Ammianus Marcellinus, History

§ 28.4.10 Some of these men, when one begins to salute them breast to breast, like menacing bulls turn to one side their heads, where they should be kissed, and offer their flatterers their knees to kiss or their hands, thinking that quite enough to ensure them a happy life; and they believe that a stranger is given an abundance of all the duties of courtesy, even though the great men may perhaps be under obligation to him, if he is asked what hot baths or waters he uses, or at what house he has been put up.

§ 28.4.11 And although they are so important and, in their own opinion, such cultivators of the virtues, if they learn that someone has announced that horses or chariots are coming from anywhere whatever, they hover over this same man and ask him questions as anxiously as their ancestors looked up to the two sons of Tyndareus, when they filled everything with joy by announcing those famous victories of olden days.

§ 28.4.12 Their houses are frequented by idle chatterboxes, who with various pretences of approval applaud every word of the man of loftier fortune, emulating the witty flatteries of the parasites in the comedies. For just as the parasites puff up boastful soldiers by attributing to them the sieges and battles against thousands of enemies, comparing them with the heroes of old, so these also, admiring the rows of columns hanging in the air with lofty facade, and the walls gleaming with the remarkable colours of precious stones, raise these noble men to the gods.

§ 28.4.13 Sometimes at their banquets the scales are even called for, in order to weigh the fish, birds, and dormice that are served, whose great size they commend again and again, as hitherto unexampled, often repeating it to the weariness of those present, especially when thirty secretaries stand near by, with pen-cases and small tablets, recording these same items, so that the only thing lacking seems to be a schoolmaster.

§ 28.4.14 Some of them hate learning as they do poison, and read with attentive care only Juvenal and Marius Maximus, in their boundless idleness handling no other books than these, for what reason it is not for my humble mind to judge.

§ 28.4.15 Whereas, considering the greatness of their fame and of their parentage, they ought to pore over many and varied works; they ought to learn that Socrates, when condemned to death and thrown into prison, asked a musician, who was skilfully rendering a song of the lyric poet Stesichorus, that he might be taught to do this while there was still time. And when the musician asked of what use that could be to him, since he was to die on the following day, Socrates replied: “In order that I may know something more before I depart from life.”

§ 28.4.16 But a few among them are so strict in punishing offences, that if a slave is slow in bringing the hot water, they condemn him to suffer three hundred lashes; if he has intentionally killed a man, although many people insist that he be condemned to death, his master will merely cry out: “What should a worthless fellow do, notorious for wicked deeds? But if he dares to do anything else like that hereafter, he shall be punished.”

§ 28.4.17 But the height of refinement with these men at present is, that it is better for a stranger to kill any man's brother than to decline his invitation to dinner. For a senator thinks that he is suffering the loss of a rich property, if the man whom he has, after considerable weighing of pros and cons, invited once, fails to appear at his table.

§ 28.4.18 Some of them, if they make a longish journey to visit their estates, or to hunt by the labours of others, think that they have equalled the marches of Alexander the Great or of Caesar; or if they have sailed in their gaily-painted boats from the Lake of Avernus to Puteoli, it is the adventure of the Golden Fleece, especially if they should dare it in the hot season. And if amid the gilded fans flies have lighted on the silken fringes, or through a rent in the hanging curtain a little ray of sun has broken in, they lament that they were not born in the land of the Cimmerians.

§ 28.4.19 Then when they come from the bath of Silvanus or from the healing waters of Mamaea, as any one of them emerges he has himself dried with the finest linens, opens the presses and carefully searches amongst garments shimmering with shifting light, of which he brings enough with him to clothe eleven men. At length, some are chosen and he puts them on; then he takes back his rings, which, in order that the dampness may not injure them, he has handed to a servant, and after his fingers have been as good as measured to receive them, he departs.

§ 28.4.20 And, indeed, if any veteran has recently retired because of his years from service with the emperor, such a company of admirers attend him that... is considered to be the leader of the old song; the others quietly listen to what he says. He alone, like the father of a family, tells irrelevant stories and entertaining tales, and in most of them cleverly deceiving his hearers.

§ 28.4.21 Some of these, though few in number, shrink from the name of gamblers, and therefore desire to be called rather tesserarii, persons who differ from each other only as much as thieves do from brigands. But this must be admitted, that while all friendships at Rome are lukewarm, those alone which are formed at the gambling table, as if they were gained by glorious toil, have a bond of union and are united by complete firmness of exceeding affection; whence some members of these companies are found to be so harmonious that you would take them for the brothers Quintilius. And so you may see a man of low station, who is skilled in the secrets of dice-playing, walking abroad like Porcius Cato after his unexpected and unlooked-for defeat for the praetorship, with a set expression of dignity and sorrow because at some great banquet or assemblage a former proconsul was given a higher place of honour.

§ 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.

§ 28.4.23 Another, who attained some rank, moderate though it be, walking with neck puffed up, looks askance at his former acquaintances, so that you might think that a Marcellus was returning after the taking of Syracuse.

§ 28.4.24 Many of them, who deny that there are higher powers in heaven, neither appear in public nor eat a meal nor think they can with due caution take a bath, until they have critically examined the calendar and learned where, for example, the planet Mercury is, or what degree of the constellation of the Crab the moon occupies in its course through the heavens.

§ 28.4.25 Another, if he finds a creditor of his demanding his due with too great urgency, resorts to a charioteer who is all too ready to dare any enterprise, and causes the creditor to be charged with being a poisoner; and he is not let off until he has surrendered the bill of indebtedness and paid heavy costs. And besides, the accuser has the voluntary debtor put in prison as if he were his property, and does not set him free until he acknowledges the debt.

§ 28.4.26 In another place a wife by hammering day and night on the same anvilas the old proverb has it 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, 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,... As Cicero says: “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.”

§ 28.4.27 When these people seek any loan, you will see them in slippers like a Micon or a Laches; when they are urged to pay, they wear such lofty buskins and are so arrogant that you would think them Cresphontes and Temenus, the famous Heraclidae. So much for the senate.

§ 28.4.28 Let us now turn to the idle and slothful commons. Among them some who have no shoes are conspicuous as though they had cultured names, such as the Messores, Statarii, Semicupae and Serapini, and Cicymbricus, with Gluturinus and Trulla, and Lucanicus with Porclaca and Salsula, and countless others.

§ 28.4.29 These spend all their life with wine and dice, in low haunts, pleasures, and the games. Their temple, their dwelling, their assembly, and the height of all their hopes is the Circus Maximus. You may see many groups of them gathered in the fora, the cross-roads, the streets, and their other meeting-places, engaged in quarrelsome arguments with one another, some (as usual) defending this, others that.

§ 28.4.30 Among them those who have enjoyed a surfeit of life, influential through long experience, often swear by their hoary hair and wrinkles that the state cannot exist if in the coming race the charioteer whom each favours is not first to rush forth from the barriers, and fails to round the turning-point closely with his ill-omened horses.

§ 28.4.31 And when there is such a dry rot of thoughtlessness, as soon as the longed-for day of the chariot-races begins to dawn, before the sun is yet shining clearly they all hasten in crowds to the spot at top speed, as if they would outstrip the very chariots that are to take part in the contest; and torn by their conflicting hopes about the result of the race, the greater number of them in their anxiety pass sleepless nights.

§ 28.4.32 If from there they come to worthless theatrical pieces, any actor is hissed off the boards who has not won the favour of the low rabble with money. And if this noisy form of demonstration is lacking, they cry in imitation of the Tauric race that all strangers, on whose aid they have always depended and stood upright, ought to be driven from the city. All this in foul and absurd terms, very different from the expressions of their interests and desires made by your commons of old, of whose many witty and happy sayings tradition tells us.

§ 28.4.33 And it has now come to this, that in place of the lively sound of approval from men appointed to applaud, at every public show an actor of afterpieces, a beast-baiter, a charioteer, every kind of player, and the magistrates of higher and lower rank, nay even matrons, are constantly greeted with the shout “You should be these fellows' teachers!”; but what they ought to learn no one is able to explain.

§ 28.4.34 The greater number of these gentry, given over to over-stuffing themselves with food, led by the charm of the odour of cooking and by the shrill voices of the women, like a flock of peacocks screaming with hunger, stand even from cockcrow beside the pots on tip-toe and gnaw the ends of their fingers as they wait for the dishes to cool. Others hang over the nauseous mass of half-raw meat, while it is cooking, watching it so intently that one would think that Democritus with other dissectors was examining the internal organs of dismembered animals and showing by what means future generations might be cured of internal pains.

§ 28.4.35 But enough for the present of this account of affairs in the city. Now let us return to the other events which were caused by various incidents in the provinces.

§ 28.5.1 In the third consulship of the two Augusti a horde of Saxons broke out, and after overcoming the dangers of the Ocean advanced at rapid pace towards the Roman frontier, having often been glutted with the slaughter of our people. The storm of this first inroad was met by Nannenus, the general in charge of those regions, a leader approved by long experience in wars.

§ 28.5.2 But meeting then with a people resolved to fight to the death, after he had lost some of his men and had himself been wounded, he perceived that he would be unequal to frequent contests with them. Accordingly, having reported to the emperor what ought to be done, he managed that Severus, commander of the infantry, should come to help him in his difficult situation. 3. When he, bringing forces adequate for the purpose, had reached the spot and the troops had been drawn up in divisions, he so terrified and confused the arrogant barbarians before the struggle began, that they did not oppose him in strife, but, dazzled by the gleam of the standards and eagles, begged for pardon and peace.

§ 28.5.4 And after a long and varied discussion, since it seemed to be in the interest of the state, a truce was agreed upon, and in accordance with the conditions that were proposed the Saxons gave us as hostages many young men fit for military service, and then were allowed to depart and return without hindrance to the place from which they had come.

§ 28.5.5 When they thought themselves now free from all fear and were preparing to return, foot-soldiers were secretly sent and laid an ambuscade in a secluded valley, from which they could attack the Saxons with slight trouble as they passed by. But the result was far otherwise than was hoped. 6. For, excited by the sound of the approaching Saxons, some of our men rushed out before the proper time; on their sudden appearance the savages raised terrible howls, and while the Romans were hastening to steady themselves, they were put to flight. Presently, however, they halted and massed themselves together, and as their dangerous plight gave them strength (though somewhat impaired), they were forced to fight; but after suffering great losses they were routed and would have perished to a man, had not a troop of mail-clad horsemen, which had been similarly stationed on another side, near a byway, to cause danger to the savages as they passed by, been aroused by their cries of terror, and quickly come to their aid.

§ 28.5.7 Then the contest became hotter and the Romans with fortified courage pressed upon the Saxons from all sides, surrounded them, and slew them with their drawn swords; not one of them could again return to his native home, not a single one was allowed to survive the slaughter of his comrades. And although some just judge will condemn this act as treacherous and hateful, yet on careful consideration of the matter he will not think it improper that a destructive band of brigands was destroyed when the opportunity at last offered.

§ 28.5.8 After these affairs had been so successfully concluded, Valentinian, turning over various thoughts in his mind, was oppressed by anxious care, as he thought over many plans and considered by what devices he might break the arrogance of the Alamanni and their king Macrianus, who without limit or measure was confusing the Roman state by his restless disturbances.

§ 28.5.9 For this savage nation, although from its very cradle weakened by a variety of disasters, so often recovers its youthful strength, that people think it has been unassailed for long ages. And the emperor finally decided, after favouring first one plan and then another, to bring about their destruction through the Burgundians, a warlike people, rich in the strength of countless young warriors, and therefore a cause of terror to all their neighbours.

§ 28.5.10 Accordingly, he often sent letters to their kings through silent and loyal messengers, urging them to attack the Alamanni at an appointed time, and promising that he too would cross the Rhine with the Roman armies and, if the Alamanni tried to avoid the unexpected weight of armed forces, would intercept them in their panic.

§ 28.5.11 The emperor's letters were gladly received for two reasons: first, because the Burgundians know that they are descendants of the Romans from ancient times; and then, since they frequently quarrelled with the Alamanni about salt-pits and boundaries. They therefore sent their choicest troops, which, before our soldiers were gathered together, advanced as far as the banks of the Rhine; and while the emperor was still occupied with the building of fortifications, they caused the very greatest alarm to our people.

§ 28.5.12 And so they halted for a time, but when Valentinian did not appear on the appointed day, as he had agreed, and they saw that none of his promises had been fulfilled, they sent envoys to the emperor's camp, demanding that support be given them for their return to their homes, in order that they might not expose their unprotected rear to the enemy.

§ 28.5.13 And when they perceived that by subterfuges and delays their request was practically denied, they went off from there in sorrow and indignation. And their kings, on learning what had happened, furious at being mocked, killed all their prisoners and returned to their native lands.

§ 28.5.14 In their country a king is called by the general name Hendinos, and, according to an ancient custom, lays down his power and is deposed, if under him the fortune of war has wavered, or the earth has denied sufficient crops; just as the Egyptians commonly blame their rulers for such occurrences. On the other hand the chief priest among the Burgundians is called Sinistus, holds his power for life, and is exposed to no such dangers as threaten the kings.

§ 28.5.15 Taking advantage of this very timely occasion, Theodosius, at that time commander of the cavalry, made an attack through Raetia upon the Alamanni, who through fear of the aforesaid people were scattered; he killed many of them, and by the emperor's order sent all his prisoners to Italy, where they received fertile cantons, and now live as our subjects on the banks of the Po.

§ 28.6.1 From here, as if moving to another part 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.

§ 28.6.2 The Austoriani, who are neighbours to those regions, are savages, always ready for sudden raids and accustomed to live by murder and robbery. These were subdued for a time, but then returned to their natural turbulence, for which they seriously alleged this reason:-

§ 28.6.3 A certain man of their country, Stachao by name, when he was wandering freely in our territory, it being a time of peace, committed some violations of the laws, among which the most conspicuous was, that he tried by every kind of deceit to betray the province, as was proved by most trustworthy testimony. Accordingly he was burned to death.

§ 28.6.4 To avenge his execution, under the pretext that he was a countryman of theirs and had been unjustly condemned, like beasts aroused by madness, they sallied forth from their homes while Jovian was still ruling, and, fearing to come near Lepcis, a city strong in its walls and population, they encamped for three days in the fertile districts near the city. There they slaughtered the peasants, whom sudden fear had paralysed or had compelled to take refuge in caves, burned a great deal of furniture which could not be carried off, and returned laden with immense spoils, taking with them also as prisoner one Silva, the most eminent of the local magistrates, who chanced to be found in the country with his wife and children.

§ 28.6.5 The people of Lepcis, greatly alarmed by this sudden calamity, before the evils which the insolence of the barbarians threatened should increase, implored the protection of Romanus, the newly promoted commanding-general for Africa. As soon as he arrived, leading his military forces, and was asked to lend his aid in these troubles, he declared that he would not move his camp unless provisions in abundance should first be brought and 4000 camels equipped.

§ 28.6.6 The unhappy citizens were stupefied by this answer, and declared that after suffering from fires and pillage they could not procure a remedy for their tremendous losses by providing such enormous supplies. Whereupon the general, after deluding them by spending forty days there, marched away without actually attempting anything.

§ 28.6.7 The people of Tripolis, disappointed in this hope and fearing the worst, when the lawful day for the popular assembly (which with them comes once a year) had arrived, appointed Severus and Flaccianus as envoys, who were to take to Valentinian golden statues of Victory because of his accession to power, and to tell him fearlessly of the lamentable ruin of the province.

§ 28.6.8 As soon as Romanus heard of this, he sent a swift horseman to Remigius, the chief-marshal of the court, a relative of his by marriage and a partner in his robberies, asking him to see to it that the investigation of this affair should be assigned by the emperor's authority to the deputy governor Vincentius and himself.

§ 28.6.9 The envoys came to the court, and being given audience with the emperor, stated orally what they had suffered; and they presented decrees, containing a full account of the whole affair. Since the emperor, after reading these, neither believed the communication of the marshal, who countenanced the misdeeds of Romanus, nor the envoys, who gave contrary testimony, a full investigation was promised, but it was put off, in the way in which supreme powers are usually deceived among the distractions to which the powerful are liable.

§ 28.6.10 While the people of Tripolis were long in astate of anxiety and suspense, looking for some aid from the emperor's military support, the hordes of barbarians again came up, given confidence by what had happened before; and after overrunning the territory of Lepcis and Oea with death and devastation, went away again, laden with vast heaps of booty; a number of decurions were put to death, among whom the former high-priest Rusticianus and the aedile Nicasius were conspicuous.

§ 28.6.11 But the reason why this inroad could not be prevented was that, although at the request of the envoys the charge of military affairs also had been entrusted to the governor Ruricius, it was soon afterwards transferred to Romanus.

§ 28.6.12 When now the news of this newly inflicted catastrophe was sent to Gaul, it greatly angered the emperor. Accordingly, Palladius, a tribune and secretary, was sent to pay the wages that were due the soldiers in various parts of Africa, and to investigate and give a fully trustworthy report of what had happened at Tripolis.

§ 28.6.13 However, during such delays caused by consultations and waiting for replies, the Austoriani, made insolent by two successful raids, flew to the spot like birds of prey made more savage by the incitement of blood, and after slaying all those who did not escape danger by flight, carried off the booty which they had previously left behind, besides cutting down the trees and vines.

§ 28.6.14 Then one Mychon, a highborn and powerful townsman, was caught in the suburbs but gave them the slip before be was bound; and because he was lame and it was wholly impossible for him to make good his escape, he threw himself into an empty well; but the barbarians pulled him out with his rib broken, and placed him near the city gates; there, at the pitiful entreaties of his wife, he was ransomed but was drawn up by a rope to the battlements, and died after two days.

§ 28.6.15 Then the savage marauders, roused to greater persistence, assailed the very walls of Lepcis, which re-echoed with the mournful wailing of the women, who had never before been besieged by an enemy, and were half-dead with a terror to which they were unused. But after blockading the city for eight days together, during which some of the besiegers were wounded without accomplishing anything, they returned in saddened mood to their own abodes.

§ 28.6.16 Because of this the citizens, despairing of being saved and resorting to the last hope, although the envoys they had already sent had not yet returned, dispatched Jovinus and Pancratius to give the emperor a trustworthy account of what they had seen and had personally suffered. These envoys, by inquiring of those mentioned above ( Severus, whom they met at Carthage, and Flaccianus ), what they had done, learned that they had been ordered to make their report to the deputy and the general. Of these Severus was at once attacked by a painful illness and died; but the aforementioned envoys nevertheless hastened by long marches to the court.

§ 28.6.17 After this, Palladius had entered Africa, and Romanus, intending to block in advance the purpose for which he had come, in order to secure his own safety, had ordered the officers of the companies through certain confidants of his secrets, that they should hand over to Palladius the greater part of the pay which he had brought, since be was an influential man and in close relations with the highest officials of the palace; and so it was done.

§ 28.6.18 Palladius immediately, being thus enriched, proceeded to Lepcis, and in order to succeed in ferreting out the truth, he took with him to the devastated regions two eloquent and distinguished townsmen, Erechthius and Aristomenes, who freely told him of their own troubles and those of their fellow-citizens and neighbours.

§ 28.6.19 They openly showed him everything, and after he had seen the lamentable ashes of the province, he returned, and reproaching Romanus for his inactivity, threatened to give the emperor a true report of everything that he had seen. Then Romanus, filled with anger and resentment, assured him that he also would then at once report that Palladius, sent as an incorruptible notary, had diverted to his own profit all the money intended for the soldiers.

§ 28.6.20 Therefore, since his conscience was witness to disgraceful acts, Palladius then came to an understanding with Romanus, and on his return to the palace, he misled Valentinian by the atrocious art of lying, declaring that the people of Tripolis had no cause for complaint. Accordingly, he was sent again to Africa with Jovinus, the last of all the envoys (for Pancratius had died at Treves ), in order with the deputy to examine in person the value of the work of the second deputation also. Besides this, the emperor gave orders that the tongues of Erechthius and Aristomenes should be cut out, since the aforesaid Palladius had intimated that they had made some offensive statements.

§ 28.6.21 The secretary, following the deputy, as had been arranged, came to Tripolis. As soon as Romanus learned of this, with all speed he sent his attendant thither, and with him an adviser of his, Caecilius by name, a native of that province. Through these all the townspeople were induced — whether by bribes or deceit is uncertain — to make grave charges against Jovinus, positively declaring that they had given him no commission to report what he had reported to the emperor. In fact, their dishonesty went so far that even Jovinus himself was forced to endanger his own life by confessing that he had lied to the emperor.

§ 28.6.22 When this was known through Palladius, who had now returned, Valentinian, being rather inclined to severity, gave orders that Jovinus, as the originator of the false statement, with Caelestinus, Concordius, and Lucius as accomplices and participants, should suffer capital punishment; further, that Ruricius, the governor, should suffer death as the author of a false report, the following also being counted against him — that there were read in his report certain expressions of his which seemed immoderate.

§ 28.6.23 Ruricius was executed at Sitifis, the rest were punished at Utica through sentence of the deputy-governor Crescens. Flaccianus, however, before the death of the other envoys, was heard by the deputy and the general; and when he stoutly defended his life, he was all but killed by the angry soldiers, who rushed upon him with shouts and abusive language; for they declared against him that the Tripolitani could not possibly be defended for the reason that they themselves had declined to furnish what was necessary for the campaign.

§ 28.6.24 And for this reason Flaccianus was imprisoned, until the emperor, who had been consulted about him, should make up his mind what ought to be done. But he bribed his guards — so it was permissible to believe — and made his escape to the city of Rome, where he kept in hiding until he passed away by a natural death.

§ 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 of the envoys and the governor. For long afterwards the 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.

§ 28.6.26 And when Theodosius, that famous leader of armies, had come into Africa to put an end to the dangerous attempts of Firmus, and, as he had been ordered, examined the moveable property of the outlawed Romanus, there was found also among his papers the letter of one Meterius, containing the words, “ Meterius to Romanus his Lord and patron,” and at the end, after much matter that would here be irrelevant: “The disgraced Palladius salutes you, and says that he was deposed for no other reason than that in the cause of the people of Tripolis he spoke to the sacred ears what was not true.”

§ 28.6.27 When this letter had been sent to the Palace and read, Meterius, on being seized by order of Valentinian, admitted that the letter was his. Therefore Palladius was ordered to be produced, but thinking of the mass of crimes that he had concocted, at a halting-station, as darkness was coming on, noticing the absence of the guards, who on a festal day of the Christian religion were spending the whole night in church, he knotted a noose about his neck and strangled himself.

§ 28.6.28 When this favourable turn of fortune was fully known and the instigator of the awful troubles put to death, Erechthius and Aristomenes, who, when they learned that it had been ordered that their tongues should be cut out, as over-lavishly used, had withdrawn to far remote and hidden places, now hastened from concealment; and when the emperor Gratian — for Valentinian had died — was given trustworthy information of the abominable deception, they were sent for trial to the proconsul Hesperius and the deputy Flavianus. These officials, being men of impartial justice combined with most rightful authority, having put Caecilius to the torture, learned from his open confession that he himself had persuaded his citizens to make trouble for the envoys by false statements. This investigation was followed by a report, which disclosed the fullest confirmation of the acts which had been committed; to this no reply was made.

§ 28.6.29 And that these dramas should leave no awful tragic effect untried, this also was added after the curtain had dropped. Romanus, setting out to the Palace, brought with him Caecilius, who intended to accuse the judges of having been biased in favour of the province; and being received with favour by Merobaudes, he had sought that some more witnesses whom he needed should be produced.

§ 28.6.30 When these had come to Milan, and had shown by credible evidence that they had been brought there under false pretences to satisfy a grudge, they were discharged and returned to their homes. Nevertheless, in Valentinianus' lifetime, in consequence of what we have stated above, Remigius also after retiring into private life strangled himself, as I shall show in the proper place.

§ 29.1.1 Book 29 At the end of the winter Sapor, king of the Persian nations, made immoderately arrogant by the confidence inspired by his former battles, having filled up the number of his army and greatly strengthened it, had sent his mailed horsemen, archers, and mercenary soldiers to invade our territories.

§ 29.1.2 To meet these forces the general Trajanus and Vadomarius, the former king of the Alamanni, advanced with very powerful forces, appointed by the emperor's order to observe the policy of keeping off the Persians rather than attacking them.

§ 29.1.3 When they had come to Vagabanta, a favourable place for the legions, they met unwillingly the swift attacks of the enemy's cavalry fiercely rushing upon them, and purposely retreated, in order not to be first to wound anyone of their adversaries and thus be judged guilty of violating the treaty; but at last, driven by extreme necessity, they engaged in battle, and, after slaying many of the Persians, came off victorious.

§ 29.1.4 But during the delay which followed, several skirmishes were tried by both sides, which ended with varying results; and an armistice having been concluded by common consent, and the summer having ended, the leaders of both sides departed in different directions, still at enmity with each other. Now the king of the Parthians returned home, to spend the winter in Ctesiphon; but the Roman emperor entered Antioch. And while the latter was staying there, free from anxiety from foreign foes for the time, he almost fell victim to domestic treason, as an account of the series of events will show.

§ 29.1.5 A certain Procopius, a turbulent man, always 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, 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.

§ 29.1.6 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, 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 nearby — 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.

§ 29.1.8 And while they were in doubt who there was at the time that was superior to all in strength of character, it seemed to them that Theodorus surpassed all others; he had already gained second rank among the secretaries, and was in fact such a man as they thought him. For he was born of a clan famous in olden times in Gaul, liberally educated from earliest childhood, and so eminent for his modesty, good sense, refinement, charm, and learning that he always seemed superior to every office and rank that he was holding, and was dear alike to high and low. He was also almost the only man whose mouth was closed by no fear of danger, since he bridled his tongue and reflected on what he was going to say.

§ 29.1.9 Fidustius, already tortured almost to death, also added to this that Theodorus had learned all these prophecies from information which he himself had given him through Euserius, a man of remarkable learning and highly honoured; for shortly before that he had governed Asia with the rank of vice-prefect.

§ 29.1.10 When Euserius also was put in prison, and the record of what had been done had been read to the emperor as usual, Valens' monstrous savagery spread everywhere like a fiercely blazing torch, and was increased by the base flattery of many men, and in particular by that of Modestus, who was then praetorian prefect.

§ 29.1.11 This man, being daily terrified by the thought of a successor, by tricking Valens, who was somewhat simple-minded, with veiled but clever flattery tried to wheedle over the emperor's favour in various ways, calling his rough, crude words'choice Ciceronian posies'; and to increase his vanity he declared that, if Valens should order it, even the stars could be brought down and displayed for him.

§ 29.1.12 Accordingly, orders were given that Theodorus also should be with swift dispatch hurried there from Constantinople, to which he had gone on domestic business, and while he was being brought back, as the result of sundry preliminary trials, which were carried on day and night, a number of men, conspicuous for their rank and high birth, were brought from widely separated places.

§ 29.1.13 And, since neither the public dungeons, already full to overflowing, nor private houses could contain the throngs of prisoners, although they were crammed together in hot and stifling crowds, and since the greater number of them were in irons, they all dreaded their own fate and that of their nearest relatives.

§ 29.1.14 Finally Theodorus himself also arrived, half dead with fear and in mourning garb, and when he had been hidden in a remote part of the country, and everything was ready that the coming inquiries required, the trumpets were already sounding the signal for the murder of citizens.

§ 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.

§ 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.

§ 29.1.17 The same thing sometimes happened during the reigns of Commodus and Severus, whose life was often attempted with extreme violence, until finally the one, after escaping many varied dangers within the palace, as he was entering the pit of the amphitheatre to attend the games, was dangerously wounded with a dagger by the senator Quintianus, a man of unlawful ambition, and almost disabled; the other, when far advanced in years, would have been stabbed by the centurion Saturninus (who at the instigation of the prefect Plautianus made an unexpected attack on him as he lay in bed) had not his young son borne him aid.

§ 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.

§ 29.1.19 This persistent purpose of his increased, spurred on as it was both by his own greed and that of persons who frequented the court at that time, and opened the way to fresh desires, and if any mention of mercy was made — which rarely happened — called it slackness. These men through their bloodthirsty flatteries perverted in the worst possible direction the character of a man who carried death at the tip of his tongue, and blew everything down with an untimely hurricane, hastening to overturn utterly the richest houses.

§ 29.1.20 For he was exposed and open to the approach of plotters through his dangerous tendency to two faults: first, he was more prone to intolerable anger, when to be angry at all was shameful; secondly, in his princely pride he did not condescend to sift the truth of what, with the readiness of access of a man in private life, he had heard in secret whispers, but accepted as true and certain.

§ 29.1.21 The result was that many innocent persons under the appearance of mercy were thrust forth from their homes, and driven headlong into exile; and their property, which was consigned to the treasury, the emperor himself turned to his own profit, while the condemned, worn out by the privations of fearful poverty, were reduced to beggary — and that is a fate to avoid which the wise old poet Theognis advises us actually to hurl ourselves into the sea.

§ 29.1.22 And even if anyone should admit that these things were right, yet their excess alone was hateful. Whence it was observed that the maxim is true, that no sentence is more cruel than one which conceals great severity under the guise of mercy.

§ 29.1.23 Accordingly, when the highest officials, to whom the investigations had been entrusted together with the praetorian prefect, had been called together, the racks were made taut, the leaden weights were brought out along with the cords and the scourges. The whole place echoed with the horrible cries of a savage voice, as those who did the awful work shouted amid the clanking of chains: “Hold him; clamp; tighten; away with him.”

§ 29.1.24 And, since I have seen many condemned after horrible tortures, but everything is a jumble of confusion as in times of darkness, I shall, since the complete recollection of what was done has escaped me, give a brief and summary account of what I can recall.

§ 29.1.25 First, after some unimportant questions, Pergamius was called in, betrayed (as has been said) 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, 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 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 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.