ARGUMENT.
I. Para, king of Armenia, being summoned by Valens to Tarsus, and
being detained there under pretence of doing him honour, escapes
with three hundred of his countrymen; and having baffled the
sentinels on the roads, he regains his kingdom on horseback; but
not long afterwards he is slain by Duke Trajan at an
entertainment.--II. The embassies of the Emperor Valens and Sapor,
king of Persia, who are at variance about the kingdoms of Armenia
and Hiberia.--III. Valentinian, after having ravaged several
districts of the Allemanni, has a conference with their king
Macrianus, and makes peace with him.--IV. Modestus, the prefect of
the prætorium, diverts Valens from his purpose of sitting as a
judge--A statement of the condition of the bar, of counsel learned
in the law, and the different classes of advocates.--V.
Valentinian, intending to wage war against the Sarmatians and the
Quadi, who had been devastating Pannonia, marches into Illyricum,
and having crossed the Danube, he ravages the territories of the
Quadi, burns their villages, and slaughters the inhabitants,
without regard to age.--VI. Valentinian, while giving answer, in a
great passion, to the ambassadors of the Quadi, who are trying to
excuse their countrymen, bursts a blood-vessel, and dies.--VII. Who
his father was, and what was his conduct as emperor.--VIII. His
cruelty, avarice, envy, and cowardice.--IX. His virtues.--X.
Valentinian the younger, the son of Valentinian, is saluted as
emperor in the camp at Bregetio.
I.
A.D. 374.
§ 1. While all these difficulties and disturbances had been caused by
the perfidy of the Duke Marcellianus, in treacherously murdering the
king of the Quadi, a terrible crime was committed in the East, where
Para, king of Armenia was also murdered by secret treachery; the
original cause of which wicked action we have ascertained to be this:--
2. Some men of perverse temperament, who delighted in public misfortune,
had concocted a number of accusations against this prince for acts which
they imputed to him even when scarcely grown up, and had exaggerated
them to Valens. Among these men was the Duke Terentius, a man who always
walked about with a downcast melancholy look, and throughout his life
was an unwearied sower of discord.
3. He, having formed a combination with a few people of Para's nation,
whom a consciousness of their own crimes had filled with fear, was
continually harping in his letters to the court on the deaths of Cylax
and Artabannes; adding also that this same young king was full of
haughtiness in all his conduct, and that he behaved with excessive
cruelty to his subjects.
4. In consequence of these letters, Para, as if it were intended that he
should become a partaker in a treaty of which existing circumstances
required ratification, was invited to court with all the ceremony to
which he was entitled as a king, and then was detained at Tarsus in
Cilicia, with a show of honour, without being able to procure permission
to approach the emperor's camp, or to learn why his arrival had been so
eagerly pressed; since on this point all around him preserved a rigid
silence. At last, however, by means of private information, he learnt
that Terentius was endeavouring by letter to persuade the Roman
sovereign to send without delay another king to Armenia; lest, out of
hatred to Para, and a knowledge of what they had to expect if he
returned among them, his nation, which at present was friendly to us,
should revolt to the Persians, who had long been eager to reduce them
under their power either by violence, fear, or flattery.
5. Para, reflecting on this warning, foreboded grievous mischief for
himself; and being a man of forethought and contrivance, as he could not
perceive any means of safety, except by a speedy departure, by the
advice of his most trusty friends he collected a body of 300 persons who
had accompanied him from his own country, and with horses selected for
especial speed, acting as men are wont to do under the pressure of
great terror and perplexity, that is to say, with more boldness than
prudence; late one afternoon he started boldly forth at the head of his
escort, formed in one solid body.
6. And when the governor of the province, having received information
from the officer who kept the gate, came with prompt energy and found
him in the suburb, he earnestly entreated him to remain; but finding
that he could not prevail upon him, he quitted him, for fear of his own
life.
7. And not long afterwards Para, with his escort, turned back upon the
legion which was pursuing him and on the point of overtaking him, and
pouring arrows upon them as thick as sparks of fire, though designedly
missing them, he put them to flight, filling them, tribune and all, with
complete consternation, so that they returned to the city with greater
speed than they left it.
8. After this, Para being released from all fear, continued his
laborious and rapid journey for two days and two nights, till he reached
the Euphrates; where, for want of boats, he was unable to pass the
river, which at that place is full of strong currents and too deep to be
forded. His men, not being skilful swimmers, were afraid to trust
themselves to the stream, and he himself showed more hesitation than any
of them; indeed he would have halted there altogether, if while every
one was suggesting one plan or another, he had not at last hit upon the
following expedient, which seemed the safest in this emergency.
9. They took a number of little beds which they found in the
neighbouring houses, and supported them each on two bladders, of which
there were plenty at hand in the vineyards. And then he and his nobles
placed themselves each on a bed, leading their horses after them, and so
floated down and across the stream; by which contrivance, after extreme
danger, they at last reached the opposite bank.
10. All the rest swam their horses, and though they were terribly tossed
about and often almost sunk by the eddying stream, still, though much
exhausted by their wetting, they also reached the opposite bank; when
having rested for a short time and refreshed themselves, they proceeded
on their way, travelling further than on the previous days.
11. When this transaction became known, the emperor being greatly moved
at the king's flight, fearing he would break off his alliance, sent
Daniel and Barzimeres to bring him back; the one being a count, the
other the tribune of the Scutarii, and he placed under their command a
thousand archers prepared for a rapid march by the lightness of their
equipment.
12. These officers, trusting to their acquaintance with the country, and
feeling sure that Para, as a stranger who was not accustomed to it,
would take a roundabout way, sought to cut him off by marking a short
cut through some valleys; and having divided their forces, they
blockaded the two nearest roads, which were three miles from one
another, in order that whichever Para took he might be caught before he
expected it. But he escaped their manoeuvre in this way:--
13. A traveller who happened to be hastening towards the western bank of
the river, saw that the two roads were filled with armed soldiers, and
accordingly quitted this road in order to avoid them, and made his way
by an almost invisible path, which lay between them, overgrown with
bushes and brambles, and fell in with the Armenians, who were by this
time greatly fatigued. He was brought before the king, and, being
admitted by him to a private conference, related to him secretly what he
had seen, and was detained in safety.
14. And presently, without anything being done to give an idea that they
were alarmed, a horseman was sent secretly to the road on the right side
to prepare a resting-place and some food. And when he had been gone a
little time, another was sent to the left with directions to move with
great rapidity, and do the same thing; neither horseman being aware that
the other had been sent in a different direction.
15. And after this arrangement had been thus cleverly made, the king
himself, with his escort, retraced his steps through the jungle by which
the traveller had come, taking him for his guide, and passing through
this overgrown path, which was almost too narrow for a loaded horse, he
left the Roman soldiers behind him and so escaped. Meanwhile our
troops, who had made prisoners of the soldiers who had been thus sent
out to impose upon them, waited a long time, while watching for the
king, and stretching out their hands, as one may say, to seize the game
which they expected would rush into them. And while they were thus
waiting for the arrival of Para, he reached his kingdom in safety, where
he was received with great joy by his countrymen, and still remained
unshaken in his fidelity to us, burying in silence the injuries which he
had received.
16. After this, Daniel and Barzimeres, having been thus balked of their
prey, returned to Tarsus, and were loaded with bitter reproaches as
inactive and blundering officers. But like venomous serpents whose first
spring has failed, they only whetted their deadly fangs, in order at the
first opportunity to inflict all the injury in their power on the king
who had thus escaped them.
17. And, with a view to palliate the effect of their own mistake, or
rather of the defeat their hopes, which the deeper sagacity of the king
had contrived, they began to fill the emperor's ears, which were at all
times most ready to receive all kinds of reports with false accusations
against Para; pretending that he was skilled in Circean incantations, so
as to be able to transform people, or to afflict them with sickness in a
marvellous manner, adding, moreover, that it was by means of arts of
this kind that he had rendered himself invisible, and that if allowed to
continue changing his shape, he would cause them great trouble, if
permitted to live to boast of having deceived them.
18. In this manner the hatred which Valens had conceived against him was
increased to an incredible degree; and plan after plan was laid to take
his life, either by force or stratagem; and orders to that effect were
transmitted by secret letters to Trajan, who at that time was in
Armenia, in chief command of the forces in that kingdom.
19. Trajan, accordingly, began to surround Para with treacherous
blandishments--at one time showing him some letters of Valens, which
appeared to indicate that he was favourably disposed towards the
king--at another, partaking cheerfully of his entertainments, he at
last, with great apparent respect (but in pursuance of a deliberate
plot), invited him to supper. Para, fearing no hostility, came, and was
placed in the seat of honour at the feast.
20. Exquisite delicacies were set before him, and the splendid palace
resounded with the music of lyres and lutes. Presently, when the wine
had circulated freely, the master of the feast quitted it for a moment,
under pretence of some natural want, and immediately a ferocious
barbarian of the troop they call Supræ[183] was sent in, brandishing a
drawn sword, and with a terribly ferocious countenance, to murder the
youth, against whose escape ample precautions had now been taken.
21. As soon as he saw him, the king, who as it happened was on the
further side of the couch, jumped up and drew his dagger to defend his
life by every means in his power, but was stabbed in the breast, and
fell like a miserable victim, being shamefully cut to pieces with
repeated blows.
22. By this foul contrivance was his credulity shamefully deceived at a
feast which is respected even on the coast of the Euxine Sea, under the
eye of the Deity of Hospitality; and the blood of a stranger and a guest
was sprinkled on the splendid tablecloths, and, by its foaming gore,
filled the guests with loathing, who at once dispersed in great horror.
If the dead can feel sorrow or indignation, then let that illustrious
Fabricius Luscinus groan at the evidence of this deed, knowing with what
greatness of mind he himself repelled Demochares (or, as some call him,
Nicias), the king's servant, who in a secret conference offered to
poison Pyrrhus, at that time desolating Italy with cruel wars, and wrote
to the king, bidding him beware of his immediate attendants: such great
reverence in the first ages of antiquity was there for the rights of
hospitality even when claimed by an enemy.
23. But this modern, strange, and shameful act was excused by the
precedent afforded by the death of Sertorius; though the emperor's
flatterers were perhaps ignorant that, as Demosthenes--the everlasting
glory of Greece--affirms, an unlawful and wicked action cannot be
defended by its resemblance to another crime, or by the fact that that
crime met with impunity.
II.
§ 1. These are the transactions which especially attracted notice in
Armenia; but Sapor, after the last defeat which his troops had
experienced, having heard of the death of Para, whom he had been
earnestly labouring to win to his own alliance, was terribly grieved;
and, as the activity of our army increased his apprehensions, he began
to dread still greater disasters to himself.
2. He therefore sent Arsaces as his ambassador to the emperor, to advise
him utterly to destroy Armenia as a perpetual cause of trouble; or, if
that plan should be decided against, asking that an end might be put to
the division of Hiberia into two provinces, that the Roman garrison
might be withdrawn, and that Aspacuras, whom he himself had made the
sovereign of the nation, might be permitted to reign with undivided
authority.
3. To this proposal, Valens replied, that he could not change the
resolutions which had been agreed to by both of them; and, indeed, that
he should maintain them with zealous care. Towards the end of the
winter, letters were received from the king of a tenor very contrary to
this noble determination of Valens, full of vain and arrogant boasting.
For in them Sapor affirmed that it was impossible for the seeds of
discord to be radically extirpated, unless those who had been witnesses
of the peace which had been made with Julian were all collected, some of
whom he knew to be already dead.
4. After this, the matter becoming a source of greater anxiety, the
emperor, who was more skilful in choosing between different plans than
in devising them himself, thinking that it would be beneficial to the
state in general, ordered Victor, the commander of the cavalry, and
Urbicius, the Duke of Mesopotamia, to march with all speed to Persia,
bearing a positive and plain answer to the proposals of Sapor: namely,
that he, who boasted of being a just man, and one contented with his
own, was acting wickedly in coveting Armenia, after a promise had been
made to its inhabitants, that they should be allowed to live according
to their own laws. And unless the soldiers who had been left as
auxiliaries to Sauromaces returned without hindrance at the beginning of
the ensuing year, as had been agreed, he would compel Sapor by force to
perform what he might at present do with a good grace.
5. And this embassy would in all respects have been a just and
honourable one, if the ambassadors had not, contrary to their
instructions, accepted some small districts in this same Armenia which
were offered them. When the ambassadors returned, the Surena (the
magistrate who enjoys an authority second only to that of the king) came
with them, offering the said districts to the emperor which our
ambassadors had ventured to take.
6. He was received with liberality and magnificence; but dismissed
without obtaining what he requested. And then, great preparations were
made for war, in order that, as soon as the severity of the winter was
over, the emperor might invade Persia with three armies; and with this
object he began with all speed to bargain for the services of some
Scythian auxiliaries.
7. Sapor not having succeeded in obtaining what his vain hopes had led
him to reckon on, and being exasperated in an extraordinary degree,
because he had learnt that our emperor was preparing for an expedition,
nevertheless stifled his wrath, and gave the Surena a commission to
endeavour to recover by force of arms (if any one should resist him) the
territories which Count Victor and Urbicius had accepted, and to press
hostilities with the utmost rigour against those soldiers who had been
destined to aid Sauromaces.
8. His orders were at once carried out. Nor was it found possible to
prevent or resist their execution, because a new cause of alarm suddenly
came on the republic; as the entire nation of the Goths suddenly burst
into Thrace. The calamities which we experienced from that event shall
be related succinctly in their proper places.
9. These were the occurrences which took place in the East. And while
they were proceeding, as has been related, the unfailing arm of justice
avenged the losses we had sustained in Africa, and the slaughter of the
ambassadors of Tripoli, whose shades were still wandering about
unavenged. For Justice, though a late, is yet a scrupulous and unerring
discriminator between right and wrong.
10. Remigius, whom we have already spoken of as favouring Count Romanus,
who had laid waste these provinces after Leo had succeeded him as master
of the offices, retired from office and from public life, and devoted
himself to rural pursuits in his own native district near Mayence.
11. And while he was living there in security, Maximin, the prefect of
the prætorium, despising him because of his return to a tranquil life,
as he was accustomed to attack everything like a terrible pestilence,
set to work to do him injury by every means in his power. And, in order
to hunt out all his secrets, he seized Cæsarius who had formerly been a
servant of his, and afterwards had become a secretary of the emperor,
and put him to the question, torturing him with great severity to learn
from him what Remigius had done, and how much he had received to induce
him to countenance the wicked actions of Romanus.
12. But when Remigius heard this in his retreat, to which, as has been
said, he had retired; being oppressed by the consciousness of his acts,
or perhaps letting the dread of false accusation overpower his reason,
he hanged himself.
III.
§ 1. The next year Gratian took Equitius as his colleague in the
consulship; and Valentinian, after desolating some cantons of the
Allemanni, was building a fortress near Basle, which the natives of the
country call Robur, when a report was brought to him from the prefect
Probus with an account of the disasters which had taken place in
Illyricum.
2. He read them with a very careful examination, as became a prudent
general; and then being filled with anxious thoughts, he sent his
secretary, Paternianus, to that country, to inquire minutely into the
whole details of the affair. And, as he soon received from him a true
account of all that had taken place, he prepared to repair thither
himself with all speed, in order to overwhelm with the first crash of
his arms (such was his idea) the barbarians who had dared to pollute our
frontier.
3. But, because, as it was now the end of autumn, there were many
serious difficulties in the way, all the nobles in the palace pressed
him earnestly to allow the time between that and the beginning of spring
to be spent in embassies and conferences. Reminding him, in the first
place, that the roads were all impassable through frost--that it was
impossible to find herbage to feed the cattle, or anything else that
would be useful. In the next place, they dwelt on the ferocity of the
chieftains who lay nearest to Gaul, and especially of Macrianus whom
they greatly dreaded, as it was quite certain that he was no friend to
us, and was inclined to attack even the fortified cities.
4. By recapitulating these arguments, and adding others of great weight,
they brought the emperor to adopt a wiser plan; and immediately (as was
best for the commonwealth) King Macrianus was invited in courteous terms
to come to Mayence; and the event proved that he also was well inclined
to make a treaty. When he arrived, however, it was marvellous how proud
and arrogant he was, as if he were to be the supreme arbiter of the
peace. And on a day appointed for a conference he came, carrying himself
very loftily, to the very brink of the Rhine, and escorted by a number
of his countrymen, who made a great clang with their shields.
5. On the other hand, the emperor, having embarked in a boat, such as is
used on that river, and likewise escorted by a strong force, came with
great confidence up to the eastern bank, being conspicuous through the
brilliancy of his glittering standards; and when the frantic gestures
and murmurs of the barbarians had been quieted, a long discussion took
place on both sides, and at last a firm friendship was agreed on, and
ratified with an oath.
6. When this was over, the king, who had been the cause of all these
troubles, retired, quite pacified, and destined to prove an ally to us
for the future; indeed, he afterwards, to the very end of his life, gave
proof of his constancy and resolution to preserve his agreement with
us, by many noble and gallant actions.
7. But subsequently he died in the country of the Franks, which he had
invaded and ravaged in a most destructive manner, till at last he was
cut off by the manoeuvres of Mellobaudes, the warlike king of that
nation, and slain. After the treaty had thus been solemnly ratified,
Valentinian retired into winter quarters, at Treves.
IV.
§ 1. These were the events which took place in Gaul and the northern
countries. But in the east, while all our foreign affairs were quiet,
great domestic evils were increasing in consequence of the conduct of
the friends and relations of Valens, who had more regard to expediency
than honesty; for they laboured with the utmost diligence to bring about
the recall from his post a judge of rigid probity, who was fond of
deciding lawsuits equitably, out of a fear lest, as in the times of
Julian, when Innocence was allowed a fair opportunity of defending
itself, the pride of the powerful nobles, which was accustomed to roam
at large with unrestrained licence, might again be broken down.
2. With these and similar objects a great number of persons conspired
together, being led by Modestus, the prefect of the prætorium, who was a
complete slave to the wishes of the emperor's eunuchs, and who, under a
specious countenance, concealed a rough disposition which had never been
polished by any study of ancient virtue or literature, and who was
continually asserting that to look into the minute details of private
actions was beneath the dignity of the emperor. He thinking, as he said,
that the examination of such matters had been imposed on the nobles to
lower their dignity, abstained from all such matters himself, and opened
the doors to plunder; which doors are now daily more and more opened by
the depravity of the judges and advocates, who are all of the same mind,
and who sell the interests of the poor to the military commanders, or
the persons of influence within the palace, by which conduct they
themselves have gained riches and high rank.
3. This profession of forensic oratory the wisdom of Plato defines to be
+politikês moriou eidôlon+, "the shadow of a fraction of the art
of government," or a fourth part of the art of flattery. But Epicurus
calls it +kakotechnia+, reckoning it among the wicked arts.
Tisias, who has Gorgias of Leontinum on his side, calls the orator an
artist of persuasion.
4. And while such has been the opinion formed of this art by the
ancients, the craft of some of the Eastern people has put it forward so
as to make it an object of hatred to good men, on which account an
orator it is sometimes restricted to a limited time for speaking.[184]
Therefore, after saying a few words about its unworthy character, as I
found by experience while in those countries, I will return to my
original subject.
5. The tribunals, in former times, when good taste prevailed, were
greatly adorned by our advocates, when orators of spirited
eloquence--laborious and accomplished scholars--shone pre-eminent in
genius, honesty, fluency, and every kind of embellishment of language.
As Demosthenes, who, as we learn from the Athenian records, whenever he
was going to speak, drew together a vast concourse of people from the
whole of Greece, who assembled for the sake of hearing him; and
Callistratus, who, when summing up his noble pleading on the subject of
Oropus in Euboea, produced such an impression that that same
Demosthenes quitted the academy, at the time when Plato was at its head,
to become his follower. And Hyperides, and Æschines, and Andocides, and
Dinarchus, and Antiphon the Rhamnusian, who is the first man spoken of
in ancient history as having received a fee for pleading a cause.
6. And similarly among the Romans, the Rutilii, and Galbæ, and Scauri,
men of eminent reputation for purity of life and manners, and for
frugality; and in the succeeding generations, many men of censorian and
consular rank, and even many who had celebrated triumphs, such as the
Crassi, the Antonii, the Philipii, the Scævolæ, and numbers of others,
after having commanded armies with glory, gained victories, and raised
trophies, became eminent also for their civil services to the State, and
won fresh laurels by their noble contests at the bar, thus reaping the
highest honour and glory.
7. And after them Cicero, the most excellent of them all, who repeatedly
saved many who were in distress from the scorching flames of judgment by
the stream of his imperious eloquence, used to affirm "that if men could
not be defended without their advocate incurring blame, they certainly
could not be carelessly defended without his being guilty of crime."
8. But now throughout all the regions of the East one may see the most
violent and rapacious classes of men hovering about the courts of law,
and besieging the houses of the rich like Spartan or Cretan hounds,
cunningly pursuing different traces, in order to create the occasion of
a lawsuit.
9. Of these the chief is that tribe of men who, sowing every variety of
strife and contest in thousands of actions, wear out the doorposts of
widows and the thresholds of orphans, and create bitter hatred among
friends, relations, or connections, who have any disagreement, if they
can only find the least pretext for a quarrel. And in these men, the
progress of age does not cool their vices as it does those of others,
but only hardens and strengthens them. And amid all their plunder they
are insatiable and yet poor, whetting the edge of their genius in order
by their crafty orations to catch the ear of the judges, though the very
title of those magistrates is derived from the name of Justice.
10. In the pertinacity of these men rashness assumes the disguise of
freedom--headlong audacity seeks to be taken for constancy, and an empty
fluency of language usurps the name of eloquence--by which perverse
arts, as Cicero tells us, it is a shame for the holy gravity of a judge
be deceived. For he says, "And as nothing in a republic ought to be so
incorruptible as a suffrage or a sentence, I do not understand why the
man who corrupts such things with money is to be esteemed worthy of
punishment, while he who perverts them by eloquence receives
commendation. In fact, the latter appears to me to do the most harm, it
being worse to corrupt a judge by a speech than by a bribe, inasmuch as
no one can corrupt a wise man with a bribe, though it is possible that
he may with eloquence."
11. There is a second class of those men who, professing the science of
the law, especially the interpretation of conflicting and obsolete
statutes, as if they had a bridle placed in their mouths, keep a
resolute silence, in which they rather resemble their shadows than
themselves. These, like those men who cast nativities or interpret the
oracles of the sibyl, compose their countenances to a sort of gravity,
and then make money of their supine drowsiness.
12. And that they may appear to have a more profound knowledge of the
laws, they speak of Trebatius,[185] and Cascellius, and Alfenus, and of
the laws of the Aurunci and Sicani, which have long become obsolete, and
have been buried ages ago with the mother of Evander. And if you should
pretend to have deliberately murdered your mother, they will promise you
that there are many cases recorded in abstruse works which will secure
your acquittal, if you are rich enough to pay for it.
13. There is a third class of these men, who, to arrive at distinction
in a turbulent profession, sharpen their mercenary mouths to mystify the
truth, and by prostituting their countenances and their vile barking,
work their way with the public. These men, whenever the judge is
embarrassed and perplexed, entangle the matter before him with further
difficulties, and take pains to prevent any arrangement, carefully
involving every suit in knotty subtleties. When these courts, however,
go on rightly, they are temples of equity; but when they are perverted
they are hidden and treacherous pitfalls, and if any person falls into
them, he will not escape till after many years have elapsed, and till he
himself has been sucked dry to his very marrow.
14. There is a fourth and last class, impudent, saucy, and ignorant,
consisting of those men who, having left school too early, run about
the corners of cities, giving more time to farces than to the study of
actions and defences, wearing out the doors of the rich, and hunting for
the luxuries of banquets and rich food.
15. And when they have given themselves up to gains, and to the task of
hunting for money by every means, they incite men, on any small pretence
whatever, to go to law; and if they are permitted to defend a cause,
which but seldom happens, it is not till they are before the judge,
while the pleadings are being recited, that they begin to inquire into
the cause of the client, or even into his name; and then they so
overflow with a heap of unarranged phrases and circumlocutions, that
from the noise and jabber of the vile medley you would fancy you were
listening to Thersites.
16. But when it happens that they have no single allegation they can
establish, they then resort to an unbridled licence of abuse; for which
conduct they are continually brought to trial themselves, and convicted,
when they have poured ceaseless abuse upon people of honour; and some of
these men are so ignorant that they do not appear ever to have read any
books.
17. And if in a company of learned men the name of any ancient author is
ever mentioned, they fancy it to be some foreign name of a fish or other
eatable. And if any stranger asks (we will say) for Marcianus, as one
with whom he is as yet unacquainted, they all at once pretend that their
name is Marcianus.
18. Nor do they pay the slightest attention to what is right; but as if
they had been sold to and become the property of Avarice, they know
nothing but a boundless licence in asking. And if they catch any one in
their toils, they entangle him in a thousand meshes, pretending sickness
by way of protracting the consultations. And to produce an useless
recital of some well-known law, they prepare seven costly methods of
introducing it, thus weaving infinite complications and delays.
19. And when at last days and months and years have been passed in these
proceedings, and the parties to the suit are exhausted, and the whole
matter in dispute is worn out with age, then these men, as if they were
the very heads of their profession, often introduce sham advocates
along with themselves. And when they have arrived within the bar, and
the fortune or safety of some one is at stake, and they ought to labour
to ward off the sword of the executioner from some innocent man, or
calamity and ruin, then, with wrinkled brows, and arms thrown about with
actor-like gestures, so that they want nothing but the flute of Gracchus
at their back,[186] then they keep silence for some time on both sides;
and at last, after a scene of premeditated collusion, some plausible
preamble is pronounced by that one of them who is most confident in his
power of speaking, and who promises an oration which shall rival the
beauties of the oration for Cluentius[187] or for Ctesiphon.[188] And
then, when all are eager for him to make an end, he concludes his
preamble with a statement that the chief advocates have as yet only had
three years since the commencement of the suit to prepare themselves to
conduct it; and so obtains an adjournment, as if they had to wrestle
with the ancient Antæus, while still they resolutely demand the pay due
for their arduous labours.
20. And yet, in spite of all these things, advocates are not without
some inconveniences, which are hard to be endured by one who would live
uprightly. For being allured by small gains, they quarrel bitterly among
themselves, and offend numbers by the insane ferocity of their evil
speaking, which they pour forth when they are unable to maintain the
weakness of the case intrusted to them by any sound reasoning.
21. And sometimes the judges prefer persons who have been instructed in
the quibbles of Philistion or Æsop, to those who come from the school of
Aristides the Just, or of Cato--men who, having bought public offices
for large sums of money, proceed like troublesome creditors to hunt out
every one's fortune, and so shake booty for themselves out of the laps
of others.
22. Finally, the profession of a lawyer, besides other things, has in it
this, which is most especially formidable and serious (and this quality
is almost innate in all litigants), namely that when, through one or
other out of a thousand accidents, they have lost their action, they
fancy that everything which turned out wrong was owing to the conduct of
their counsel, and they usually attribute the loss of every suit to him,
and are angry, not with the weakness of their case or (as they often
might be) with the partiality of the judge, but only with their
advocate. Let us now return to the affairs from which we have thus
digressed.
V.
A.D. 375.
§ 1. At the beginning of the spring Valentinian quitted Treves, and
proceeded by rapid marches along the usual high roads. And as he
approached the districts to which he was hastening, he was met by
ambassadors from the Sarmatians, who threw themselves at his feet, and,
with prayers, breathing no wish but for peace, entreated him to be
favourable and merciful to them, assuring him that he would not find any
of their countrymen implicated in or privy to any evil action.
2. And when they had frequently repeated this assertion, he, after
careful deliberation, made answer to them, that these matters must be
diligently inquired into by an accurate investigation in the district
where they were said to have happened, and if they had happened, then
they must be punished. After this, when he had reached Carnuntum, a city
of the Illyrians, now indeed in a desolate and ruinous state, but still
very convenient for the general of an army, he from thence sallied out
whenever either chance or skill afforded him an opportunity; and by the
possession of this post in their neighbourhood, he checked the inroads
of the barbarians.
3. And although he alarmed all people in that district, since it was
expected that, as a man of active and impetuous feelings, he would
speedily command the judges to be condemned through whose perfidy or
desertion the empire had been left undefended on the side of the
Pannonians, yet when he did arrive he was so lukewarm in the business
that he neither inquired into the death of the king Gabricius, nor did
he make any accurate investigation into the calamities which the
republic had sustained, with a view to learning through whose misconduct
or negligence these events had taken place; so that in fact, in
proportion as he was severe in punishing his common soldiers, he was
remiss in correcting (even by harsh words) those of higher rank.
4. The only person whom he pursued with any especial hatred was Probus;
whom from the first moment that he saw him he never ceased to threaten,
and to whom he never softened; and the causes of this animosity against
him were not obscure nor trivial. When Probus first obtained the rank of
prefect of the prætorium, the power of which he was continually
labouring to extend by all kinds of means (I wish I could say by all
lawful means), he forgot the lessons which he might have learnt from his
illustrious descent, and devoted himself more to flattery than to
modesty.
5. For reflecting on the resolution of the emperor, who considered
nothing but how he might amass money from all quarters, without any
distinction between just and unjust actions; he never attempted to lead
back the misguided prince into the path of equity, as mild and wise
rulers often have done; but rather followed his lead through all his
winding and tortuous paths.
6. And to this conduct were owing the heavy distresses which afflicted
the emperor's subjects; the ruinous titles, privileges, and exemptions,
which alike ate up the fortunes of poor and rich; under different
pretexts which were produced, each more powerful than the other, as the
fruit of a long experience in injuring. Lastly, the burdens of all
tributes and taxes were augmented in a manifold degree; and drove some
of the highest nobles from fear of the worst to emigrate from their
homes; some also after being drained to the utmost by the cruelty of the
revenue officers, as they really had nothing more to give, were thrown
into prison, of which they became permanent inmates. And some, becoming
weary of life and light, sought a release from their miseries by hanging
themselves.
7. Unvarying report made known the treacherous and inhuman character of
these transactions; but Valentinian, as if his ears had been stopped
with wax, was ignorant of the report, being eager to acquire money
indiscriminately, even from the most trivial sources, and thinking only
of what was presented to him; though he would perhaps have spared the
Pannonian provinces, if he had earlier known of these melancholy sources
of gain with which he became acquainted when it was too late, owing to
the following occurrence:--
8. Following the example of the inhabitants of other provinces, the
people of Epirus were compelled by the prefect to send envoys to thank
him, and a certain philosopher named Iphicles, a man of tried courage
and magnanimity (who was very unwilling to undertake the commission),
was elected to discharge that duty.
9. And when he saw the emperor, having been recognized by him and
questioned as to the cause of his arrival, he answered in Greek; and,
like a philosopher who professed himself a votary of truth, when the
prince inquired more precisely, if those who had sent him did really
think well of the prefect, he replied, that they had sent him against
their will, and with bitter groans.
10. The emperor, stricken by this speech as by an arrow, now
investigated his actions like a sagacious beast, inquiring of him, in
his own language, about different persons whom he knew: for instance,
where was this man or that man (mentioning some one of high reputation
and honour, or some very rich man, or some other person well known as
having filled some high office). And when he learnt that this man had
been hanged, that that one had been banished beyond the seas, and that a
third had killed himself or had expired under torture, he became
furiously angry, while Leo, who was at that time master of the offices,
added fuel to his passion--O shameful villany! Leo, it should be borne
in mind, was at this very time secretly aiming at the prefecture; and
had he obtained that office and authority, he would undoubtedly have
governed with such audacity, that the administration of Probus would in
comparison have been extolled as a model of justice and humanity.
11. So the emperor remained at Carnuntum; and during the three summer
months he occupied himself uninterruptedly in preparing arms and
magazines, in the hope that chance might afford him a good opportunity
of making use of them; intending to take a favourable season for
attacking the Quadi, who had lately caused an atrocious disturbance;
since in their chief town, Faustinus, the nephew of Juventius, the
prefect of the prætorium, who had attained the rank of military
secretary, was tortured and then put to death by the executioners, under
the very eyes of Probus; having been accused of slaying an ass in some
magical operation, as his enemies asserted; but he himself said it was
to use for strengthening his hair, which was beginning to fall off.
12. Another charge was also maliciously brought against him, namely,
that when a person of the name of Nigrinus had in jest asked him to make
him a secretary, he replied in ridicule of the man and his petition,
"Make me emperor if you wish to obtain that." And because some gave an
unfair interpretation to this jest, Faustinus himself, and Nigrinus, and
several other persons were put to death.
13. Accordingly, having sent forward Merobaudes with a strong force of
infantry under his command, and Sebastian for his colleague, to ravage
the districts of the barbarians with fire and sword, Valentinian
speedily moved his camp to Buda; and having with great rapidity made a
bridge of boats in order to guard against any sudden mishap, he crossed
the river in another place and entered the territories of the Quadi, who
from their precipitous mountains were watching for his approach; the
main body of their nation, in their perplexity and uncertainty of what
might happen, had taken refuge with their families in those hills; but
were overwhelmed with consternation when they unexpectedly saw the
imperial standards in their country.
14. Valentinian advanced with as much rapidity as he could, slaughtering
every one of whatever age whom his sudden inroad surprised straggling
about the country, and after burning all their dwellings, he returned
safe without having experienced the slightest loss. And then, as autumn
was now on the wane, he stopped awhile at Buda, seeking where best to
fix his winter quarters in a region subject to very rigorous frost. And
he could not find any suitable place except Sabaria, though that town
was at the time in a very bad state of defence, having been ruined by
frequent sieges.
15. Accordingly when he reached this place, though it was one of great
consequence to him, he remained there but a very short time; and having
left it, he marched along the bank of the river, which he strengthened
with several forts and castles, and manned them with adequate garrisons.
He then proceeded to Bregitio; and in that town, after settling down
there in quiet, his Destiny, by numerous prodigies, portended to him his
approaching fate.
16. For a very few days before some of those comets, which ever give
token of the ruins of lofty fortunes, and of which we have already
explained the origin, appeared in the heavens. Also, a short time
before, a thunderbolt fell at Sirmium, accompanied with a terrific clap
of thunder, and set fire to a portion of the palace and senate-house:
and much about the same time an owl settled on the top of the royal
baths at Sabaria, and pouring forth a funeral strain, withstood all the
attempts to slay it with arrows or stones, however truly aimed, and
though numbers of people shot at it in diligent rivalry.
17. And again, when the emperor was quitting the city to return to the
camp, he set out to leave it by the same gate by which he had entered
it, with the object of obtaining an augury that he should speedily
return to Gaul. But the spot through neglect had become choked up with
ruins; and when they were cleaning it out they found that the door,
which had originally closed the entrance, had fallen down: and a great
multitude of people, though labouring with all their might, were unable
to remove it; so that after waiting the greater part of the day there,
he was obliged at last to go out by another gate.
18. And on the night preceding the day on which he died, he saw in a
dream, such as often visits a man in his sleep, his absent wife sitting
by, with dishevelled hair, and clad in a mourning robe; which some
people fancied was Fortune, who was about in this sad apparel to take
her leave of him.
19. After this, when he came forth in the morning, his brow was
contracted, and his countenance somewhat melancholy; and when his horse
was brought to him, it would not let him mount, but reared up its
forefeet over the shoulders of the equerry who was holding it.
Valentinian, according to the usual bent of his savage temper, grew
immoderately furious, and ordered the equerry's hand to be cut off,
which had, he said, pushed him aside when mounting a horse he was used
to: and the innocent youth would have perished under torture if
Cerealis, the principal master of the horse, had not delayed the
barbarous infliction at his own risk.
VI.
§ 1. After this event ambassadors arrived from the Quadi, with humble
supplications, entreating peace, and oblivion of the past: and that
there might be no obstacle to their obtaining this, they promised to
furnish a body of recruits, and some other things which would be of use
to the Roman state.
2. And after they had been received, and had obtained permission to
return with the grant of an armistice which they had solicited (but in
truth, our want of supplies and the unfavourable season of the year
prevented us from harassing them any longer), they were, by the
influence of Equitius, who became security for their good behaviour,
admitted into the council-chamber. When introduced they seemed quite
overcome by fear, bowing down to the ground; and on being ordered to
unfold their message, they urged all the customary pretences and
excuses, confirming them by an oath; assuring the council that whatever
offence had been committed against any of our people, had not been done
by the consent of the nobles of the nation, but only by some foreign
banditti who dwelt on the borders of the river; they added further, as a
fact quite sufficient to establish the truth of their allegations, that
the fortress which had been begun to be built both unjustly and
unreasonably, had inflamed the savage temper of those rude men to a
great pitch of ferocity.
3. By this speech the emperor was excited to most vehement wrath; and as
he began to reply to it he grew more indignant, reproaching the whole
nation in bitter language, as unmindful of kindness, and ungrateful. But
after a time he became pacified, and inclined to a milder view of the
case, when suddenly, as if he had been stricken from heaven, his
breathing and his voice ceased, and his countenance appeared bloodshot,
and in a moment the blood burst forth, and a deadly sweat broke forth
over his whole body; and to save him from falling down in the sight of a
number of low-born persons, he was led by his servants into one of the
private chambers in the interior of the palace.
4. When he was placed on his bed, breathing with difficulty, though the
vigour of his intellect was not as yet at all diminished, he recognized
those who stood around, having been collected by the chamberlains with
great promptitude, to prevent any of them being suspected of having
murdered him. And as on account of the fever which was racking his
bowels it was necessary to open a vein, yet no surgeon could be found,
because he had dispersed them all over different districts to cure the
soldiers among whom a dangerous pestilence was raging.
5. At last, however, one was procured; but though he punctured a vein
over and over again, he could not produce a single drop of blood, while
all the time his bowels were burning with the intensity of his fever; or
(as some fancied) because his limbs were wholly dried up in consequence
of some of the passages, which we now call hæmorrhoidal, were closed up
and crusted over through the severity of the cold.
6. The emperor, from the exceeding violence of his agony, felt that the
moment of his death was at hand; and attempted to say something, and to
give some orders, as was indicated by a sobbing, which shook his whole
frame, a gnashing of the teeth, and a series of violent gestures with
his arms, resembling those of boxers with the cæstus: at last he became
exhausted, and covered all over with livid spots, and after a severe
struggle he expired, in the fifty-fifth year of his age, having reigned
twelve years all but a hundred days.
VII.
§ 1. This is a seasonable opportunity to do as we have often done
before, namely, to retrace from the original appearance of the father
of this emperor down to the time of his own death, all his actions, just
touching on them cursorily with a brief mention, not omitting to
distinguish between his vices and his virtues, both of which his lofty
position held up to the world; being a condition which naturally reveals
the inward disposition of every man.
2. The elder Gratian was born at Cibalæ, a town of Pannonia, of a mean
family; and from his childhood he received the surname of Funarius,
because, while still very young, while he was carrying about a rope
(funem) for sale, he resisted the attempt of five soldiers who laboured
with all their might to take it from him: thus rivalling Milo of
Crotona, from whom no amount of strength could ever wrest an apple,
whether he held it in his right or his left hand.
3. Therefore, on account of his exceeding personal strength, and his
skill in wrestling after the military fashion, he became well known to
many persons, was promoted to the rank of an officer of the guard, then
to the post of tribune: after this he was made count, and sent to
command the forces in Africa: but there he was suspected of theft; and
having quitted that province, he was some time afterwards sent to
command the army in Britain, with the same authority which he had
enjoyed in Africa. At length he received an honourable discharge from
military service, and returned home; and while living there in quiet, he
suddenly had all his property confiscated by Constantius, on the ground
that, when the civil discord was at its height, he was said to have
received Magnentius as a guest when passing through his land to carry
his designs into execution.
4. The merits of Gratian brought Valentinian into notice from his early
youth; and, indeed, he was further aided by his own eminent qualities;
so that he received the ornaments of the imperial majesty at Nicæa; when
he also made his brother Valens his colleague, as one bound to him not
only by his relationship as a brother, but also by the most perfect
agreement--Valens, as we shall show at a suitable time, being made up
almost equally of vices and of virtues.
5. Therefore Valentinian, after having experienced many dangers and much
distress as a private individual, as soon as he began to reign went to
visit the towns and cities which were situated on the rivers; and
repaired to Gaul, which was exposed to the inroads of the Allemanni, who
had begun to recover their courage and to reassume an imposing attitude
since they had heard of the death of the Emperor Julian--the only prince
whom they had feared since the time of Constans.
6. And Valentinian was deservedly dreaded by them because he took care
to keep up the numbers of his army by strong reinforcements, and because
also he fortified both banks of the Rhine with lofty fortresses and
castles, to prevent the enemy from ever passing over into our territory
without being perceived.
7. We may pass over many circumstances, and many acts which he performed
with the authority of an emperor whose power was fully established, and
many of the reforms which he either effected himself, or caused to be
carried out by his vigorous lieutenants. But we must record how, after
he had raised his son Gratian to a partnership in the imperial
authority, he contrived the secret murder of Vithigabius, the king of
the Allemanni, and the son of Vadomarius, a young man in the flower of
youth, who was actively stirring up the surrounding nations to tumults
and wars; doing this because he found it impossible to procure his death
openly. How also he fought a battle against the Allemanni near
Solicinium, where he was nearly circumvented and slain by the
manoeuvres of the enemy; but where at last he utterly destroyed their
whole army with the exception of a few who saved themselves by the aid
of the darkness which assisted the rapidity of their flight.
8. Amid all these prudent actions he also turned his attention to the
Saxons who had lately broken out with extreme ferocity, making attacks
in every direction where they were least expected, and had now
penetrated into the inland districts, from which they were returning
enriched by a vast booty. He destroyed them utterly by a device which
was indeed treacherous, but most advantageous; and he recovered by force
all the booty which the defeated robbers were carrying off.
9. Nor did he disregard the condition of the Britons, who were unable to
make head against the vast hosts of their enemies, who were overrunning
their country; he revived their hopes of better fortune, and
re-established liberty and steady tranquillity among them; routing their
invaders so completely that scarcely any of them returned to their own
country.
10. With similar vigour he crushed Valentinus the Pannonian exile (who
was labouring to disturb the general tranquillity in that province),
before his enterprise could become dangerous. He also delivered Africa
from great dangers at a time when it was thrown into confusion by an
unexpected disaster: when Firmus, unable to bear the greediness and
arrogance of the soldiers, was exciting the people of Mauritania to
every kind of discord and disturbance. With similar resolution would he
have avenged the disasters sustained in Illyricum, had he not left that
important duty uncompleted, in consequence of being thus cut off by a
premature death.
11. And although these various achievements, which we have here
recorded, were consummated by the assistance of his admirable generals,
yet it is very notorious that he himself also performed many
considerable exploits; being a man fertile in resources, and of long
experience and great skill in military affairs: and certainly it would
have been an admirable crown to his great actions if he had been able to
take King Macrianus alive, who at that time was a very formidable
sovereign; nevertheless he exerted great energy in attempting to do so,
after he heard that he had escaped from the Burgundians, whom he himself
had led against the Allemanni; and the certainty of his escape was to
him a cause of great sorrow and indignation.
VIII.
§ 1. Thus have I rapidly run over the different actions of this prince.
Now, relying on the certainty that posterity, inasmuch as it is free
both from fear and from base flattery, is usually an honest judge of all
past transactions, I will rapidly run over his vices, intending
afterwards to relate his good qualities.
2. Sometimes he put on an affectation of clemency, though the bent of
his natural disposition inclined him more to cruelty: forgetful
forsooth, that by a man who governs a vast empire extremes of every
kind are to be avoided as rocks by a mariner.
3. Nor indeed was he ever found to be contented with moderate
punishments, but was continually commanding cruel tortures to be
multiplied; so that many, after undergoing this murderous kind of
examination, were brought to death's door. And he was so eager to
inflict injury, that he never once saved any one who had been condemned
to death, by a milder sentence, though even the most inhuman of emperors
have sometimes done so.
4. And yet he might have reflected on many examples in former ages; and
he might have imitated the many models of humanity and of piety which he
could have found both among natives of the empire and among those of
foreign extraction (and humanity and piety are defined by philosophers
to be qualities nearly akin). Of such instances it will suffice to
enumerate these which follow:--Artaxerxes, that very powerful king of
Persia, to whom the great length of one of his limbs caused the name of
Longhand to be given, wishing, through the natural lenity of his
disposition, to reprove the varieties of punishment in which his nation,
always cruel, had hitherto delighted, punished some criminals by taking
off their turbans instead of their heads: and instead of the old royal
fashion of cutting off people's ears for their offences, he used to cut
the tassels which hang from their caps. And this moderation and lenity
made him so popular and respected that all the Grecian writers vie with
each other in celebrating his many admirable actions.
5. Again, when Prænestinus was prætor, and was brought before the court
of justice, because, in the Samnite war, when ordered to march with all
speed to reinforce the army, he had been very dilatory in his movements,
Papirius Cursor, who at that time was dictator, ordered the lictor to
get ready his axe; and when the prætor, having discarded all hope of
being able to clear himself, seemed utterly stupefied at the order, he
commanded the lictor to cut down a shrub close by; and having in this
jocular manner reproved him, he let him go: without himself incurring
any disrespect by so doing, since all knew him for a man who, by his own
unassisted vigour, had brought long and dangerous wars to a happy
termination; and had been the only man reckoned able to resist
Alexander the Great if that prince had invaded Italy.
6. Valentinian, perhaps, was ignorant of these models; and as he never
considered that the mercy of the emperor is always the best comfort of
persons in distress, he increased all punishments by his free use of
both fire and sword: punishments which the merciful disposition of our
ancestors looked upon as the very last resource in the most imminent
dangers--as we may learn from the beautiful sentiment of Isocrates, who
continually insists that we ought rather to pardon a king who is
sometimes defeated in war, than one who is ignorant of justice.
7. And it was under the influence of this saying of his that I imagine
Cicero uttered that admirable sentence, in his defence of Oppius: "That
indeed to have greatly contributed to the safety of one other person was
an honour to many; but that to have had no share in injuring others had
never been thought discreditable to any one."
8. A desire of increasing his riches without any regard to right and
wrong, and of hunting out every kind of source of gain, even at the cost
of other people's lives, raged in this emperor to a most excessive
degree, and never flagged. Some, indeed, attempted to excuse it by
pleading the example of the Emperor Aurelian; affirming that as he,
after the death of Gallienus and the lamentable disasters which the
republic suffered at that time, finding his treasury totally exhausted,
fell upon the rich like a torrent, so Valentinian also, after the losses
which he sustained in his Parthian campaign, being reduced to want by
the greatness of his expenses, in order to procure reinforcements for
his army and pay for his troops, mingled with his severity a desire of
collecting excessive wealth. Pretending not to know that there are some
things which, although strictly speaking lawful, still ought not to be
done. In this he was very unlike the celebrated Themistocles of old
times, who, when strolling carelessly about after he had destroyed the
Persian host in the battle of Salamis, and seeing a number of golden
armlets and chains lying on the ground, said to one of his companions
who was by--"You may take up these things because you are not
Themistocles," thinking it became a magnanimous general to spurn any
idea of personal gain.
9. Many examples of similar moderation abound in the Roman generals;
and without stopping to enumerate them, since such acts are not
indications of perfect virtue (for indeed it is no great glory to
abstain from carrying off other persons' property), I will just mention
one single instance of the forbearance of people in general in this
respect in ancient times:--When Marius and Cinna had given the Roman
populace leave to plunder the wealthy houses of certain persons whom
they had proscribed, the minds of the mob, who, however uncivilized they
might be, were accustomed to respect the rights of men, refused to touch
the produce of other men's labours; so that in fact no one could be
found so needy or so base as to be willing to profit by the miseries of
the state.
10. Besides these things the aforesaid emperor was a prey in his inmost
heart to a devouring envy; and as he knew that most vices put on a
semblance of virtue, he used to be fond of repeating, that severity is
the inseparable companion of lawful power. And as magistrates of the
highest rank are in the habit of thinking everything permitted to them,
and are always inclined to depress those who oppose them, and to
humiliate those who are above them, so he hated all who were well
dressed, or learned, or opulent, or high born; and he was always
disparaging the brave, that he might appear to be the only person
eminent for virtue. And this is a vice which, as we read, was very
flagrant in the Emperor Hadrian.
11. This same emperor used to be continually abusing the timid, calling
them sordid and base, and people who deserved to be depressed below the
very lowest of the low; and yet he himself often grew pale, in the most
abject manner, with groundless fears, and often from the bottom of his
soul was terrified at things which had no existence at all.
12. Remigius, the master of the ceremonies, knowing this, and also that
Valentinian was used to get into furious passions at every trifling
incident, spread a report, among other things, that some of the
barbarians were in motion; and the emperor, when he heard this, became
at once so broken-spirited through fear that he became as gentle and
merciful as Antoninus Pius.
13. He never intentionally appointed unjust judges but if he learned
that those whom he had once promoted were acting cruelly, he boasted
that he had discovered new Lycurguses and Cassiuses, those ancient
pillars of justice; and he used to be continually exhorting them by his
letters severely to chastise even the slightest errors.
14. Nor had those who were under accusations, if any misfortune fell
upon them, any refuge in the kindness of the prince; which ought to be,
as it were, a desirable haven to those tossed about in a stormy sea.
For, as wise men teach us, "The advantage and safety of the subject is
the true end of just government."
IX.
§ 1. It is natural for us, after discussing these topics, if we would
act fairly, now to come to his virtuous and laudable actions; since if
he had tempered his vices fairly with them he would have been a second
Trajan or Marcus Aurelius. Towards the people of the provinces he was
very considerate, lightening the burden of their tributes throughout the
empire. He also exerted himself in a very beneficial manner in building
towns and strengthening the frontiers. He was a strict observer of
military discipline, erring only in this respect, that while he punished
even slight misconduct on the part of the common soldiers, he allowed
the crimes of the officers of rank and of the generals to proceed to
greater and greater lengths, and shut his ears against every complaint
that was uttered against them. And this partiality of his was the cause
of the murmurs in Britain, and the disasters in Africa, and the
devastation of Illyricum.
2. He was, both at home and abroad, a strict observer of modesty and
chastity, keeping his conscience wholly free from all taint of impurity
or obscenity, and in consequence he bridled the wantonness of the
imperial court as with a strong rein; and he was the more easily able to
do this because he had never shown any indulgence to his own relations,
whom he either kept in obscurity, or (if he promoted them at all) raised
to a very moderate rank, with the exception of his brother, whom, in
deference to the necessities of the times, he made his partner in the
imperial dignity.
3. He was very scrupulous in giving high rank to any one; nor, as long
as he was emperor, did any one of the moneyed interest become ruler of
a province, nor was any government sold, unless it was at the beginning
of his reign, when wicked actions were sometimes committed in the hope
that the new prince would be too much occupied to punish them.
4. In waging war, and in defending himself from attacks, he was prudent
and very skilful, like a veteran of great experience in military
affairs. He was a very wise admirer of all that was good, and dissuader
from all that was bad; and a very accurate observer of all the details
of military service. He wrote with elegance, and described everything
with great neatness and skill in composition. He was an inventor of new
arms. He had an excellent memory, and a fluent, easy style of speaking,
which at times bordered closely upon eloquence. He was a lover of
elegant simplicity, and was fond, not so much of profuse banquets, as of
entertainments directed by good taste.
5. Lastly, he was especially remarkable during his reign for his
moderation in this particular, that he kept a middle course between the
different sects of religion; and never troubled any one, nor issued any
orders in favour of one kind of worship or another; nor did he
promulgate any threatening edicts to bow down the necks of his subjects
to the form of worship to which he himself was inclined; but he left
these parties just as he found them, without making any alterations.
6. His body was muscular and strong: the brightness of his hair--the
brilliancy of his complexion, with his blue eyes, which always looked
askance with a stern aspect--the beauty of his figure--his lofty
stature, and the admirable harmony of all his features--filled up the
dignity and beauty of an appearance which bespoke a monarch.
X.
§ 1. After the last honours had been paid to the emperor, and his body
had been prepared for burial, in order to be sent to Constantinople to
be there entombed among the remains of former emperors, the campaign
which was in preparation was suspended, and people began to be anxious
as to what part would be taken by the Gallic cohorts, who were not
always steady in loyalty to the lawful emperor, but looked upon
themselves as the disposers of power, and were regarded by others as
very likely to venture on some new enterprise at so favourable a moment.
This circumstance also was likely to aid any attempt that might be made
at a revolution, that Gratian, who knew nothing of what had taken place,
was still at Treves, where his father, when about to set out on his own
expedition, had desired him to wait.
2. While affairs were in this state of uncertainty, and when every one
shared the same fears, looking on themselves as all in the same boat,
and sure to be partners in danger, if danger should arise, at last it
was decided by the advice of the principal nobles to take up the bridge
which had been necessarily made when they meditated invading the
territories of the enemy, in order that, in compliance with the commands
given by Valentinian while alive, Merobaudes might be at once summoned
to the camp.
3. He, being a man of great cunning and penetration, divined what had
happened (perhaps indeed he had been informed of it by the messenger who
brought him his summons), and suspecting that the Gallic troops were
likely to break the existing concord, he pretended that a token which
had been agreed upon had been sent to him that he was to return with the
messenger to watch the banks of the Rhine; since the fury of the
barbarians was again menacing hostilities, and (in compliance with a
secret injunction which he received, at the same time) he removed to a
distance. Sebastian also as yet was ignorant of the death of the
emperor; and he being an orderly and quietly disposed man, but very
popular among the soldiers, required on that account to be strictly
watched.
4. Accordingly when Merobaudes had returned, the chief men took careful
counsel as to what was to be done; and at last it was arranged that the
child Valentinian, the son of the deceased emperor, at that time a boy
of four years old, should be associated in the imperial power. He was at
present a hundred miles off, living with his mother, Justina, in a small
town called Murocincta.
5. This decision was ratified by the unanimous consent of all parties;
and Cerealis, his uncle, was sent with speed to Murocincta, where he
placed the royal child on a litter, and so conducted him to the camp.
On the sixth day after his father's death, he was declared lawful
emperor, and saluted as Augustus with the usual solemnities.
6. And although at the time many persons thought that Gratian would be
indignant that any one else had been appointed emperor without his
permission, yet afterwards, when all fear and anxiety was removed, they
lived in greater security, because he, wise and kindhearted man as he
was, loved his young relative with exceeding affection, and brought him
up with great care.
[183] No one has succeeded in explaining this word. Some editors wish to
read Suræ, explaining that as "men picked out for their great strength,"
by a reference to Juvenal, xvi. 14--Grandes magna adsubsellia Suræ.
Wagner proposes to read Scurræ, a name sometimes given to the guards in
this age.
[184] As at Athens, where the orators were only allowed to speak as long
as an hour-glass, filled with water, was running down.
[185] All these men are spoken of by Horace as distinguished lawyers in
his time.
[186] See Cicero, de Oratore iii. 60.
[187] The Speech of Cicero pro Coelio Cluentio.
[188] The celebrated speech of Demosthenes, more usually known as that
of De Coronâ.