Ammianus Marcellinus, History

§ 29.5.44 Then Theodosius marched farther into the country, and with great courage attacked the tribe of the Iubaleni, to which he had learned that Nubel, the father of Firmus, belonged; but he was brought to a halt by the high mountains and the circuitous passes; and although he attacked the enemy and after killing many of them opened a way, yet dreading the high hills, so well adapted to ambuscades, he led his men back in safety to the fortress of Audia. There the wild race of the Iesalenses voluntarily surrendered, promising to furnish aid and provisions.

§ 29.5.45 The mighty leader, exulting in these and similar glorious actions, then went in quest of the disturber of peace himself with a mighty effort of strength. To that end he made a long halt near the castle of Medianum, hoping that through many carefully devised plans Firmus might be betrayed into his hands.

§ 29.5.46 While he was looking forward to this with perplexed thoughts and deep care, he found that his enemy had returned to the Isaflenses; whereupon he did not delay, as before, but attacked them with all the speed he could. Their king, Igmazen by name, who was highly regarded in those parts and notable for his resources, boldly came forward to meet him. “What is your rank,” said he, “or what have you come here to do? Tell me.” Theodosius, with stern glance and resolute mind, replied: “I am the general of Valentinian, lord of the world, sent to destroy a murderous robber. Unless you give him up at once, as the invincible emperor has ordered, you will perish utterly with the race over which you rule.” On hearing this, Igmazen, after heaping a flood of abuse upon the general, departed, full of wrath and resentment.

§ 29.5.47 At the first appearance of the following daylight both armies, with threatening mien, advanced to meet each other in battle. Nearly 20,000 savages were stationed in the very van, with bands of reserves concealed behind them, in order that they might gradually rise up and surround our men with their unexpected numbers. Besides these there were a great many auxiliaries from the Iesalenses, who, as we have pointed out, had promised help and provisions to our side.

§ 29.5.48 On the other hand, the Romans, although very few in number, nevertheless brave in spirit and encouraged by their former victories, pressed side to side in close order and with shields closely held together in the tortoise-formation, stood fast and resisted them; and the battle was continued from sunrise to the end of the day. A little before evening Firmus was seen, mounted on a tall horse, his purple cloak trailing out and spreading wide, urging our soldiers with loud shouts to take advantage of the opportunity and give up Theodosius, if they wished to be saved from the dangers to which they were exposed, calling him a fierce savage and a cruel deviser of inhuman punishments.

§ 29.5.49 These unexpected words roused some to fight more fiercely but induced others to abandon the battle. Accordingly, when the first quiet of night came, and the landscape was wrapped in fear-inspiring darkness, the general returned to the stronghold of Duodia, and, reviewing his soldiers, rid himself by various forms of punishment of those whom panic and the words of Firmus had turned from their duty in the battle; some had their right hands cut off, others were burned alive.

§ 29.5.50 And keeping watch by night with most vigilant care, he repulsed some of the barbarians who ventured to make an attempt on his camp after the setting of the moon, when they thought they could not be seen, or took prisoners those who rushed in too boldly. Then departing by quick marches and following by-paths, he attacked the Iesalenses from a quarter where they could least expect it, believing them to be of doubtful loyalty, and so devastated their lands that they were reduced to dire need; then he returned by way of the towns of Mauritania Caesariensis to Sitifis, where he tortured to the verge of death and then burned alive Castor and Martinianus, as sharers in the robberies and atrocities of Romanus.

§ 29.5.51 After this the war with the Isaflenses was renewed; and when in the first engagement great numbers of the savages were put to flight or killed, their king Igmazen, who had before been accustomed to victory, wavering through fear of the present danger, and thinking that because of his unlawful associations no hope of life was left him if be made obstinate resistance, rushed forth alone and with all possible caution and secrecy from the scene of the battle. When he came into the presence of Theodosius, he humbly begged that the general would order Masilla, a chief of the Mazices, to appear before him.

§ 29.5.52 When Masilla had been sent to Theodosius, as he had asked, the king through him, in a secret interview, urged the general, who by his own nature was inclined to resolution, that in order to provide himself with the means of accomplishing his desires, he should vigorously assail his fellow-countrymen, and by constant fighting reduce them to fear; he said that they were indeed inclined to favour the public enemy, but were wearied by their many losses.

§ 29.5.53 Theodosius did as he was advised, and so wore out the Isaflenses by frequent contests, that they were falling like cattle; and Firmus himself secretly escaped, intending to hide in remote and lasting retreats; but while he was there planning flight, he was taken prisoner by Igmazen and kept in custody.

§ 29.5.54 And since he had learned through Masilla of the secret negotiations, he saw that in his extremity only one remedy was left, and decided by a voluntary death to spurn with his foot the desire to live. Accordingly, having purposely filled his guards with wine and made them drunk, and in the silence of the night they were buried in sound sleep, he himself, kept awake by fear of the trouble which hung over him, with noiseless steps left his bed, by creeping on hands and knees got himself some distance off, and finding a rope which he had procured for the calamity of ending his life, he hung it from a nail fastened in the wall, and putting his neck in it breathed his last without the torments of a painful death.

§ 29.5.55 This event troubled Igmazen, who lamented that he had been robbed of glory, in not having had the good fortune of bringing the usurper alive to the Roman camp. Therefore, after gaining a public pledge of safety through Masilla he placed the corpse of the dead man on his camel to bring it in; and on reaching the tents of the army, which were pitched near the fortress of Subicara, he transferred the body to a pack-animal and himself offered it to the exultant Theodosius.

§ 29.5.56 The latter called together his soldiers and with them the populace, and asked them whether they recognized the features; and when he bad learned beyond any doubt that it was the face of Firmus, after a brief stay there he returned to Sitifis in the guise of a triumphing general, where he was received with applause and commendation by all, of every age and rank.

§ 29.6.1 While the said general was panting through this dust of Mars throughout Mauritania and Africa, the Quadi, who had long been quiet, were suddenly aroused to an outbreak; they are a nation now not greatly to be feared, but were formerly immensely warlike and powerful, as is shown by their swift and sudden swoops in former times, their siege of Aquileia in company with the Marcomanni, the destruction of Opitergium, and many other bloody deeds performed in rapid campaigns; so that when they broke through the Julian Alps, the emperor Marcus Pius, of whom we have previously written, could with difficulty check them. And, for savages, they had a just cause of complaint.

§ 29.6.2 For Valentinian from the very beginning of his reign burned with a desire of protecting his frontiers, which was indeed praiseworthy, but carried too far; for he ordered the building of a garrison-camp across the Danube in the very territories of the Quadi, as if they were already claimed for Roman rule. The natives, being indignant at this and cautious for their own interests, tried to prevent them for a time merely by a deputation and by whispered complaints.

§ 29.6.3 But Maximinus, being prone to every kind of wickedness and unable to control his native arrogance, which was swollen still more by his prefecture, upbraided Aequitius, who was at the time commander of the cavalry in Illyricum, as rebellious and slothful in not yet having finished the work the earlier construction of which had been arranged; and he added, as if having regard for the general welfare, that if the rank of general in Valeria were given to his own son Marcellianus, the fortification would rise without any excuses.

§ 29.6.4 Both objects were presently attained. When the newly appointed general had set out and had reached the spot, with unreasonable arrogance, as was to be expected of the son of such a father, without any words to soothe those whom the dreams of a design never actually carried out was driving from their country, he took up the work which had been begun a short time before, but was suspended because of the opportunity given for protesting.

§ 29.6.5 Finally, when king Gabinius mildly asked that no new step should be taken, he pretended that he would assent, and with feigned kindness invited the king with others to a banquet. But as Gabinius was departing after the feast and suspected no treachery, Marcellianus, with abominable violation of the sacred duties of hospitality, had him murdered.

§ 29.6.6 The report of so atrocious a deed at once spread abroad on all sides and roused the Quadi and the tribes round about them to madness. Weeping for the death of the king, they mustered and sent out devastating bands, which crossed the Danube while no hostility was anticipated, and fell upon the country people, who were busy with their harvest; most of them they killed, the survivors they led home as prisoners, along with a quantity of all kinds of domestic animals.

§ 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 and took her in all haste back to Sirmium, twenty-six miles away.

§ 29.6.8 After the princess was saved by this fortunate chance from the danger of wretched slavery, which, if it had been impossible to ransom the captive, would have branded the state with the greatest disaster, the Quadi, in company with the Sarmatians, ranged more widely; and being peoples most skilled in rapine and brigandage, they drove off as booty human beings of both sexes as well as cattle, exulting in the ashes of burned farmhouses and the sufferings of the slain inhabitants, whom they took by surprise and destroyed without any mercy.

§ 29.6.9 So, when the dread of similar evils spread over the whole neighbouring country, Probus, the praetorian prefect, then at Sirmium, being accustomed to no horrors of war and so overcome by the sorrowful and unusual sights that he barely raised his eyes, hesitated for a long time in doubt what action to take. And after he had equipped swift horses and determined on flight the next night, he thought of a safer plan and remained where he was.

§ 29.6.10 For he had learnt that all those who were shut up within the walls would at once follow him, in order to take refuge in convenient hiding-places; and that if this should happen, the city, being without defenders, would fall into the hands of the enemy.

§ 29.6.11 Therefore, soon calming his fear, he roused himself with vigorous effort to meet the urgent situation. He cleared out the moats, which were choked with rubbish, and being naturally inclined to building, since the walls through long-continued peace had in great part been neglected and had fallen, he raised them even to the completion of pinnacles of lofty towers. And the work was quickly finished, because he found that the materials which had long since been collected for the purpose of building a theatre were sufficient for what he was hastening to accomplish. Also to this excellent plan he added another equally useful by summoning a cohort of bowmen from the nearest station, to aid them in a siege, if one should come.

§ 29.6.12 By these stumbling-blocks (so to speak) the barbarians were turned from attacking the city, having little skill in such refinements of warfare as well as being impeded by their packs of booty, and turned to the pursuit of Aequitius. And when they learned from the information of prisoners that he had gone to the remote spaces of Valeria, they quickly made their way thither, grinding their teeth and bent upon cutting his throat for this reason — that they believed that it was he who had brought their guiltless king to destruction.

§ 29.6.13 When this became known, at headlong speed two legions were sent to meet them in battle, the Pannonica and the Moesiaca, a strong combination for fighting, which, if they had acted in harmony, would undoubtedly have come off victorious. But while they were hastening to attack the bands of plunderers separately, they were made ineffective by quarrels that broke out between them, and contended for honour and prestige.

§ 29.6.14 When the Sarmatians, who were very keen-witted, learned of this, without waiting for the usual signal for battle, they attacked the Moesiaca first; and while the soldiers were somewhat slow in getting their arms ready because of the confusion, they killed a great number of them, and then with increased confidence broke through the line of the Pannonica. They thus threw the whole army into disorder, and with repeated attacks would almost have annihilated it, had not speedy flight saved some from the danger of death.

§ 29.6.15 At the time of these losses due to a harsher fortune, Theodosius the younger, general in Moesia, a young man whose beard was then only just beginning to appear, afterwards a most glorious emperor, wore out by frequent engagements, drove back and defeated the Free Sarmatians (so called to distinguish them from their rebellious slaves ) who were invading our territories from the other side, crushing them in densely packed conflicts; and so thoroughly did he overwhelm the hordes which converged in floods and resisted most bravely, that he sated the birds and beasts of prey with a veritable feast of many slain.

§ 29.6.16 Therefore, the remainder, their arrogance now cooling down, feared lest the same leader, a man of ready valour (as was evident), on his first entrance into their territories should lay low or put to flight the invading hordes, or should lay ambuscades for them in the dark woods; so, after making many vain attempts from time to time to break through, they lost their confidence for battle and begged for indulgence and pardon for the past. And after being thus conquered for the time, they did nothing in violation of the conditions of the peace that was granted them, being especially struck with fear because a strong force of Gallic troops had been added to the defence of Illyricum.

§ 29.6.17 At the time when these storms, so many and so terrible, were causing constant disturbances, while Claudius was governing the Eternal City, the Tiber, which cuts through the midst of our walled town and, with many drains and streams pouring into it, mingles with the Tyrrenian Sea, was swollen by an excessive rainfall, and extending beyond the appearance of a river, covered almost the whole place.

§ 29.6.18 While all the remaining quarters of the city, which extend down to a gentler level, were under water, the mountains alone, and such buildings as were especially high, were protected from present danger. And since the height of the waters prevented movement anywhere on foot, a supply of food was furnished in abundance by boats and skiffs, for fear that many people might starve to death. But, in fact, when the stormy weather moderated, and the river, which had broken its bonds, returned to its usual course, all fear was dispelled and no further trouble was looked for.

§ 29.6.19 This prefect himself passed his term of office in complete quiet, allowing no public discord over and above reasonable remonstrance; and he restored many old buildings. Among others he built a huge colonnade near the Baths of Agrippa and called it the Portico of Good Outcome, because there is a temple to that deity to be seen near by.

§ 30.1.1 Book 30 Amid these troublesome disturbances, which the treachery of a general brought about by the atrocious murder of the king of the Quadi, a terrible crime was committed in the Orient, where Papa, king of the Armenians, was killed by secret plots. Of this matter, which was conceived by a nefarious plan, the following (as we have learned) was the original cause.

§ 30.1.2 Some crafty men, who had often fattened themselves through losses sustained by the public, brought before Valens and maliciously exaggerated a patchwork of charges against this king, even then only just come to manhood. Among these was the general Terentius, a man who walked humbly and always wore a somewhat sad expression, but so long as he lived was a zealous abettor of dissensions.

§ 30.1.3 He formed a cabal with a few of the gentiles who were in fear and suspense because of their misdeeds, and writing constantly to the court harped on the death of Cylaces and Arrabanes, adding that this same young king was aroused to acts of arrogance and was excessively cruel to his subjects.

§ 30.1.4 Accordingly, under pretence that he was to take part in a consultation to be held at the time with regard to the present situation of affairs, the said Papa was summoned with the courtesy due to his royal rank; but at Tarsus in Cilicia he was put under guard as if it were doing him honour. And when he could neither get access to the emperor's quarters, nor learn the reason for his urgent coming, since all kept silence, he finally found out through secret information, that Terentius by letters was advising the Roman ruler at once to appoint another king of Armenia, to prevent a nation that was useful to us from going over to the side of the Persians through hatred of Papa and the expectation that he would return; for they were burning with the desire of seizing Armenia by force, or threats, or flattery.

§ 30.1.5 The king, thinking over the matter, foresaw that he was threatened by a sad end. And being now aware of the plot, and seeing no other way to save himself except by a swift departure, at the advice of trusted friends he got together three hundred companions who had followed him from his native country; and when the greater part of the day had passed they mounted swift horses and set out with more boldness than discretion, as is usual under pressing and doubtful alarms, and fearlessly hastened away in close order.

§ 30.1.6 The governor of the province, aroused by a message from the officer who guarded the gate, proceeded in eager haste and overtook the king in the suburbs. He earnestly besought him to remain; but since this request was not granted, he turned his back through fear of his life.

§ 30.1.7 More than that, when a legion followed him a little later and overtook him, Papa charged back upon them with his bravest men, pouring in his arrows like a shower of sparks. He missed intentionally but put them to flight, so that the whole legion with its tribune was terrified and they all returned to the walls more briskly than they had come.

§ 30.1.8 Then, freed from all fear, after completing two days and two nights of very toilsome marching, he came to the bank of the Euphrates; but since he had no boats he could not ford the eddying stream, so that many of his men, being unable to swim were terrified, and the king himself hesitated most of all. Indeed, he would have remained there, if he had not, amid the various plans suggested by all, been able to find an expedient which seemed safest in their dire necessity.

§ 30.1.9 They took the beds which they found in the farmhouses and supported each of them upon two bladders, of which there was an abundant supply in the vine-producing fields. The prince himself and his most distinguished followers seated themselves each upon one of these, led their horses behind them, and by taking oblique courses avoided the high waves of the onrushing waters; and by this device, after extreme dangers, they at length reached the opposite bank.

§ 30.1.10 All the rest, carried by their swimming horses, and often submerged and tossed about by the flood swirling around them, exhausted by the danger and the wetting, were thrown out on the opposite bank. There they refreshed themselves with a brief rest and went on more rapidly than on the days just past.

§ 30.1.11 When this was reported, the emperor, greatly troubled by the flight of the king, and thinking that after escaping this snare he would break faith, sent Danielus and Barzimeres (the one a general, the other tribune of the targeteers) with a thousand nimble and light-armed archers, to call him back.

§ 30.1.12 They, trusting to their knowledge of the region, since the king, though in haste, yet being a foreigner and unacquainted with the neighbourhood, kept making meanders and circles, got ahead of him by short cuts through the valleys. Then, dividing their forces, they beset the two nearest roads, which were separated by a distance of three miles, in order that, through whichever of the two he should pass, he might be caught off his guard; but the plan came to nothing through this chance event:

§ 30.1.13 A wayfarer who was hastening towards the nearer bank of the river, seeing the ascent filled with armed soldiers, in order to avoid them took to a bypath between the two roads, rough with thickets and brambles; falling in with the wearied Armenians, and being led before the king, he told him in a private interview what he had seen; he was then detained, but not harmed.

§ 30.1.14 Presently the king, pretending that there was nothing to fear, secretly sent a horseman on the road to the right with orders to secure lodging and food; but after he had gone a little way, another was ordered to go with all speed towards the left on a similar errand, but without knowing that the other horseman had been sent in a different direction.

§ 30.1.15 After these helpful precautions, the king himself, with his followers — the wayfarer tracing his way back amongst the thickets through which he had come and showing a rough path very narrow indeed for a loaded pack-animal — left the soldiers behind him, and made his escape. They, after capturing his messengers, who had been sent merely to confuse the minds of those who were lying in wait for the king, were almost expecting him to rush into their open arms, like a wild beast at a hunt. But while they were waiting for his coming, he was restored safe and sound to his kingdom, where he was received with the greatest joy by his subjects; but thereafter he remained unmoved in true allegiance, bearing in silence all the wrongs that he had suffered.

§ 30.1.16 After this, as soon as Danielus and Barzimeres, baffled, had returned, they were assailed with shameful reproaches as blunderers and slothful, and like venomous serpents whose bite had been blunted by the first attack, they sharpened their deadly fangs, intending as soon as they could and to the extent of their powers to injure him who had given them the slip.

§ 30.1.17 And to palliate their fault or the deception which they had suffered from greater cleverness, they bombarded the ears of the emperor (most retentive of all gossip) with false charges against Papa, alleging that he was wonderfully skilled through the incantations of Circe in changing and weakening men's bodies; and they added that, having by arts of that kind spread darkness round himself, and by changing his own form and that of his followers, having passed through their lines, if he survived this trickery, he would cause sad troubles.

§ 30.1.18 In this way the irreconcilable hatred of the emperor for Papa was increased, and plots were devised every day for taking his life either by violence or secretly; and to Trajanus, who was then in Armenia in command of the military forces, this work was entrusted through secret letters.

§ 30.1.19 That general sought to win the king by treacherous flattery, now showing him letters of Valens as tokens of his calm state of mind, and now forcing himself upon his banquets; finally, when his plot was matured, he invited him with great respect to a luncheon. The king came, fearing no hostility, and took his place in the seat of honour granted him.

§ 30.1.20 And when choice dainties were set before him, and the great building rang with the music of strings, songs, and wind-instruments, the host himself, already heated with wine, went out, under pretence of a call of nature. Then a rude barbarian, fiercely glaring with savage eyes and brandishing a drawn sword, one of the class called scurrae, was sent in to kill the young man, who had already been cut off from any possibility of escape.

§ 30.1.21 At this sight the young king, who, as it happened, was leaning forward beyond his couch, drew his dagger and was rising to defend his life by every possible means, but fell disfigured, pierced through the breast like some victim at the altar, foully slain by repeated strokes.

§ 30.1.22 By such treachery was credulity basely deceived, and at a banquet, which ought to be respected even on the Euxine Sea, before the eyes of the god of hospitality a stranger's blood was shed, which bespattered the splendid linen cloths with foaming gore, was more than enough to sate the guests, who scattered in utmost horror. If the dead can feel grief, the famous Fabricius Luscinus might groan at this arrogant act, when he recalled with what greatness of soul he rejected the promise of Demochares or (as some write) Nicias, the king's attendant, made in a secret conference; for he said that he would kill king Pyrrhus, who at that time was reducing Italy to ashes in cruel warfare, by mixing poison with his cups; but Fabricius warned the king in a letter to beware of his more intimate servants. Such a place of respect in those days of old-time justice was held by the conviviality even of an enemy's table.

§ 30.1.23 True, some sought to excuse this recent extraordinary and shameful deed by the example of the assassination of Sertorius, but those flatterers perhaps did not know that no act which is proved to be contrary to law is justified because another crime was similar or went unpunished, as Demosthenes, eternal glory of Greece, declares.

§ 30.2.1 These are the noteworthy events that took place in Armenia. But Sapor, after the former disaster to his men, on learning of the murder of Papa, whom he was making great efforts to enlist on his side, overwhelmed with heavy grief and with his fear increased by the activity of our army, sowed the seeds of greater troubles for himself.

§ 30.2.2 Accordingly, he sent Arraces as an envoy to the emperor, advising him to withdraw entirely from Armenia, since it was a continual source of troubles; or if that was not acceptable, proposing as an alternative that abandoning the division of Hiberia and withdrawing the garrisons of the Roman part, he should allow Aspacures, whom Sapor had made ruler of that nation, to reign alone.

§ 30.2.3 To this Valens made answer to this effect: that he could not repeal anything of that which had been agreed upon by common consent, but would maintain it with the utmost vigour. In reply to this noble utterance a letter was brought from the king when the winter was already nearly ended, giving trivial and arrogant reasons. For he asserted that the weeds of discord could not be pruned away by the roots except in the presence of those who had been witnesses to the conclusion of the peace with Jovian, some of whom (as he had learned) had since died.

§ 30.2.4 After this the emperor's cares grew heavier. Now he was in condition rather to make a choice of plans than to discover any; and so, thinking it to be to the advantage of the State, he ordered Victor, commander of the cavalry, and Urbicius, general in Mesopotamia, to go quickly to the Persians, bearing an ultimatum in plain language: that it was criminal of a king who was just and contented with his own (as he boasted) wrongfully to covet Armenia, whose people had been granted permission to live independently; and that, unless the guard of soldiers given to Sauromaces should return without hindrance at the beginning of the following year (as had been agreed), Sapor would be forced to do against his will what he had refrained from doing of his own accord.

§ 30.2.5 This embassy was indeed straightforward and frank, had its members not erred in one particular; for they accepted without orders some small territories that offered themselves to them in that same Armenia. On their return the Surena, who ranked next to the king, came and offered to the emperor these same lands that our envoys had recklessly taken.

§ 30.2.6 He was received courteously and handsomely entertained, but was sent back without obtaining what he asked, and in consequence great preparations were made for war, in the expectation that when the winter grew milder the emperor would invade Persia with three armies and for that purpose was in great haste hiring mercenaries from the Scythians.

§ 30.2.7 Accordingly Sapor, having failed to gain that for which he had vainly hoped, and exasperated even more than usual because he had learned that our ruler was perparing for a campaign, defied Valens' anger and instructed the Surena to recover by arms, in case anyone made opposition, the lands which Count Victor and Urbicius had taken over; also to do all possible harm to the soldiers appointed for the protection of Sauromaces.

§ 30.2.8 These instructions were hastily carried out, as he had ordered, and could not be remedied or punished, since the Roman state was encompassed by another danger from all the Gothic peoples, who were lawlessly overrunning Thrace; these disasters can briefly be set forth, when I come also to that part of my narrative.

§ 30.2.9 This is what happened in the eastern regions. During the course of these events the eternal power 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, in the following manner.

§ 30.2.10 Remigius, who (as we have said ) favoured the general Romanus in his oppression of the provinces, after Leo had been appointed chief marshal of the court in his place, was now resting from public duties and gave himself up to rural life in his native place near Mainz.

§ 30.2.11 While he was there passing a care-free life, Maximinus, the praetorian prefect, scorning him, now that he turned back to a life of leisure, and being wont to overrun all things like a dire pestilence, aspired to injure him in every possible manner. And in his desire to discover more secrets, he seized Caesarius, who had formerly been in the service of Remigius and later a secretary of the emperor, and tried by cruel tortures to learn what Remigius had done, and how much he had received for aiding the criminal acts of Romanus.

§ 30.2.12 When Remigius (who, as has been said, was in retirement) learned of this, either driven by the consciousness of guilt or because the dread of false charges overcame his reason, he strangled himself, and so died.

§ 30.3.1 In the year following these events, Gratianus was made consul as the colleague of Aequitius; and Valentinian, who after devastating several cantons of the Alamanni was building a fortification near Basilia, which the neighbours call Robur, received the report of the prefect Probus, telling of the devastation in Illyricum.

§ 30.3.2 On reading this with careful attention, as became a cautious general, he was distracted by anxious reflections and sending the secretary Paternianus, gave the matter the most searching investigation. As soon as he received through him a true account of what had happened, he hastened to set out at once, in order (as he intended) to crush by the first clash of his arms the savages who had ventured to violate our frontier.

§ 30.3.3 But since autumn was waning and many difficulties stood in the way, all the principal men at the court strove by entreaties and prayers to hold him back until the beginning of spring. In the first place, they urged that the roads, hardened with frost, where neither any growth of grass would be found for fodder nor anything else fit for the use of the army, could not be penetrated. In the second place, they set before him the alleged savagery of the kings bordering on Gaul, and most of all of Macrianus, who was formidable, and (as was well known) had been left unsubdued, and would actually attack even fortified cities.

§ 30.3.4 Calling to mind these things and adding other salutary advice, they led the emperor to a better opinion, and at once (as was for the advantage of the state) the said king was courteously summoned to the vicinity of Mainz, being himself also inclined (as was evident) to accepting a treaty. And he arrived enormously puffed up in every way, as if he expected to be the supreme arbiter of peace, and on the day set for the conference, with head high uplifted, he stood at the very edge of the Rhine while the clashing shields of his countrymen thundered all about him.

§ 30.3.5 On the other side the Augustus embarked on some river-boats, himself also hedged by a throng of military officers and conspicuous amid the brilliance of flashing standards, and cautiously approached the shore. Finally, the savages ceased their immoderate gesticulation and barbaric tumult, and after much had been said and heard on both sides, friendship was confirmed between them by the sanctity of an oath.

§ 30.3.6 When this was accomplished, the king who had caused the disturbances withdrew pacified, henceforth to be our ally; and after that up to the very end of his life he gave proof by noble conduct of a spirit of steadfast loyalty.

§ 30.3.7 He found his death later in the land of the Franks; for while amid murderous devastation he penetrated that country too eagerly, he was lured into an ambush by the warlike king Mallobaudes and perished. But after the solemn ratification of the treaty Valentinian retired to Treves for winter quarters.

§ 30.4.1 This is what took place throughout Gaul and before the northern part of the empire. But in the regions of the East, amid the profound quiet of foreign affairs, destructive internal corruption was increasing through the friends and intimates of Valens, with whom advantage prevailed over honour. For diligent efforts were exerted to turn the emperor, as a severe man and eager to hear cases at law, from his desire to act as judge; for fear that as in the times of Julian, if the defence of innocence should revive, the arrogance of powerful men, which under the licence that they had assumed was in the habit of always reaching out farther, might be checked.

§ 30.4.2 On these and similar grounds many united in a common attempt at dissuasion and in particular the praetorian prefect Modestus, a man wholly subjected to the influence of the eunuchs of the court, of a boorish nature refined by no reading of the ancient writers. He, wearing a forced and deceptive expression, declared that the trivialities of private cases at law were beneath the dignity of the imperial majesty. Accordingly Valens, thinking that the examination of swarms of legal cases was devised to humble the loftiness of the royal power, in accordance with the advice of Modestus, abstained from it wholly, thereby opening the doors to robbery; and this grew stronger day by day through the wickedness of judges and advocates in collusion; for they sold their decisions of the cases of poorer people to officers in the army, or to powerful men within the palace, and thus gained either wealth or high position.

§ 30.4.3 This trade of forensic oratory the great Plato defined as politikes moriou eiddolon (that is, the shadow of a small part of the science of government) or as the fourth part of flattery; but Epicurus counts it among evil arts, calling it kakotexnia. Tisias says that it is the artist of persuasion, and Gorgias of Leontini agrees with him.

§ 30.4.4 This art, thus defined by the men of old, the cunning of certain Orientals raised to a degree hateful to good men, for which reason it is even confined by the restraints of a time fixed beforehand. Therefore after having described in a very few words its unworthiness, with which I became acquainted while I was living in those parts, I shall return to the course of the narrative with which I began.

§ 30.4.5 Formerly judgement-seats gained glory through the support of old-time refinement, when orators of fiery eloquence, devoted to learned studies, were eminent for talent and justice, and for the fluency and many adornments of their diction; for example Demosthenes, to hear whom, when he was going to speak, as the Attic records testify, the people were wont to flock together from all Greece; and Callistratus, to whom, when he pleaded in that celebrated case in defence of Oropos (which is a place in Euboea ) that same Demosthenes attached himself, forsaking the Academy and Plato; also, Hyperides, Aeschines, Andocides, Dinarchus, and the famous Antiphon of Rhamnus, who, according to the testimony of antiquity, was the first of all to accept a fee for conducting a defence.

§ 30.4.6 Not less eminent among the Romans were men like Rutilius, Galba, and Scaurus, conspicuous for their life, their character, and their uprightness; and later in the various epochs of subsequent times many former censors and consuls, and men who had been honoured with triumphs, such as Crassus, Antonius, Philippus, Scaevola, and many others, after successful campaigns, after victories and trophies, distinguished themselves by civic services to the State, and winning laurels in the glorious contests of the Forum, enjoyed Fame's highest honours.

§ 30.4.7 After these Cicero, the most eminent of them all, by the floods of his all-conquering oratory often saved the oppressed from the fiery ordeal of the courts, and declared: “It might perhaps be pardonable to refuse to defend some men, but to defend them negligently could be nothing but criminal.”

§ 30.4.8 But now it is possible to see in all the regions of the Orient powerful and rapacious classes of men flitting from one forum to another, besieging the home hounds sagaciously picking up the tracks until they come to the very lairs of lawsuits.

§ 30.4.9 Among these the first class consists of those who, by sowing the seeds of all sorts of quarrels, busy themselves with thousands of recognisances, wearing out the doors of widows and the thresholds of childless men; and if they have found even slight retreats of secret enmity, they rouse deadly hatred among discordant friends, kinsfolk, or relatives. And in these men their vices do not cool down in course of time, as do those of others, but grow stronger and stronger. Poor amid insatiable robbery, they draw the dagger of their talent to lead astray by crafty speeches the good faith of the judges, whose title is derived from justice.

§ 30.4.10 By their persistence rashness tries to pass itself off as freedom of speech; and reckless audacity as firmness of purpose; a kind of empty flow of words as eloquence. By the perversity of these arts, as Cicero insists, it is a sin for the conscientiousness of a judge to be deceived. For he says: “And since nothing in a state ought to be so free from corruption as the suffrage and judicial decisions, I do not understand why one who corrupts them by money deserves punishment, while one who corrupts them by his eloquence is even praised. For my part, I think that he does more evil who corrupts a judge by a speech than one who does so by money; for no one can corrupt a sensible man by money, but he can do so by words.”

§ 30.4.11 A second class consists of those who profess a knowledge of law, which, however, the self-contradictory statutes have destroyed, and reticent as if they were muzzled, in never-ending silence they are like their own shadows. These men, as though revealing destinies by nativities or interpreting a Sibyl's oracles, assume a solemn expression of severe bearing and try to make even their yawning saleable.

§ 30.4.12 In order to seem to have a deeper knowledge of the law, they talk of Trebatius, Cascellius, and Alfenus, and of the laws of the Aurunci and Sicani, which were long since forgotten and buried many ages ago along with Evander's mother. And if you pretend that you have purposely murdered your mother, they promise, if they have observed that you are a moneyed man, that their many recondite studies will secure an acquittal for you.

§ 30.4.13 A third group consists of those who, in order to gain glory by their troublous profession, sharpen their venal tongues to attack the truth, and with shameless brow and base yelping often gain entrance wherever they wish. When the anxious judges are distracted by many cares, they tie up the business in an inexplicable tangle, and do their best to involve all peace and quiet in lawsuits and purposely by knotty inquisitions they deceive the courts, which, when their procedure is right, are temples of justice, when corrupted, are deceptive and hidden pits: and if anyone is deluded and falls into those pits, he will not get out except after many a term of years, when he has been sucked dry to his very marrow.

§ 30.4.14 The fourth and last class, shameless, headstrong, and ignorant, consists of those who have broken away too soon from the elementary schools, run to and fro through the corners of the cities, thinking out mimiambic lines, rather than speeches suitable to win law-suits, wearing out the doors of the rich, and hunting for banquets and fine choice food.

§ 30.4.15 When they have once devoted themselves to shady gain and to eagerness for money from any and every source, they urge all kinds of innocent people to involve themselves in vain litigations. And when they are allowed to defend suits, which rarely happens, amidst the very turning-points of the disputes they learn the name of their client and the purport of the business in hand from the mouth of the judge, and they so overflow with disarranged circumlocutions that in the foul hotchpotch you would think you were hearing a Thersites with his howling din.

§ 30.4.16 But when they find themselves in the end unable to defend the charges, they turn to unbridled licence in abuse; and on this account, because of their constant insults of persons of rank, they are prosecuted and often condemned; and among them are some who are so ignorant that they cannot remember that they ever possessed a law-book.

§ 30.4.17 And if in a circle of learned men the name of an ancient writer happens to be mentioned, they think it is a foreign word for some fish or other edible; but if any stranger asks for the orator Marcianus (for example), who was before unknown to him, at once they all pretend that their own name is Marcianus.

§ 30.4.18 And they no longer have before their eyes any right, but as if sold to and enslaved by avarice, they understand nothing except endless licence in making demands. And if once they have caught anyone in their nets, they entangle him in a thousand toils, purposely defaulting by pretending sicknesses one after another; and they prepare seven plausible preambles in order that the useless reading of well-known law may be introduced, thus weaving swarms of long delays.

§ 30.4.19 And when the contending parties are stripped of everything, and days, months and years are used up, at last the case, now worn out with age, is introduced, and those brilliant principals come forth, bringing with them other shadows of advocates. And when they have come within the barriers of the court, and the fortunes or safety of some one begins to be discussed, and they ought to work to turn the sword or ruinous loss from an innocent person, the advocates on both sides wrinkling their brows and waving their arms in semblance of the gestures of actors (so that they lack only the oratorical pipe of Gracchus behind them) stand for a long time opposite each other. At last, in accordance with a prearranged agreement, the one who is more confident in speech utters a kind of a sweet prologue, promising to emulate the ornamental language of a speech for Cluentius or Ctesiphon; and when all are wishing for the end, such is the method of his peroration that the advocates, after the semblance of a trial has gone on for three years, allege that they are not yet fully informed; and after they have obtained a further postponement, as if they had struggled with Antaeus of old, they persistently demand the pay for their danger and toil.

§ 30.4.20 But yet, in spite of this, advocates suffer many inconveniences, not easy to be endured by a man who would live rightly. For, allured by the profits of their sedentary trade, they differ among themselves and become enemies, and they offend many by their outbursts of abusive ferocity (as has been said), which they blab out in a torrent when they have no arguments strong enough to fortify the weakness of the cases which have been entrusted to them.

§ 30.4.21 And they have to deal with judges who sometimes are taught by the sophisms of Philistion or Aesopus, rather than reared in the discipline of your Aristides the Just or Cato. Such men, having bought public office for large sums of money, like tiresome creditors prying into the resources of every kind of fortune, shake out booty from other men's bosoms.

§ 30.4.22 Finally, the profession of advocate has, with the rest, this serious and dangerous evil, which is native to almost all litigants, that although their cases may be lost by a thousand accidents, they think their ill-success lies wholly in the ability of their advocates, and they are accustomed to attribute the outcome of every contest to them; and they vent their anger not on the weakness of their case or the frequent injustice of the magistrate who decides it, but only on their defenders. But let us return to the point from which we made the digression.

§ 30.5.1 When spring was already ripening, Valentinian moved from Treviri and hastened by quick marches along the familiar roads; and when he came to the regions for which he was aiming, he was met by a deputation of the Sarmatians, who threw themselves at his feet and begged in peaceful terms that his visit might be favourable and merciful to them, since he would find that their countrymen were neither participants in, nor aware of, any outrage.

§ 30.5.2 When they often repeated these same statements, after mature deliberation the emperor made this answer: that these acts must be investigated, in the place where they were said to have been committed, and punished in the light of the most reliable evidence. And when thereafter he entered Carnuntum, a town of the prefecture of Illyricum, now indeed deserted and in ruins, but very convenient for the leader of an army, he proceeded (whenever chance or design gave the opportunity) to check the attacks of the savages from a station near by.

§ 30.5.3 And though he was a terror to all while his arrival was waited for, since he was likely in bitter anger to order at once the punishment of officials who through perfidy or desertion had exposed that side of Pannonia, yet on his arrival he became so mild that he neither made inquiry into the murder of King Gabinius, nor carefully investigated the wounds branded on the body of the state to learn through whose negligence or guilt they had come about. And indeed it was his way to be severe in punishing common people, but more lenient towards personages of higher rank, even when they deserved a severe rebuke in harsh words.

§ 30.5.4 Probus alone he attacked with bitter hatred, never ceasing to threaten him from the first time he had seen him, nor showing him any mildness; and for this conduct there were obvious weighty reasons. Probus had then, not for the first time, attained the rank of praetorian prefect, and in his longing to prolong his tenure of office in many ways (I only wish that they had been justifiable), he relied more on flattery than on worth otherwise than the glory of his stock admonished him.