7. Ammianus Marcellinus, History, 15.1.4, 19.12, 19.12.14, 28.1.19-28.1.20, 28.1.26, 29.1.5, 29.1.25-29.1.42, 29.1.44, 29.2.1-29.2.4, 29.2.6-29.2.7, 29.2.23-29.2.28 (4th cent. CE - 4th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •magic trials (in antioch) Found in books: Rohmann (2016) 55, 64, 65, 66, 67, 79, 143 | 15.1.4. For even if he ruled the infinity of worlds postulated by Democritus, of which Alexander the Great dreamed under the stimulus of Anaxarchus, yet from reading or hearsay he should have considered that (as the astronomers uimously teach) the circuit of the whole earth, which to us seems endless, compared with the greatness of the universe has the likeness of a mere tiny point. 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. 28.1.19. To add to his calamity, this also had happened at that same time, which was not less fatal. The soothsayer Amantius, at that time especially notorious, was betrayed on secret evidence of having been employed by the said Hymetius, for the purpose of committing certain criminal acts, to perform a sacrifice; but when brought to trial, although he stood bent double upon the rack, Tortured until he was permanently disfigured. For sub eculeo see xxvi. 10, 13, note. he denied it with obstinate insistence. 28.1.20. Upon his denial, his secret papers were brought from his house and a memorandum in the handwriting of Hymetius was found, begging him that by carrying out a solemn sacrifice he should prevail upon the deity to make the emperors Valentinian and Gratian. milder towards him; and at the end of the document were read some reproaches of Valentinian as avaricious and cruel. 28.1.26. At about that same time Lollianus, a youth just growing his first beard, son of the ex-prefect Lampadius, Cf. xxvii. 3, 5. as the result of a strict examination by Maximinus, was convicted of having written a book on destructive magic arts, when adult age had not yet endowed him with sound judgment. And when it was feared that he would be exiled, by his father’s advice he appealed to the emperor and was ordered to be taken to his court; but he went from the smoke (as the saying is) Cf. from the frying-pan into the fire and xiv. 11, 12. into the fire; for he was handed over to Phalangius, consular governor of Baetica, and died at the hand of the dread executioner. 29.1.5. A certain Procopius, a turbulent man, always 371–2 A.D. given over to a lust for disturbances, had charged two courtiers named Anatolias and Spudasius, about whom orders had been given that money of which they had defrauded the treasury be exacted of them, with having attempted the life of Count Fortunatianus, notorious as being a tiresome dunner. He, being hot-tempered, was immediately aroused to a mad degree of wrath, and by the authority of the office which he held, He was comes rei privatae in charge of the privy-purse. handed over a certain Palladius, a man of low birth, as one who had been hired as a poisoner by the afore-mentioned courtiers, and an interpreter of the fates by horoscope, Heliodorus by name, to the court of the praetorian prefecture, in order that they might be forced to tell what they knew about the matter. 29.1.25. First, after some unimportant questions, Pergamius was called in, betrayed (as has been said) Cf. 1, 6, above. by Palladius of having foreknowledge of certain things through criminal incantations. Since he was very eloquent and was prone to say dangerous things, while the judges were in doubt what ought to be asked first and what last, he began to speak boldly, and shouted out in an endless flood the names of a very large number of men as accomplices, demanding that some be produced from all but the ends of the earth, to be accused of great crimes. He, as the contriver of too hard a task, In calling for the trial of so many men, and from remote places. was punished with death; and after him others were executed in flocks; then finally they came to the case of Theodorus himself, as if to the dusty arena of an Olympic contest. 29.1.26. And that same day, among very many others, this sad event also happened, that Salia, shortly before master of the treasures There were two classes of comites thesaurorum: one ( comitatenses ), located at the court, had charge of the imperial wardrobe, table-furnishings, etc.; the other ( provinciarum et urbium ) of the revenues and the equipment of the soldiers. in Thrace, when he was brought out of prison to be heard, just as he was putting his foot into his shoe, as if under the stroke of great terror suddenly falling upon him, breathed his last in the arms of those who held him. 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. 29.1.44. Lo! even Alypius also, former vice-governor of Britain, Cf. xxiii. 1, 2, end. a man amiable and gentle, after living in leisure and retirement—since even as far as this had injustice stretched her hand—was made to wallow in utmost wretchedness; he was accused with his son Hierocles, a young man of good character, as guilty of magic, on the sole evidence of a certain Diogenes, a man of low origin, who was tortured with every degree of butchery, to lead him to give testimony agreeable to the emperor, or rather to the instigator of the charge. Diogenes, when not enough of his body was left for torture, was burned alive; Alypius himself also, after confiscation of his goods, was condemned to exile, but recovered his son, who was already being led to a wretched death, According to St. John Chrysostom, Orat. 3, De Incomprehensibili Dei Natura , Hierocles was being led to the Hippodrome, when all the people, who had gathered before the emperor’s palace, cried out for his pardon. but by a lucky chance was reprieved. 29.2.1. During all this time, the notorious Palladius, the fomenter Or curdler. Literally the rennet. of all these troubles, who, as we said at first, 1, 5. was taken in custody by Fortunatianus, being by the very lowness of his condition ready to plunge into anything, by heaping disaster on disaster, had drenched the whole empire with grief and tears. 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. 29.2.3. And in order that even wives should have no time to weep over the misfortunes of their husbands, men were immediately sent to put the seal Until the owner should be acquitted or condemned; in the latter case his house and property went to the fiscus. on the houses, and during the examination of the furniture of the householder who had been condemned, to introduce privily old-wives’ incantations or unbecoming love-potions, contrived for the ruin of innocent people. And when these were read in a court where there was no law or scruple or justice to distinguish truth from falsehood, without opportunity for defence young and old without discrimination were robbed of their goods and, although they were found stained by no fault, after being maimed in all their limbs were carried off in litters to execution. 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. 29.2.6. 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. 29.2.23. But hearing that Maximinus planned to wipe out all decent men, from that time on he decried his actions as dangerous and shameful. But when he learned that Maximinus, merely through the recommendation of the deaths of those whom he had impiously slain, had attained the honour of prefect contrary to his deserts, he was aroused to similar deeds and hopes. Like an actor, suddenly changing his mask, he conceived the desire of doing harm and stalked about with intent and cruel eyes, imagining that the prefecture would soon be his if he also should have stained himself with the punishment of the innocent. 29.2.24. And although many of the various acts which he committed were very harsh, to express it mildly, yet it will suffice to mention a few which are familiar and generally known, and done in emulation of those which had taken place in Rome. For the principle of good or bad deeds is the same everywhere, even if the greatness of the situation is not the same. That is, whether the place, the circumstances, and even the deeds themselves are unlike. 29.2.25. He executed a philosopher called Coeranius, a man of no slight merit, after he had resisted tortures of savage cruelty, because in a letter to his wife of a personal nature he had added in Greek: But do you take note and crown the house door, which is a common proverbial expression, used in order that the hearer may know that something of greater importance than usual is to be done. 29.2.26. There was a simple-minded old woman who was in the habit of curing intermittent fevers with a harmless charm. He caused her to be put to death as a criminal, after she had been called in with his own knowledge and had treated his daughter. 29.2.27. Among the papers of a distinguished townsman, of which an examination had been ordered for some business reason, the horoscope of a certain Valens was found; when the person concerned was asked why he had cast the nativity of the emperor, he defended himself against the false charge by saying that he had had a brother named Valens, and that he had died long ago. He promised to show this by proofs of full credibility, but they did not wait for the truth to be discovered, and he was tortured and butchered. 29.2.28. In the bath a young man was seen to touch alternately with the fingers of either hand first the marble of the wall or perhaps the floor of the bath. and then his breast, and to count the seven vowels, of the Greek alphabet. thinking it a helpful remedy for a stomach trouble. He was haled into court, tortured and beheaded. |
|
