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Transcriber's Note
The punctuation and spelling from the original text have been faithfully
preserved. Only obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
This text contains a several phrases in Greek, with English
transliterations surrounded with + markers like this: +tês d' aretês+.
THE
ROMAN HISTORY
OF
AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS
DURING THE REIGNS OF
THE EMPERORS CONSTANTIUS, JULIAN, JOVIANUS,
VALENTINIAN, AND VALENS.
TRANSLATED BY
C.D. YONGE, M.A.
_WITH A GENERAL INDEX_
[Illustration]
LONDON
G. BELL AND SONS, LTD
1911
[_Reprinted from Stereotype plates._]
PREFACE.
Of Ammianus Marcellinus, the writer of the following History, we know
very little more than what can be collected from that portion of it
which remains to us. From that source we learn that he was a native of
Antioch, and a soldier; being one of the _prefectores domestici_--the
body-guard of the emperor, into which none but men of noble birth were
admitted. He was on the staff of Ursicinus, whom he attended in several
of his expeditions; and he bore a share in the campaigns which Julian
made against the Persians. After that time he never mentions himself,
and we are ignorant when he quitted the service and retired to Rome, in
which city he composed his History. We know not when he was born, or
when he died, except that from one or two incidental passages in his
work it is plain that he lived nearly to the end of the fourth century:
and it is even uncertain whether he was a Christian or a Pagan; though
the general belief is, that he adhered to the religion of the ancient
Romans, without, however, permitting it to lead him even to speak
disrespectfully of Christians or Christianity.
His History, which he divided into thirty-one books (of which the first
thirteen are lost, while the text of those which remain is in some
places imperfect), began with the accession of Nerva, A.D. 96, where
Tacitus and Suetonius end, and was continued to the death of Valens,
A.D. 378, a period of 282 years. And there is probably no work as to the
intrinsic value of which there is so little difference of opinion.
Gibbon bears repeated testimony to his accuracy, fidelity, and
impartiality, and quotes him extensively. In losing his aid after A.D.
378, he says, "It is not without sincere regret that I must now take
leave of an accurate and faithful guide, who has composed the history of
his own times without indulging the prejudices and passions which
usually affect the mind of a contemporary." Professor Ramsay (in Smith's
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography) says, "We are indebted to him
for a knowledge of many important facts not elsewhere recorded, and for
much valuable insight into the modes of thought and the general tone of
public feeling prevalent in his day. Nearly all the statements admitted
appear to be founded upon his own observations, or upon the information
derived from trustworthy eye-witnesses. A considerable number of
dissertations and digressions are introduced, many of them highly
interesting and valuable. Such are his notices of the institutions and
manners of the Saracens (xiv. 4), of the Scythians and Sarmatians (xvii.
12), of the Huns and Alani (xxxi. 2), of the Egyptians and their country
(xxii. 6, 14-16), and his geographical discussions upon Gaul (xv. 9),
the Pontus (xxii. 8), and Thrace (xxvii. 4). Less legitimate and less
judicious are his geological speculations upon earthquakes (xvii. 7),
his astronomical inquiries into eclipses (xx. 3), comets (xxv. 10), and
the regulation of the calendar (xxvi. 1); his medical researches into
the origin of epidemics (xix. 4); his zoological theory on the
destruction of lions by mosquitos (xviii. 7), and his horticultural
essay on the impregnation of palms (xxiv. 3). In addition to industry in
research and honesty of purpose, he was gifted with a large measure of
strong common sense, which enabled him in many points to rise superior
to the prejudices of his day, and with a clear-sighted independence of
spirit which prevented him from being dazzled or over-awed by the
brilliancy and the terrors which enveloped the imperial throne. But
although sufficiently acute in detecting and exposing the follies of
others, and especially in ridiculing the absurdities of popular
superstition, Ammianus did not entirely escape the contagion. The
general and deep-seated belief in magic spells, omens, prodigies, and
oracles, which appears to have gained additional strength upon the first
introduction of Christianity, evidently exercised no small influence
over his mind. The old legends and doctrines of the pagan creed, and the
subtle mysticism which philosophers pretended to discover lurking below,
when mixed up with the pure and simple but startling tenets of the new
faith, formed a confused mass which few intellects could reduce to order
and harmony."
The vices of our author's style, and his ambitious affectation of
ornament, are condemned by most critics; but some of the points which
strike a modern reader as defects evidently arise from the alteration
which the Latin language had already undergone since the days of Livy.
His great value, however, consists in the facts he has made known to us,
and is quite independent of the style or language in which he has
conveyed that knowledge, of which without him we should have been nearly
destitute.
The present translation has been made from Wagner and Erfurdt's edition,
published at Leipzig in 1808, and their division of chapters into short
paragraphs has been followed.
_Feb._ 1862.
THE HISTORY OF AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS.
THE FIRST THIRTEEN BOOKS ARE LOST.
BOOK XIV.
ARGUMENT.
I. The cruelty of the Cæsar Gallus.--II. The incursions of the
Isaurians.--III. The unsuccessful plans of the Persians.--IV. The
invasion of the Saracens, and the manners of that people.--V. The
punishment of the adherents of Magnentius.--VI. The vices of the
senate and people of Rome.--VII. The ferocity and inhumanity of the
Cæsar Gallus.--VIII. A description of the provinces of the
East.--IX. About the Cæsar Constantius Gallus.--X. The Emperor
Constantius grants the Allemanni peace at their request.--XI. The
Cæsar Constantius Gallus is sent for by the Emperor Constantius,
and beheaded.
I.
A.D. 353.
§ 1. After the events of an expedition full of almost insuperable
difficulties, while the spirits of all parties in the state, broken by
the variety of their dangers and toils, were still enfeebled; while the
clang of trumpets was ringing in men's ears, and the troops were still
distributed in their winter quarters, the storms of angry fortune
surrounded the commonwealth with fresh dangers through the manifold and
terrible atrocities of Cæsar Gallus:[1] who, when just entering into the
prime of life, having been raised with unexpected honour from the
lowest depth of misery to the highest rank, exceeded all the legitimate
bounds of the power conferred on him, and with preposterous violence
threw everything into confusion. For by his near relationship to the
royal family, and his connection with the name of Constantine, he was so
inflated with pride, that if he had had more power, he would, as it
seemed, have ventured to attack even the author of his prosperity.
2. His wife added fuel to his natural ferocity; she was a woman
immoderately proud of her sisterly relationship to Augustus, and had
been formerly given in marriage by the elder Constantine to King
Hannibalianus,[2] his brother's son. She was an incarnate fury: never
weary of inflaming his savage temper, thirsting for human blood as
insatiably as her husband. The pair, in process of time, becoming more
skilful in the infliction of suffering, employed a gang of underhand and
crafty talebearers, accustomed in their wickedness to make random
additions to their discoveries, which consisted in general of such
falsehoods as they themselves delighted in; and these men loaded the
innocent with calumnies, charging them with aiming at kingly power, or
with practising infamous acts of magic.
3. And among his less remarkable atrocities, when his power had gone
beyond the bounds of moderate crimes, was conspicuous the horrible and
sudden death of a certain noble citizen of Alexandria, named Clematius.
His mother-in-law, having conceived a passion for him, could not prevail
on him to gratify it; and in consequence, as was reported, she, having
obtained an introduction by a secret door into the palace, won over the
queen by the present of a costly necklace, and procured a fatal warrant
to be sent to Honoratus, at that time count-governor of the East, in
compliance with which Clematius was put to death, a man wholly innocent
of any kind of wickedness, without being permitted to say a word in his
defence.
4. After this iniquitous transaction, which struck others also with fear
lest they should meet with similar treatment, as if cruelty had now
obtained a licence, many were condemned on mere vague suspicion; of whom
some were put to death, others were punished by the confiscation of
their property, and driven forth as exiles from their homes, so that
having nothing left but their tears and complaints, they were reduced to
live on the contributions of their friends; and many opulent and famous
houses were shut up, the old constitutional and just authority being
changed into a government at the will of a bloodthirsty tyrant.
5. Nor amid these manifold atrocities was any testimony of an accuser,
not even of a suborned one, sought for, in order to give at least an
appearance of these crimes being committed according to law and statute,
as very commonly even the most cruel princes have done: but whatever
suited the implacable temper of Cæsar was instantly accomplished in
haste, as if its accordance with human and divine law had been well
considered.
6. After these deeds a fresh device was adopted, and a body of obscure
men, such as, by reason of the meanness of their condition, were little
likely to excite suspicion, were sent through all the districts of
Antioch, to collect reports, and to bring news of whatever they might
hear. They, travelling about, and concealing their object, joined
clandestinely in the conversational circles of honourable men, and also
in disguise obtained entrance into the houses of the rich. When they
returned they were secretly admitted by back doors into the palace, and
then reported all that they had been able to hear or to collect; taking
care with an unanimous kind of conspiracy to invent many things, and to
exaggerate for the worse all they really knew; at the same time
suppressing any praises of Cæsar which had come to their ears, although
these were wrung from many, against their consciences, by the dread of
impending evils.
7. And it had happened sometimes that, if in his secret chamber, when no
domestic servant was by, the master of the house had whispered anything
into his wife's ear, the very next day, as if those renowned seers of
old, Amphiaraus or Marcius, had been at hand to report it, the emperor
was informed of what had been said; so that even the walls of a man's
secret chamber, the only witnesses to his language, were viewed with
apprehension.
8. And Cæsar's fixed resolution to inquire into these and other similar
occurrences was increased by the queen, who constantly stimulated his
desire, and was driving on the fortunes of her husband to headlong
destruction, while she ought rather, by giving him useful advice, to
have led him back into the paths of truth and mercy, by feminine
gentleness, as, in recounting the acts of the Gordiani, we have related
to have been done by the wife of that truculent emperor Maximinus.
9. At last, by an unsurpassed and most pernicious baseness, Gallus
ventured on adopting a course of fearful wickedness, which indeed
Gallienus, to his own exceeding infamy, is said formerly to have tried
at Rome; and, taking with him a few followers secretly armed, he used to
rove in the evening through the streets and among the shops, making
inquiries in the Greek language, in which he was well skilled, what were
the feelings of individuals towards Cæsar. And he used to do this boldly
in the city, where the brillancy of the lamps at night often equalled
the light of day. At last, being often recognized, and considering that
if he went out in this way he should be known, he took care never to go
out except openly in broad daylight, to transact whatever business which
he thought of serious importance. And these things caused bitter though
secret lamentation, and discontent to many.
10. But at that time Thalassius was the present prefect[3] of the
palace, a man of an arrogant temper; and he, perceiving that the hasty
fury of Gallus gradually increased to the danger of many of the
citizens, did not mollify it by either delay or wise counsels, as men in
high office have very often pacified the anger of their princes; but by
untimely opposition and reproof, did often excite him the more to
frenzy; often also informing Augustus of his actions, and that too with
exaggeration, and taking care, I know not with what intention, that what
he did should not be unknown to the emperor. And at this Cæsar soon
became more vehemently exasperated, and, as if raising more on high than
ever the standard of his contumacy, without any regard to the safety of
others or of himself, he bore himself onwards like a rapid torrent, with
an impetuosity which would listen to no reason, to sweep away all the
obstacles which opposed his will.
II.
§ 1. Nor indeed was the East the only quarter which this plague affected
with its various disasters. For the Isaurians also, a people who were
accustomed to frequent alternations of peace, and of turbulence which
threw everything into confusion with sudden outbreaks--impunity having
fostered their growing audacity and encouraged it to evil--broke out in
a formidable war. Being especially excited, as they gave out by this
indignity, that some of their allies, having been taken prisoners, were
in an unprecedented manner exposed to wild beasts, and in the games of
the amphitheatre, at Iconium, a town of Pisidia.
2. And as Cicero[4] says, that "even wild beasts, when reminded by
hunger, generally return to that place where they have been fed before."
So they all, descending like a whirlwind from their high and pathless
mountains, came into the districts bordering on the sea: in which hiding
themselves in roads full of lurking-places, and in defiles, when the
long nights were approaching, the moon being at that time new, and so
not yet giving her full light, they lay wait for the sailors; and when
they perceived that they were wrapped in sleep, they, crawling on their
hands and feet along the cables which held the anchors, and raising
themselves up by them, swung themselves into the boats, and so came
upon the crews unexpectedly, and, their natural ferocity being inflamed
by covetousness, they spared not even those who offered no resistance,
but slew them all, and carried off a splendid booty with no more trouble
than if it had been valueless.
3. This conduct did not last long, for when the deaths of the crews thus
plundered and slaughtered became known, no one afterwards brought a
vessel to the stations on that coast; but, avoiding them as they would
have avoided the deadly precipices of Sciron,[5] they sailed on, without
halting, to the shores of Cyprus, which lie opposite to the rocks of
Isauria.
4. Therefore as time went on, and no foreign vessels went there any
more, they quitted the sea-coast, and betook themselves to Lycaonia, a
country which lies on the borders of Isauria. And there, occupying the
roads with thick barricades, they sought a living by plundering the
inhabitants of the district, as well as travellers. These outrages
aroused the soldiers who were dispersed among the many municipal towns
and forts which lie on the borders. And they, endeavouring to the utmost
of their strength to repel these banditti, who were spreading every day
more widely, sometimes in solid bodies, at others in small straggling
parties, were overcome by their vast numbers.
5. Since the Isaurians, having been born and brought up amid the
entangled defiles of lofty mountains, could bound over them as over
plain and easy paths, and attacked all who came in their way with
missiles from a distance, terrifying them at the same time with savage
yells.
6. And very often our infantry were compelled in pursuit of them to
climb lofty crags, and, when their feet slipped, to catch hold of the
shrubs and briars to raise themselves to the summits; without ever being
able to deploy into battle array, by reason of the narrow and difficult
nature of the ground, nor even to stand firm; while their enemy running
round in every direction hurled down upon them fragments of rock from
above till they retired down the declivities with great danger. Or
else, sometimes, in the last necessity fighting bravely, they were
overwhelmed with fragments of immense bulk and weight.
7. On this account they subsequently were forced to observe more
caution, and whenever the plunderers began to retire to the high ground,
our soldiers yielded to the unfavourable character of the country and
retired. But whenever they could be met with in the plain, which often
happened, then charging them without giving them time to combine their
strength, or even to brandish the javelins of which they always carried
two or three, they slaughtered them like defenceless sheep.
8. So that these banditti, conceiving a fear of Lycaonia, which is for
the most part a champaign country, since they had learnt by repeated
proofs that they were unequal to our troops in a pitched battle, betook
themselves by unfrequented tracks to Pamphylia. This district had long
been free from the evils of war, but nevertheless had been fortified in
all quarters by strong forts and garrisons, from the dread entertained
by the people of rapine and slaughter, since soldiers were scattered
over all the neighbouring districts.
9. Therefore hastening with all speed, in order by their exceeding
celerity of movement to anticipate all rumour of their motions, trusting
to their strength and activity of body, they travelled by winding roads
until they reached the high ground on the tops of the mountains, the
steepness of which delayed their march more than they had expected. And
when at last, having surmounted all the difficulties of the mountains,
they came to the precipitous banks of the Melas, a deep river and one
full of dangerous currents, which winds round the district, protecting
the inhabitants like a wall, the night which had overtaken them
increased their fears, so that they halted for a while awaiting the
daylight. For they expected to be able to cross without hindrance, and
then, in consequence of the suddenness of their inroad, to be able to
ravage all the country around; but they had incurred great toil to no
purpose.
10. For when the sun rose they were prevented from crossing by the size
of the river, which though narrow was very deep. And while they were
searching for some fishing-boats, or preparing to commit themselves to
the stream on rafts hastily put together, the legions which at that
time were wintering about Side, came down upon them with great speed and
impetuosity; and having pitched their standards close to the bank with a
view to an immediate battle, they packed their shields together before
them in a most skilful manner, and without any difficulty slew some of
the banditti, who either trusted to their swimming, or who tried to
cross the river unperceived in barks made of the trunks of trees
hollowed out.
11. And the Isaurians having tried many devices to obtain success in a
regular battle, and having failed in everything, being repulsed in great
consternation, and with great vigour on the part of the legions, and
being uncertain which way to go, came near the town of Laranda. And
there, after they had refreshed themselves with food and rest, and
recovered from their fears, they attacked several wealthy towns; but
being presently scared by the support given to the citizens by some
squadrons of horse which happened to be at hand, and which they would
not venture to resist in the extensive plains, they retreated, and
retracing their steps summoned all the flower of their youth which had
been left at home to join them.
12. And as they were oppressed with severe famine, they made for a place
called Palea, standing on the sea-shore, and fortified with a strong
wall; where even to this day supplies are usually kept in store, to be
distributed to the armies which defend the frontier of Isauria.
13. Therefore they encamped around this fortress for three days and
three nights, and as the steepness of the ground on which it stood
prevented any attempt to storm it without the most deadly peril, and as
it was impossible to effect anything by mines, and no other manoeuvres
such as are employed in sieges availed anything, they retired much
dejected, being compelled by the necessities of their situation to
undertake some enterprise, even if it should be greater than their
strength was equal to.
14. Then giving way to greater fury than ever, being inflamed both by
despair and hunger, and their strength increased by their unrestrainable
ardour, they directed their efforts to destroy the city of Seleucia, the
metropolis of the province, which was defended by Count Castucius, whose
legions were inured to every kind of military service.
15. The commanders of the garrison being forewarned of their approach
by their own trusty scouts, having, according to custom, given, out the
watchword to the troops, led forth all their forces in a rapid sally,
and having with great activity passed the bridge over the river
Calicadnus, the mighty waters of which wash the turrets of the walls,
they drew out their men as if prepared for battle. But as yet no man
left the ranks, and the army was not allowed to engage; for the band of
the Isaurians was dreaded, inasmuch as they were desperate with rage,
and superior in number, and likely to rush upon the arms of the legions
without any regard to their lives. Therefore as soon as the army was
beheld at a distance, and the music of the trumpeters was heard, the
banditti halted and stood still for a while, brandishing their
threatening swords, and after a time they marched on slowly. And when
the steady Roman soldiery began to deploy, preparing to encounter them,
beating their shields with their spears (a custom which rouses the fury
of the combatants, and strikes terror into their enemies), they filled
the front ranks of the Isaurians with consternation. But as the troops
were pressing forward eagerly to the combat their generals recalled
them, thinking it inopportune to enter upon a contest of doubtful issue,
when their walls were not far distant, under protection of which the
safety of the whole army could be placed on a solid foundation.
16. Therefore the soldiers were brought back inside the walls in
accordance with this resolution, and all the approaches and gates were
strongly barred; and the men were placed on the battlements and
bulwarks, having vast stones and weapons of all kinds piled close at
hand, so that if any one forced his way inside he might be overwhelmed
with a multitude of missiles and stones.
17. But those who were shut up in the walls were at the same time
greatly afflicted, because the Isaurians having taken some vessels which
were conveying grain down the river, were well provided with abundance
of food, while they themselves, having almost consumed the usual stores
of food, were in a state of alarm dreading the fatal agonies of
approaching famine. When the news of this distress got abroad, and when
repeated messages to this effect had moved Gallus Cæsar, because the
master of the horse was kept away longer than usual at that season,
Nebridius the count of the East was ordered to collect a military force
from all quarters, and hastened forward with exceeding zeal to deliver
the city, so wealthy and important, from such a peril. And when this was
known the banditti retired, without having performed any memorable
exploit, and dispersing, according to their wont, they sought the
trackless recesses of the lofty mountains.
III.
§ 1. While affairs were in this state in Isauria, and while the king of
Persia was involved in wars upon his frontier, repulsing from his
borders a set of ferocious tribes which, being full of fickleness, were
continually either attacking him in a hostile manner, or, as often
happens, aiding him when he turned his arms against us, a certain noble,
by name Nohodares, having been appointed to invade Mesopotamia, whenever
occasion might serve, was anxiously exploring our territories with a
view to some sudden incursion, if he could anywhere find an opportunity.
2. And because since every part of Mesopotamia is accustomed to be
disturbed continually, the lands were protected by frequent barriers,
and military stations in the rural districts, Nohodares, having directed
his march to the left, had occupied the most remote parts of the
Osdroene, having devised a novel plan of operations which had never
hitherto been tried. And if he had succeeded he would have laid waste
the whole country like a thunderbolt.
3. Now the plan which he had conceived was of this kind. There is a town
in Anthemusia called Batne, built by the ancient Macedonians, a short
distance from the river Euphrates, thickly peopled by wealthy merchants.
To this city, about the beginning of the month of September, a great
multitude of all ranks throng to a fair, in order to buy the wares which
the Indians and Chinese send thither, and many other articles which are
usually brought to this fair by land and sea.
4. The leader before named, preparing to invade this district on the
days set apart for this solemnity, marching through the deserts and
along the grassy banks of the river Abora, was betrayed by information
given by some of his own men, who being alarmed at the discovery of
certain crimes which they had committed, deserted to the Roman
garrisons, and accordingly he retired again without having accomplished
anything; and after that remained quiet without undertaking any further
enterprise.
IV.
§ 1. At this time also the Saracens, a race whom it is never desirable
to have either for friends or enemies, ranging up and down the country,
if ever they found anything, plundered it in a moment, like rapacious
hawks who, if from on high they behold any prey, carry it off with rapid
swoop, or, if they fail in their attempt, do not tarry.
2. And although, in recounting the career of the Prince Marcus, and once
or twice subsequently, I remember having discussed the manners of this
people, nevertheless I will now briefly enumerate a few more particulars
concerning them.
3. Among these tribes, whose primary origin is derived from the
cataracts of the Nile and the borders of the Blemmyæ, all the men are
warriors of equal rank; half naked, clad in coloured cloaks down to the
waist, overrunning different countries, with the aid of swift and active
horses and speedy camels, alike in times of peace and war. Nor does any
member of their tribes ever take plough in hand or cultivate a tree, or
seek food by the tillage of the land; but they are perpetually wandering
over various and extensive districts, having no home, no fixed abode or
laws; nor can they endure to remain long in the same climate, no one
district or country pleasing them for a continuance.
4. Their life is one continued wandering; their wives are hired, on
special covenant, for a fixed time; and that there may be some
appearance of marriage in the business, the intended wife, under the
name of a dowry, offers a spear and a tent to her husband, with a right
to quit him after a fixed day, if she should choose to do so. And it is
inconceivable with what eagerness the individuals of both sexes give
themselves up to matrimonial pleasures.
5. But as long as they live they wander about with such extensive and
perpetual migrations, that the woman is married in one place, brings
forth her children in another, and rears them at a distance from either
place, no opportunity of remaining quiet being ever granted to her.
6. They all live on venison, and are further supported on a great
abundance of milk, and on many kinds of herbs, and on whatever birds
they can catch by fowling. And we have seen a great many of them wholly
ignorant of the use of either corn or wine.
7. So much for this most mischievous nation. Now let us return to the
subject we originally proposed to ourselves.
V.
§ 1. While these events were taking place in the East, Constantius was
passing the winter at Arles; and after an exhibition of games in the
theatre and in the circus, which were displayed with most sumptuous
magnificence, on the tenth of October, the day which completed the
thirtieth year of his reign, he began to give the reins more freely to
his insolence, believing every information which was laid before him as
proved, however doubtful or false it might be; and among other acts of
cruelty, he put Gerontius, a count of the party of Magnentius, to the
torture, and then condemned him to banishment.
2. And as the body of a sick man is apt to be agitated by even trifling
grievances, so his narrow and sensitive mind, thinking every sound that
stirred something either done or planned to the injury of his safety,
made his victory[6] mournful by the slaughter of innocent men.
3. For if any one of his military officers, or of those who had ever
received marks of honour, or if any one of high rank was accused, on the
barest rumour, of having favoured the faction of his enemy, he was
loaded with chains and dragged about like a beast. And whether any enemy
of the accused man pressed him or not, as if the mere fact that his
name had been mentioned was sufficient, every one who was informed
against or in any way called in question, was condemned either to death,
or to confiscation of his property, or to confinement in a desert
island.
4. For his ferocity was excited to a still further degree when any
mention was made of treason or sedition; and the bloodthirsty
insinuations of those around him, exaggerating everything that happened,
and pretending great concern at any danger which might threaten the life
of the emperor, on whose safety, as on a thread, they hypocritically
exclaimed the whole world depended, added daily to his suspicions and
watchful anger.
5. And therefore it is reported he gave orders that no one who was at
any time sentenced to punishment for these or similar offences should be
readmitted to his presence for the purpose of offering the usual
testimonies to his character, a thing which the most implacable princes
have been wont to permit. And thus deadly cruelty, which in all other
men at times grows cool, in him only became more violent as he advanced
in years, because the court of flatterers which attended on him added
continual fuel to his stern obstinacy.
6. Of this court a most conspicuous member was Paulus, the secretary, a
native of Spain, a man keeping his objects hidden beneath a smooth
countenance, and acute beyond all men in smelling out secret ways to
bring others into danger. He, having been sent into Britain to arrest
some military officers who had dared to favour the conspiracy of
Magnentius, as they could not resist, licentiously exceeded his
commands, and like a flood poured with sudden violence upon the fortunes
of a great number of people, making his path through manifold slaughter
and destruction, loading the bodies of free-born men with chains, and
crushing some with fetters, while patching up all kinds of accusations
far removed from the truth. And to this man is owing one especial
atrocity which has branded the time of Constantius with indelible
infamy.
7. Martinus, who at that time governed these provinces as deputy, being
greatly concerned for the sufferings inflicted on innocent men, and
making frequent entreaties that those who were free from all guilt
might be spared, when he found that he could not prevail, threatened to
withdraw from the province, in the hope that this malevolent inquisitor,
Paulus, might be afraid of his doing so, and so give over exposing to
open danger men who had combined only in a wish for tranquillity.
8. Paulus, thinking that this conduct of Martinus was a hindrance to his
own zeal, being, as he was, a formidable artist in involving matters,
from which people gave him the nickname of "the Chain," attacked the
deputy himself while still engaged in defending the people whom he was
set to govern, and involved him in the dangers which surrounded every
one else, threatening that he would carry him, with his tribunes and
many other persons, as a prisoner to the emperor's court. Martinus,
alarmed at this threat, and seeing the imminent danger in which his life
was, drew his sword and attacked Paulus. But because from want of
strength in his hand he was unable to give him a mortal wound, he then
plunged his drawn sword into his own side. And by this unseemly kind of
death that most just man departed from life, merely for having dared to
interpose some delay to the miserable calamities of many citizens.
9. And when these wicked deeds had been perpetrated, Paulus, covered
with blood, returned to the emperor's camp, bringing with him a crowd of
prisoners almost covered with chains, in the lowest condition of squalor
and misery; on whose arrival the racks were prepared, and the
executioner began to prepare his hooks and other engines of torture. Of
these prisoners, many of them had their property confiscated, others
were sentenced to banishment, some were given over to the sword of the
executioner. Nor is it easy to cite the acquittal of a single person in
the time of Constantius, where the slightest whisper of accusation had
been brought against him.
VI.
§ 1. At this time Orfitus was the governor of the Eternal City, with the
rank of prefect; and he behaved with a degree of insolence beyond the
proper limits of the dignity thus conferred upon him. A man of prudence
indeed, and well skilled in all the forensic business of the city, but
less accomplished in general literature and in the fine arts than was
becoming in a nobleman. Under his administration some very formidable
seditions broke out in consequence of the scarcity of wine, as the
people, being exceedingly eager for an abundant use of that article,
were easily excited to frequent and violent disorders.
2. And since I think it likely that foreigners who may read this account
(if, indeed, any such should meet with it) are likely to wonder how it
is that, when my history has reached the point of narrating what was
done at Rome, nothing is spoken of but seditions, and shops, and
cheapness, and other similarly inconsiderable matters, I will briefly
touch upon the causes of this, never intentionally departing from the
strict truth.
3. At the time when Rome first rose into mundane brilliancy--that Rome
which was fated to last as long as mankind shall endure, and to be
increased with a sublime progress and growth--virtue and fortune, though
commonly at variance, agreed upon a treaty of eternal peace, as far as
she was concerned. For if either of them had been wanting to her, she
would never have reached her perfect and complete supremacy.
4. Her people, from its very earliest infancy to the latest moment of
its youth, a period which extends over about three hundred years,
carried on a variety of wars with the natives around its walls. Then,
when it arrived at its full-grown manhood, after many and various
labours in war, it crossed the Alps and the sea, till, as youth and man,
it had carried the triumphs of victory into every country in the world.
5. And now that it is declining into old age, and often owes its
victories to its mere name, it has come to a more tranquil time of life.
Therefore the venerable city, after having bowed down the haughty necks
of fierce nations, and given laws to the world, to be the foundations
and eternal anchors of liberty, like a thrifty parent, prudent and rich,
intrusted to the Cæsars, as to its own children, the right of governing
their ancestral inheritance.
6. And although the tribes are indolent, and the countries peaceful, and
although there are no contests for votes, but the tranquillity of the
age of Numa has returned, nevertheless, in every quarter of the world
Rome is still looked up to as the mistress and the queen of the earth,
and the name of the Roman people is respected and venerated.
7. But this magnificent splendour of the assemblies and councils of the
Roman people is defaced by the inconsiderate levity of a few, who never
recollect where they have been born, but who fall away into error and
licentiousness, as if a perfect impunity were granted to vice. For as
the lyric poet Simonides teaches us, the man who would live happily in
accordance with perfect reason, ought above all things to have a
glorious country.
8. Of these men, some thinking that they can be handed down to
immortality by means of statues, are eagerly desirous of them, as if
they would obtain a higher reward from brazen figures unendowed with
sense than from a consciousness of upright and honourable actions; and
they even are anxious to have them plated over with gold, a thing which
is reported to have been first done in the instance of Acilius Glabrio,
who by his wisdom and valour had subdued King Antiochus. But how really
noble a thing it is to despise all these inconsiderable and trifling
things, and to bend one's attention to the long and toilsome steps of
true glory, as the poet of Ascrea[7] has sung, and Cato the Censor has
shown by his example. For when he was asked how it was that while many
other nobles had statues he had none, replied: "I had rather that good
men should marvel how it was that I did not earn one, than (what would
be a much heavier misfortune) inquire how it was that I had obtained
one."
9. Others place the height of glory in having a coach higher than usual,
or splendid apparel; and so toil and sweat under a vast burden of
cloaks, which are fastened to their necks by many clasps, and blow about
from the excessive fineness of the material; showing a desire, by the
continual wriggling of their bodies, and especially by the waving of the
left hand, to make their long fringes and tunics, embroidered in
multiform figures of animals with threads of various colours, more
conspicuous.
10. Others, with not any one asking them, put on a feigned severity of
countenance, and extol their patrimonial estates in a boundless degree,
exaggerating the yearly produce of their fruitful fields, which they
boast of possessing in numbers from east to west, being forsooth
ignorant that their ancestors, by whom the greatness of Rome was so
widely extended, were not eminent for riches; but through a course of
dreadful wars overpowered by their valour all who were opposed to them,
though differing but little from the common soldiers either in riches,
or in their mode of life, or in the costliness of their garments.
11. This is how it happened that Valerius Publicola was buried by the
contributions of his friends, and that the destitute wife of Regulus
was, with her children, supported by the aid of the friends of her
husband, and that the daughter of Scipio had a dowry provided for her
out of the public treasury, the other nobles being ashamed to see the
beauty of this full-grown maiden, while her moneyless father was so long
absent on the service of his country.
12. But now if you, as an honourable stranger, should enter the house of
any one well off, and on that account full of pride, for the purpose of
saluting him, at first, indeed, you will be hospitably received, as
though your presence had been desired; and after having had many
questions put to you, and having been forced to tell a number of lies,
you will wonder, since the man had never seen you before, that one of
high rank should pay such attention to you who are but an unimportant
individual; so that by reason of this as a principal source of
happiness, you begin to repent of not having come to Rome ten years ago.
13. And when relying on this affability you do the same thing the next
day, you will stand waiting as one utterly unknown and unexpected, while
he who yesterday encouraged you to repeat your visit, counts upon his
fingers who you can be, marvelling, for a long time, whence you come,
and what you want. But when at length you are recognized and admitted to
his acquaintance, if you should devote yourself to the attention of
saluting him for three years consecutively, and after this intermit your
visits for an equal length of time, then if you return to repeat a
similar course, you will never be questioned about your absence any more
than if you had been dead, and you will waste your whole life in
submitting to court the humours of this blockhead.
14. But when those long and unwholesome banquets, which are indulged in
at certain intervals, begin to be prepared, or the distribution of the
usual dole-baskets takes place, then it is discussed with anxious
deliberation whether when those to whom a return is due are to be
entertained, it is proper to invite also a stranger; and if, after the
matter has been thoroughly sifted, it is determined that it may be done,
that person is preferred who waits all night before the houses of
charioteers, or who professes a skill in dice, or pretends to be
acquainted with some peculiar secrets.
15. For such entertainers avoid all learned and sober men as
unprofitable and useless; with this addition, that the nomenclators[8]
also, who are accustomed to make a market of these invitations and of
similar favours, selling them for bribes, do for gain thrust in mean and
obscure men at these dinners.
16. The whirlpools of banquets, and the various allurements of luxury, I
omit, that I may not be too prolix, and with the object of passing on to
this fact, that some people, hastening on without fear of danger, drive
their horses, as if they were post-horses, with a regular licence, as
the saying is, through the wide streets of the city, over the roads
paved with flint, dragging behind them large bodies of slaves like bands
of robbers; not leaving at home even Sannio,[9] as the comic poet says.
17. And many matrons, imitating these men, gallop over every quarter of
the city with their heads covered, and in close carriages. And as
skilful conductors of battles place in the van their densest and
strongest battalions, then their light-armed troops, behind them the
darters, and in the extreme rear troops of reserve, ready to join in the
attack if necessity should arise; so, according to the careful
arrangements of the stewards of these city households, who are
conspicuous by wands fastened to their right hands, as if a regular
watchword had been issued from the camp, first of all, near the front
of the carriage march all the slaves concerned in spinning and working;
next to them come the blackened crew employed in the kitchen; then the
whole body of slaves promiscuously mixed up with a gang of idle
plebeians from the neighbourhood; last of all, the multitude of eunuchs,
beginning with the old men and ending with the boys, pale and unsightly
from the distorted deformity of their features; so that whichever way
any one goes, seeing troops of mutilated men, he will detest the memory
of Semiramis, that ancient queen who was the first person to castrate
male youths of tender age; doing as it were a violence to nature, and
forcing it back from its appointed course, which at the very first
beginning and birth of the child, by a kind of secret law revealing the
primitive fountains of seed, points out the way of propagating
posterity.
18. And as this is the case, those few houses which were formerly
celebrated for the serious cultivation of becoming studies, are now
filled with the ridiculous amusements of torpid indolence, re-echoing
with the sound of vocal music and the tinkle of flutes and lyres.
Lastly, instead of a philosopher, you find a singer; instead of an
orator, some teacher of ridiculous arts is summoned; and the libraries
closed for ever, like so many graves; organs to be played by water-power
are made; and lyres of so vast a size, that they look like waggons; and
flutes, and ponderous machines suited for the exhibitions of actors.
19. Last of all, they have arrived at such a depth of unworthiness, that
when, no very long time ago, on account of an apprehended scarcity of
food, the foreigners were driven in haste from the city; those who
practised liberal accomplishments, the number of whom was exceedingly
small, were expelled without a moment's breathing-time; yet the
followers of actresses, and all who at that time pretended to be of such
a class, were allowed to remain; and three thousand dancing-girls had
not even a question put to them, but stayed unmolested with the members
of their choruses, and a corresponding number of dancing masters.
20. And wherever you turn your eyes, you may see a multitude of women
with their hair curled, who, as far as their age goes, might, if they
had married, been by this time the mothers of three children, sweeping
the pavements with their feet till they are weary, whirling round in
rapid gyrations, while representing innumerable groups and figures
which the theatrical plays contain.
21. It is a truth beyond all question, that, when at one time Rome was
the abode of all the virtues, many of the nobles, like the Lotophagi,
celebrated in Homer, who detained men by the deliciousness of their
fruit, allured foreigners of free birth by manifold attentions of
courtesy and kindness.
22. But now, in their empty arrogance, some persons look upon everything
as worthless which is born outside of the walls of the city, except only
the childless and the unmarried. Nor can it be conceived with what a
variety of obsequious observance men without children are courted at
Rome.
23. And since among them, as is natural in a city so great as to be the
metropolis of the world, diseases attain to such an insurmountable
degree of violence, that all the skill of the physician is ineffectual
even to mitigate them; a certain assistance and means of safety has been
devised, in the rule that no one should go to see a friend in such a
condition, and to a few precautionary measures a further remedy of
sufficient potency has been added, that men should not readmit into
their houses servants who have been sent to inquire how a man's friends
who may have been seized with an illness of this kind are, until they
have cleansed and purified their persons in the bath. So that a taint is
feared, even when it has only been seen with the eyes of another.
24. But nevertheless, when these rules are observed thus stringently,
some persons, if they be invited to a wedding, though the vigour of
their limbs be much diminished, yet, when gold is offered[10] in the
hollow palm of the right hand, will go actively as far as Spoletum.
These are the customs of the nobles.
25. But of the lower and most indigent class of the populace some spend
the whole night in the wine shops. Some lie concealed in the shady
arcades of the theatres; which Catulus was in his ædileship the first
person to raise, in imitation of the lascivious manners of Campania, or
else they play at dice so eagerly as to quarrel over them; snuffing up
their nostrils and making unseemly noises by drawing back their breath
into their noses; or (and this is their favourite pursuit of all others)
from sunrise to evening they stay gaping through sunshine or rain,
examining in the most careful manner the most sterling good or bad
qualities of the charioteers and horses.
26. And it is very wonderful to see an innumerable multitude of people
with great eagerness of mind intent upon the event of the contests in
the chariot race. These pursuits, and others of like character, prevent
anything worth mentioning or important from being done at Rome.
Therefore we must return to our original subject.
VII.
§ 1. His licentiousness having now become more unbounded, the Cæsar
began to be burdensome to all virtuous men; and discarding all
moderation, he harassed every part of the East, sparing neither those
who had received public honours, nor the chief citizens of the different
cities; nor the common people.
2. At last by one single sentence he ordered all the principal persons
at Antioch to be put to death; being exasperated because when he
recommended that a low price should be established in the market at an
unseasonable time, when the city was threatened with a scarcity, they
answered him with objections, urged with more force than he approved;
and they would all have been put to death to a man, if Honoratus, who
was at that time count of the East, had not resisted him with
pertinacious constancy.
3. This circumstance was also a proof, and that no doubtful or concealed
one, of the cruelty of his nature, that he took delight in cruel sports,
and in the circus he would rejoice as if he had made some great gain, to
see six or seven gladiators killing one another in combats which have
often been forbidden.
4. In addition to these things a certain worthless woman inflamed his
purpose of inflicting misery; for she, having obtained admission to the
palace, as she had requested, gave him information that a plot was
secretly laid against him by a few soldiers of the lowest rank. And
Constantina, in her exultation, thinking that her husband's safety was
now fully secured, rewarded and placed this woman, in a carriage, and in
this way sent her out into the public street through the great gate of
the palace, in order, by such a temptation, to allure others also to
give similar or more important information.
5. After these events, Gallus being about to set out for Hierapolis, in
order, as far as appearance went, to take part in the expedition, the
common people of Antioch entreated him in a suppliant manner to remove
their fear of a famine which for many reasons (some of them difficult to
explain) it was believed was impending; Gallus, however, did not, as is
the custom of princes whose power, by the great extent of country over
which it is diffused, is able continually to remedy local distresses,
order any distribution of food to be made, or any supplies to be brought
from the neighbouring countries; but he pointed out to them a man of
consular rank, named Theophilus, the governor of Syria, who happened to
be standing by, replying to the repeated appeals of the multitude, who
were trembling with apprehensions of the last extremities, that no one
could possibly want food if the governor were not willing that they
should be in want of it.
6. These words increased the audacity of the lower classes, and when the
scarcity of provisions became more severe, urged by hunger and frenzy,
they set fire to and burnt down the splendid house of a man of the name
of Eubulus, a man of great reputation among his fellow-citizens; and
they attacked the governor himself with blows and kicks as one
especially made over to them by the judgment of the emperor, kicking him
till he was half dead, and then tearing him to pieces in a miserable
manner. And after his wretched death every one saw in the destruction of
this single individual a type of the danger to which he was himself
exposed, and, taught by this recent example, feared a similar fate.
7. About the same time Serenianus, who had previously been duke[11] of
Phoenicia, to whose inactivity it was owing, as we have already
related, that Celse in Phoenicia was laid waste, was deservedly and
legally accused of treason and no one saw how he could possibly be
acquitted. He was also manifestly proved to have sent an intimate friend
with a cap (with which he used to cover his own head) which had been
enchanted by forbidden acts to the temple of prophecy,[12] on purpose to
ask expressly whether, according to his wish, a firm enjoyment of the
whole empire was portended for him.
8. And in these days a twofold misfortune occurred: first, that a heavy
penalty had fallen upon Theophilus who was innocent; and, secondly, that
Serenianus who deserved universal execration, was acquitted without the
general feeling being able to offer any effectual remonstrance.
9. Constantius then hearing from time to time of these transactions, and
having been further informed of some particular occurrences by
Thalassius, who however had now died by the ordinary course of nature,
wrote courteous letters to the Cæsar, but at the same time gradually
withdrew from him his support, pretending to be uneasy, least as the
leisure of soldiers is usually a disorderly time, the troops might be
conspiring to his injury: and he desired him to content himself with the
schools of the Palatine,[13] and with those of the Protectors, with the
Scutarii, and Gentiles. And he ordered Domitianus, who had formerly been
the Superintendent of the Treasury, but who was now promoted to be a
prefect, as soon as he arrived in Syria, to address Gallus in persuasive
and respectful language, exhorting him to repair with all speed to
Italy, to which province the emperor had repeatedly summoned him.
10. And when, with this object, Domitianus had reached Antioch, having
travelled express, he passed by the gates of the palace, in contempt of
the Cæsar, whom, however, he ought to have visited, and proceeded to the
general's camp with ostentatious pomp, and there pretended to be sick;
he neither visited the palace, nor ever appeared in public, but keeping
himself private, he devised many things to bring about the destruction
of the Cæsar, adding many superfluous circumstances to the relations
which he was continually sending to the emperor.
11. At last, being expressly invited by the Cæsar, and being admitted
into the prince's council-chamber, without making the slightest preface
he began in this inconsiderate and light-minded manner: "Depart," said
he, "as you have been commanded, O Cæsar, and know this, that if you
make any delay I shall at once order all the provisions allotted for the
support of yourself and your court to be carried away." And then, having
said nothing more than these insolent words, he departed with every
appearance of rage; and would never afterwards come into his sight
though frequently sent for.
12. The Cæsar being indignant at this, as thinking he had been
unworthily and unjustly treated, ordered his faithful protectors to take
the prefect into custody; and when this became known, Montius, who at
that time was quæstor, a man of deep craft indeed, but still inclined to
moderate measures,[14] taking counsel for the common good, sent for the
principal members of the Palatine schools and addressed them in pacific
words, pointing out that it was neither proper nor expedient that such
things should be done; and adding also in a reproving tone of voice,
that if such conduct as this were approved of, then, after throwing down
the statues of Constantius the prefect would begin to think how he might
also with the greater security take his life also.
13. When this was known Gallus, like a serpent attacked with stones or
darts, being now reduced to the extremity of despair, and eager to
insure his safety by any possible means, ordered all his troops to be
collected in arms, and when they stood around him in amazement he
gnashed his teeth, and hissing with rage, said,--
14. "You are present here as brave men, come to the aid of me who am in
one common danger with you. Montius, with a novel and unprecedented
arrogance, accuses us of rebellion and resistance to the majesty of the
emperor, by roaring out all these charges against us. Being offended
forsooth that, as a matter of precaution, I ordered a contumacious
prefect, who pretended not to know what the state of affairs required,
to be arrested and kept in custody."
15. On hearing these words the soldiers immediately, being always on the
watch to raise disturbances, first of all attacked Montius, who happened
to be living close at hand, an old man of no great bodily strength, and
enfeebled by disease; and having bound his legs with coarse ropes, they
dragged him straddling, without giving him a moment to take breath, as
far as the general's camp.
16. And with the same violence they also bound Domitianus, dragging him
head first down the stairs; and then having fastened the two men
together, they dragged them through all the spacious streets of the city
at full speed. And, all their limbs and joints being thus dislocated,
they trampled on their corpses after they were dead, and mutilated them
in the most unseemly manner; and at last, having glutted their rage,
they threw them into the river.
17. But there was a certain man named Luscus, the governor of the city,
who, suddenly appearing among the soldiers, had inflamed them, always
ready for mischief, to the nefarious actions which they had thus
committed; exciting them with repeated cries, like the musician who
gives the tune to the mourners at funerals, to finish what they had
begun: and for this deed he was, not long after, burnt alive.
18. And because Montius, when just about to expire under the hands of
those who were tearing him to pieces, repeatedly named Epigonius and
Eusebius, without indicating either their rank or their profession, a
great deal of trouble was taken to find out who they were; and, lest the
search should have time to cool, they sent for a philosopher named
Epigonius, from Lycia, and for Eusebius the orator, surnamed Pittacos,
from Emissa; though they were not those whom Montius had meant, but
some tribunes, superintendents of the manufactures of arms, who had
promised him information if they heard of any revolutionary measures
being agitated.
19. About the same time Apollinaris, the son-in-law of Domitianus, who a
short time before had been the chief steward of the Cæsar's palace,
being sent to Mesopotamia by his father-in-law, took exceeding pains to
inquire among the soldiers whether they had received any secret
despatches from the Cæsar, indicating his having meditated any deeper
designs than usual. And as soon as he heard of the events which had
taken place at Antioch, he passed through the lesser Armenia and took
the road to Constantinople; but he was seized on his journey by the
Protectors, and brought back to Antioch, and there kept in close
confinement.
20. And while these things were taking place there was discovered at
Tyre a royal robe, which had been secretly made, though it was quite
uncertain who had placed it where it was, or for whose use it had been
made. And on that account the governor of the province, who was at that
time the father of Apollinaris, and bore the same name, was arrested as
an accomplice in his guilt; and great numbers of other persons were
collected from different cities, who were all involved in serious
accusations.
21. And now, when the trumpets of internal war and slaughter began to
sound, the turbulent disposition of the Cæsar, indifferent to any
consideration of the truth, began also to break forth, and that not
secretly as before. And without making any solemn investigation into the
truth of the charges brought against the citizens, and without
separating the innocent from the guilty, he discarded all ideas of right
or justice, as if they had been expelled from the seat of judgment. And
while all lawful defence on trials was silent, the torturer, and
plunderer, and the executioner, and every kind of confiscation of
property, raged unrestrained throughout the eastern provinces of the
empire, which I think it now a favourable moment to enumerate, with the
exception of Mesopotamia, which I have already described when I was
relating the Parthian wars; and also with the exception of Egypt, which
I am forced to postpone to another opportunity.
VIII.
§ 1. After passing over the summit of Mount Taurus, which towards the
east rises up to a vast height, Cilicia spreads itself out for a very
great distance--a land rich in all valuable productions. It is bordered
on its right by Isauria, which is equally fertile in vines and in many
kinds of grain. The Calycadnus, a navigable river, flows through the
middle of Isaurus.
2. This province, besides other towns, is particularly adorned by two
cities, Seleucia, founded by King Seleucus, and Claudiopolis, which the
Emperor Claudius Cæsar established as a colony. For the city of Isauria,
which was formerly too powerful, was in ancient times overthrown as an
incurable and dangerous rebel, and so completely destroyed that it is
not easy to discover any traces of its pristine splendour.
3. The province of Cilicia, which exults in the river Cydnus, is
ornamented by Tarsus, a city of great magnificence. This city is said to
have been founded by Perseus, the son of Jupiter and Danaë; or else, and
more probably, by a certain emigrant who came from Ethiopia, by name
Sandan, a man of great wealth and of noble birth. It is also adorned by
the city of Anazarbus, which bears the name of its founder; and by
Mopsuestia, the abode of the celebrated seer Mopsus, who wandered from
his comrades the Argonauts when they were returning after having carried
off the Golden Fleece, and strayed to the African coast, where he died a
sudden death. His heroic remains, though covered by Punic turf, have
ever since that time cured a great variety of diseases, and have
generally restored men to sound health.
4. These two provinces being full of banditti were formerly subdued by
the proconsul Servilius, in a piratical war, and were passed under the
yoke, and made tributary to the empire. These districts being placed, as
it were, on a prominent tongue of land, are cut off from the main
continent by Mount Amanus.
5. The frontier of the East stretching straight forward for a great
distance, reached from the banks of the river Euphrates to those of the
Nile, being bounded on the left by the tribes of the Saracens and on
the right by the sea.
6. Nicator Seleucus, after he had occupied that district, increased its
prosperity to a wonderful degree, when, after the death of Alexander,
king of Macedonia, he took possession of the kingdom of Persia by right
of succession; being a mighty and victorious king, as his surname
indicates. And making free use of his numerous subjects, whom he
governed for a long time in tranquillity, he changed groups of rustic
habitations into regular cities, important for their great wealth and
power, the greater part of which at the present day, although they are
called by Greek names which were given them by the choice of their
founder, have nevertheless not lost their original appellations which
the original settlers of the villages gave them in the Assyrian
language.
7. After Osdroene, which, as I have already said, I intend to omit from
this description, the first province to be mentioned is Commagena, now
called Euphratensis, which has arisen into importance by slow degrees,
and is remarkable for the splendid cities of Hierapolis, the ancient
Ninus, and Samosata.
8. The next province is Syria, which is spread over a beautiful
champaign country. This province is ennobled by Antioch, a city known
over the whole world, with which no other can vie in respect of its
riches, whether imported or natural: and by Laodicea and Apameia, and
also by Seleucia, all cities which have ever been most prosperous from
their earliest foundation.
9. After this comes Phoenicia, a province lying under Mount Lebanon,
full of beauty and elegance, and decorated with cities of great size and
splendour, among which Tyre excels all in the beauty of its situation
and in its renown. And next come Sidon and Berytus, and on a par with
them Emissa and Damascus, cities founded in remote ages.
10. These provinces, which the river Orontes borders, a river which
passes by the foot of the celebrated and lofty mountain Cassius, and at
last falls into the Levant near the Gulf of Issus, were added to the
Roman dominion by Cnæus Pompey, who, after he had conquered Tigranes,
separated them from the kingdom of Armenia.
11. The last province of the Syrias is Palestine, a district of great
extent, abounding in well-cultivated and beautiful land, and having
several magnificent cities, all of equal importance, and rivalling one
another as it were, in parallel lines. For instance, Cæsarea, which
Herod built in honour of the Prince Octavianus, and Eleutheropolis, and
Neapolis, and also Ascalon, and Gaza, cities built in bygone ages.
12. In these districts no navigable river is seen: in many places, too,
waters naturally hot rise out of the ground well suited for the cure of
various diseases. These regions also Pompey formed into a Roman province
after he had subdued the Jews and taken Jerusalem: and he made over
their government to a local governor.
13. Contiguous to Palestine is Arabia, a country which on its other side
joins the Nabathæi--a land full of the most plenteous variety of
merchandize, and studded with strong forts and castles, which the
watchful solicitude of its ancient inhabitants has erected in suitable
defiles, in order to repress the inroads of the neighbouring nations.
This province, too, besides several towns, has some mighty cities, such
as Bostra, Gerasa, and Philadelphia, fortified with very strong walls.
It was the Emperor Trajan who first gave this country the name of a
Roman province, and appointed a governor over it, and compelled it to
obey our laws, after having by repeated victories crushed the arrogance
of the inhabitants, when he was carrying his glorious arms into Media
and Parthia.
14. There is also the island of Cyprus, not very far from the continent,
and abounding in excellent harbours, which, besides its many municipal
towns, is especially famous for two renowned cities, Salamis and Paphos,
the one celebrated for its temple of Jupiter, the other for its temple
of Venus. This same Cyprus is so fertile, and so abounding in riches of
every kind, that without requiring any external assistance, it can by
its own native resources build a merchant ship from the very foundation
of the keel up to the top sails, and send it to sea fully equipped with
stores.
15. It is not to be denied that the Roman people invaded this island
with more covetousness than justice. For when Ptolemy, the king, who was
connected with us by treaty, and was also our ally, was without any
fault of his own proscribed, merely on account of the necessities of our
treasury, and slew himself by taking poison, the island was made
tributary to us, and its spoils placed on board our fleet, as if taken
from an enemy, and carried to Rome by Cato. We will now return to the
actions of Constantius in their due order.
IX.
§ 1. Amid all these various disasters, Ursicinus, who was the governor
of Nisibis, an officer to whom the command of the emperor had
particularly attached me as a servant, was summoned from that city, and
in spite of his reluctance, and of the opposition which he made to the
clamorous bands of flatterers, was forced to investigate the origin of
the pernicious strife which had arisen. He was indeed a soldier of great
skill in war, and an approved leader of troops; but a man who had always
kept himself aloof from the strife of the forum. He, alarmed at his own
danger when he saw the corrupt accusers and judges who were associated
with him, all emerging out of the same lurking-places, wrote secret
letters to Constantius informing him of what was going on, both publicly
and in secret; and imploring such assistance as, by striking fear into
Gallus, should somewhat curb his notorious arrogance.
2. But through excessive caution he had fallen into a worse snare, as we
shall relate hereafter, since his enemies got the opportunity of laying
numerous snares for him, to poison the mind of Constantius against him;
Constantius, in other respects a prince of moderation, was severe and
implacable if any person, however mean and unknown, whispered suspicion
of danger into his ears, and in such matters was wholly unlike himself.
3. On the day appointed for this fatal examination, the master of the
horse took his seat under the pretence of being the judge; others being
also set as his assessors, who were instructed beforehand what was to be
done: and there were present also notaries on each side of him, who kept
the Cæsar rapidly and continually informed of all the questions which
were put and all the answers which were given; and by his pitiless
orders, urged as he was by the persuasions of the queen, who kept her
ear at the curtain, many were put to death without being permitted to
soften the accusations brought against them, or to say a word in their
own defence.
4. The first persons who were brought before them were Epigonius and
Eusebius, who were ruined because of the similarity of their names to
those of other people; for we have already mentioned that Montius, when
just at the point of death, had intended to inculpate the tribunes of
manufactures, who were called by these names, as men who had promised to
be his supports in some future enterprise.
5. Epigonius was only a philosopher as far as his dress went, as was
evident, when, having tried entreaties in vain, his sides having been
torn with blows, and the fear of instant death being presented to him,
he affirmed by a base confession that his companion was privy to his
plans, though in fact he had no plans; nor had he ever seen or heard
anything, being wholly unconnected with forensic affairs. But Eusebius,
confidently denying what he was accused of, continued firm in unshaken
constancy, loudly declaring that it was a band of robbers before whom he
was brought, and not a court of justice.
6. And when, like a man well acquainted with the law, he demanded that
his accuser should be produced, and claimed the usual rights of a
prisoner; the Cæsar, having heard of his conduct, and looking on his
freedom as pride, ordered him to be put to the torture as an audacious
calumniator; and when Eusebius had been tortured so severely that he had
no longer any limbs left for torments, imploring heaven for justice, and
still smiling disdainfully, he remained immovable, with a firm heart,
not permitting his tongue to accuse himself or any one else. And so at
length, without having either made any confession, or being convicted of
anything, he was condemned to death with the spiritless partner of his
sufferings. He was then led away to death, protesting against the
iniquity of the times; imitating in his conduct the celebrated Stoic of
old, Zeno, who, after he had been long subjected to torture in order to
extract from him some false confession, tore out his tongue by the roots
and threw it, bloody as it was, into the face of the king of Cyprus, who
was examining him.
7. After these events the affair of the royal robe was examined into.
And when those who were employed in dyeing purple had been put to the
torture, and had confessed that they had woven a short tunic to cover
the chest, without sleeves, a certain person, by name Maras, was brought
in, a deacon, as the Christians call him; letters from whom were
produced, written in the Greek language to the superintendent of the
weaving manufactory at Tyre, which pressed him to have the beautiful
work finished speedily; of which work, however, these letters gave no
further description. And at last this man also was tortured, to the
danger of his life, but could not be made to confess anything.
8. After the investigation had been carried on with the examination,
under torture of many persons, when some things appeared doubtful, and
others it was plain were of a very unimportant character, and after many
persons had been put to death, the two Apollinares, father and son, were
condemned to banishment; and when they had come to a place which is
called Crateræ, a country house of their own, which is four-and-twenty
miles from Antioch, there, according to the order which had been given,
their legs were broken, and they were put to death.
9. After their death Gallus was not at all less ferocious than before,
but rather like a lion which has once tasted blood, he made many similar
investigations, all of which it is not worth while to relate, lest I
should exceed the bounds which I have laid down for myself; an error
which is to be avoided.
X.
§ 1. While the East was thus for a long time suffering under these
calamities, at the first approach of open weather, Constantius being in
his seventh consulship, and the Cæsar in his third, the emperor quitted
Arles and went to Valentia, with the intention of making war upon the
brothers Gundomadus and Vadomarius, chiefs of the Allemanni; by whose
repeated inroads the territories of the Gauls, which lay upon their
frontier, were continually laid waste.
2. And while he was staying in that district, as he did for some time
while waiting for supplies, the importation of which from Aquitania was
prevented by the spring rains which were this year more severe than
usual, so that the rivers were flooded by them, Herculanus arrived, a
principal officer of the guard, son of Hermogenes, who had formerly been
master of the horse at Constantinople, and had been torn to pieces in a
popular tumult as we have mentioned before. And as he brought a faithful
account of what Gallus had done, the emperor, sorrowing over the
miseries that were passed, and full of anxious fear for the future, for
a time stilled the grief of his mind as well as he could.
3. But in the mean time all the soldiery being assembled at
Cabillon,[15] began to be impatient of delay, and to get furious, being
so much the more exasperated because they had not sufficient means of
living, the usual supplies not yet having arrived.
4. And in consequence of this state of things, Rufinus, at that time
prefect of the camp, was exposed to the most imminent danger. For he
himself was compelled to go among the soldiers, whose natural ferocity
was inflamed by their want of food, and who on other occasions are by
nature generally inclined to be savage and bitter against men of civil
dignities. He was compelled, I say, to go among them to appease them and
explain on what account the arrival of their corn was delayed.
5. And the task thus imposed on him was very cunningly contrived, in
order that he, the uncle of Gallus, might perish in the snare; lest he,
being a man of great power and energy, should rouse his nephew to
confidence, and lead him to undertake enterprises which might be
mischievous. Great caution, however, was used to escape this; and, when
the danger was got rid of for a while, Eusebius, the high chamberlain,
was sent to Cabillon with a large sum of money, which he distributed
secretly among the chief leaders of sedition: and so the turbulent and
arrogant disposition of the soldiers was pacified, and the safety of the
prefect secured. Afterwards food having arrived in abundance the camp
was struck on the day appointed.
6. After great difficulties had been surmounted, many of the roads
being buried in snow, the army came near to Rauracum[16] on the banks of
the Rhine, where the multitude of the Allemanni offered great
resistance, so that by their fierceness the Romans were prevented from
fixing their bridge of boats, darts being poured upon them from all
sides like hail; and, when it seemed impossible to succeed in that
attempt, the emperor being taken by surprise, and full of anxious
thoughts, began to consider what to do.
7. When suddenly a guide well acquainted with the country arrived, and
for a reward pointed out a ford by night, where the river could be
crossed; and the army crossing at that point, while the enemy had their
attention directed elsewhere, might without any one expecting such a
step, have and waste the whole country, if a few men of the same nation
to whom the higher posts in the Roman army were intrusted had not (as
some people believe) informed their fellow-countrymen of the design by
secret messengers.
8. The disgrace of this suspicion fell chiefly on Latinus, a commander
of the domestic guard, and on Agilo, an equerry, and on Scudilo, the
commander of the Scutarii, men who at that time were looked up to as
those who supported the republic with their right hands.
9. But the barbarians, though taking instant counsel on such an
emergency, yet either because the auspices turned out unfavourable, or
because the authority of the sacrifices prohibited an instant
engagement, abated their energy, and the confidence with which they had
hitherto resisted; and sent some of their chiefs to beg pardon for their
offences, and sue for peace.
10. Therefore, having detained for some time the envoys of both the
kings, and having long deliberated over the affair in secret, the
emperor, when he had decided that it was expedient to grant peace on the
terms proposed, summoned his army to an assembly with the intention of
making them a short speech, and mounting the tribunal, surrounded with a
staff of officers of high rank, spoke in the following manner:
11. "I hope no one will wonder, after the long and toilsome marches we
have made, and the vast supplies and magazines which have been provided,
from the confidence which I felt in you, that now although we are close
to the villages of the barbarians, I have, as if I had suddenly changed
my plans, adopted more peaceful counsels.
12. "For if every one of you, having regard to his own position and his
own feelings, considers the case, he will find this to be the truth:
that the individual soldier in all cases, however strong and vigorous he
may be, regards and defends nothing but himself and his own life; while
the general, looking on all with impartiality as the guardian of their
general safety, is aware that the common interest of the people cannot
be separated from his own safety; and he is bound to seize with alacrity
every remedy of which the condition of affairs admits, as being put into
his hand by the favour of the gods.
13. "That therefore I may in a few words set before you and explain on
what account I wished all of you, my most faithful comrades, to assemble
here, I entreat you to listen attentively to what I will state with all
the brevity possible. For the language of truth is always concise and
simple.
14. "The kings and people of the Allemanni, viewing with apprehension
the lofty steps of your glory (which fame, increasing in magnificence,
has diffused throughout the most distant countries), now by their
ambassadors humbly implore pardon for their past offences, and peace.
And this indulgence I, as a cautious and prudent adviser of what is
useful, think expedient to grant them, if your consent be not wanting:
being led to this opinion by many considerations, in the first place
that so we may avoid the doubtful issues of war; in the second place,
that instead of enemies we may have allies, as they promise we shall
find them; further, that without bloodshed we may pacify their haughty
ferocity, a feeling which is often mischievous in our provinces; and
last of all, recollecting that the man who falls in battle, overwhelmed
by superior weapons or strength, is not the only enemy who has to be
subdued; and that with much greater safety to the state, even while the
trumpet of war is silent, he is subdued who makes voluntary submission,
having learnt by experience that we lack neither courage against rebels,
nor mercy towards suppliants.
15. "To sum up, making you as it were the arbitrators, I wait to see
what you determine: having no doubt myself, as an emperor always
desirous of peace, that it is best to employ moderation while prosperity
descends upon us. For, believe me, this conduct which I recommend, and
which is wisely chosen, will not be imputed to want of courage on your
part, but to your moderation and humanity."
16. As soon as he had finished speaking, the whole assembly being ready
to agree to what the emperor desired, and praising his advice, gave
their votes for peace; being principally influenced by this
consideration, that they had already learnt by frequent expeditions that
the fortune of the emperor was only propitious in times of civil
troubles; but that when foreign wars were undertaken they had often
proved disastrous. On this, therefore, a treaty being made according to
the customs of the Allemanni, and all the solemnities being completed,
the emperor retired to Milan for the winter.
XI.
§ 1. At Milan, having discarded the weight of other cares, the emperor
took into his consideration that most difficult gordian knot, how by a
mighty effort to uproot the Cæsar. And while he was deliberating on this
matter with his friends in secret conference by night, and considering
what force, and what contrivances might be employed for the purpose,
before Gallus in his audacity should more resolutely set himself to
plunging affairs into confusion, it seemed best that Gallus should be
invited by civil letters, under pretence of some public affairs of an
urgent nature requiring his advice, so that, being deprived of all
support, he might be put to death without any hindrance.
2. But as several knots of light-minded flatterers opposed this opinion,
among whom was Arbetio, a man of keen wit and always inclined to
treachery, and Eusebius, a man always disposed to mischief, at that time
the principal chamberlain, they suggested that if the Cæsar were to quit
those countries it would be dangerous to leave Ursicinus in the East,
with no one to check his designs, if he should cherish ambitious
notions.
3. And these counsels were supported by the rest of the royal eunuchs,
whose avarice and covetousness at that period had risen to excess. These
men, while performing their private duties about the court, by secret
whispers supplied food for false accusations; and by raising bitter
suspicions of Ursicinus, ruined a most gallant man, creating by
underhand means a belief that his grown-up sons began to aim at supreme
power; intimating that they were youths in the flower of their age and
of admirable personal beauty, skilful in the use of every kind of
weapon, well trained in all athletic and military exercises, and
favourably known for prudence and wisdom. They insinuated also that
Gallus himself, being by nature fierce and unmanageable, had been
excited to acts of additional cruelty and ferocity by persons placed
about him for that purpose, to the end that, when he had brought upon
himself universal detestation, the ensigns of power might be transferred
to the children of the master of the horse.
4. When these and similar suspicions were poured into the ears of
Constantius, which were always open to reports of this kind, the
emperor, revolving different plans in his mind, at last chose the
following as the most advisable course. He commanded Ursicinus in a most
complimentary manner to come to him, on the pretence that the urgent
state of certain affairs required to be arranged by the aid of his
counsel and concurrence, and that he had need of such additional support
in order to crush the power of the Parthian tribes, who were threatening
war.
5. And that he who was thus invited might not suspect anything
unfriendly, the Count Prosper was sent to act as his deputy till he
returned. Accordingly, when Ursicinus had received the letters, and had
obtained a sufficient supply of carriages, and means of travelling,
we[17] hastened to Milan with all speed.
6. The next thing was to contrive to summon the Cæsar, and to induce him
to make the like haste. And to remove all suspicion in his mind,
Constantius used many hypocritical endearments to persuade his own
sister, Gallus's wife, whom he pretended he had long been wishing to
see, to accompany him. And although she hesitated from fear of her
brother's habitual cruelty, yet, from a hope that, as he was her
brother, she might be able to pacify him, she set out; but when she
reached Bithynia, at the station named Cæni Gallici, she was seized with
a sudden fever and died. And after her death, her husband, considering
that he had lost his greatest security and the chief support on which he
relied, hesitated, taking anxious thought what he should do.
7. For amid the multiplicity of embarrassing affairs which distracted
his attention, this point especially filled his mind with apprehension,
that Constantius, determining everything according to his own sole
judgment, was not a man to admit of any excuse, or to pardon any error;
but being, as he was, more inclined to severity towards his kinsmen than
towards others, would be sure to put him to death if he could get him
into his power.
8. Being therefore in this critical situation, and feeling that he had
to expect the worst unless he took vigilant care, he embraced the idea
of seizing on the supreme power if he could find any opportunity: but
for two reasons he distrusted the good faith of his most intimate
councillors; both because they dreaded him as at once cruel and fickle,
and also because amid civil dissensions they looked with awe upon the
loftier fortune of Constantius.
9. While perplexed with these vast and weighty anxieties he received
continual letters from the emperor, advising and entreating him to come
to him; and giving him hints that the republic neither could nor ought
to be divided; but that every one was bound to the utmost of his power
to bring aid to it when it was tottering; alluding in this to the
devastations of the Gauls.
10. And to this suggestion he added an example of no great antiquity,
that in the time of Diocletian and his colleague,[18] the Cæsars obeyed
them as their officers, not remaining stationary, but hastening to
execute their orders in every direction. And that even Galerius went in
his purple robe on foot for nearly a mile before the chariot of
Augustus[19] when he was offended with him.
11. After many other messengers had been despatched to him, Scudilo the
tribune of the Scutarii arrived, a very cunning master of persuasion
under the cloak of a rude, blunt disposition. He, by mixing flattering
language with his serious conversation, induced him to proceed, when no
one else could do so, continually assuring him, with a hypocritical
countenance, that his cousin was extremely desirous to see him; that,
like a clement and merciful prince, he would pardon whatever errors had
been committed through thoughtlessness; that he would make him a partner
in his own royal rank, and take him for his associate in those toils
which the northern provinces, long in a disturbed state, imposed upon
him.
12. And as when the Fates lay their hand upon a man his senses are wont
to be blunted and dimmed, so Gallus, being led on by these alluring
persuasions to the expectation of a better fortune, quitted Antioch
under the guidance of an unfriendly star, and hurried, as the old
proverb has it, out of the smoke into the flame;[20] and having arrived
at Constantinople as if in great prosperity and security, at the
celebration of the equestrian games, he with his own hand placed the
crown on the head of the charioteer Corax, when he obtained the victory.
13. When Constantius heard this he became exasperated beyond all bounds
of moderation; and lest by any chance Gallus, feeling uncertain of the
future, should attempt to consult his safety by flight, all the
garrisons stationed in the towns which lay in his road were carefully
removed.
14. And at the same time Taurus, who was sent as quæstor into Armenia,
passed by without visiting or seeing him. Some persons, however, by the
command of the emperor, arrived under the pretence of one duty or
another, in order to take care that he should not be able to move, or
make any secret attempt of any kind. Among whom was Leontius, afterwards
prefect of the city, who was sent as quæstor; and Lucillianus, as count
of the domestic guards, and a tribune of the Scutarii named Bainobaudes.
15. Therefore after a long journey through the level country, when he
had reached Hadrianopolis, a city in the district of Mount Hæmus, which
had been formerly called Uscudama, where he stayed twelve days to
recover from his fatigue, he found that the Theban legions, who were in
winter quarters in the neighbouring towns of those parts, had sent some
of their comrades to exhort him by trustworthy and sure promises to
remain there relying upon them, since they were posted in great force
among the neighbouring stations; but those about him watched him with
such diligent care that he could get no opportunity of seeing them, or
of hearing their message.
16. Then, as letter after letter from the emperor urged him to quit that
city, he took ten public carriages, as he was desired to do, and leaving
behind him all his retinue, except a few of his chamberlains and
domestic officers, whom he had brought with him, he was in this poor
manner compelled to hasten his journey, his guards forcing him to use
all speed; while he from time to time, with many regrets, bewailed the
rashness which had placed him in a mean and despised condition at the
mercy of men of the lowest class.
17. And amid all these circumstances, in moments when exhausted nature
sought repose in sleep, his senses were kept in a state of agitation by
dreadful spectres making unseemly noises about him; and crowds of those
whom he had slain, led on by Domitianus and Montius, seemed to seize and
torture him with all the torments of the Furies.
18. For the mind, when freed by sleep from its connection with the body,
is nevertheless active, and being full of the thoughts and anxieties of
mortal pursuits, engenders mighty visions which we call phantoms.
19. Therefore his melancholy fate, by which it was destined he should be
deprived of empire and life, leading the way, he proceeded on his
journey by continual relays of horses, till he arrived at Petobio,[21] a
town in Noricum. Here all disguise was thrown off, and the Count
Barbatio suddenly made his appearance, with Apodemius, the secretary for
the provinces, and an escort of soldiers whom the emperor had picked out
as men bound to him by especial favours, feeling sure that they could
not be turned from their obedience either by bribes or pity.
20. And now the affair was conducted to its conclusion without further
disguise or deceit, and the whole portion of the palace which is outside
the walls was surrounded by armed men. Barbatio, entering the palace
before daybreak, stripped the Cæsar of his royal robes, and clothed him
with a tunic and an ordinary soldier's garment, assuring him with many
protestations, as if by the especial command of the emperor, that he
should be exposed to no further suffering; and then said to him, "Stand
up at once." And having suddenly placed him in a private carriage, he
conducted him into Istria, near to the town of Pola, where it is
reported that Crispus, the son of Constantine, was formerly put to
death.
21. And while he was there kept in strict confinement, being already
terrified with apprehensions of his approaching destruction, Eusebius,
at that time the high chamberlain, arrived in haste, and with him
Pentadius the secretary, and Mallobaudes the tribune of the guard, who
had the emperor's orders to compel him to explain, case by case, on what
accounts he had ordered each of the individuals whom he had executed at
Antioch to be put to death.
22. He being struck with a paleness like that of Adrastus[22] at these
questions, was only able to reply that he had put most of them to death
at the instigation of his wife Constantina; being forsooth ignorant that
when the mother of Alexander the Great urged him to put to death some
one who was innocent, and in the hope of prevailing with him, repeated
to him over and over again that she had borne him nine months in her
womb, and was his mother, that emperor made her this prudent answer, "My
excellent mother, ask for some other reward; for the life of a man
cannot be put in the balance with any kind of service."
23. When this was known, the emperor, giving way to unchangeable
indignation and anger, saw that his only hope of establishing security
firmly lay in putting the Cæsar to death. And having sent Serenianus,
whom we have already spoken of as having been accused of treason, but
acquitted by intrigue, and Pentadius the secretary, and Apodemius the
secretary for the provinces, he commanded that they should put him to
death. And accordingly his hands were bound like those of some
convicted thief, and he was beheaded, and his carcass, which but a
little while ago had been the object of dread to cities and provinces,
deprived of head and defaced: it was then left on the ground.
24. In this the supervision of the supreme Deity manifested itself to be
everywhere vigilant. For not only did the cruelties of Gallus bring
about his own destruction, but they also who, by their pernicious
flattery and instigation, and charges supported by perjury, had led him
to the perpetration of many murders, not long afterwards died miserably.
Scudilo, being afflicted with a liver complaint which penetrated to his
lungs, died vomiting; while Barbatio, who had long busied himself in
inventing false accusations against Gallus, was accused by secret
information of aiming at some post higher than his command of infantry,
and being condemned, though unjustly, was put to death, and so by his
melancholy end made atonement to the shade of the Cæsar.
25. These, and innumerable other actions of the same kind, Adrastea, who
is also called Nemesis, the avenger of wicked and the rewarder of good
deeds, is continually bringing to pass: would that she could always do
so! She is a kind of sublime agent of the powerful Deity, dwelling,
according to common belief, above the human circle; or, as others define
her, she is a substantial protection, presiding over the particular
destinies of individuals, and feigned by the ancient theologians to be
the daughter of Justice, looking down from a certain inscrutable
eternity upon all terrestrial and mundane affairs.
26. She, as queen of all causes of events, and arbitress and umpire in
all affairs of life, regulates the urn which contains the lots of men,
and directs the alternations of fortune which we behold in the world,
frequently bringing our undertakings to an issue different from what we
intended, and involving and changing great numbers of actions. She also,
binding the vainly swelling pride of mankind by the indissoluble fetters
of necessity, and swaying the inclination of progress and decay
according to her will, sometimes bows down and enfeebles the stiff neck
of arrogance, and sometimes raises virtuous men from the lowest depth,
leading them to a prosperous and happy life. And it is on this account
that the fables of antiquity have represented her with wings, that she
may be supposed to be present at all events with prompt celerity. And
they have also placed a rudder in her hand and given her a wheel under
her feet, that mankind may be aware that she governs the universe,
running at will through all the elements.[23]
27. In this untimely manner did the Cæsar, being himself also already
weary of life, die, in the twenty-ninth year of his age, having reigned
four years. He was born in the country of the Etrurians, in the district
of Veternum,[24] being the son of Constantius, the brother of the
Emperor Constantine; his mother was Galla, the sister of Rufinus and
Cerealis, men who had been ennobled by the offices of consul and
prefect.
28. He was a man of splendid stature and great beauty of person and
figure, with soft hair of a golden colour, his newly sprouting beard
covering his cheeks with a tender down, and in spite of his youth his
countenance showed dignity and authority. He differed as much from the
temperate habits of his brother Julian, as the sons of Vespasian,
Domitian and Titus, differed from each other.
29. After he had been taken by the emperor as his colleague, and raised
to the highest eminence of power, he experienced the fickle
changeableness of fortune which mocks mortality, sometimes raising
individuals to the stars, at others sinking them to the lowest depths
of hell.
30. And though the examples of such vicissitudes are beyond number,
nevertheless I will only enumerable a few in a cursory manner. This
changeable and fickle fortune made Agathocles, the Sicilian, a king from
being a potter, and reduced Dionysius, formerly the terror of all
nations, to be the master of a grammar school. This same fortune
emboldened Andriscus of Adramyttium, who had been born in a fuller's
shop, to assume the name of Philip, and compelled the legitimate son of
Perseus[25] to descend to the trade of a blacksmith to obtain a
livelihood. Again, fortune surrendered Mancinus[26] to the people of
Numantia, after he had enjoyed the supreme command, exposed Veturius[27]
to the cruelty of the Samnites, Claudius[28] to that of the Corsicans,
and made Regulus[29] a victim to the ferocity of the Carthaginians.
Through the injustice of fortune, Pompey,[30] after he had acquired the
surname of the Great by the grandeur of his exploits, was murdered in
Ægypt at the pleasure of some eunuchs, while a fellow named Eunus, a
slave who had escaped from a house of correction, commanded an army of
runaway slaves in Sicily. How many men of the highest birth, through the
connivance of this same fortune, submitted to the authority of Viriathus
and of Spartacus![31] How many heads at which nations once trembled have
fallen under the deadly hand of the executioner! One man is thrown into
prison, another is promoted to unexpected power, a third is hurled down
from the highest rank and dignity. But he who would endeavour to
enumerate all the various and frequent instances of the caprice of
fortune, might as well undertake to number the sands or ascertain the
weight of mountains.
[1] Gallus and his brother Julian were the nephews of the great
Constantine, sons of his brother Julius. When Constantius, who succeeded
Constantine on the throne, murdered his uncles and most of his cousins,
he spared these two, probably on account of their tender age.
[2] Hannibalianus was another nephew of Constantine. That emperor raised
his own three sons, Constantine, Constantius, and Constans, to the
dignity of Cæsar; and of his two favourite nephews, Dalmacius and
Hannibalianus, he raised the first, by the title of Cæsar, to an
equality with his cousins; "in favour of the latter he invented the new
and singular appellation of Fortitissimus, to which he annexed the
flattering distinction of a robe of purple and gold. But of the whole
series of Roman princes in any age of the empire Hannibalianus alone was
distinguished by the title of _king_, a name which the subjects of
Tiberius would have detested as the profane and cruel insult of
capricious tyranny."--Gibbon, cxviii. The editor of Bohn's edition adds
in a note: "The title given to Hannibalianus did not apply to him as a
_Roman_ prince, but as king of a territory assigned to him in Asia. This
territory consisted of Pontus, Cappadocia, and the lesser Armenia, the
city of Cæsarea being chosen for his residence."--Gibbon, Bohn's
edition, vol. ii. pp. 256, 257.
[3] "There was among the commanders of the soldiery one prefect who was
especially entitled Præsens, or Præsentalis, because his office was to
be always in the court or about the person of the prince, and because
the emperor's body-guard was under his particular orders."--H. Valesius.
[4] The passage is found in Cicero's Oration pro Cluentio, c. 25.
[5] Sciron was a pirate slain by Theseus, v. Ov. Metam. vii. 44 and the
Epistle of Ariadne to Theseus.
"Cum fuerit Sciron lectus, torvusque Procrustes."
[6] His victory over Magnentius, whom he defeated at Mursa, on the
Doave, in the year 351. Magnentius fled to Aquileia, but was pursued,
and again defeated the next year, at a place called Mons Seleuci, in the
neighbourhood of Gap, and threw himself on his own sword to avoid
falling into the hands of Constantius.
[7] Hesiod. Ammianus refers to the passage in Hesiod's Op. et Dies, 289,
beginning--+tês d' aretês hidrôta theoi proparoithen ethêsan+.
[8] A nomenclator was a slave who attended a great noble in his walk
through the city to remind him of the names of those whom he met. See
Cicero pro Muræna, c. 36.
[9] The name of a slave in the Eunuch, of Terence, who says, act. iv sc.
8--Sannio alone stays at home.
[10] It was customary on such solemnities, as also on the occasion of
assuming the toga virilis, or entering on any important magistracy, to
make small presents of money to the guests who were invited to celebrate
the occasion. Cf. Plin. Epist. x. 117.
[11] The Latin is Dux. It is about this period that the title Duke and
Count, which we have already had, arose, indicating however at first not
territorial possessions, but military commands; and it is worth noticing
that the rank of Count was the higher of the two.
[12] Constantine, on his conversion to Christianity, had issued an edict
forbidding the consultation of oracles; but the practice was not wholly
abandoned till the time of Theodosius.
[13] Schools was the name given at Rome to buildings where men were wont
to meet for any purpose, whether of study, of traffic, or of the
practice of any art. The schools of the Palatine were the station of the
cohorts of the guard. The "Protectors or Guards" were a body of soldiers
of higher rank, receiving also higher pay; called also "Domestici or
household troops," as especially set apart for the protection of the
imperial palace and person. The "Scutarii" (shield-bearers) belonged to
the Palatine schools; and the Gentiles were troops enlisted from among
those nations which were still accounted barbarous.
[14] Gibbon here proposes for le_n_itatem to read le_v_itatem,
fickleness; himself describing Montius as "a statesman whose art and
experience were frequently betrayed by the levity of his
disposition."--Cap. xix., p. 298, vol. iii., Bohn's edition.
[15] Châlons sur Saône.
[16] Near Basle.
[17] It will be observed that Ammianus here speaks of himself as in
attendance upon Ursicinus.
[18] Maximianus Herculius.
[19] Diocletian.
[20] As we say, Out of the frying-pan into the fire.
[21] The town of Pettau, on the Drave.
[22] A paleness such as overspread the countenance of Adrastus when he
saw his two sons-in-law, Pydeus and Polynices, slain at Thebes. Virgil
speaks of Adrasti pallentis imago, Æn. vi. 480.
[23] Ammianus here confounds Nemesis with Fortuna. Compare Horace's
description of the latter goddess, Lib. i. Od. 34:--
" ... Valet ima summis
Mutare, et insignia attenuat deus
Obscura promens: hinc apicem rapax
Fortuna cum stridore acuto
Sustulit; hic posuisse gaudet."
Or, as it is translated by Dr. Francis:--
"The hand of Jove can crush the proud
Down to the meanness of the crowd:
And raise the lowest in his stead:
But rapid Fortune pulls him down,
And snatches his imperial crown,
To place, not _fix_ it, on another's head."
[24] Near the modern city of Sienna.
[25] See Plutarch's Life of Æmilius, c. 37. The name of the young prince
was Alexander.
[26] Called also Hostilius; cf. Vell. Paterc. ii. 1.
[27] Cf. Liv. ix. c. x.; Cicero de Officiis, iii. 30.
[28] Cf. Val. Max. vi. 3.
[29] Cf. Horace, Od. iv. ult.; Florus, ii. 1. The story of the cruelties
inflicted on Regulus is now, however, generally disbelieved.
[30] The fate of Pompey served also as an instance to Juvenal in his
satire on the vanity of human wishes.
Provida Pompeio diderat Campania febres
Optandas, sed multæ urbes et publica vota
Vicerunt; igitur Fortuna ipsius et urbis
Servatum victo caput abstulit.
Sat. X. 283, &c.
[31] Spartacus was the celebrated leader of the slaves in the Servile
War.