Valens’ life, not only often before through secret conspiracies, but also on this occasion, was plunged into extreme danger, and that a sword was almost driven into his throat by the soldiers; it was thrust away and turned aside by the hand of Fate only because she had destined him to suffer lamentable disasters in Thrace. Cf. xxxi. 13. 29.1.16. For when he was quietly sleeping after midday in a wooded spot between Antioch and Seleucia, he was attacked by Sallustius, then one of the targeteers; but although at other times many men often eagerly made plots against his life, he escaped them all, since the limits of life assigned him at his very birth curbed these monstrous attempts. 29.1.18. Therefore Valens also deserved excuse for taking every precaution to protect his life, which treacherous foes were trying in haste to take from him. But it was inexcusable that, with despotic anger, he was swift to assail with malicious persecution guilty and innocent under one and the same law, making no distinction in their deserts; so that while there was still doubt about the crime, the emperor had made up his mind about the penalty, and some learned that they had been condemned to death before knowing that they were under suspicion. 29.1.27. Well then, when the court was ready to act, while the judges called attention to the provisions of the laws, but nevertheless regulated their handling of the cases according to the wish of the ruler, terror seized upon all. For Valens had entirely swerved from the high-way of justice, and had now learned better how to hurt; so he broke out into frenzied fits of rage, like a wild beast trained for the arena if it sees that anyone brought near to the barrier has made his escape. 29.1.28. Then Patricius and Hilarius were brought in and ordered to give a connected account of what had happened. In the beginning they were at variance with each other, but when their sides had been furrowed and the tripod which they were in the habit of using was brought in, they were driven into a corner, and gave a true account of the whole business, which they unfolded from its very beginning. First Hilarius said: 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. 29.1.30. It was placed in the middle of a house purified thoroughly with Arabic perfumes; on it was placed a perfectly round plate made of various metallic substances. Around its outer rim the written forms of the twenty-four letters of the alphabet were skilfully engraved, separated from one another by carefully measured spaces. 29.1.31. Then a man clad in linen garments, shod also in linen sandals and having a fillet wound about his head, carrying twigs from a tree of good omen, after propitiating in a set formula the divine power from whom predictions come, having full knowledge of the ceremonial, stood over the tripod as priest and set swinging a hanging ring fitted to a very fine linen Valesius read carbasio, which would correspond to the linen garments and sandals; the Thes. Ling. Lat. reads carpathio = linteo . thread and consecrated with mystic arts. This ring, passing over the designated intervals in a series of jumps, and falling upon this and that letter which detained it, made hexameters corresponding with the questions and completely finished in feet and rhythm, like the Pythian verses which we read, or those given out from the oracles of the Branchidae. The descendants of a certain Branchus, a favourite of Apollo, who were at first in charge of the oracle at Branchidae, later called oraculum Apollinis Didymei (Mela, i. 17, 86), in the Milesian territory; cf. Hdt. i. 1 57. The rings had magic powers, cf. Cic., De off. iii. 9, 38; Pliny, N. H. xxxiii. 8. Some writers give a different account of the method of divination used by the conspirators. 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. 29.1.33. And when Hilarius had laid the knowledge of the whole matter so clearly before the eyes of the judges, he kindly added that Theodorus was completely ignorant of what was done. After this, being asked whether they had, from belief in the oracles which they practised, known beforehand what they were now suffering, they uttered those familiar verses which clearly announced that this work of inquiring into the superhuman would soon be fatal to them, but that nevertheless the Furies, breathing out death and fire, threatened also the emperor himself and his judges. of these verses it will suffice to quote the last three: Avenged will be your blood. Against them too Tisiphonê’s deep wrath arms evil fate, While Ares rages on the plain of Mimas. When these verses had been read, both were terribly torn by the hooks of the torturers and taken away senseless. 29.1.34. Later, in order wholly to lay bare this factory of the crimes that had been meditated, a group of distinguished men was led in, comprising the very heads of the undertaking. But since each one had regard for nothing but himself, and tried to shift his ruin to another, by permission of the inquisitors Theodorus began to speak; at first lying prostrate in a humble prayer for pardon, but then, when compelled to talk more to the point, he declared that he had learned of the affair through Euserius and tried more than once to report it to the emperor, but was prevented by his informant, who assured him that no illicit attempt to usurp the throne, but some inevitable will of fate, would realize their hopes without effort on their part. 29.1.35. Then Euserius, under bloody torture, made the same confession, but Theodorus was convicted by a letter of his own written in ambiguous and tortuous language to Hilarius, in which he did not hesitate about the matter, but only sought an opportunity to attain his desire, having already a strong confidence begotten from the soothsayers. 29.1.36. When these had been removed after this information, Eutropius, Praetorian prefect in 380 and 381; whether he was the same as the author of the Epitome of Roman History is uncertain. then governing Asia with proconsular authority, was summoned on the charge of complicity in the plot. But he escaped without harm, saved by the philosopher Pasiphilus, who, although cruelly tortured to induce him to bring about the ruin of Eutropius through a false charge, could not be turned from the firmness of a steadfast mind. 29.1.37. There was, besides these, the philosopher Simonides, a young man, it is true, but of anyone within our memory the strictest in his principles. When he was charged with having heard of the affair through Fidustius and saw that the trial depended, not on the truth, but on the nod of one man, he said that he had learned of the predictions, but as a man of firm purpose he kept the secret which had been confided to him. 29.1.38. After all these matters had been examined with sharp eye, the emperor, in answer to the question put by the judges, under one decree ordered the execution of all of the accused; and in the presence of a vast throng, who could hardly look upon the dreadful sight without inward shuddering and burdening the air with laments—for the woes of individuals were regarded as common to all—they were all led away and wretchedly strangled except Simonides; him alone that cruel author of the verdict, maddened by his steadfast firmness, had ordered to be burned alive. 29.1.39. Simonides, however, ready to escape from life as from a cruel tyrant, and laughing at the sudden disasters of human destiny, stood unmoved amid the flames; imitating that celebrated philosopher Peregrinus, surnamed Proteus, According to Lucian, who wrote his biography, he was a Cynic; he was born at Parion on the Hellespont, and died in Olympiad 236 (A.D. 165). who, when he had determined to depart from life, at the quinquennial Olympic festival, in the sight of all Greece, mounted a funeral pyre which he himself had constructed and was consumed by the flames. 29.1.40. And after him, in the days that followed, a throng of men of almost all ranks, whom it would be difficult to enumerate by name, involved in the snares of calumny, wearied the arms of the executioners after being first crippled by rack, lead, and scourge. Some were punished without breathing-space or delay, while inquiry was being made whether they deserved punishment; everywhere the scene was like a slaughtering of cattle. 29.1.41. Then, innumerable writings and many heaps of volumes were hauled out from various houses and under the eyes of the judges were burned in heaps as being unlawful, to allay the indignation at the executions, although the greater number were treatises on the liberal arts and on jurisprudence. 29.1.42. And not so very long afterward that famous philosopher Maximus, a man with a great reputation for learning, through whose rich discourses Julian stood out as an emperor well stored as regards knowledge, Cf. xxii. 7, 3; xxv. 3, 23; he plays a prominent part in Ibsen’s Emperor and Galilean. was alleged to have heard the verses of the aforesaid oracle. And he admitted that he had learnt of them, but out of regard for his philosophical principles had not divulged secrets, although he had volunteered the prediction that the consultors of the future would themselves perish by capital punishment. Thereupon he was taken to his native city of Ephesus and there beheaded; By order of Festus, proconsul of Asia. and taught by his final danger he came to know that the injustice of a judge was more formidable than any accusation. 29.2.2. For having gained leave to name all whom he desired, without distinction of fortune, as dabbling in forbidden practices, like a hunter skilled in observing the secret tracks of wild beasts, he entangled many persons in his lamentable nets, some of them on the ground of having stained themselves with the knowledge of magic, others as accomplices of those who were aiming at treason. 29.2.4. As a result, throughout the oriental provinces owners of books, through fear of a like fate, burned their entire libraries; so great was the terror that had seized upon all. Cf. also Zos. iv. 14. In this way Valens greatly diminished our knowledge of the ancient writers, in particular of the philosophers. Indeed, to speak briefly, at that time we all crept about as if in Cimmerian darkness, See xxviii. 4, 18, note. feeling the same fears as the guests of the Sicilian Dionysius, who, while filled to repletion with banquets more terrible than any possible hunger, saw with a shudder the swords hanging over their heads from the ceilings of the rooms in which they reclined and held only by single horsehairs. Cf. Cic., Tusc. Disp. v. 21, 61 f. 29.2.5. At that time Bassianus also, one of a most illustrious family and serving as a secretary of the first class, See Index II, Vol. I, s.v. notarii. was accused of trying to gain foreknowledge of higher power, although he himself declared that he had merely inquired about the sex of a child which his wife expected; but by the urgent efforts of the kinsfolk by whom he was defended, he was saved from death; but he was stripped of his rich patrimony. 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. 29.2.7. For he was most solicitously pampered with the choicest foods, and earned a great amount of contributed money for presents to his concubines; and so he strode about anywhere and everywhere, displaying his grim face, which struck fear into all. And his assurance was the greater because, in his capacity as chamberlain, he constantly and openly visited the women’s apartments, to which, as he himself desired, he freely resorted, displaying the warrants See xiv. 5, 5, note 3. of the Father of his People, Ironical, for the emperor. which were to be a cause of grief to many. 29.2.8. And through these warrants Heliodorus instructed Palladius (as though he were an advocate in public law-suits) what to put at the beginning of his speech, in order the more easily to make it effective and strong, or with which figures of rhetoric he ought to aim at brilliant passages. Text and exact meaning are uncertain. It is not clear what the subject of praemonebat is. G reads Valens for et valere and praemonebatur. 29.2.9. And since it would be a long story to tell all this gallows-bird The word may mean one who crucifies or one who deserves to be crucified —hence hangman or gallows-bird. The latter seems preferable. contrived, I will recount this one case, showing with what audacious confidence he smote the very pillars of the patriciate. For made enormously insolent by secret conferences with people of the court, as has been said, and through his very worthlessness easy to be hired to commit any and every crime, he accused that admirable pair of consuls, the two brothers Eusebius and Hypatius See xviii. 1, 1; xxi. 6, 4; they were consuls in 359. Constantius married their sister Eusebia. (connections by marriage of the late emperor Constantius) of having aspired to a desire for a higher fortune, and of having made inquiries and formed plans about the sovereignty; and he added to the path That is, the path which he alleged that they had made for carrying out their designs. which he had falsely devised for his fabrication that royal robes had even been made ready for Eusebius. 29.2.10. Eagerly drinking this in, the menacing madman, Valens. to whom nothing ought to have been permitted, since he thought that everything, even what was unjust, was allowed him, Cf. Seneca, De Ira , iii. 12, 7, nihil tibi liceat, dum irasceris. Quare? Quia vis omnia licere ; and Consol. ad Polybium , 7, 2. inexorably summoned from the farthest boundaries of the empire all those whom the accuser, exempt from the laws, with profound assurance had insisted ought to be brought before him, and ordered a calumnious trial to be set on foot. 29.2.11. And when in much-knotted bonds of constriction justice had long been trodden down and tied tightly, and the wretched scoundrel persisted in his strings of assertions, severe tortures could force no confession, but showed that these distinguished men were far removed even from any knowledge of anything of the kind. Nevertheless, the calumniator was as highly honoured as before, while the accused were punished with exile and with fines; but shortly afterwards they were recalled, had their fines remitted, and were restored to their former rank and honour unimpaired. 29.2.12. Yet after these so lamentable events Valens acted with no more restraint or shame; since excessive power does not reflect that it is unworthy for men of right principles, even to the disadvantage of their enemies, willingly to plunge into crime, and that nothing is so ugly as for a cruel nature to be joined to lofty pride of power. Cf. Cic., Ad Quint. Frat. i. 1, 13, 37, nihil est tam deformed quam ad summum imperium etiam acerbitatem naturae adiungere. 29.2.13. But when Heliodorus died (whether naturally or through some deliberate violence Doubtless through his enemies, who were numerous. Hypatius and Eusebius; see 2, 9, above. is uncertain; I would rather not say too late : I only wish that even the facts did not speak to that effect!) his body was carried out by the undertakers, and many men of rank, clad in mourning, were ordered to precede it, including the brothers who had been consuls. I.e., of subjecting men of rank to such an indignity. 29.2.14. Thereby the entire rottenness of the folly of the empire’s ruler was then completely revealed; for although he was earnestly besought to refrain from this inexcusable insult, Cf. xxvii. 11, 6. yet he remained so inflexible that he seemed to have stopped his ears with wax, Cf. xxviii. 1, 12. as if he were going to pass the rocks of the Sirens. 29.2.15. At last, however, he yielded to insistent prayers, and ordered that some persons should precede the ill-omened bier of the body-snatcher Cf. Suet., Aug. 100, 4. to the tomb, marching with bare heads and feet, A sign of mourning; cf. Apul., Metam. iii. 1. some also with folded hands. Cf. xxviii. 1, 15. My mind shrinks from recalling, during that suspension of justice, Cf. mundanum fulgorem, xiv. 6, 3. how many men of the highest rank, especially exconsuls, after having carried the staves of honour and worn purple robes, and having their names made known to all the world 10 in the Roman calendar, were seen exposed to humiliation. 29.2.16. Conspicuous among all of these was our Hypatius, a man recommended from his youth by noble virtues, of quiet and calm discretion, and of a nobility and gentleness measured as it were by the plumb-line; See xiv. 8, 11, note 2; xxi. 16, 3, note 4. he conferred honour on the fame of his ancestors Cf. C.I.L. i. part 2, ed. 2, 15 (epitaph of Scipio Hispanus), virtutes generis mieis mribus accumulavi. and himself gave glory to posterity by the admirable acts of his two prefectures. At a later time; Flavius Hypatius was prefect of Rome in 397, praetorian prefect in 382 and 383. 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. 29.2.18. O noble system of wisdom, by heaven’s gift bestowed upon the fortunate, thou who hast often ennobled even sinful natures! How much wouldst thou have corrected in those dark days, if it had been permitted Valens to learn through you that royal power—as the philosophers declare—is nothing else than the care for others’ welfare; Cf. xxv. 3, 18; Cic., De off. i. 25, 85. that it is the duty of a good ruler to restrain his power, to resist unbounded desire and implacable anger, and to know—as the dictator Caesar used to say—that the recollection of cruelty is a wretched support instrumentum here = ἐφόδιον ( viaticum ). Valesius quotes Stobaeus, De Senec. (Florilegium, 117, 8, p. 595), τί ἂν εἲη γήρως ἐφόδιον ἄριστον; Ammianus uses instrumentum in the general sense of cost, expense, e.g. in xxviii. 6, 6; cf. also xix. 11, 4; xxi. 6, 6, and xxvi. 7, 12, where this meaning is perhaps implied. No such saying of Caesar’s is elsewhere known. for old age. And therefore, if he is going to pass judgment affecting the life and breath of a human being, who forms a part of the world and completes the number of living things, he ought to hesitate long and greatly and not be carried away by headlong passion to a point where what is done cannot be undone; Cf. Cassiod., Varia , vii. 1, cunctator ease debet qui iudicat de salute; alia sententia potest corrigi, de vita transactum non patitur immutari ; Juv. vi. 221, nulla umquam de morte hominis cunctatio longa est. of which we have a very well-known instance in olden times. 29.2.20. After these various deeds of injustice which have already been mentioned, and the marks of torture shamefully branded upon the bodies of such free men as bad survived, the never-closing eye of Justice, the eternal witness and avenger of all things, was watchfully attentive. For the last curses of the murdered, moving the eternal godhead through the just ground of their complaints, had kindled the firebrands of Bellona; so that the truth of the oracle was confirmed, which had predicted that no crimes would go unpunished. 29.2.21. While these events, which have just been 372 A.D. described, during the cessation of the Parthian storm were being spread abroad at Antioch in the form of internal troubles, the awful band of the Furies, after making a rolling flood of manifold disasters, left that city and settled on the shoulders of all Asia, in the following way. 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. 29.6.7. Surely at that time an irreparable crime would have been committed, to be numbered among the shameful disasters of Roman history; for the daughter of Constantius, when being conducted to marry Gratianus, was very nearly captured while she was taking food in a public villa called Pristensis, but (by the favour of the propitious godhead) Messalla, the governor of the province, was at hand and placed her in a state-carriage A vehicle at the disposal of the officials of the province, the city prefect, and other high dignitaries ( iudices ). and took her in all haste back to Sirmium, twenty-six miles away. 30.2.9. This is what happened in the eastern regions. During the course of these events the eternal power 373 A.D. of Justice, the judge, sometimes tardy, but always strict, of right or wrong actions, avenged the disasters in Africa and the still unsatisfied and wandering shades of the envoys of Tripolis, Cf. xxviii. 6, 25. in the following manner. 30.5.15. Therefore, setting this I.e., selecting winter quarters. aside for a time, in spite of the great need for a halt, That is, the need of rest for his soldiers. he quickly moved from there, marched along the banks of the river, and having protected his camp with an adequate force and with castles came to Bregitio. Szoeny near Comorn. There the fate which had long been designed to end the emperor’s labours foretold his approaching end by a repeated series of portents. 31.1.1. Meanwhile Fortune’s rapid wheel, which is always interchanging adversity and prosperity, armed Bellona in the company of her attendant Furies, and transferred to the Orient melancholy events, the coming of which was foreshadowed by the clear testimony of omens and portents. 31.1.2. For after many true predictions of seers and augurs, dogs leaped back when wolves howled, night birds rang out a kind of doleful lament, the sun rose in gloom and dimmed the clear morning light; at Antioch, in quarrels and riots of the common people, it became usual that whoever thought that he was suffering wrong shouted without restraint: Let Valens be burned alive! and the words of public criers were continually heard, directing the people to gather firewood, to set fire to the baths of Valens, in the building of which the emperor himself had taken such interest. 31.1.3. All this almost in plain speech showed that this kind of death I.e., death by fire. threatened him. Furthermore, the ghostly form of the king of Armenia and the piteous shades of those who shortly before had been executed in connection with the fall of Theodorus, See xxix. 1, 8 ff. shrieking horrible songs at night, in the form of dirges, tormented many with dire terrors. 31.14.2. of his merits, as known to many, we shall now speak, and of his defects. He was a firm and faithful friend, severe in punishing ambitious designs, strict in maintaining discipline in the army and in civil life, always watchful and anxious lest anyone should elevate himself on the ground of kinship with him; he was excessively slow towards conferring or taking away official positions, Cf. xviii. 6, 22; xxiii. 5, 15; xxvii. 6, 4. very just in his rule of the provinces, each of which he protected from injury as he would his own house, lightening the burden of tributes with a kind of special care, allowing no increase in taxes, not extortionate in estimating the indebtedness from arrears, To the crown in payment for supplies; cf. xvi. 5, 15, tributariae rei reliqua ; Spart. Hadr. 6, 5; 21, 7 and 12. a harsh and bitter enemy of thievish officials and of those detected in peculation. Under no other emperor does the Orient recall meeting better treatment in matters of this kind. 31.14.3. Besides all this, he combined liberality with moderation, and although there are many instances of such conduct, yet it will suffice to set forth one. Since there are always at court some men who are greedy for others’ possessions, if anyone, as often happens, claimed a lapsed estate I.e., one which had fallen to the emperor for lack of heirs. or anything else of the kind, he distinguished clearly between justice and injustice, allowing those who intended to protest That is, the former owners or other interested parties. a chance to state their case; and if he gave it to the petitioner, he often added as sharers in the gifts gained three or four absentees, to the end that restless people might act with more restraint, when they saw that by this device the gain for which they were so greedy was diminished. 31.14.6. It was unendurable also, that although he wished to appear to refer all controversies and judicial investigations to the laws, and entrusted the examination of such affairs to the regular judges as being specially selected men, nevertheless he suffered nothing to be done contrary to his own caprice. He was in other ways unjust, hot tempered, and ready to listen to informers without distinguishing truth from falsity—a shameful fault, which is very greatly to be dreaded even in these our private affairs of every-day occurrence. 31.15.7. The Goths on the other hand, bearing in mind the dangerous chances of war, and worried from seeing their bravest men stretched dead or wounded, while their strength was being worn away bit by bit, formed a clever plan, which Justice herself revealed. |
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