ARGUMENT.
I. Theodorus, the secretary, aims at the imperial authority, and
being accused of treason before Valens at Antioch, and convicted,
is executed, with many of his accomplices.--II. In the East many
persons are informed against as guilty of poisoning and other
crimes; and being condemned (some rightly, some wrongfully), are
executed.--III. In the West many instances occur of the ferocity
and insane cruelty of the emperor Valentinian.--IV. Valentinian
crosses the Rhine on a bridge of boats, but, through the fault of a
soldier, fails in an attempt to surprise Macrianus, the king of the
Allemanni.--V. Theodosius, the commander of the cavalry in Gaul, in
several battles defeats Formus Maorus, the son of Nubelis Regulus,
who had revolted from Valentinian; and, after having driven him to
kill himself, restores peace to Africa.--VI. The Quadi, being
provoked by the wicked murder of their king Galerius, in
conjunction with the Sarmatians, lay waste both the Pannonias and
Valeria with fire and sword, and destroy almost the whole of two
legions--A dissertation on the city prefecture of Claudius.
I.
A.D. 371.
§ 1. At the conclusion of the winter, Sapor, king of Persia, being full
of cruelty and arrogance from the confidence engendered by his former
battles, having completed his army to its full number, and greatly
strengthened it, sent out a force of cuirassiers, archers, and mercenary
troops, to make an invasion of our territories.
2. Against this force, Count Trajan and Vadomarius, the ex-king of the
Allemanni, advanced with a mighty army, having been enjoined by the
emperor to remember his orders to act on the defensive rather than on
the offensive against the Persians.
3. When they arrived at Vagabanta, a place well suited for the
manoeuvres of the legions, they supported against their will a rapid
charge which was made upon them by the squadrons of the enemy, and
retreated with the design not to be the first to slay any of the hostile
soldiers, and not to be looked upon as guilty of having broken the
treaty. At last, under the pressure of extreme necessity, they came to
an engagement with the barbarians, and after having slain a great number
of them, were victorious.
4. During the cessation of regular operations which ensued, several
slight skirmishes occurred through the impatience of both armies, which
ended with different results; and at last the summer ended, and a truce
was agreed to by common consent, and the two armies separated, though
the generals were violently inflamed against each other. The king of
Parthia, intending to pass the winter at Ctesiphon, returned to his own
home, and the Roman emperor went to Antioch; and while he tarried there,
in complete security from foreign enemies, he had very nearly perished
through domestic treachery, as shall be related in the coming narrative.
5. A certain Procopius, a restless man, at all times covetous and fond
of disturbances, had persuaded Anatolius and Spudasius, officers about
the palace, who had been ordered to restore what they had appropriated
from the treasury, to bring a plot against the Count Fortunatianus, who
was especially obnoxious as being represented to be the principal
demander of this restitution. He, being a man of naturally harsh temper,
was thereupon inflamed almost to insanity, and exercising the authority
of the office which he filled, he delivered up to trial before the
tribunal of the prefect a person of the lowest birth, named Palladius,
for being a poisoner in the train of Anatolius and Spudasius;
Heliodorus, also an interpreter of the Fates from the events which
happened at any one's birth; with the intent that they should be
compelled by torture to relate all that they knew.
6. And when they came with rigid scrutiny to inquire into what had been
done or attempted, Palladius boldly exclaimed, that the matters now
under investigation were trivial, and such as might well be passed over;
that he himself, if he might be allowed to speak, could bring forward
some circumstances both formidable and more important, which, having
been prepared with great exertion, would throw everything into
confusion, if they were not provided against beforehand. Being ordered
to explain without fear all he knew, he made a deposition at great
length, affirming that Fidustius the president, and Pergamius and
Irenæus, had secretly learnt, by the detestable arts of magic, the name
of the person who should become emperor after Valens.
7. Fidustius was at once arrested (for he happened by chance be on the
spot), and being brought secretly before the emperor, when confronted
with the informer, he did not attempt by any denial to throw a doubt on
what was already revealed, but laid open the whole of this wretched
plot; confessing in plain words, that he himself, with Hilarius and
Patricius, men skilled in the art of soothsaying, of whom Hilarius had
filled high offices in the palace, had held consultations about the
future possessors of the empire; that by secret arts they had searched
into the Fates, which had revealed to them the name of an excellent
emperor, admonishing them at the same time that a miserable end awaited
the investigators of these omens.[176]
8. And while they were hesitating, unable to decide who at that moment
was superior to all other men in vigour of mind, Theodorus appeared to
excel all the rest, a man who had already arrived at the second class of
secretaries. And in truth he deserved the opinion which they entertained
of him; for he was descended from an ancient and illustrious family in
Gaul; he had been liberally educated from his earliest childhood; he was
eminent for modesty, prudence, humanity, courtesy, and literature. He
always appeared superior to the post or place which he was filling, and
was equally popular among high and low, and he was nearly the only man
whose tongue was never unbridled, but who always reflected on what he
was going to say, yet without ever being restrained by any fear of
danger.
9. Fidustius, who had been tortured so severely that he was at the point
of death, added further, that all that he had now stated he had
communicated to Theodorus by the intervention of Eucærius, a man of
great literary accomplishments, and of very high reputation; indeed, he
had a little time before governed Asia with the title of proprefect.
10. Eucærius was now thrown into prison; and when a report of all that
had taken place was, as usual, laid before the emperor, his amazing
ferocity burst out more unrestrainedly than ever, like a burning
firebrand, being fed by the base adulation of many persons, and
especially of Modestus, at that time prefect of the prætorium.
11. He, being every day alarmed at the prospect of a successor,
addressed himself to the task of conciliating Valens, who was of a
rustic and rather simple character, by tickling him with all kinds of
disguised flattery and caresses, calling his uncouth language and rude
expressions "flowers of Ciceronian eloquence." Indeed, to raise his
vanity higher, he would have promised to raise him up to the stars if he
had desired it.
12. So Theodorus also was ordered to be arrested with all speed at
Constantinople, to which city he had repaired on some private business,
and to be brought to the court. And while he was on his way back, in
consequence of various informations and trials which were carried on day
and night, numbers of people were dragged away from the most widely
separated countries--men eminent for their birth and high authority.
13. The public prisons, being now completely filled, could no longer
contain the crowds which were confined in them, while private houses
were equally crammed to suffocation, for nearly every one was a
prisoner, and every man shuddered to think when it might be his turn or
that of his nearest relations.
14. At last Theodorus himself arrived, in deep mourning, and half dead
through fear. And while he was kept concealed in some obscure place in
the vicinity, and all things were being got ready for his intended
examination, the trumpet of civil discord suddenly sounded.
15. And because that man who knowingly passes over facts appears to be
an equally unfaithful historian with him who invents circumstances which
never happened, we do not deny (what, in fact, is quite undoubted) that
the safety of Valens had often before been attacked by secret
machinations, and was now in the greatest possible danger. And that a
sword, as one may say, was presented to his throat by the officers of
the army, and only averted by Fate, which was reserving him for
lamentable misfortunes in Thrace.
16. For one day as he was taking a gentle nap in the afternoon, in a
shady spot between Antioch and Seleucia, he was attacked by Sallust, at
that time an officer of the Scutarii; and on various other occasions he
was plotted against by many other persons, from whose treacherous
designs he only escaped because the precise moment of his death had been
determined at his birth by Destiny.
17. As sometimes happened in the times of the emperors Commodus and
Severus, whose safety was continually assailed with extreme violence, so
that after many various dangers at the hands of their countrymen, the
one was dangerously wounded by a dagger in the amphitheatre, as he
entered it for the purpose of witnessing an entertainment, by a senator
named Quintianus, a man of wicked ambition. The other, when extremely
old, was assailed as he was lying in his bedchamber, by a centurion of
the name of Saturninus, who was instigated to the act by Plautian the
prefect, and would have been killed if his youthful son had not come to
his assistance.
18. Valens, therefore, was to be excused for taking every precaution to
defend his life, which traitors were endeavouring to take. But it was an
unpardonable fault in him that, through tyrannical pride, he, with haste
and with inconsiderate and malicious persecution, inflicted the same
severities on the innocent as on the guilty, making no distinction
between their deserts; so that while the judges were still doubting
about their guilt, the emperor had made up his mind about their
punishment, and men learnt that they were condemned before they knew
that they were suspected.
19. But his obstinate resolution was strengthened since it received a
spur from his own avarice, and that also of those who at that time were
about the palace, and were constantly seeking new sources of gain; while
if on any rare occasion any mention was made of humanity, they styled it
slackness; and by their bloodthirsty flatteries perverted the
resolution of a man who bore men's lives on the tip of his tongue,
guiding it in the worst direction, and assailing everything with
unseemly confusion, while seeking to accomplish the total ruin of the
most opulent houses.
20. For Valens was a man who was especially exposed and open to the
approaches of treacherous advisers, being tainted with two vices of a
most mischievous character: one, that when he was ashamed of being
angry, that very shame only rendered him the more intolerably furious;
and secondly, that the stories which, with the easiness of access of a
private individual, he heard in secret whispers, he took at once to be
true and certain, because his haughty idea of the imperial dignity did
not permit him to examine whether they were true or not.
21. The consequence was that, under an appearance of clemency, numbers
of innocent men were driven from their homes, and sent into exile: and
their property was confiscated to the public treasury, and then seized
by himself for his private uses; so that the owners, after their
condemnation, had no means of subsistence but such as they could beg;
and were worn out with the distresses of the most miserable poverty. For
fear of which that wise old poet Theognis advises a man to rush even
into the sea.[177]
22. And even if any one should grant that these sentences were in some
instances right, yet it surely was an odious severity; and from this
conduct of his it was remarked that the maxim was sound which says,
"that there is no sentence more cruel than that which, while seeming to
spare, is still harsh."
23. Therefore all the chief magistrates and the prefect of the
prætorium, to whom the conduct of these investigations was committed,
having been assembled together, the racks were got ready, and the
weights, and lead, and scourges, and other engines of torture. And all
places resounded with the horrors of the cruel voice of the
executioners, and the cries uttered amid the clanking of chains: "Hold
him!" "Shut him up!" "Squeeze him!" "Hide him!" and other yells uttered
by the ministers of those hateful duties.
24. And since we saw numbers condemned to death after having endured
cruel torture, everything being thrown into complete confusion as if in
perfect darkness, because the complete recollection of everything which
then took place has in some degree escaped me, I will mention briefly
what I do remember.
25. Among the first who were summoned before the bench, was Pergamius,
who, as we have already mentioned, was betrayed by Palladius, who
accused him of having arrived at a foreknowledge of certain events
through wicked incantations. As he was a man of exceeding eloquence, and
very likely to say dangerous things, and after some very trivial
interrogatories had been put to him, seeing that the judges were
hesitating what questions to put first and what last, he began himself
to harangue them boldly, and shouting out the names with a loud voice
and without any cessation, he named several thousand persons as
accomplices with himself, demanding that people should be brought
forward to be accused of great crimes from every part of the empire, up
to the very shores of the great Atlantic. The task that he thus seemed
to be putting together for them was too arduous; so they condemned him
to death; and afterwards put whole troops of others to death, till they
came to the case of Theodorus, which was regarded, after the manner of
the Olympian games, as a crowning of the whole.
26. The same day, among other circumstances, this melancholy event took
place, that Salia, who a little while before had been the chief
treasurer in Thrace, when he was about to be brought out of his prison
to have his cause heard, and was putting on his shoes, as if suddenly
overwhelmed by the dread of his impending destruction, died in the hands
of his gaolers.
27. So when the court was opened, and when the judges exhibited the
decrees of the law, though, in accordance with the desire of the
emperor, they moderated the severity of the charges brought before them,
one general alarm seized all people. For Valens had now so wholly
departed from justice, and had become so accomplished in the infliction
of injury, that he was like a wild beast in an amphitheatre; and if any
one who had been brought before the court escaped, he grew furious
beyond all restraint.
28. Presently Patricius and Hilarius were brought before the court, and
were ordered to enumerate the whole series of their actions: and as they
differed a little at the beginning of their statement, they were both
put to the torture, and presently the tripod which they had used was
brought in;[178] and they, being reduced now to the greatest extremity,
gave a true account of the whole affair from the very beginning. And
first Hilarius spoke as follows:--
29. "We did construct, most noble judges, under most unhappy auspices,
this little unfortunate tripod which you see, in the likeness of that at
Delphi, making it of laurel twigs: and having consecrated it with
imprecations of mysterious verses, and with many decorations and
repeated ceremonies, in all proper order, we at last moved it; and the
manner in which we moved it as often as we consulted it upon any secret
affair, was as follows:--
30. "It was placed in the middle of a building, carefully purified on
all sides by Arabian perfumes; and a plain round dish was placed upon
it, made of different metals. On the outer side of which the
four-and-twenty letters of the alphabet were engraved with great skill,
being separated from one another by distances measured with great
precision.
31. "Then a person clothed in linen garments, and shod with slippers of
linen, with a small linen cap on his head, bearing in his hand sprigs of
vervain as a plant of good omen, in set verses, propitiated the deity
who presides over foreknowledge, and thus took his station by this dish,
according to all the rules of the ceremony. Then over the tripod he
balanced a ring which he held suspended by a flaxen thread of extreme
fineness, and which had also been consecrated with mystic ceremonies.
And as this ring touched and bounded off from the different letters
which still preserved their distances distinct, he made with these
letters, by the order in which he touched them, verses in the heroic
metre, corresponding to the questions which we had asked; the verses
being also perfect in metre and rhythm; like the answers of the Pythia
which are so celebrated, or those given by the oracles of the Branchidæ.
32. "Then, when we asked who should succeed the present emperor, since
it was said that it would be a person of universal accomplishments, the
ring bounded up, and touched the two syllables +THEO+; and then
as it added another letter, some one of the bystanders exclaimed that
Theodorus was pointed out by the inevitable decrees of Fate. We asked no
further questions concerning the matter: for it seemed quite plain to us
that he was the man who was intended."
33. And when he had with this exactness laid the knowledge of this
affair open to the eyes of the judges, he added with great benevolence,
that Theodorus knew nothing of the matter. When after this they were
asked whether the oracles which they had consulted had given them any
foreknowledge of their present sufferings, they repeated these
well-known verses which clearly pronounce that this employment of
investigating those high secrets would cost them their lives.
Nevertheless, they added, that the Furies equally threatened the judges
themselves, and also the emperor, breathing only slaughter and
conflagration against them. It will be enough to quote the three final
verses.
+"Ou man nêpoinige son essetai haima, kai autois
Tisiphonê barymênis ephoplizei kanion oiton
En pedioisi Mimantos alalemenoisin arêa."+
"Thy blood shall not fall unaveng'd on earth:
The fierce Tisiphone still keeps her eye
Fixed on thy slayers; arming evil fate
Against them when arrayed on Mima's plain
They seek to stem the tide of horrid war."
When he had read these verses they were both tortured with great
severity, and carried away dead.
34. Afterwards, that the whole workshop where the wickedness had been
wrought might be disclosed to the world, a great number of men of rank
were brought in, among whom were some of the original promoters of the
whole business. And when each, regarding nothing but his own personal
safety, sought to turn the destruction which menaced himself in some
other quarter, by the permission of the judges, Theodorus began to
address them. First of all, he humbled himself with entreaties for
pardon; then being compelled to answer more precisely to the charges
alleged, he proved that he, after having been informed of the whole
affair by Eucærius, was prevented by him from repeating it to the
emperor, as he had often attempted to do: since Eucærius affirmed that
what did not spring from a lawless desire of reigning, but from some
fixed law of inevitable fate, would surely come to pass.
35. Eucærius, when cruelly tortured, confirmed this statement by his own
confession. His own letters were employed to convict Theodorus, letters
which he had written to Hilarius full of indirect hints, which showed
that he had conceived a sure hope of such events from the prophecies of
the soothsayers; and was not inclined to delay, but was looking for an
opportunity of attaining the object of his desires.
36. After the establishment of these facts, the prisoners were removed;
and Eutropius, who at that time was governing Asia with the rank of
proconsul, having been involved in the accusation as having been a
partisan of theirs, was nevertheless acquitted; being exculpated by
Pasiphilus the philosopher, who, though cruelly tortured to make him
implicate Eutropius by a wicked lie, could not be moved from his
vigorous resolution and fortitude.
37. To that was added the philosopher Simonides, a young man, but the
most rigidly virtuous of all men in our time. An information had been
laid against him as having been made aware of what was going on by
Fidustius, as he saw that his cause depended, not on its truth, but on
the will of one man, avowed that he had known all that was alleged, but
had forborne to mention it out of regard for his character for
constancy.
38. When all these matters had been minutely inquired into, the emperor,
in answer to the question addressed to him by the judges, ordered them
all to be condemned and at once executed: and it was not without
shuddering that the vast populace beheld the mournful spectacle; filling
the whole air with lamentations (since they looked on the misery of each
individual as threatening the whole community with a similar fate) when
the whole number of accused persons, except Simonides, were executed in
a melancholy manner. Simonides being reserved to be burnt alive by the
express command of the savage judge, who was enraged at his dignified
constancy.
39. And he, abandoning life as an imperious mistress, and defying the
sudden destruction thus coming on him, was burnt without giving any sign
of shrinking; imitating, in his death, the philosopher Peregrinus,
surnamed Proteus, who having determined to quit the world, at the
quinquennial games of Olympia, in the sight of all Greece, mounted a
funeral pile which he had built himself, and was there burnt alive.
40. After his death, on the ensuing days a vast multitude of almost all
ranks, whose names it would be too arduous a task to enumerate, being
convicted by calumnious accusations, were despatched by the
executioners, after having been first exhausted by every description of
torture. Some were put to death without a moment's breathing-time or
delay, while the question was still being asked whether they deserved to
be punished at all; in fact, men were slaughtered like sheep in all
directions.
41. After this, innumerable quantities of papers, and many heaps of
volumes were collected, and burnt under the eyes of the judges, having
been taken out of various houses as unlawful books; in order to lessen
the unpopularity arising from so many executions, though in fact, the
greater part of them were books teaching various kinds of liberal
accomplishments, or books of law.
42. Not long afterwards, Maximus, the celebrated philosopher, a man of
vast reputation for learning, from whose eloquent discourses the emperor
Julian derived his great learning and wisdom, being accused of having
been acquainted with the verses of the oracle mentioned above, and
confessing that he had known something of them, but that he had not
divulged what he knew, as being bound to keep silence out of
consideration for his promise; but adding that he had of his own accord
predicted that those who had consulted the oracle would perish by public
execution, was conducted to Ephesus, his native place, and there
beheaded. And thus by his own forfeiture of life, he found that the
injustice of a judge is the worst of all crimes.
43. Diogenes, too, a man of noble family, great forensic eloquence and
pre-eminent courtesy, who had some time before been governor of
Bithynia, being entangled in the toils of wicked falsehood, was put to
death in order to afford a pretext for seizing on his ample patrimony.
44. Alypius also, who had been governor of Britain, a man of most
delightful mildness of temper, and who had lived a tranquil and retired
life (since even against such as him did Injustice stretch forth her
hands), was involved in the greatest misfortune; and was accused with
Hierocles his son, a youth of most amiable disposition of having been
guilty of poisoning, on the unsupported information of a low fellow
named Diogenes, who had been tortured with extreme severity to force him
to make confessions which might please the emperor, or rather, which
might please his accuser. When his limbs could no longer endure their
punishment, he was burnt alive; and Alypius, after having had his
property confiscated, was condemned to banishment, though by an
extraordinary piece of good fortune he received back his son after he
had been condemned, and had actually been led out to suffer a miserable
death.
II.
§ 1. During all this time, Palladius, the original cause of these
miseries, whom we have already spoken of as having been arrested by
Fortunatianus, being, from the lowness of his original condition, a man
ready to fall into every kind of wickedness, by heaping one murder on
another diffused mourning and lamentation over the whole empire.
2. For being allowed to name any persons he chose, without distinction
of rank, as men contaminated by the practice of forbidden arts, like a
huntsman who has learnt to mark the secret tracks of wild beasts, he
enclosed many victims within his wretched toils, some as being polluted
with a knowledge of poisonings, others as accomplices of those who were
guilty of treason.
3. And that wives too might not have leisure to weep over the miseries
of their husbands, officers were sent at once to seal up the house of
any one who was condemned, and who, while examining all the furniture,
slipped in among it old women's incantations, or ridiculous love-tokens,
contrived to bring destruction on the innocent; and then, when these
things were mentioned before the bench, where neither law, nor religion,
nor equity were present to separate truth from falsehood, those whom
they thus accused, though utterly void of offence, without any
distinction, youths, and decrepit old men, without being heard in their
defence, found their property confiscated, and were hurried off to
execution in litters.
4. One of the consequences in the eastern provinces was, that from fear
of similar treatment, people burnt all their libraries; so great was the
terror which seized upon all ranks. For, to cut my story short, at that
time all of us crawled about as if in Cimmerian darkness, in the same
kind of dread as the guest of Dionysius of Sicily; who, while feasting
at a banquet more irksome than famine itself, saw a sword suspended over
his head by a single horsehair.
5. There was a man named Bassianus, of most noble family, a secretary,
and eminently distinguished for his military services, who, on a charge
of having entertained ambitious projects, and of having sought oracles
concerning their issue, though he declared he had only consulted the
oracles to know the sex of his next child, was saved indeed from death
by the great interest made for him by his relations who protected him;
but he was stripped of all his splendid inheritance.
6. Amid all this destruction and ruin, Heliodorus, that hellish
colleague of Palladius in bringing about these miseries (being what the
common people call a mathematician), having been admitted into the
secret conferences of the imperial palace, and been tempted by every
kind of caress and cajolery to relate all he knew or could invent, was
putting forth his fatal stings.
7. For he was carefully feasted on the most delicate food, and furnished
with large sums of money to give to his concubines; and he strutted
about in every direction with a pompous, haughty countenance, and was
universally dreaded. Being the more confident and arrogant, because as
he was high chamberlain, he could go constantly and openly to the
brothels, in which, as he desired, he was freely entertained, while
revealing the edicts of the "parental guardian of the state," which were
destined to be disastrous to many.
8. And through his means, as an advocate at the bar, Valens was
instructed beforehand in what would most contribute to success--what to
place in the first part of his speech, and with what figures, and what
inventions to work up splendid passages.
9. And as it would take a long time to enumerate all the devices of that
villain, I will mention this one only, which, in its rash boldness,
assailed the very pillars of the patrician dignity. As I have said
before, he was raised to exceeding arrogance by being admitted to the
secret conferences of the princes; and being, from the lowness of his
birth, a man ready for any wickedness, he laid an information against
that illustrious pair of consuls, the brothers Eusebius and Hypatius,
relations of the former emperor Constantius, as having conceived desires
of a higher fortune, and formed projects and entered into enterprises
for the attainment of supreme power. Adding, in order to procure
additional credit for this falsehood, that Eusebius had had a set of
imperial robes prepared for him.
10. And when the story had been swallowed willingly, Valens raging and
threatening, a prince who never ought to have had any power at all,
because he thought that everything, even injustice, was in his power,
was incessantly active in causing the production, even from the most
distant countries, of all those whom the lawless accuser in profound
security had insisted ought to be produced; and further commanded a
prosecution to be instituted on the criminal charge.
11. And when equity had long been tossed to and fro by knotty
difficulties, while that abandoned profligate persisted with unyielding
obstinacy in maintaining the truth of his assertions, while the severest
tortures were unable to wring any confession from the prisoners, and
when every circumstance proved that those eminent men were free from all
consciousness of anything of the kind, still the false accuser was
treated with the same respect as he had previously received. But though
the prisoners were sentenced to exile and a heavy fine, a short time
afterwards they were recalled from banishment, restored to their former
rank and dignity, and their fine repaid.
12. Still after all these shameful transactions, the prince did not
proceed with any more moderation or decency than before; never
considering that in a wise government it is well not to be too keen in
hunting out offences, even as a means of inflicting distress upon one's
enemies; and that nothing is so unbecoming as to display a bitterness of
disposition in connection with supreme authority.
13. But when Heliodorus died, whether of sickness or through some
deliberate violence is uncertain (I should not like to say, and I wish
that the facts themselves were equally silent), many men of rank in
mourning robes, among whom were these two brothers of consular rank, by
the express command of the emperor, attended his funeral when he was
borne to his grave by the undertakers.
14. At that time, and in that place, the whole vileness and stupidity of
the ruler of the empire was publicly displayed. When he was entreated to
abstain from abandoning himself to inconsolable grief, he remained
obstinately inflexible, as if he had stopped his ears with wax to pass
the rocks of the Sirens.
15. But at last, being overcome by the pertinacious entreaties of his
court, he ordered some persons to go on foot, bareheaded, and with their
hands folded, to the burial-place of this wretched gladiator to do him
honour. One shudders now to recollect the decree by which so many men of
high rank were humiliated, especially some of consular dignity, after
all their truncheons and robes of honour, and all the worldly parade of
having their names recorded in the annals of their nation.
16. Among them all, our friend Hypatius was most conspicuous,
recommended as he was to every one by the beauty of the virtues which he
had practised from his youth; being a man of quiet and gentle wisdom,
preserving an undeviating honesty combined with the greatest courtesy of
manner, so that he conferred a fresh lustre on the glory of his
ancestors, and was an ornament to his posterity, by the memorable
actions which he performed in the office of prefect, to which he was
twice appointed.
17. At the same time, this circumstance came to crown the other
splendid actions of Valens, that, while in the case of others he gave
way to such furious violence, that he was even vexed when the severity
of their punishment was terminated by death, yet he pardoned
Pollentianus, the tribune, a man stained with such enormous wickedness,
that at that very time he was convicted on his own confession of having
cut out the womb of a living woman and taken from it her child, in order
to summon forth spirits from the shades below, and to consult them about
a change in the empire. He looked on this wretch with the eye of
friendship, in spite of the murmurs of the whole bench of senators, and
discharged him in safety, suffering him to retain not only his life, but
his vast riches and full rank in the army.
18. O most glorious learning, granted by the express gift of heaven to
happy mortals, thou who hast often refined even vicious natures! How
many faults in the darkness of that age wouldst thou have corrected if
Valens had ever been taught by thee that, according to the definition of
wise men, empire is nothing else but the care of the safety of others;
and that it is the duty of a good emperor to restrain power, to resist
any desire to possess all things, and all implacability of passion, and
to know, as the dictator Cæsar used to say, "That the recollection of
cruelty was an instrument to make old age miserable!" And therefore that
it behoves any one who is about to pass a sentence affecting the life
and existence of a man, who is a portion of the world, and makes up the
complement of living creatures, to hesitate long and much, and never to
give way to intemperate haste in a case in which what is done is
irrevocable. According to that example well known to all antiquity.
19. When Dolabella was proconsul in Asia, a matron at Smyrna confessed
that she had poisoned her son and her husband, because she had
discovered that they had murdered a son whom she had had by a former
husband. Her case was adjourned--the council to whom it had been
referred being in doubt how to draw a line between just revenge and
unprovoked crime; and so she was remitted to the judgment of the
Areopagus, those severe Athenian judges, who are said to have decided
disputes even among the gods. They, when they had heard the case,
ordered the woman and her accuser to appear before them again in a
hundred years, to avoid either acquitting a poisoner, or punishing one
who had been the avenger of her kindred. So that is never to be thought
too slow which is the last of all things.
20. After all the acts of various iniquity already mentioned, and after
even the free persons who were allowed to survive had been thus
shamefully branded, the eye of Justice which never sleeps, that
unceasing witness and avenger of events, became more attentive and
vigilant. For the avenging Furies of those who had been put to death,
working on the everlasting deity with their just complaints, kindled the
torches of war, to confirm the truth of the oracle, which had given
warning that no crime can be perpetrated with impunity.
21. While the affairs thus narrated were taking place, Antioch was
exposed to great distress through domestic dissension, though not
molested by any attacks on the side of Parthia. But the horrid troop of
Furies, which after having caused all sorts of miseries there, had
quitted that city, now settled on the neck of the whole of Asia, as will
be seen in what follows.
22. A certain native of Trent, by name Festus, a man of the lowest
obscurity of birth, being a relation of Maximin, and one who had assumed
the manly robe at the same time with himself, was cherished by him as a
companion, and by the will of the Fates had now crossed over to the
east, and having there become governor of Syria, and master of the
records, he set a very good and respectable example of lenity. From this
he was promoted to govern Asia with the rank of proconsul, being thus,
as the saying is, borne on with a fair wind to glory.
23. And hearing that Maximin caused the destruction of every virtuous
man, he began from this time to denounce his actions as mischievous and
disgraceful. But when he saw that, in consequence of the removal of
those persons whom he had impiously put to death, that wicked man had
arrived at the dignity of prefect, he began to be excited to similar
conduct and similar hopes. And suddenly changing his character like an
actor, he applied himself to the study of doing injury, and went about
with fixed and severe eyes, trusting that he also should soon become a
prefect, if he only polluted himself with the blood of innocent men.
24. And although there are many and various instances in which, to put
the best construction on them, he acted with great harshness, still it
will be sufficient to enumerate a few, which are notorious and commonly
spoken of, seeming to be done in rivalry of the deeds which were
committed at Rome; for the principle of good and bad actions is the same
everywhere, even if the importance of the circumstances be unequal.
25. There was a philosopher named Cæranius, a man of no inconsiderable
merit, whom he put to death with the most cruel tortures, and without
any one coming forward to avenge him, because, when writing familiarly
to his wife, he had put a postscript in Greek, "+sy de noei, kai
stephe tên pylên.+"--"Do you take care and adorn the gate," which is a
common expression to let the hearer know that something of importance is
to be done.
26. There was a certain simple old woman who was wont to cure
intermittent fever by a gentle incantation, whom he put to death as a
witch, after she had been summoned, with his consent, to his daughter,
and had cured her.
27. There was a certain citizen of high respectability, among whose
papers, when they were searched by the officers on some business or
other, was found the nativity of some one of the name of Valens. He,
when asked on what account he had troubled himself about the star of the
emperor, had repelled the accusation by declaring that it was his own
brother Valens whose nativity was thus found, and when he promised to
bring abundant proof that he had long been dead, the judges would not
wait for evidence of the truth of his assertion, but put him to the
torture and cruelly slew him.
28. A young man was seen in the bath to put the fingers of each hand
alternately against the marble and against his own chest, and then to
repeat the names of the seven vowels, fancying that a remedy for a pain
in the stomach. For this he was brought before the court, put to the
torture, and then beheaded.
III.
§ 1. These events, and the account of Gaul to which I am now about to
proceed, will cause some interruption to the narration of occurrences in
the metropolis. Among many terrible circumstances, I find that Maximin
was still prefect, who by the wide extent of his power was a cruel
prompter to the emperor, who combined the most unrestrained licence with
unbounded power. Whoever, therefore, considers what I have related, must
also reflect on the other facts which have been passed over, and, like a
prudent man, he will pardon me if I do not record everything which the
wickedness of certain counsels has occasioned by exaggerating every
accusation?
2. For while severity, the foe of all right principles, increased,
Valentinian, being a man of a naturally ferocious disposition, when
Maximin arrived, having no one to give him good advice or to restrain
him, proceeded, as if hurried on by a storm of winds and waves, to all
kinds of cruel actions; so that when angry, his voice, his countenance,
his gait, and his complexion, were continually changing. And of this
passionate intemperance there are many undoubted instances, of which it
will be sufficient to recount a few.
3. A certain grown-up youth, of those called pages, having been
appointed to take care of a Spartan hound which had been brought out for
hunting, let him loose before the appointed moment, because the animal,
in its efforts to escape, leaped upon him and bit him; and for this he
was beaten to death and buried the same day.
4. The master of a workshop, who had brought the emperor an offering of
a breastplate most exquisitely polished, and who was therefore in
expectation of a reward, was ordered by him to be put to death because
the steel was of less weight than he considered requisite.... There was
a certain native, of Epirus, a priest of the Christian religion.[179]
...
5. Constantianus, the master of the stables, having ventured to change
a few of the horses, to select which he had been despatched to Sardinia,
was, by his order, stoned to death. Athanasius, a very popular
character, being suspected by him of some levity in the language he held
among the common people, was sentenced to be burnt alive if he ever did
anything of the kind again; and not long afterwards, being accused of
having practised magic, he was actually burnt, no pardon being given
even to one whose devices had often afforded the emperor great
amusement.
6. Africanus was an advocate of great diligence, residing in Rome; he
had had the government of one province, and aspired to that of another.
But when Theodosius, the commander of the cavalry, supported his
petition for such an office, the emperor answered him somewhat rudely,
"Away with you, O count, and change the head of the man who wishes to
have his province changed." And by this sentence a man of great
eloquence perished, only because, like many others, he wished for higher
preferment.
7. Claudian and Sallust were officers of the Jovian legion, who had
gradually risen to the rank of tribunes; but they were accused by some
man of the most despicable baseness of having said something in favour
of Procopius when he aimed at the imperial power. And when a diligent
investigation into this charge had proved ineffectual, the emperor gave
orders to the captains of the cavalry who had been employed in it, to
condemn Claudian to banishment, and to pass sentence of death upon
Sallust, promising that he would reprieve him as he was being led to
execution. The sentence was passed, as he commanded; but Sallust was not
reprieved, nor was Claudian recalled from exile till after the death of
Valentinian.... After they had been exposed to frequent tortures.
8. Nevertheless after so many persons had been put to the question, some
of whom had even expired under the severity of their tortures, still no
traces of the alleged crimes could be discovered. In this affair some of
the body-guards, who had been sent to arrest certain persons, were, in a
most unusual manner, beaten to death.
9. The mind shudders at the idea of recapitulating all that took place,
and, indeed, dreads to do so, lest we should appear to make a business
of pointing out the vices of an emperor who, in other respects, had many
good qualities. But this one circumstance may not be passed over in
silence nor suppressed, that he kept two ferocious she-bears who were
used to eat men; and they had names, Golden Camel and Innocence, and
these beasts he took such care of that he had their dens close to his
bedchamber; and appointed over them trusty keepers who were bound to
take especial care that the odious fury of these monsters should never
be checked. At last he had Innocence set free, after he had seen the
burial of many corpses which she had torn to pieces, giving her the
range of the forests as a reward for her services.[180]
IV.
§ 1. These actions are the most undeniable proof of his habits and real
character; but even the most obstinate disparager of his disposition
cannot deny him the praise of great ability, which never forgot the
interests of the state; especially when it is recollected, that perhaps
it is a greater and more beneficial, as well as difficult, task to
control the barbarians by means of an army, than to repulse them. And
when ... If any one of the enemy moved, he was seen from the
watch-towers and immediately overwhelmed.
2. But among many other subjects of anxiety, the first and most
important thing of all which was agitated, was to seize alive, either by
force or by trickery, as Julian had formerly taken Vadomarius,
Macrianus, the king, who, through all the changes which had taken place,
had obtained a considerable increase of power, and was rising up against
our people with full-grown strength: and after all the measures had been
taken which seemed required by the affair itself and the time, and when
it had been learnt by information collected from deserters when the
aforesaid monarch could be seized before he expected anything of the
kind, the emperor threw a bridge of boats across the Rhine with as much
secrecy as was possible, lest any one should interpose any obstacle to
such a work.
3. Severus, who was the commander of the infantry, led the van of the
army towards Wiesbaden; and then, reflecting on his scanty numbers,
halted in consternation; being afraid lest, as he should be quite
unequal to resist them, he should be overwhelmed by the mass of the
hostile army if it attacked him.
4. And because he suspected that the dealers who brought slaves for
sale, whom he found at that place by chance, would be likely to repair
with speed to the king to tell him what they had seen, he stripped them
of all their merchandise, and then put them all to death.
5. Our generals were now encouraged by the arrival of more troops; and
speedily contrived a temporary camp, because none of the baggage-beasts
had arrived, nor had any one a proper tent, except the emperor, for whom
one was constructed of carpets and tapestry. Then waiting a short time
on account of the darkness of the night, at daybreak the army quitted
the camp and proceeded onwards; being led by guides well acquainted with
the country. The cavalry, under Theodosius, its captain, was appointed
to lead the way ... was inconvenienced by the great noise made by his
men; whom his repeated commands could not restrain from rapine and
incendiarism. For the guards of the enemy being roused by the crackling
of the flames, and suspecting what had happened, put the king on a light
carriage and carrying him off with great speed, hid him among the
defiles of the neighbouring mountains.
6. Valentinian being defrauded of the glory of taking him, and that
neither through any fault of his own or of his generals, but through the
insubordination of his soldiers, which was often the cause of great
misfortunes to the Roman state, laid waste all the enemy's country for
fifty miles with fire and sword; and then returned dejected to Treves.
7. Where like a lion raging for the loss of a deer or a goat and
champing with empty jaws, while fear was breaking and dividing the
enemy, he proceeded to command the Bucenobantes, who are a tribe of the
Allemanni opposite to Mayence, to elect Fraomarius as their king in
place of Macrianus. And, shortly afterwards, when a fresh invasion had
entirely desolated that canton, he removed him to Britain, where he gave
him the authority of a tribune, and placed a number of the Allemanni
under his command, forming for him a division strong both in its
numbers and the excellence of its appointments. He also gave two other
nobles of the same nation, by name Bitheridus and Hortarius, commands in
his army; of whom Hortarius, being betrayed by the information of
Florentius, Duke of Germany, who accused him of having written letters
to Macrianus and the chieftains of the barbarians, containing language
unfavourable to the republic, was put to the torture, and having been
compelled to confess the truth, was condemned to be burnt alive.
V.
§ 1. After this ... it seems best to relate these matters in one
connected narrative, lest the introduction of other affairs wholly
unconnected with them, and which took place at a distance, should lead
to confusion, and prevent the reader from acquiring a correct knowledge
of these numerous and intricate affairs.
2. Nubel, who had been the most powerful chieftain among the Mauritanian
nations, died, and left several sons, some legitimate, others born of
concubines, of whom Zamma, a great favourite of the Count Romanus, was
slain by his brother Firmus; and this deed gave rise to civil discords,
and wars. For the count being exceedingly eager to avenge his death,
made formidable preparations for the destruction of his treacherous
enemy. And as continual reports declared, most exceeding pains were
taken in the palace, that the despatches of Romanus, which contained
many most unfavourable statements respecting Firmus, should be received
and read by the prince; while many circumstances strengthened their
credibility. And, on the other hand, that those documents which Firmus
frequently, for the sake of his own safety, endeavoured to lay before
the emperor by the agency of his friends, should be kept from his sight
as long as possible, Remigius, a friend and relation of Romanus, and who
was at that time master of the offices, availed himself of other more
important affairs which claimed the emperor's attention to declare that
Firmus's papers were all unimportant and superfluous, only to be read at
a perfectly favourable opportunity.
3. But when Firmus perceived that these intrigues were going on to keep
his defence out of sight, trembling for fear of the worst if all his
excuses should be passed over, and he himself be condemned as
disaffected and mischievous, and so be put to death, he revolted from
the emperor's authority, and aided ... in devastation.[181]
4. Therefore, to prevent an implacable enemy from gaining strength by
such an increase of force, Theodosius, the commander of the cavalry, was
sent with a small body of the emperor's guards to crush him at once.
Theodosius was an officer whose virtues and successes were at that time
conspicuous above those of all other men: he resembled those ancient
heroes, Domitius Corbulo, and Lusius; the first of whom was
distinguished by a great number of gallant achievements in the time of
Nero, and the latter of equal reputation under Trajan.
5. Theodosius marched from Arles with favourable auspices, and having
crossed the sea with the fleet under his command so rapidly that no
report of his approach could arrive before himself, he reached the coast
of Mauritania Sitifensis; that portion of the coast being called, by the
natives, Igilgitanum. There, by accident, he met Romanus, and addressing
him kindly, sent him to arrange the stations of the sentries and the
outposts, without reproaching him for any of the matters for which he
was liable to blame.
6. And when he had gone to the other province, Mauritania Cæsariensis,
he sent Gildo, the brother of Firmus and Maximus, to assist Vincentius,
who, as the deputy of Romanus, was the partner of his disloyal schemes
and thefts.
7. Accordingly, as soon as his soldiers arrived, who had been delayed by
the length of the sea voyage, he hastened to Sitifis; and gave orders to
the body-guards to keep Romanus and his attendants under surveillance.
He himself remained in the city, full of embarrassment and anxiety,
working many plans in his mind, while devising by what means or
contrivances he could conduct his soldiers who were accustomed to a cold
climate through a country parched up with heat; or how he could catch
an enemy always on the alert and appearing when least expected, and who
relied more on surprises and ambuscades than a pitched battle.
8. When news of these facts reached Firmus, first through vague reports,
and subsequently by precise information, he, terrified at the approach
of a general of tried valour, sent envoys and letters to him, confessing
all he had done, and imploring pardon; asserting that it was not of his
own accord that he had been driven on to an action which he knew to be
criminal, but that he had been goaded on by unjust treatment of a
flagitious character, as he undertook to show.
9. When his letters had been read, and when peace was promised him, and
hostages received from him, Theodosius proceeded to the Pancharian
station to review the legions to which the protection of Africa was
intrusted, and who had been ordered to assemble to meet him at that
place. There he encouraged the hopes of them all by confident yet
prudent language; and then returned to Sitifis, having reinforced his
troops with some native soldiers; and, not being inclined to admit of
any delay, he hastened to regain his camp.
10. Among many other admirable qualities which he displayed, his
popularity was immensely increased by an order which he issued,
forbidding the army to demand supplies from the inhabitants of the
province; and asserting, with a captivating confidence, that the
harvests and granaries of the enemy were the magazines of the valour of
our soldiers.
11. Having arranged these matters in a way which caused great joy to the
landowners, he advanced to Tubusuptum, a town near Mons Ferratus, where
he rejected a second embassy of Firmus, because it had not brought with
it the hostages, as had been provided before. From this place, having
made as careful an examination of everything as the time and place
permitted, he proceeded by rapid marches to the Tyndenses and
Massisenses; tribes equipped with light arms, under the command of
Mascizel and Dius, brothers of Firmus.
12. When the enemy, being quick and active in all their movements, came
in sight, after a fierce skirmish by a rapid interchange of missiles,
both sides engaged in a furious contest; and amid the groans of the
wounded and dying were heard also the wailing and lamentations of
barbarian prisoners. When the battle was over, the territory for a great
distance was ravaged and wasted by fire.
13. Among the havoc thus caused, the destruction of the farm of Petra,
which was razed to the ground, and which had been originally built by
Salmaces, its owner, a brother of Firmus, in such a manner as to
resemble a town, was especially remarkable. The conqueror was elated at
this success, and with incredible speed proceeded to occupy the town of
Lamforctense, which was situated among the tribes already mentioned;
here he caused large stores of provisions to be accumulated, in order
that if, in his advance into the inland districts, he should find a
scarcity of supplies, he might order them to be brought from this town,
which would be at no great distance.
14. In the mean time Mascizel, having recruited his forces by
auxiliaries which he had procured from the tribes on the borders,
ventured on a pitched battle with our army, in which his men were
routed, and a great portion of them slain, while he himself was with
difficulty saved from death by the speed of his horse.
15. Firmus, being weakened by the losses he had sustained in two
battles, and in great perplexity, in order to leave no expedient
untried, sent some priests of the Christian religion with the hostages,
as ambassadors to implore peace. They were received kindly, and having
promised supplies of food for our soldiers, as they were commissioned to
do, they brought back a propitious answer. And then, sending before him
a present, Firmus himself went with confidence to meet the Roman
general, mounted on a horse fitted for any emergency. When he came near
Theodosius, he was awe-struck at the brilliancy of the standards, and
the terrible countenance of the general himself; and leapt from his
horse, and with neck bowed down almost to the ground, he, with tears,
laid all the blame on his own rashness, and entreated pardon and peace.
16. He was received with a kiss, since such treatment of him appeared
advantageous to the republic; and being now full of joyful hope, he
supplied the army with provisions in abundance; and having left some of
his own relations as hostages, he departed in order, as he promised, to
restore those prisoners whom he had taken at the first beginning of
these disturbances. And two days afterwards, without any delay, he
restored the town of Icosium (of the founders of which we have already
spoken), also the military standards, the crown belonging to the priest,
and all the other things which he had taken, as he had been commanded to
do.
17. Leaving this place, our general, advancing by long marches, reached
Tiposa, where, with great elation, he gave answers to the envoys of the
Mazices, who had combined with Firmus, and now in a suppliant tone
implored pardon, replying to their entreaties that he would at once
march against them as perfidious enemies.
18. When he had thus cowed them by the fear of impending danger, and had
commanded them to return to their own country, he proceeded onwards to
Cæsarea, a city formerly of great wealth and importance, of the origin
of which we have given a full account in our description of Africa. When
he reached it, and saw that nearly the whole of it had been destroyed by
extensive conflagrations, and that the flint stones of the streets were
covered with ashes, he ordered the first and second legions to be
stationed there for a time, that they might clear away the heaps of
cinders and ashes, and keep guard there to prevent a fresh attack of the
barbarians from repeating this devastation.
19. When accurate intelligence of these events had arrived, the
governors of the province and the tribune Vincentius issued forth from
the places of concealment in which they had been lying, and came with
speed and confidence to the general. He saw and received them with joy,
and, while still at Cæsarea, having accurately inquired into every
circumstance, he found that Firmus, while assuming the disguise of an
ally and a suppliant, was secretly planning how, like a sudden tempest,
to overwhelm his army while unprepared for any such danger.
20. On this he quitted Cæsarea, and went to the town of Sugabarritanum,
which is on the slope of Mount Transcellensis. There he found the
cavalry of the fourth cohort of archers, who had revolted to the
rebels, and in order to show himself content with lenient punishments,
he degraded them all to the lowest class of the service, and ordered
them, and a portion of the infantry of the Constantian legion, to come
to Tigaviæ with their tribunes, one of whom was the man who, for want of
a diadem, had placed a neck-chain on the head of Firmus.
21. While these events were proceeding, Gildo and Maximus returned, and
brought with them Bellenes, one of the princes of the Mazices, and
Fericius, prefect of that nation, both of whom had espoused the faction
of the disturber of the public peace, leading them forth in chains.
22. When this order had been executed, Theodosius himself came forth
from his camp at daybreak, and on seeing those men surrounded by his
army, said, "What, my trusty comrades, do you think ought to be done to
these nefarious traitors?" And then, in compliance with the acclamations
of the whole army, who demanded that their treason should be expiated by
their blood, he, according to the ancient fashion, handed over those of
them who had served in the Constantian legion to the soldiers to be put
to death by them. The officers of the archers he sentenced to lose their
hands, and the rest he condemned to death, in imitation of Curio, that
most vigorous and severe general, who by this kind of punishment crushed
the ferocity of the Dardanians, when it was reviving like the Lernæan
hydra.
23. But malignant detractors, though they praise the ancient deed,
vituperate this one as terrible and inhuman, affirming that the
Dardanians[182] were implacable enemies, and therefore justly suffered
the punishment inflicted on them; but that those soldiers, who belonged
to our own standards, ought to have been corrected with more lenity, for
falling into one single error. But we will remind these cavillers, of
what perhaps they know already, namely, that this cohort was not only an
enemy by its own conduct, but also by the example which it set to
others.
24. He also commanded Bellenes and Fericius, who have been mentioned
above, and whom Gildo brought with him, to be put to death; and likewise
Curandius, a tribune of the archers, because he had always been
backward in engaging the enemy himself, and had never been willing to
encourage his men to fight. And he did this in recollection of the
principle laid down by Cicero, that "salutary vigour is better than an
empty appearance of clemency."
25. Leaving Sugabarri, he came to a town called Gallonatis, surrounded
by a strong wall, and a secure place of refuge for the Moors, which, as
such, he destroyed with his battering-rams. And having slain all the
inhabitants, and levelled the walls, he advanced along the foot of Mount
Ancorarius to the fortress of Tingetanum, where the Mazices were all
collected in one solid body. He at once attacked them, and they
encountered him with arrows and missiles of all kinds as thick as hail.
26. The battle proceeded for some time vigorously on both sides, till at
last the Mazices, though a hardy and warlike race, being unable to
withstand the fury of our men and the shock of their arms, after
sustaining heavy loss, fled in every direction in disgraceful panic; and
as they fled they were put to the sword in great numbers, with the
exception only of those who, contriving to make their escape,
afterwards, by their humble supplications, obtained the pardon which the
times permitted to be granted to them.
27. Their leader Suggena, who succeeded Romanus, was sent into
Mauritania Sitifensis to establish other garrisons necessary to prevent
that province from being overrun; and he himself, elated by his recent
achievements, marched against the nation of the Musones, who, from a
consciousness of the ravages and murders of which they had been guilty,
had joined the party of Firmus, hoping that he would soon obtain the
chief authority.
28. Having advanced some distance, he found, near the town of Addense,
that a number of tribes, who, though differing from each other in
manners and language, were all animated with one feeling, in fomenting
the outbreaks of terrible wars, being urged on and encouraged by the
hope of great rewards from a sister of Firmus, named Cyria; who being
very rich, and full of feminine resolution, was resolved to make a great
effort to help her brother.
29. Therefore Theodosius, fearing to become involved in a war to which
his forces were unequal, and that if he with his small force (for he had
but three thousand five hundred men) should engage with an immense
multitude, he should lose his whole army, at first hesitating between
the shame of retreating and his wish to fight, gradually fell back a
little; but presently was compelled by the overpowering mass of the
barbarians to retire altogether.
30. The barbarians were exceedingly elated at this event, and pursued
him with great obstinacy.... Being compelled by necessity to fight, he
would have lost all his army and his own life, had not these tumultuous
tribes, the moment they saw a troop of the Mazican auxiliaries, with a
few Roman soldiers in their front, fancied that a numerous division was
advancing to charge them, and in consequence taking to flight, opened to
our men a way of escape which was previously shut against them.
31. Theodosius now drew off his army in safety; and when he had reached
a town called Mazucanum, he found there a number of deserters, some of
whom he burnt alive, and others he mutilated after the fashion of the
archers whose hands had been cut off. He then proceeded towards Tipata,
which he reached in the course of February.
32. There he stayed some time deliberating, like that old delayer,
Fabius, on the circumstances around him, desiring to subdue the enemy,
who was not only warlike, but so active as usually to keep out of
bowshot, rather by manoeuvres and skill than by hazardous engagements.
33. Still he from time to time sent out envoys, skilled in the arts of
persuasion, to the surrounding tribes, the Basuræ, the Cautauriani, the
Anastomates, the Cafaves, the Davares, and other people in their
neighbourhood, trying to bring them over to our alliance, either by
presents, threats, or by promises of pardon for past violence ...
seeking by delays and intrigues to crush an enemy who offered so stout a
resistance to his attacks, just as Pompey in times past had subdued
Mithridates.
34. On this account Firmus, avoiding immediate destruction, although he
was strengthened by a large body of troops, abandoned the army which he
had collected by a lavish expenditure of money, and as the darkness of
night afforded a chance of concealment, he fled to the Caprarian
mountains, which were at a great distance, and from their precipitous
character inaccessible.
35. On his clandestine departure, his army also dispersed, being broken
up into small detachments without any leader, and thus afforded our men
an opportunity of attacking their camp. That was soon plundered, and all
who resisted were put to the sword, or else taken prisoners; and then,
having devastated the greater portion of the country, our wise general
appointed prefects of tried loyalty as governors of the different tribes
through which he passed.
36. The traitor was thrown into consternation by the unexpected boldness
of his pursuit, and with the escort of only a few servants, hoping to
secure his safety by the rapidity of his movements, in order to have
nothing to impede his flight, threw away all the valuable baggage which
he had taken with him. His wife, exhausted with continual toil....
37. Theodosius ... showing mercy to none of them, having refreshed his
soldiers by a supply of better food, and gratified them by a
distribution of pay, defeated the Capracienses and Abanni, who were the
next tribes to them, in some unimportant skirmishes, and then advanced
with great speed to the town of ... and having received certain
intelligence that the barbarians had already occupied the hills, and
were spread over the precipitous and broken ground to a great height, so
that they were quite inaccessible to any but natives who were intimately
acquainted with the whole country, he retired, giving the enemy an
opportunity by a truce, short as it was, to receive an important
reinforcement from the Ethiopians in the neighbourhood.
38. Then having assembled all their united forces, they rushed on to
battle with threatening shouts, and an utter disregard of their
individual safety, compelling him to retreat, full of consternation at
the apparently countless numbers of their army. But soon the courage of
his men revived, and he returned, bringing with him vast supplies, and
with his troops in a dense column, and brandishing their shields with
formidable gestures, he again engaged the enemy in close combat.
39. The barbarians rattled their arms in a savage manner, and our
battalions, with equal rage, pushed on, they also rattling their shields
against their knees. Still the general, like a cautious and prudent
warrior, aware of the scantiness of his numbers, advanced boldly with
his army in battle array, till he came to a point, at which he turned
off, though still preserving an undaunted front, towards the city of
Contensis, where Firmus had placed the prisoners whom he had taken from
us, as in a remote and safe fortress. He recovered them all, and
inflicted severe punishment, according to his custom, on the traitors
among the prisoners, and also on the guards of Firmus.
40. While he was thus successful, through the protection of the Supreme
Deity, he received correct intelligence from one of his scouts that
Firmus had fled to the tribe of the Isaflenses. He at once entered their
territory to require that he should be given up, with his brother
Mazuca, and the rest of his relations: and on being refused, he declared
war against the nation.
41. And after a fierce battle, in which the barbarians displayed
extraordinary courage and ferocity, he threw his army into a solid
circle; and then the Isaflenses were so completely overpowered by the
weight of our battalions pressing on them that numbers were slain; and
Firmus himself, gallantly as he behaved, after exposing himself to
imminent danger by the rashness of his courage, put spurs to his horse,
and fled; his horse being accustomed to make his way with great speed
over the most rocky and precipitous paths. But his brother Mazuca was
taken prisoner, mortally wounded.
42. It was intended to send him to Cæsarea, where he had left behind him
many records of his atrocious cruelties; but his wounds reopened, and he
died. So his head was cut off, and (his body being left behind) was
conveyed to that city, where it was received with great joy by all who
saw it.
43. After this our noble general inflicted most severe punishment, as
justice required, on the whole nation of the Isaflenses, which had
resisted till it was thus subdued in war. And he burnt alive one of the
most influential of the citizens, named Evasius, and his son Florus, and
several others, who were convicted on undeniable evidence of having
aided the great disturber of tranquillity by their secret counsels.
44. From thence Theodosius proceeded into the interior, and with great
resolution attacked the tribe of the Jubileni, to which he heard that
Nubel, the father of Firmus, belonged; but presently he halted, being
checked by the height of the mountains, and their winding defiles. And
though he had once attacked the enemy, and opened himself a further road
by slaying a great number of them, still, fearing the high precipices as
places pre-eminently adapted for ambuscades, he withdrew, and led back
his army in safety to a fortress called Audiense, where the Jesalenses,
a warlike tribe, came over to him, voluntarily promising to furnish him
with reinforcements and provisions.
45. Our noble general, exulting in this and similarly glorious
achievements, now made the greatest efforts to overtake the original
disturber of tranquillity himself, and therefore having halted for some
time near a fortress named Medianum, he planned various schemes through
which he hoped to procure that Firmus should be given up to him.
46. And while he was directing anxious thoughts and deep sagacity to
this object, he heard that he had again gone back to the Isaflenses; on
which, as before, without any delay, he marched against them with all
possible speed. Their king, whose name was Igmazen, a man of great
reputation in that country, and celebrated also for his riches, advanced
with boldness to meet him, and addressed him thus, "To what country do
you belong, and with what object have you come hither? Answer me."
Theodosius, with firm mind and stern looks, replied, "I am a lieutenant
of Valentinian, the master of the whole world, sent hither to destroy a
murderous robber; and unless you at once surrender him, as the
invincible emperor has commanded, you also, and the nation of which you
are king, will be entirely destroyed." Igmazen, on receiving this
answer, heaped a number of insulting epithets on our general, and then
retired full of rage and indignation.
47. And the next morning at daybreak the two armies, breathing terrible
threats against each other, advanced to engage in battle: nearly twenty
thousand barbarians constituted the front of their army, with very large
reserves posted behind, out of sight, with the intention that they
should steal forward gradually, and hem in our battalions with their
vast and unexpected numbers. These were also supported by a great number
of auxiliaries of the Jesalenian tribes, whom we have mentioned as
having promised reinforcements and supplies to ourselves.
48. On the other side, the Roman army, though scanty in numbers,
nevertheless being full of natural courage, and elated by their past
victories, formed into dense columns, and joining their shields firmly
together, in the fashion of a testudo, planted their feet firmly in
steady resistance; and from sunrise to the close of day the battle was
protracted. A little before evening Firmus was seen mounted on a tall
horse, expanding his scarlet cloak in order to attract the notice of his
soldiers, whom he was exciting with a loud voice at once to deliver up
Theodosius, calling him a ferocious and cruel man--an inventor of
merciless punishments--as the only means of delivering themselves from
the miseries which he was causing them.
49. This unexpected address only provoked some of our men to fight with
more vigour than ever, but there were others whom it seduced to desert
our ranks. Therefore when the stillness of night arrived, and the
country became enveloped in thick darkness, Theodosius returned to the
fortress of Duodiense, and, recognizing those soldiers who had been
persuaded by fear and Firmus's speech to quit the fight, he put them all
to death by different modes of execution; of some he cut off the right
hands, others he burnt alive.
50. And conducting himself with ceaseless care and vigilance, he routed
a division of the barbarians who, though afraid to show themselves by
day, ventured, after the moon had set, to make an attempt upon his camp:
some of those who advanced further than their comrades he took
prisoners. Departing from this place, he made a forced march through
by-roads to attack the Jesalensians, who had shown themselves disloyal
and unfaithful. He could not obtain any supplies from their country, but
he ravaged it, and reduced it to complete desolation. Then he passed
through the towns of Mauritania and Cæsarensis, and returned to Sitifis,
where he put to the torture Castor and Martinianus, who had been the
accomplices of Romanus in his rapine and other crimes, and afterwards
burnt them.
51. After this the war with the Isaflenses was renewed; and in the
first conflict, after the barbarians had been routed with heavy loss,
their king Igmazen, who had hitherto been accustomed to be victorious,
agitated by fears of the present calamity, and thinking that all his
alliances would be destroyed, and that he should have no hope left in
life if he continued to resist, with all the cunning and secrecy that he
could, fled by himself from the battle; and reaching Theodosius,
besought him in a suppliant manner to desire Masilla, the chief
magistrate of the Mazices, to come to him.
52. When that noble had been sent to him as he requested, he employed
him as his agent to advise the general, as a man by nature constant and
resolute in his plans, that the way to accomplish his purpose would be
to press his countrymen with great vigour, and, by incessant fighting,
strike terror into them; as, though they were keen partisans of Firmus,
they were nevertheless wearied out by repeated disasters.
53. Theodosius adopted this advice, and, by battle after battle, so
completely broke the spirits of the Isaflenses, that they fell away like
sheep, and Firmus again secretly escaped, and hiding himself for a long
time in out-of-the-way places and retreats, till at last, while
deliberating on a further flight, he was seized by Igmazen, and put in
confinement.
54. And since he had learnt from Masilla the plans which had been
agitated in secret, he at last came to reflect that in so extreme a
necessity there was but one remedy remaining, and he determined to
trample under foot the love of life by a voluntary death; and having
designedly filled himself with wine till he became stupefied, when, in
the silence of the night, his keepers were sunk in profound slumber, he,
fully awake from dread of the misfortune impending over him, left his
bed with noiseless steps, and crawling on his hands and feet, conveyed
himself to a distance, and then, having found a rope which chance
provided for the end of his life, he fastened it to a nail which was
fixed in the wall, and hanging himself, escaped the protracted
sufferings of torture.
55. Igmazen was vexed at this, lamenting that he was thus robbed of his
glory, because it had not been granted to him to conduct this rebel
alive to the Roman camp; and so, having received a pledge of the state
for his own safety, through the intervention of Masilla, he placed the
body of the dead man on a camel, and when he arrived at the camp of the
Roman army, which was pitched near the fortress of Subicarense, he
transferred it to a pack-horse, and offered it to Theodosius, who
received it with exultation.
56. And Theodosius having assembled a crowd of soldiers and citizens,
and having asked them whether they recognized the face of the corpse,
learnt by their answers that there was no question at all that it was
the man; after this he stayed there a short time, and then returned to
Sitifis in great triumph, where he was received with joyful acclamations
of the people of every age and rank.
VI.
§ 1. While Theodosius was thus exerting himself, and toiling in
Mauritania and Africa, the nation of the Quadi was roused to make a
sudden movement. It was a nation now not very formidable, but one which
had formerly enjoyed vast renown for its warlike genius and power, as
its achievements prove, some of which were distinguished for the
rapidity, as well as for the greatness, of their success; instances
are:--Aquileia, which was besieged by them and the Marcomanni;
Opitergium, which was destroyed by them, and many other bloody successes
which were gained in that rapid campaign when the Julian Alps were
passed, and that illustrious emperor Marcus, of whom we have already
spoken, was hardly able to offer them any resistance. And indeed they
had, for barbarians, just ground of complaint.
2. For Valentinian, who from the beginning of his reign had been full of
a resolution to fortify his frontier, which was a glorious decision, but
one carried too far in this case, ordered a fortress capable of
containing a strong garrison to be constructed on the south side of the
river Danube, in the very territories of the Quadi, as if they were
subject to the Roman authority. The natives, being very indignant at
this, and anxious for their own rights and safety, at first contented
themselves with trying to avert the evil by an embassy and
expostulations.
3. But Maximin, always eager for any wickedness, and unable to bridle
his natural arrogance, which was now increased by the pride which he
felt in his rank as prefect, reproached Equitius, who at that time was
the commander of the forces in Illyricum, as careless and inactive,
because the work, which it was ordered should be carried on with all
speed, was not yet finished. And he added, as a man guided only by zeal
for the common good, that if the rank of Duke of Valeria were only
conferred on his own little son, Marcellianus, the fortification would
be soon completed without any more pretexts for delay. Both his wishes
were presently granted.
4. Marcellianus received the promotion thus suggested, and set out to
take possession of his government; and when he reached it, being full of
untimely arrogance, as might be expected from the son of such a father,
without attempting to conciliate those whom false dreams of gain had
caused to quit their native land, he applied himself to the work which
had been recently begun, and had only been suspended to afford an
opportunity for the inhabitants to present petitions against it.
5. Lastly, when their king Gabinius requested, in a most moderate tone,
that no innovations might be made, he as if intending to assent to his
petition, with feigned courtesy invited him and some other persons to a
banquet; and then as he was departing after the entertainment,
unsuspicious of treachery, he caused him, in infamous violation of the
sacred rights of hospitality, to be murdered.
6. The report of so atrocious an act was speedily spread abroad, and
roused the indignation of the Quadi and other surrounding tribes, who,
bewailing the death of the king, collected together and sent forth
predatory bands, which crossed the Danube; and when no hostilities were
looked for, attacked the people who were occupied in the fields about
the harvest; and having slain the greater portion of them, carried off
all the survivors to their own country with a great booty of different
kinds of cattle.
7. And at that time an inexpiable atrocity was very near being
committed, which would have been reckoned among the most disgraceful
disasters which ever happened to the Roman state, for the daughter of
Constantius had a narrow escape of being taken prisoner as she was at
dinner in a hotel called the Pistrensian, when on her way to be married
to Gratian: and she was only saved by the promptitude of Messala the
governor of the province, who, aided by the favour of the propitious
Deity, placed her in a carriage belonging to him as governor, and
conducted her back with all possible speed to Sirmium, a distance of
about twenty-six miles.
8. By this fortunate chance the royal virgin was delivered from the
peril of miserable slavery; and if she had been taken and her captors
had refused to ransom her, it would have been the cause of terrible
disasters to the republic. After this the Quadi in conjunction with the
Sarmatians, extended their ravages further (since both these tribes were
addicted beyond measure to plunder and robbery), carrying off, men,
women, and cattle, and exulting in the ashes of burnt villas, and in the
misery of the murdered inhabitants, whom they fell upon unexpectedly and
slaughtered without mercy.
9. All the neighbouring districts were filled with apprehension of
similar evils, and Probus, the prefect of the prætorium, who was at that
time at Sirmium, a man wholly unexperienced in war, being panic-struck
with the calamitous appearance of these new occurrences, and scarcely
able to raise his eyes for fear, was for a long time wavering in doubt
what to do. At first he prepared some swift horses and resolved to fly
the next night; but afterwards, taking advice from some one who gave him
safer counsel, he stayed where he was, but without doing anything.
10. For he had been assured that all those who were within the walls of
the city would immediately follow him, with the intention of concealing
themselves in suitable hiding-places; and if that had been done, the
city, left without defenders, would have fallen into the hands of the
enemy.
11. Presently, after his terror had been a little moderated, he applied
himself with some activity to do what was most pressing; he cleared out
the fosses which were choked up with ruins; he repaired the greater
portion of the walls which, through the security engendered by a long
peace, had been neglected, and had fallen into decay, and raised them
again to the height of lofty towers, devoting himself zealously to the
work of building. In this way the work was speedily completed, because
he found that the sums which some time before had been collected for the
erection of a theatre were sufficient for the purpose he was now
pressing forward. And to this prudent measure he added another of like
precaution, in summoning a cohort of archer cavalry from the nearest
station, that it might be at hand to resist a siege should any take
place.
12. By these barriers, as they may be called, the barbarians were forced
to abandon their design of besieging the city, since they were not
skilful in contests of this kind, and were also hampered by the burden
of their booty; accordingly they turned aside to pursue Equitius. And
when, from the information given them by their prisoners, they learnt
that he had retired to the most remote part of Valeria, they hastened
thither by forced marches, gnashing their teeth, and determined on his
death, because they believed that it was through his means their
innocent king had been circumvented.
13. And as they were hastening onwards with impetuous and vengeful
speed, they were met by two legions, the Pannonian and the Moesian,
both of approved valour, who, if they had acted in harmony, must
unquestionably have come off victorious. But while they were hastening
onward to attack the barbarians separately, a quarrel arose between them
on the subject of their honour and dignity, which impeded all their
operations.
14. And when intelligence of this dissension reached the Sarmatians, who
are a most sagacious people, they, without waiting for any regular
signal of battle, attacked the Moesians first; and while the soldiers,
being surprised and in disorder, were slowly making ready their arms,
many of them were killed; on which the barbarians with increased
confidence attacked the Pannonians, and broke their line also; and when
the line of battle was once disordered, they redoubled their efforts,
and would have destroyed almost all of them, if some had not saved
themselves from the danger of death by a precipitate flight.
15. Amid these calamitous inflictions of adverse fortune, Theodosius the
younger, Duke of Moesia, then in the first bloom of youth, but
afterwards a prince of the highest reputation, in many encounters
defeated and vanquished the Free Sarmatians (so called to distinguish
them from their rebellious slaves), who had invaded our frontier on the
other side, till he exhausted them by his repeated victories; and with
such vigour did he crush the assembled crowds combined to resist his
arms, that he glutted the very birds and beasts with the blood of the
vast numbers justly slain.
16. Those who remained having lost all their pride and spirit, fearing
lest a general of such evident promptitude and courage should rout or
destroy these invading battalions on the very edge of his frontier, or
lay ambuscades for them in the recesses of the woods, made from time to
time many vain attempts to escape, and at last, discarding all
confidence in battle, they begged indulgence and pardon for their past
hostility. And being thoroughly subdued, they did nothing for some time
contrary to the treaty of peace, being more especially terrified because
a strong force of Gallic soldiers had come to the defence of Illyricum.
17. While these events were agitating the empire, and while Claudius was
prefect of the Eternal City, the Tiber, which intersects its walls, and
which, after receiving the waters of many drains and copious streams,
falls into the Tyrrhenian Sea, overflowed its banks, in consequence of
an abundance of rain, and extending to a size beyond that of a river,
overwhelmed almost everything with its flood.
18. All those parts of the city which lie in the plain were under water,
and nothing reared its head above but the hills and other spots of
rising ground, which seemed like islands, out of the reach of present
danger. And, as the vastness of the inundation permitted of no departure
in any direction to save the multitude from dying of famine, great
quantities of provisions were brought in barges and boats. But when the
bad weather abated, and the river which had burst its bounds returned to
its accustomed channel, the citizens discarded all fear, and apprehended
no inconvenience for the future.
19. Claudius, as a prefect, conducted himself very quietly, nor was any
sedition in his time provoked by any real grievance. He also repaired
many ancient buildings; and among his improvements he built a large
colonnade contiguous to the bath of Agrippa, and gave it the name of The
Colonnade of Success, because a temple bearing that title is close to
it.
[176] For an account of this incantation, see Gibbon, Bohn's edition
vol. iii., p. 75, note.
[177] The lines of Theognis are--
"+Andr' agathon peniê pantôn damnêsi malista
Kai gêrôs poliou Kyrne, kai êpialou
Hên dê chrê pheugonta kai es megakêtea ponton
Rhiptein, kai petrôn Kyrne, kat' êlibatôn.+"
Which may be thus translated:--
"Want crushes a brave man far worse than age,
O Cyrnus! or than fever's fiery rage;
Flee, should thy flight beneath the greedy wave,
Or from steep rocks but ope a milder grave."
[178] For the purposes of divination.
[179] This sentence is so mutilated as to be unintelligible, but is
filled up by conjecture, founded on a knowledge of the facts, thus: "who
was executed because he had not given up Octavian, who had been formerly
proconsul of Africa, and who had taken refuge in his house when accused
of some crime."
[180] The end of this chapter also is lost, as are one or two passages
in the beginning of Chapter IV.
[181] Manuscript imperfect.
[182] The Dardanians were a Thracian tribe.