Res Gestae 14
Res Gestae: Ammianus Marcellinus (Book 14)
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Res Gestae: Ammianus Marcellinus (Book 14)

1. The Cruelty of Gallus Caesar. [1]

1. After the survival of the event of an unendurable 
campaign,[2] when the spirits of both parties, 
broken by the variety of their dangers and hardships, 
were still drooping, before the blare of the trumpets, 
had ceased or the soldier been assigned to their 
winter quarters, the gusts of raging Fortune brought 
new storms upon the commonwealth through the 
misdeeds, many and notorious, of Gallus Caesar.[3] 
He had been raised, at the very beginning of mature 
manhood, by an unexpected promotion from the 
utmost depths of wretchedness to princely heights, 
and overstepping the bounds of the authority 
conferred upon him, by excess of violence was causing 
trouble everywhere. For by his relationship to the 
imperial stock, and the affinity which he even then 
had with the name of Constantius,[1][ he was raised 
to such a height of presumption that, if he had been 
more powerful, he would have ventured (it seemed) 
upon a course hostile to the author of his good fortune.

2. To his cruelty his wife besides a 
serious incentive, a woman beyond measure 
presumptuous because of her kinship to the emperor, 
and previously joined in marriage by her father 
Constantine with his brother’s son, king 
Hanniballianus. She, a Magaera [2], in mortal guise, 
constantly aroused savagery of Gallus, being as 
insatiable as he in her thirst for human blood. 
The pair in process of time gradually become more 
expert in doing harm, and through underhand and 
crafty eavesdroppers, who have the evil habit of 
lightly adding to their information and wanting to 
learn only what was false and agreeable to them, 
they fastened upon innocent victims false charges 
of aspiring to royal power or of practicing magic.

3. There stood out among their lesser atrocities, 
when their unbridled power had already surpassed 
the limits of unimportant delinquencies, the sudden 
and awful death of one Clematius, a nobleman of 
Alexandria. This man’s mother-in-law, it was 
said, had a violent passion for her son-in-law, but 
was unable to seduce him; whereupon gaining 
entrance to the palace by a back door, she presented 
the queen with a valuable necklace, and thus 
secured the dispatch of his death-warrant to 
Honoratus, at the time the Count of the East;[1] and 
so Clematius, a man contaminated by no guilt, 
was put to death without being allowed to protest 
or even open his lips. 

4. After the perpetration of this impious deed, 
which now began to arouse the fears of others also, 
as if cruelty were given free rein, some persons were 
adjudged guilty on the mere shadow of suspicion 
and condemned. Of these some were put to death, 
others punished by confiscation of property 
and driven from their homes into exile, where, 
having nothing left save tears and complaints, they 
lived on the doles of charity; and since constitutional 
and just rule had given place to cruel caprice, 
wealthy and famous houses were being closed.

5. And no words of an accuser, even though bribed, 
were required amid these accumulations of evils, in 
order that these crimes might be committed, at 
least ostensibly, under the forms of the law, as has 
sometimes been done by cruel emperors; but whatever 
the implacable Caesar had resolved upon was 
rushed to fulfillment, as if it had been carefully 
weighed and determined to be right and lawful.

6. It was further devised that sundry low-born men, 
whose very insignificance made them little to be 
feared, should be appointed to gather gossip in all 
quarters of Antioch and report what they had
heard. These, as if travelers, and in disguise, 
attended the gatherings of distinguished citizens, and 
gained access to he houses of the wealthy in the 
guise of needy clients; then, being secretly admitted 
to the palace by a back door, they reported whatever 
they had been able to hear or learn, with one accord 
making it a rule to add inventions of their own and 
making doubly worse what they had learned, but
suppressing the praise of Caesar which the fear of 
impending evils extorted from some against their will.
 
7. And sometimes it happened that if the 
head of a household, in the seclusion of his private 
apartments, with no confidential servant present, 
had whispered something in the ear of his wife, the 
emperor learned it on the following day, as it were 
reported by Amphiaraus or Marcius, those famous 
seers of old. [1] And so even the walls, the only sharers 
of secrets, were feared. 

8. Moreover, his fixed purpose 
of ferreting out these and many similar things 
increased, spurred on by the queen, who pushed her 
husband’s fortunes head long into ruin, when 
she ought rather, with womanly gentleness, to have 
recalled him by helpful counsel to the path of truth 
and mercy, after the manner of the wife [2 ]of that 
savage emperor Maximinus, as we have related 
in our account of the acts of the Gordians.

9. Finally, following an unprecedented and 
destructive course, Gallus also ventured to commit the 
atrocious crime with, to his utter disgrace, Gallienus 
is said to have once hazarded at Rome. Taking with 
him a few attendants with concealed weapons, he 
used to roam about the inns and street 
corners, inquiring of every one in Greek, of which he 
had remarkable command, what he thought of the
Caesar. And this he did in a city [1] where the 
brightness of the lights commonly equals 
the resplendence of day. At last, being often 
recognized, and reflecting that if he continued that 
course he would be conspicuous, he appeared only in 
broad daylight, to attend to matters which he 
considered important. And all this conduct of his
caused very deep sorrow to many.

10. Now at that time Thalassius was the Praetorian 
Prefect at court [2], a man who was himself of an 
imperious character. He, perceiving that Gallus’ 
temper was rising, to the peril of many, did not try 
to soothe it by ripe counsel, as sometimes high 
officials have moderated the ire of princes; but 
rather roused the Caesar by opposing and 
reproving him at unseasonable times; very frequently 
he informed the emperor of Galus’ doings, exaggerating 
them and taking pains — whatever his motive
might have been — to do it openly. Through this 
conduct the Caesar was still more violently enraged, 
and as if raising higher, as if it were, the standard of 
his obstinacy, with no regard to his own life or 
that of others, he rushed on with uncontrollable 
impetuosity, like a swift torrent, to overthrow whatever 
opposed him.


2. The Inroads of the Isaurians.

1. And indeed this was not the only calamity 
to afflict the Orient with various disasters. For the 
Isaurians [1] too, whose way it is now to keep the 
peace and now put everything in turmoil by sudden 
raids, abandoned their occasional secret plundering 
expeditions and, as impunity stimulated for the 
worse their growing boldness, broke out in a serious 
war. For a long time they had been inflaming their 
warlike spirits by restless outbreaks, but they were 
now especially exasperated, as they declared, by 
the indignity of some of their associates, who had 
been taken prisoner, having been thrown to beasts 
of prey in the shows of the amphitheatre at Iconium, 
a town of Pisidia — an outrage without precedent.

2. And, in the words of Ciciero [2], as even wild animals, 
when warned by hunger, generally return to the 
place where they were once fed, so they all, swooping 
like a whirlwind down from their steep and rugged 
mountains, made for the districts near the sea; and 
hiding themselves in the pathless lurking-places 
and defiles as the dark nights were coming on — the 
moon being still crescent and not so shining with full 
brilliance — they watched the sailors. And when 
they saw that they were buried in sleep, creeping on 
all fours along the anchor ropes and making their 
way on tiptoe to the boats, they came upon the 
crew all unawares, and since their natural ferocity 
was fired by greed, they spared no one, even of those 
who surrendered, but massacred them all and 
without resistance carried of the cargoes, led either 
by their value or by their usefulness.


3. This however did not continue for long; for when
the fate of those whom they had butchered and plundered
became known, no one afterward put in at those ports, but, 
avoiding them as they would the deadly cliffs of 
Scirion,1 they coasted along the shores of Cyprus, 
which lie opposite to the crags of Isauria.

4. Then presently, as time went on and nothing came
their way from abroad, they left the sea-coast and
withdrew to that part of Lycaonia that borders on 
Isauria; and there, blocking the roads with close 
barricades, they lived on the property of provincials 
and of travellers.

5. Anger at this aroused the soldiers quartered in the
numerous towns and fortresses which lie near those regions,
and each division strove to the best of its power to check
the marauders as they ranged more widely, now in solid 
bodies, sometimes even in isolated bands. But the 
soldiers were defeated by their strength and numbers; 
for since the Isaurians were born and brought up 
amid the steep and winding defiles of the mountains, 
they bounded over them as if they were smooth 
and level plain, attacking the enemy with missiles
from a distance and terrifying them with savage howls.
 
6. And sometimes our infantry in pursuing 
them were forced to scale lofty slopes, and when 
they lost their footing, even if they reached the very 
summits by catching hold of underbrush or briars, 
the narrow and pathless tracts allowed them 
neither to take order of battle nor with mighty 
effort to keep a firm footing; and while the enemy, 
running here and there, tore off and hurled down 
masses of rocks from above, they made their perilous 
way down over sleep slopes; or if, compelled by dire
necessity, they made a brave fight, they were 
overwhelmed by falling boulders of enormous weight.

7. Therefore extreme caution was shown after that, and 
when the marauders began to make for the mountain 
heights, the soldiers yielded to unfavourable position. 
When, however, the Isaurians could be found 
on level ground, as constantly happened, they were 
allowed neither to stretch out their right arms nor 
poise their weapons, of which each carried two or 
three, but they were slaughtered like defenseless sheep.
 
8. Accordingly these same marauders, distrusting 
Lycaonia, which is for the most part level, and 
having learned by repeated experience that they 
would be no match for our soldiers in a stand-up 
fight, made their way by retired by paths into 
Pamphylia, long unmolested, it is true, but through 
fear of rage and massacres, protected everywhere by 
strong garrisons, while troops were spread all over
the neighbouring country. 

9. Therefore they made great haste, in order by 
extreme swiftness to anticipate the reports of their
movements, trusting in their bodily strength and
activity; but they made their way somewhat slowly 
to summits of the hills over winding trails. And when,
after overcoming extreme difficulties, they came to
the steep banks of Melas, a deep and eddying stream, 
which surrounds the inhabitants like a wall and 
protects them, the lateness of the night increased 
their alarm, and they halted for a time, waiting for 
daylight. They thought, indeed, to cross without 
opposition and by their unexpected raid to lay 
waste all before them; but they endured the greatest 
hardships to no purpose.

10. For when the sun rose, they were prevented from
crossing from the size of the stream, which was
narrow but deep. And while they were hunting for
fisherman’s boats or preparing to cross on hastily
woven hurdles, the legions that were then wintering
at Side poured out and fell upon them in swift attack.
And having set up their standards near the river bank,
the legions drew themselves up most skilfully for
fighting hand to hand with a close formation of shields;
and with perfect ease they slew some, who had even dared
to cross the river secretly, trusting to swimming, or in 
hollowed tree trunks.

11. From there, after trying the skill of our soldiers
even to a final test without gaining anything, dislodged
by fear and the strength of the legions, and not knowing
what direction to take, they came to the neighborhood
of the town of Laranda. 

12. There they were refreshed with food and rest, and
after their fear had left them, they attacked some rich
villages; but sine these were aided by some cohorts of
cavalry, which chanced to come up, the enemy withdrew 
without attempting any resistance on the level plain;
but as they retreated, they summoned all the flower of 
their youth which they had left at home.

13. And since they were distressed by severe hunger, 
they made for a place called Palaea, near the sea, which 
was protected by a strong wall. There supplies are 
regularly stored even today, for distribution to the 
troops that defend the whole frontier of Isauria. 
Therefore they invested that fortress for three days 
and three nights; but since the steep slope itself 
could not be approached without deadly peril, and 
nothing could be effected by mines, and no method 
of siege was successful, they withdrew in dejection, 
ready, under the pressure of extreme necessity, to 
undertake even tasks even beyond their powers. 

14. Accordingly, filled with still greater fury, to 
which despair and famine add fuel, with increased
numbers and irresistible energies they rushed on to
destroy Seleucia, the metropolis of the province, which
Count Castricus was holding with three legions steeled by 
hard service. 

15. Warned of their approach by trusty scouts, officers of
the garrison gave the watchword, according to regulations,
and in a swift sally led out the entire force; and having
quickly crossed the bridge over the river Calycadnus, whose
mighty stream washes the towers of the city walls, they drew
up their men in order of battle. And yet no one charged or
was allowed to fight; for they feared that band on fire with
madness, superior in numbers and ready to rush upon the sword,
regardless of their own lives.
 
16. Consequently, when the army came into view afar off,
and the notes of the trumpeters were heard, the marauders
stopped and halted for a while; then, drawing their
formidable swords, they came on at a slower pace.

17. And when the unperturbed soldiers made ready to meet 
them, deploying their ranks and striking their 
shields with their spears, an action which rouses the 
wrath and resentment of the combatants, they 
intimidated the nearest of the enemy by their very 
gestures. But as they were eagerly rushing to the 
fray, their leaders called them back, thinking it 
inadvisable to the risk a doubtful combat when 
fortifications were not very distant, under the protection 
of which the safety of all could be put on a solid foundation.

18. In this conviction, then, the warriors were led back
within the walls, the entrances to the gates on all sides
were barred, and they took their place on the battlements
and pinnacles with rocks gathered from every hand and weapons
in readiness, so that, if anyone should force his way near to
the walls,he might be overwhelmed by a shower of spears and stones.

19.	Still, the besieged were greatly troubled by the fact
that the Isaurians, having captured some boats which were
carrying grain on the river, were abundantly supplied with
provisions, while they themselves were had already the regular
stores and were dreading the pangs of approaching famine.
 
20.	When the news of this situation spread abroad, and
repeated messages dispatched to Gallus Caesar had roused him
to action, since the Master of the Horse [1] was at the time
too far removed from the spot, orders were given to Nebridius,
Count of the East. [2] He quickly got together troops from every
side and with the greatest energy was hastening to rescue
this great and strategically important city from danger.
On learning this, the freebooters departed without
accomplishing anything more of consequence and scattering
(after their usual fashion) made for the trackless wastes
of the mountains. 

3.	An Unsuccessful Plot of the Persians

1.	When affairs had reached this stage in Isuaria,
the king of Persia [1], involved in a war with his neighbors,
was driving back from his frontiers a number of very wild tribes
which, with inconsistent policy, often make hostile raids upon
his territories and sometimes aid him when he makes war upon us.
One of his grandees, Nohodares by name, having received orders
to invade Mesopotamia, whenever occasion offered, was carefully
reconnoitering our territory, intending a sudden incursion in
the case he found any opening.

2.	And as all the districts of Mesopotamia, being exposed
to frequent raids, were protected by frontier-guards and country
garrisons,  Nohadores, having turned his course to the left,
and beset the remotest parts of Osdroene, attempting a novel
and all but unprecedented manoeuvre; and if it had succeeded,
he would have devastated the whole region like a thunderbolt.
Now what he planned was the following.

3.	The town of Batne, founded in Anthemusia in early times
by a band of Macedonians, is separated by a short pace from the
river Euphrates; it is filled with wealthy traders when, at the
yearly festival, near the beginning of the month of September,
a great crowd of every condition gather for the fair, to the
traffic in wares sent from India and China, and in other articles
that are regularly brought there in great abundance by land and sea.

4.	The district the above-mentioned leader made ready to invade,
on the days set for this celebration, through the wilderness and the
grass covered plains of Abora; but he was betrayed by information
given by some of his own soldiers, who, fearing punishment for a
crime which they had committed, deserted to a Roman garrison.
Therefore, withdrawing without accomplishing anything, he
languished thereafter in inaction.

4.	The Inroads of the Saracens; Their Customs

1.	The Saracens, however, whom we never found desirable
either as friends or as enemies, ranging up and down the country,
in a brief space of time laid waste whatever they could find,
like rapacious kites which, whenever they caught site of any prey
from on high, seize it with swift swoop, and directly [after] they
have seized it make off.
 
2.	Although I recall having told of their customs in my history
of Marcus, [1] and several times after that, yet I will now briefly
relate a few more particulars about them.

3.	Among those tribes whose original abode extends from the
Assyrians to the cataracts of the Nile and the frontiers of the
Blemmyae all alike are warriors of equal rank, half-nude, clad
in dyed cloaks as far as the loins, ranging widely with the help
of swift horses and slender camels in times of peace or disorder.
No man ever grasps a plough-handle or cultivates a tree, none
seeks a living by tilling the soil, but they rove continually
over wide and extensive tracts without a home, without fixed
abodes or laws; they cannot long endure the same sky, nor does the
sun of a single district ever content them.

4.	Their life is always on the move, and they have mercenary
wives, hired under a temporary contract. But in order that there
may be some semblance of matrimony, the future wife, by way of
a dower, offers her husband a spear and a tent, with the right to
leave him after a stipulated time, if she so elect : and it is
unbelievable with what ardour both sexes give themselves over to
passion.

5.	Moreover, they wander so widely as long as they live,
that woman marries in one place, gives birth in another, and rears
her children far away, without being allowed any opportunity for rest.

6.	They all feed upon game and an abundance of milk, which
is their main sustenance, on a variety of plants, as well as
on such birds as they are able to take by fowling; and I have
seen many of them who are wholly unacquainted with grain or wine.

7.	So much for this dangerous tribe. Let us now return
to our original theme.

5.	The Torture of the Followers of Megentius 

1.	While this was happening in the East, Constantius was
passing the winter at Arelate, where he gave entertainment in
the theatre and the circus with ostentatious magnificence.
Then, on the 10th of October, which completed the thirtieth
year of his reign, [1] giving greater weight to his arrogance and
accepting and accepting every false or doubtful charge as evident
and proven, among other atrocities he tortured Gerontius, a count of
the party of Magnentius, [2] and visited him with the sorrow of exile.
 
2.	And, as an ailing body is apt to be affected even by slight
annoyances, so his narrow and sensitive mind, thinking that every
sound indicated something done or planned at the expense of his
safety, made his victory [1] lamentable through the murder of 
innocent men.
3.	For if anyone of the military commanders or ex-officials, [2]
or one of high rank in his own community, was accused even by rumour
of having favoured the party of the emperor’s opponent, he was loaded
with chains and dragged about like a wild beast. And whether a
personal enemy pressed the charge or no one at all, as though it were
enough that he had been named, informed against, or accused at all,
he was condemned to death, or his property confiscated, or he was
banished to some desert island.
 
4.	Moreover his harsh cruelty, whenever the majesty of the
empire was said to be insulted, and his angry passion and unfounded
suspicions were increased by the bloodthirsty flattery of his
courtiers, who exaggerated everything that happened and pretended
to be greatly troubled by the thought of an attempt on the life of 
a prince on whose safety, as on a thread, they hypocritically
declared that the condition of the whole world depended. 
5.	And he is even said to have given orders that no one who
had ever been punished for these or similar offences should be
given a new trial after a writ of condemnation3 had once been
presented to him in the usual manner, which even the most inexorable
emperors were commonly allowed. And this fatal fault of cruelty,
which in others sometimes grew less with advancing age, in his case
became more violent, since a group of flatterers intensified his 
stubborn resolution.
6.	Prominent among these was the state secretary [1] Paulus,
a native of Spain, a kind of viper, whose countenance concealed his 
character, but who was extremely clever in scenting out hidden means
of dangers for others. When he had been sent to Britain to fetch
some officers who had dared to conspire with Magentius, since they
could make no resistance he autocratically exceeded his instructions
and, like a flood, suddenly overwhelmed the fortunes of many, making
his away amid manifold slaughter and destruction, imprisoning
freeborn men and even degrading some with handcuffs ; as a matter
of fact, he patched together many accusations with utter disregard
of the truth, and to him was due an impious crime, which fixed 
eternal stain upon the time of Constantius.

7.	Martinus, who was governing those provinces as a substitute
for the prefects, deeply deplored the woes suffered by innocent men ;
and after often begging that those who were free from any reproach
should be spared, when he failed in his appeal he threatened to
retire, in the hope that, at least in through fear of this, that
malevolent man-hunter might finally cease to expose to open danger
men naturally given to peace.

8.	Paulus thought that this would interfere with his profession,
and being a formidable artist in devising complications, for which 
reason he was nicknamed “The Chain,” since the substitute continued
to defend those whom he was appointed to govern, Paulus involved
even him in the common peril, threatening to bring him also in
chains to the emperor’s court, along with the tribunes and many
others. Thereupon Martinus, alarmed at this threat, and thinking 
swift death imminent, drew his sword and attacked that same Paulus.
But since the weakness of his hand prevented him from dealing a
fatal blow, he plunged the sword which he had already drawn into
his own side. And by that ignominous death there passed from life 
a most just ruler, who had dared to lighten the unhappy lot of many.

9.	After perpetrating these atrocious crimes, Paulus,
stained with blood, returned to the emperor’s camp, bringing many
with him many men almost covered with chains and in a state of 
pitiful filth and wretchedness. On their arrival, the racks were 
made ready and the executioner prepared his hooks and other
instruments of torture. Many of the prisoners were proscribed,
others driven into exile; to some the sword dealt the penalty
of death. For no one easily recalls the acquittal of anyone in the
time of Constantius when an accusation against him had even been 
whispered. 

6.	The Faults of the Roman Senate and People

1.	Meanwhile Orfitus was governing the eternal city with the 
ranks of prefect, and with arrogance beyond the limits of the
power that had been conferred upon him. He was a man of wisdom,
it is true, and highly skilled in legal practice, but less
equipped with the adornment of the liberal arts than became a man
of noble rank. During his term of office serious riots broke out
because of the scarcity of wine; for the people, eager for an 
unrestrained use of this commodity, are roused to frequent and
violent disturbances.

2.	Now I think that some foreigners [1] who will perhaps read
this work (if I should be so fortunate) may wonder why it is that
when the narrative turns to descriptions of what goes on in Rome,
I tell of nothing save dissensions, taverns, and other similar
vulgarities. Accordingly, I shall briefly touch upon the reasons,
intending nowhere to depart intentionally from the truth.

3.	At the time when Rome first began to rise into a position
of world-wide splendor, destined to live so long as men shall exist,
in order that she might grow to a towering stature, Virtue and
Fortune, ordinarily at variance, formed a pact of eternal peace;
for if either one of them had failed her, Rome had not come to 
complete supremacy.

4.	Her people, from the very cradle to the end of their
childhood, [2] a period of about three hundred years, carried
on wars about her walls. Then, entering upon adult life, after
many toilsome wars, they crossed the Alps and the sea. Grown 
to youth and manhood, from every region of the vast globe
includes, they brought back the laurels of triumphs. And now,
declining into old age, and often owing victory to its name
alone, it has come to a quieter period of life.

5.	Thus the venerable city, after humbling the proud necks
of savage nations, and making laws, and everlasting foundations
and moorings of liberty, like a thrifty parent, wise and wealthy,
has entrusted the management of her inheritance to the Caesars,
as to her children.

6.	And although for some time the tribes1 have been 
inactive and the centuries [2] at peace, and there are no
contests for votes but tranquility of Numa’s time has returned,
yet throughout all the regions and parts of the earth she is
accepted as mistress and queen; everywhere the white hair  of
the senators and their authority are revered and the name of the
Roman people is honoured.

7.	But this magnificence and splendour of the assemblies
is marred by the rude and worthlessness of a few, who do not
consider where they were born, but, as if license were granted
to vice, descend to sin and wantonness. For as the lyric poet 
Simonides tells us, [3]  one who is going to live happy
and in accord with perfect reason ought above all else to have
a glorious fatherland.

8.	Some of these men eagerly strive for statues, thinking
that by them they can be made immortal, as if they would gain a
greater reward from senseless brazen images than from the
consciousness of honorable and virtuous conduct. And they take
pains to have them overlaid with gold, a fashion first introduced
by Acillius Glabrio, [4] after his skill in arms had overcome
King Antiochus. [5]  But how noble it is, scorning these slight
and trivial honours, to aim to tread the long and steep ascent
to true glory, as the bard of Ascra expresses it,[6] is made
clear by Cato the Censor. For when he was asked why he alone
among many did not have a statue replied : “I would rather
that good men should wonder why I did not deserve one than
(which is much worse) should mutter ‘Why has he been given one ?’”
 
9.	Other men, taking great pride in coaches higher than
common and in ostentatious finery of apparel, sweat under heavy
cloaks, which they fasten upon their necks and bind around 
their very throats, while the air blows them because of the
excessive lightness of the material; and they lift them up
with both hands and wave them with many gestures, especially
with their left hands, [1] in order that the over-long 
fringes and the tunics embroidered with party-coloured threads
with multiform figures of animals should be conspicuous.

10.	Others, though no one questions them, assume a grave
expression and greatly exaggerate their wealth, doubling the
annual yields of their fields, well cultivated and greatly
exaggerate their wealth, doubling the annual yield of their
fields, well cultivated (as they think), of which they assert
that they possess a great number from the rising to the 
setting sun; they are clearly unaware that their forefathers,
through whom the greatness of Rome was so far flung, gained
renown, not by riches, but by fierce wars, and not differing
from the common soldiers in wealth, mode of life, or
simplicity of attire, overcame all obstacles by valour.

11.	For that reason the eminent Valerius Publicola was 
buried by a contribution of money, [2] and through the aid
of her husband’s friends [3] the needy wife of Regulus and
her children were supported. And the daughter of Scipio [1]
received her dowry from the public treasury, since the
nobles blushed to look upon the beauty of this marriageable
maiden long unsought because of the absence of a father
of modest means.

12.	But now-a-days, if as a stranger2 of good position 
you enter for the first time to pay your respects to some
man who is well-to-do [2] and therefore puffed up, at
first you will be greeted as if you were an eagerly expected 
friend, and after being asked many questions and forced to 
lie, you will wonder, since the man never saw you before,
that a great personage should pay such marked attention to
your humble self as to make you regret, because of such
special kindness, that you did not see Rome ten years earlier. 

13.	When, encouraged by this affability, you make the same
call on the following day, you will hang about unknown and
unexpected, while the man who the day before urged you to
call again counts up his clients, wondering who you are 
or whence you came. But when you are at last recognized
and admitted to his friendship, if you devote yourself to
call upon him for three years without interruption, then 
are away for the same number of days, and return to go
through with a similar course, you will not be asked where
you were, and unless you abandon the quest in sorrow, you
will waste your whole life to no purpose paying court to
the blockhead.
 
14.	And when, after a sufficient interval of time,
the preparations of those tedious and unwholesome banquets
begins, or the distribution of the customary doles, it is
debated with anxious deliberation whether it will be suitable
to invite a stranger, with the exception of those to whom
a return of hospitality is due; and if, after full and mature 
deliberation, the decision is in the affirmative, the man who 
is invited is one who watches all night before the house
of the charioteers, [1] or who is a professional dicer, or
who pretends to the knowledge of certain secrets.

15.	For they avoid learned and serious people as unlucky
and useless, in addition to which the announcers of names,
who are wont to traffic in these and similar favours, on 
receiving a bribe, admit to the doles and the dinners obscure
and low-born intruders.

16.	But I pass over the gluttonous banquets and various
allurements of pleasures, lest I should go too far, and I
shall pass to the fact that certain persons hasten without
fear of danger through the broad streets of the city and over
the upturned stones of the pavements as if they were driving
post-horses with hoofs of fire (as the saying is) ragging
after them armies of slaves like bands of brigands and nor 
leaving even Sannio at home, as the comic writer says. [2]
And many matrons, imitating them, rush about through all
quarters of the city with covered heads and in closed litters.

17.	And as skilful directors of battles place in the van
dense throngs of brave soldiers, then light armed troops,
after them javelin-throwers, and last of all the reserve
forces, to enter the action in case chance makes it needful,
just so those who have charge of a city household made
conspicuous by wands grasped in their right hands,
carefully and diligently draw up the array  then, as if
the signal had been given in camp, close to the front of 
the carriage all the weavers march  next to the rest of 
the slave without distinction, accompanied by the idle
plebeians of the neighborhood; finally, the throng
of eunuchs, beginning with the old men and ending with
the boys, sallow and disfigured by the distorted
form of their members; so that, wherever anyone goes
anyone goes beholding the troops of mutilated men, he 
would curse the memory of the Queen Samiramis of old,
who was the first to castrate young males, thus doing
violence, as it were, to nature and wrestling her from
her intended course, since she at the very beginning of
life, through the primitive founts of seed, by a kind of 
secret law, shows the ways to propagate posterity.

18.	 In consequence to this state of things, the few 
houses that were formerly famed for devotion to serious
pursuits now teem with the sports of sluggish indolence,
re-echoing to the sound of singing and tinkling of flutes
and lyres. In short, in place of the philosopher the
singer is called in, and in place of the orator the 
teacher of stagecraft, and while libraries are shut
up forever like tombs, water-organs are manufactured 
and lyres as large as carriages, and flutes and
instruments heavy for gesticulating actors.
 
19.	At last we have reached such a state of harshness
that whereas not so very long ago, when there was ear
of scarcity of food,  foreigners were driven neck and
crop from the city, [1] and those who practiced their liberal
arts (very few in number) were thrust out without a 
breathing space, yet the genuine attendants upon
actresses of the mimes, and those who for the time 
pretended to be such, were kept with us, while three
thousand dancing girls, without even being questioned,
remained here with their choruses, and an equal number
of dancing masters.
 
20.	And whenever you turn our eyes, you may see a
throng of women with curled hair, who might, if they 
had married, so far as age goes, have already produced
three children, sweeping the pavements [2] with their
feet to the point of weariness and whirling in rapid
gyrations, while they represent the innumerable figures
that the stage-plays have devised.

21.	Furthermore, there is no doubt that when once
upon a time Rome was the abode of all the virtues,
many of the nobles detained here foreigners of free
birth by various kindly attentions, as the Lotus
Eaters of Homer [3] did by the sweetness of their fruits.

22.	But now the vain arrogance of some men regards
everything born outside the pomerium [4] of our city is
worthless, except the childless and the unwed ; and it
is beyond belief with what various kinds of obsequiousness
men without children are courted at Rome [1].

23.	And since among them, as is natural in the
capital of the world, cruel disorders cruel disorders
gain such heights that all the healing art is powerless
even to mitigate them, and it has been provided as a
means of safety, that no one shall visit a friend
suffering from such a disease, and by a few who are
more cautious another sufficiently effective remedy
has been added, namely, that servants sent to inquire
of a man’s acquaintance who have been attacked by that
disorder should not be readmitted to their masters’
house until they have purified their persons by a bath.
So fearful are they of a contagion seen only by the eyes
of others.

24.	But yet, although these precautions are so
strictly observed, some men, when invited to a wedding,
where gold is put into their cupped right hands, although
the strength of their limbs is impaired, will run even all
the way to the Spoletium [2]. Such are the habits of nobles.

25.	But of the multitude of lowest condition and greatest
poverty some spend the entire night in wineshops, some
lurk in the shade of the awnings of the theatres, which
Catulus [3] in his aedilship, imitating Campanian
wantonness, was the first to spread. Or they quarrel with
one another in their games at dice, making a disgusting
sound by drawing back the breath into their resounding
nostrils; or, which is favorite among all amusements,
from sunrise to evening, in sunshine or in rain, they 
stand open-mouthed, examining minutely the good points
and the defects of charioteers and their horses.
 
26.	And as it is most remarkable to see an innumerable
crowd of plebeians. Their minds filled with a kind of 
eagerness, hanging on the outcome of the chariot races.
These and similar things prevent anything memorable or
serious from being done in Rome. Accordingly, I must
return to my subject. 


7.	Atrocities and Savageness of Gallus Caesar

1.	His lawlessness was more widely extended now more
widely extended, Caesar became offensive to all good men,
henceforth showing no restraint, he harassed all parts of
the East, sparing neither ex-magistrates nor the chief men
of the cities, nor even the plebeians.

2.	Finally, he ordered the death of the leaders of the
senate of Antioch [1] in a single writ, enraged because
when he urged prompt introduction of cheap prices at an
unseasonable time, since scarcity threatened, they had made
a more vigorous reply then was fitting. And they would have
perished to a man, had not Honoratus, then count-governor [2]
of the East, opposed him with firm resolution.

3.	This also was a sign of his savage nature which
was neither obscure nor hidden, that he delighted in cruel
sports; and sometimes in the circus, absorbed, in six or
seven contests, he exalted in the sight of boxers
pounding each other to death, and drenched with blood,
as if he had made some great gain.
 
4.	Besides this, his propensity for doing harm was
inflamed and enticed, who, on being admitted to the palace
(as she had demanded) had betrayed a plot that was secretly
being made against him by some soldiers of the lowest
condition. Whereupon Constantina, exulting as if the safety
of her husband were now assured, gave her a reward, and
seating her in a carriage, sent her out through the
palace gates into the public streets, in order that by such
inducements she might tempt others to reveal similar or greater 
conspiracies.

5.	After this when Gallus was on the point of leaving
Hierapolis, ostensibly to take part in the campaign, and the
commons of Antioch suppliantly besought him to save them from 
the fear of a famine, which, through many difficulties of
circumstance, was then believed to be imminent, the did not,
after the manner of princes whose widely extended power cures
local troubles, make any arrangements or command the bringing
of any supplies from neighbouring provinces; but to the
multitude, which was in fear of the direct necessity, he
delivered up Theophilus, consular governor of Syria, who was
standing near by,  constantly repeating the statement, that
no one could lack food if the governor did not wish it.

6.	These words increased the audacity of the lower
classes, and when the lack of provisions became more acute,
driven by hunger and rage, they set fire to the pretentious
house of a certain Eubulus, a man of distinction among his
own people; then, as if the governor had been delivered
into their hands by an imperial edict, they assailed him
with kicks and blows, and trampling him under foot when
he was half-dead with awful mutilation tore him to pieces.
After his wretched death each man saw in the end of one
person the image of his own peril and dreaded a fate
like that he had just witnessed.
 
7.	At that time Serenianus, a former general, through 
whose inefficiency Celse in Phoenicia had been pillaged,
as we have described1 was justly and legally tried for
high treason, and it was doubtful by what favour he could
be acquitted; for it was clearly proved that he had
enchanted by forbidden arts a cap he used to wear, and 
sent a friend of his with it to a prophetic shrine, to
seek for omens as to whether the imperial power was
destined to be firmly his, as he desired.

8.	At that time a twofold evil befell, in that an 
awful fate took off Theophilus, who was innocent, and 
Serenianus, who was deserving of universal execration,
got off scot-free, almost without any strong public protest.
 
9.	Constantine, hearing of these events from time to
time, and being informed of these things by Thallassius, [2]
who, as he had now learned, had died a natural death, wrote
in flattering terms to the Caesar, but gradually withdrew
from him his means of defence. He pretended to be anxious,
since soldiers are apt to be disorderly in times inaction,
lest they might conspire for Gallus’ destruction, and bade
him be satisfied with his household troops only [3] and
those of the guards, besides the Targeteers and the
Household troops. He further ordered Domitianus, a former
state treasurer, [4] and now prefect,that when he came
to Syria, he should politely and respectfully urge Gallus,
whom he had frequently summoned, to hasten to return to Italy.

10.	But when Domitianus had quickened his pace because of
these instructions and had come to Antioch, passing by the
gates of the palace in the contempt of the Caesar, on whom
he ought to have called, he went to the governor’s quarters
with his usual pomp, and having for a long time pleaded
illness, he neither entered the palace nor appeared in
public, but remaining in hiding he made many plots for
Gallus’ ruin, adding some superfluous details to the
reports which from time to time he sent to the emperor.

11.	At last, being invited to the palace and admitted
to the council, [1] without any preliminary remarks he
said inconsiderately and coolly :“ Depart, Caesar, and know
that, if you delay, I shall at once order your supplies and
those of your palace to be cut off.”  Having said only this
in an insolent tone, he went off in a passion, and although
often sent for, and although often sent for, he never
afterward came into Gallus’ presence.

12.	Caesar, angered at this and feeling that such
treatment was unjust and undeserved, ordered his faithful
guards [2] to arrest the prefect. When this became known,
Montius, who was questor [3] a spirited man but somewhat
inclined to moderate measures, having in view the public
welfare, sent for the foremost members of the palace
troops and addressed them in mild terms, pointing out
that such conduct was neither seemly nor expedient and
adding in a tone of reproof that if they approved of this
course, it would be fitting first to overthrow the
statues of Constantius and then plan with less anxiety
for taking the life of the prefect.

13.	On learning this, Gallus, like a serpent
attacked by darts or stones, waiting now for a last
expedient and trying to save his life by any possible
means, ordered all his troops to be assembled under arms,
and while they stood in amazement, he said, baring and
gnashing his teeth, “Stand by me, my brave men, who are
like myself in danger.

14.	Montius with a kind of strange and
unprecedented arrogance in this loud harangue of his
accuses us of being rebels and as resisting the majesty
of Augustus, no doubt in anger because I ordered an insolent,
who presumes to ignore what proper conduct requires, to be
imprisoned, merely to frighten him.”

15.	With no further delay the soldiers, as often eager for
disturbance, first attacked Montius, who lodged close by,
an old man frail of body and ill besides, bound coarse
ropes to his legs, and dragged him spread-eagle fashion
without any breathing-space all the way to Caesar’s headquarters.

16.	And in the same access[means excess] of rage threw
Domitianus down the steps, then bound him also with ropes, and
tying the two together, dragged him at full speed through the
broad streets of the city. And when finally their joints and
limbs were torn asunder, leaping upon their dead bodies, they
mutilated them in a horrible manner, and at last, as if glutted,
threw them into the river.

17.	Now these men, reckless to the point of madness, were
roused to such atrocious deeds as they committed by a certain
Luscus, curator of the city. He suddenly appeared and with 
repeated cries, like a bawling leader of porters, urged them
to finish what they had begun. And for that not long after
they were burned alive.

18.	 And because Montius, when about to breathe his
last word in the hands of those who were rending him, cried
out upon Epigonus and Eusebius, but without indicating their
profession or rank, men of the same name were sought out in
great diligence. And in order that the excitement might
not cool, a philosopher Epigonus from Cilicia was arrested,
and a Eusebius, surnamed Pittacas, a vehement orator, from
Edessa, although it was not these that the questor had
implicated, but some tribunes of forges, [1]  who had
promised arms in case a revolution should be set on foot.

19.	In those same days Apollinaris, son-in-law of
Domitianus, who a short time before had been in charge
of Caesar’s palace, being sent to Mesopotamia by his 
father-in-law, inquired with excessive interest among
the companies of soldiers whether they had received any
secret messages from Gallus which would indicate that
he was aiming higher;  but when he heard what had happened
in Antioch, he slipped off through Lesser Armenia and made
for Constantinople, but from their he was brought back by 
the guards and kept in close confinement.

20.	Now, while these things were happening, attention
was drawn at Tyre to a royal robe that had been made
secretly, but it was uncertain who had ordered it or for
whose use it was made. Consequently the governor of the
province at the time, who was the father of Apollinaris
and of the same name, was brought to trial as his accomplice; 
and many others were gathered together from various cities
and were bowed down by the weight of the charges of heinous
crimes.

21.	And now, when the clarions of internal disaster were
sounding, the disordered mind of Caesar, turned from
consideration of the truth, and not secretly as before,
vented his rage; and since no one conducted the usual
examination of the charges either made or invented, or
distinguished the innocent from association with the
guilty, all justice vanished from the courts as though
driven out. And while the legitimate defence of cases
was put to silence, the executioner (trustee of plunderings),
hoodwinking for execution and confiscation of property
ranged everywhere through the eastern provinces. These 
I think it now a suitable time to review, excepting
Mesopotamia, which has already been described in connection
with the account of the Parthian wars, [1] and Egypt, which
we will necessarily postpone to another time. [2]


8.	Description of the Eastern Provinces

1.	After one passes the summits of Mount Taurus, which
on the east rise to a lofty height, Cilicia spreads out
in widely extended plains, a land abounding in products of
every kind; and adjoining its right side is Isauria, equally
blessed with fruitful vines and abundant grain, being divided
in the middle by the navigable river Calycadnus.

2.	This province too, in addition to may towns, is
adorned by two cities; Selcucia, the work of king Seleucus,
and Claudiopolis, which Claudis Caesar [1] founded as a
colony.  For Isaura, which was formerly too powerful, was 
long ago overthrown as a dangerous rebel, and barely shows
a few traces of its former glory.

3.	Cilicia, however, which boasts of the river Cydnus,
is ennobled by Tarsus, a fair city; this is said to have
been founded by Perseus, son of Jupiter, and Danae, or else
by a wealthy and high-born man, Sandan by name, who came
from Ethiopia.  There is also Anazarbus, hearing the name
of its founder, and Mobsuestia, the abode of that famous
diviner Mobsus.  He, wandering from his fellow-warriors the
Argonauts when they were returning after carrying off the
golden fleece, and being borne to the coast of Africa, met
a sudden death.  Thereafter his heroic remains, covered
with Punic sod, have been for the most part effective in
healing a variety of diseases.

4.	These two provinces, crowded with bands of brigands,
were long ago, during the war with the pirates, sent under
the yoke by the proconsul Servilius [2] and made to pay
tribute.  And these regions indeed, lying, as it were,
upon a promontory, are separated from the eastern
continent by Mount Amanus.

5.	But the frontier of the East, extending a long
distance in a straight line, reaches from the banks of the
Euphrates to the borders of the Nile, being bounded on
the left by the Saracenic races and on the right exposed
to the waves of the sea.  Of this district Nicator Seleucus
took possession and greatly increased it in power, when by
right of succession he was holding the rule of Persia after
the death of Alexander of Macedon; and he was a successful
and efficient king, as his surname Nicator indicates.

6.	For by taking advantage of the great number of men
whom he ruled for along time in peace, in place of their 
rustic dwellings he built cities of great strength and
abundant wealth; and may of these, although they are now
called by the Greek names which were imposed upon them by
the will of their founder, nevertheless have not lost the
old appellations in the Assyrian tongue which the original
settlers gave them.

7.	And first after Osdroene, which, as has been said,
I have omitted from this account, Commagene, now called 
Euphratensis, gradually lifts itself into eminence; [1]
it is famous for the great cities of Hierapolis, the
ancient Ninus, and Samosata.

8.	Next Syria spreads for a distance over a beautiful
plain.  This is famed for Antioch, a city known to all the
world, and without a rival, so rich is it in imported and
domestic commodities  likewise for  Laodicia, Apamia, and
also Seleucia, most flourishing cities from their very origin.

9.	After this comes Phoenicia, lying at the foot of
Mount Libanus, [2] a region full of charm and beauty,
adorned with many great cities  among these in
attractiveness and the renown of their names Tyre, Sidon
and Berytus are conspicuous, and equal to these are Emissa
and Damascus, founded in days long past.

10.	Now these provinces, encircled by the river Orontes,
which, after flowing past the foot of that lofty mountain 
Cassius, empties into the Parthenian Sea, [3] were taken
from the realms of the Armenians by Gnaeus Pompeius, after
his defeat of Tigranes, [1] and brought under Roman sway.

11.	The last region of the Syris is Palestine, extending
over a great extent of territory and abounding in cultivated
and well-kept lands  it also has some splendid cities, none
of which yields to any of the others, but they rival one 
another, as it were, by plumb-line. [2]  These are Caesarea,
which Herodes [3] built in honour of the emperor Octavianus, [4]
Eleutheropolis, and Neapolis, along with Ascalon and Gaza,
built in a former age.

12.	In these districts no navigable river is anywhere to
be seen, but in numerous places natural warm springs gush
forth, adapted to many medicinal uses.  But these regions
also met with a like fate, being formed into a province by 
Pompey, after he had defeated the Jews and taken Jerusalem, [5]
but left to the jurisdiction of a governor.

13.	Adjacent to this region is Arabia, which on one side
adjoins the country of the Nabataei, a land producing a rich 
variety of wares and studded with strong castles and 
fortresses, which the watchful care of the early inhabitants
reared in suitable and readily defended defiles, to check the
inroads of neighbouring tribes.  This region also has, in 
addition to some towns, great cities, Bostra, Gerasa and
Philadelphia, all strongly defended by mighty walls.  It 
was given the name of a province, assigned a governor,
and compelled to obey our laws by the emperor Trajan, [6]
who by frequent victories crushed the arrogance of
its inhabitants when he was waging glorious war with 
Media and the Parthians.

14.	Cyprus, too, an island far removed from the
mainland, and abounding in harbours, besides having
numerous towns, is made famous by two cities, Salamis
and Paphos, the one celebrated for its shrines of
Jupiter, the other for its temple of Venus.  This Cyprus
is so fertile and so abounds in products of every kind,
that without the need of any help from without, by its
native resources alone it builds cargo ships from the
very keel to the topmast sails, and equipping them
completely entrusts them to the deep.

15.	Nor am I loth to say that the Roman people
in invading that island showed more greed than justice; 
for King Ptolemy, [1] our ally joined to us b a treaty,
without any fault of his, merely because of the low
state of our treasury was ordered to be proscribed, and
in consequence committed suicide by drinking poison ;
whereupon the island was made tributary and its spoils,
as though those of an enemy, were taken aboard our fleet
and brought to Rome by Cato. [2]  I shall now resume the
thread of my narrative.

9.	Of Constantius Gallus Caesar.

1.	Amid this variety of disasters Ursicinus, to
whose attendance the imperial command had attached me,
was summoned from Nisibis, of which he was in charge,
and was compelled, in spite of his reluctance and
his opposition to the clamorous troops of flatterers,
to investigate the accusations in the deadly strife.
He was in fact a warrior, having always been a soldier
and a leader of soldiers, but far removed from the
wranglings of the forum; accordingly, worried by fear
of the danger which threatened him, seeing the corrupt
accusers and judges with whom he was associated all
coming forth from the same holes, he informed
Constantius by secret letters of what was going on
furtively or openly, and begged for aid, that through
fear of it the well-known arrogance of the Caesar might
subside.

2.	But by too great caution he had fallen into
worse snares, as we shall show later, since his rivals
patched up dangerous plots with Constantius, who was
in other respects a moderate emperor, but cruel and
implacable if anyone, however obscure, had whispered
in his ear anything of that kind, and in cases of that
nature unlike himself.

3.	Accordingly, on the day set for the fatal
examinations the master of the horse took his seat,
ostensibly as a judge, attended by others who had
been told in advance what was to be done  and here 
and there shorthand writers were stationed who
reported every question and every answer post-haste to
Caesar; and by his cruel orders, instigated by the
queen, who from time to time poked her face through
a curtain, many were done to death without being
allowed to clear themselves of the charges.

4.	First of all, then, Epigonus and Eusebius were
brought before them and ruined by the affinity of their
names ; for Montius, as I have said, [1] at the very
end of his life had accused certain tribunes of forges
called by those names of having promised support to
some, imminent enterprise.

5.	And Epigonus, for his part, was a philosopher
only in his attire, as became evident; for when he had
tried entreaties to no purpose, when his sides had been
furrowed and he was threatened with death, by a 
shameful confession he declared that he was implicated
in plans which never existed, whereas he had neither 
seen nor heard anything ; he was wholly unacquainted
with legal matters.  Eusebius on the contrary,
courageously denied the charges, and although he was
put upon the rack, he remained firm in the same degree
of constancy, crying out that it was the act of brigands
and not of a court of justice.

6.	And when, being acquainted with the law, he
persistently called for his accuser and the usual
formalities, Caesar, being informed of his demand and
regarding his freedom of speech as arrogance, ordered
that he be tortured as a reckless traducer.  And when
he had been so disembowelled that he had no parts left
to torture, calling on Heaven for justice and smiling
sardonically, he remained unshaken, with stout heart,
neither deigning to accuse himself nor anyone else;
and at last, without having admitted his guilt or been
convicted, he was condemned to death along with his
abject associate.  And he was led off to execution
unafraid, railing at the wickedness of the times and
imitating the ancient stoic Zeno, who, after being
tortured for a long time, to induce him to give false
witness, tore his tongue from its roots and hurled
it with its blood and spittle into the eyes of the king
of Cyprus, who was putting him to the question.

7.	After this, the matter of the royal robe was
investigated, and when those who were employed in
dyeing purple were tortured and had confessed to 
making a short sleeveless tunic to cover the chest,
a man named Maras was brought in, a deacon, as the
Christians call them.  A letter of his was presented,
written in Greek to the foreman of weaving plant in
Tyre, strongly urging him to speed up a piece of work 
but what it was the letter did not say.  But although
finally Maras also was tortured within an inch of his
life, he could not be forced to make any confession.

8.	So when many men of various conditions had
been put to the question, some things were found to be
doubtful and others were obviously unimportant.  And
after many had been put to death, the two Apollinares,
father and son, were exiled  but when they had come
to a place called Craterae, namely, a villa of theirs
distant twenty-four miles from Antioch, their legs
were broken, according to orders, and they were killed.

9.	After their death Gallus, no whit less
ferocious than before, like a lion that had tasted
blood, tried many cases of the kind  but of all of
these it is not worth while to give an account, for
fear that I may exceed the limits which I have set
myself, a thing which I certainly ought to avoid.


10.	The Alamanni sue for peace, which is granted
	by Constantius Augustus.

1.	While the East was enduring this long tyranny,
as soon as the warm season began, Constantius, being
in his seventh consulship with Gallus in his second, [1]
set out from Arelate for Valentia, to make war upon the
brothers Gundomadus and Valomarius, kings of the Alamanni,
whose frequent raids were devastating that part of Gaul
which adjoined their frontiers.

2.	And while he delayed there for a long time,
waiting for supplies, the transport of which from
Acquitania was hindered by spring rains of unusual
frequency and by rivers in flood, Herculanus came there,
one of his body-guard, the son of Hermogenes, formerly
commander of the cavalry and, as we have before related [1]
torn to pieces in a riot of the people at Constantinople.
When this man gave a true account of what Gallus and his
wife had done, the emperor, grieving over the past
disasters and made anxious by fear of those to come,
concealed the distress that he felt as long as he could.

3.	The soldiers, however, who in the meantime had
been assembled at Chalon, [2] began to rage with
impatience at the delay, being the more incensed because
they lacked even the necessities of life, since the
usual supplies had not yet been brought.

4.	Therefore, Rufinus, who was at that time
praetorian prefect, [3] was exposed to extreme danger;
for he was forced to go in person before the troops,
who were aroused both by the scarcity and by their 
natural savage temper, and besides were naturally
inclined to be harsh and bitter towards men in civil
positions, [4] in order to pacify them and explain why
the convoy of provisions was interrupted.

5.	This was a shrewd plan, cunningly devised with
set purpose, in order that by a plot of that kind the
uncle of Gallus [5] might perish, for fear that so very
powerful a man might whet the boldness of his nephew
and encourage his dangerous designs.  But great
precautions were taken, and when the design was
postponed, Eusebius, the grand chamberlain, [6] was sent
to Chalon taking gold with him ; when this had been
secretly distributed among the turbulent inciters of
rebellion, the rage of the soldiers abated and the
safety of the prefect was assured.  Then an abundant
supply of food arrived and the camp was moved on the
appointed day.

6.	And so, after surmounting many difficulties,
over paths many of which were heaped high with snow,
they  came near to Rauracuum [1] on the banks of the
river Rhine.  There a great force of the Alamanni
opposed them, and hurling weapons from all sides like
hail, by their superior numbers prevented the Romans
from making a bridge by joining boats together.  And
when that was obviously impossible, the emperor was
consumed with anxious thought and in doubt what course
to take.

7.	But lo! a guide acquainted with the region
unexpectedly appeared, and, in return for money,
pointed out by night a place abounding in shallows,
where the river could be crossed.  And there the army
might have been led over, while the enemy's attention
was turned elsewhere, and devastated the whole country
without opposition, had not a few men of that same
race, who held military positions of high rank,
informed their countrymen of the design by secret
messengers, as some thought.

8.	Now the shame of that suspicion fell upon
Latinus, count in command of the bodyguard, [2] Agilo,
tribune [3] in charge of the stable, and Scudilo,
commander of the targeteers, [4] who were then highly
regarded as having in their hands the defence of the
state. [5]

9.	But the savages, taking such counsel as the
immediate circumstances demanded, since the obstinacy
which inspired a bold resistance was diminished
perhaps because the auspices were unfavourable or
because the authority of the sacrifices forbade an
engagement, sent their chiefs to sue for peace and
pardon for their offences.

10.	Therefore the envoys of both kings were
detained and the matter was discussed for a long time
in secret  and since there was general agreement in the
opinion that peace which was asked for on reasonable
conditions ought to be granted, and that it would be
expedient to do so under the present circumstances,
the emperor summoned an assembly of the army, intending
to say a few words appropriate to the occasion; and
taking his place upon a tribunal, surrounded by a 
staff of high officials, he spoke after this fashion:

11.	"Let no one, I pray, be surprised, if after
going through the toil of long marches and getting
together great quantities of supplies, I now, when
approaching the abode of the savages, with my
confidence in you leading the way, as if by a sudden
change of plan have turned to milder designs.

12.	For each one of you, according to his rank
and judgement, upon consideration will find it to be
true, that the soldier in all instances, however
strong and vigorous of body, regards and defends only
himself and his own life.  The commander, on the other
hand, has manifold duties, since he aims at fairness to
all ; and being the guardian of others' safety he
realises that the interests of the people look to him
wholly for protection and that therefore he ought
eagerly to seize upon all remedies which the condition
of affairs allows, as though offered to him by the
favour of Heaven.

13.	To put the matter, then, in a few words, and
to explain why I have wished you all to be present
here together, my loyal fellow-soldiers, receive with
favourable ears what I shall briefly set forth  for
perfect [1] truth is always simple.

14.	The kings and peoples of the Alamanni, in
dread of the rising progress of your glory, which fame,
growing greatly, has spread abroad even among the
dwellers in far off lands, through the envoys whom you
see with bowed heads ask for peace and indulgence for
past offences.  This I, being cautious, prudent, and
an advisor of what is expedient, think ought to be
granted them (if I have your consent), for many
reasons.  First, to avoid the doubtful issue of war;
then, that we may gain friends in place of enemies,
as they promise; again, that without bloodshed we
may tame their haughty fierceness, which is often
destructive to the provinces; finally, bearing in
mind this thought, that no only is the enemy
vanquished who falls in battle, borne down by weight
of arms and strength, but more safely he who,
while the trumpet is silent, of his own accord
passes under the yoke and learns by experience that
Romans lack neither courage against rebels nor
mildness towards suppliants.

15.	In short, I await your decision as arbiters, as
it were, being myself convinced as a peace-loving
prince, that it is best temperately to show moderation
while prosperity is with us.  For, believe me, such
righteous conduct will be attributed, not to lack of
spirit, but to discretion and humanity."

16.	No sooner had he finished speaking than the 
whole throng, fully in agreement with the emperor's
wish, praised his purpose and unanimously voted for
peace.  They were influenced especially by the
conviction, which they had formed from frequent
campaigns, that his fortune watched over him only in
civil troubles, but that when foreign wars were
undertaken, they had often ended disastrously.  After
this a treaty was struck in accordance with the rites
of the Alamanni, and when the ceremony had been
concluded, the emperor withdrew to Mediolanum for
his winter quarters.

11.	Constantius Galus Caesar is summoned by
	Constantius Augustus and executed.

1.	There having laid aside the burden of other
cares, Constantius began to consider, as his most
difficult knot and stumbling-block, how to uproot the
Caesar by a mighty effort.  And as he deliberated
with his closest friends, in secret conferences and
by night, by what force or by what devices that might
be done before the Caesar's assurance should be more
obstinately set upon throwing everything into disorder,
it seemed best that Gallus should be summoned by
courteous letters, under pretence of very urgent
public business, to the end that, being deprived of
support, he might be put to death without hindrance.

2.	But this view was opposed by the groups of
fickle flatterers, among whom was Arbition, a man keen
and eager in plotting treachery, and Eusebius, at that
time grand chamberlain, [1] who was sufficiently
inclined to mischief, and it occurred to them to say
that, if Caesar left the East, it would be dangerous
to leave Ursicinus there, since he would be likely to
think of a loftier station, if there were on one to
restrain him.

3.	And this faction was supported by the other
royal eunuchs, whose love of gain at that time was
growing beyond mortal limits.  These, while
performing duties of an intimate nature, by secret
whispers supplied fuel for false accusations.  They
overwhelmed that most gallant man with the weight
of a grave suspicion, muttering that his sons, who
were now grown up, were beginning to have imperial
hopes, being popular because of their youth and their
handsome persons and through their knowledge of many
kinds of weapons, and bodily activity gained amidst
daily army exercises, besides being known to be of sound
judgement ; that Gallus, while naturally savage, had
been incited to deeds of cruelty by persons attached
to his person, to the end that, when he had incurred
the merited detestation of all classes, the emblems of
empire might be transferred to the children of the
master of the horse.

4.	When these and similar charges were dinned
into the emperor's anxious ears, which were always
attentive and open to such gossip, the turmoil of his
mind suggesting many plants, he at last chose the
following as the best.  First, in the most
complimentary terms he directed Ursicinus to come
to him, under pretence that, because of the urgent
condition of affairs at the time, they might consult
together and decide what increase of forces was
necessary in order to crush the attacks of the
Parthian tribes, which were threatening war.

5.	And that Ursicinus might not suspect any
unfriendly action, in case he should come, Count
Prosper was sent to be his substitute until his
return.  So, when the letter was received and
abundant transportation facilities were furnished,
we [1] hastened at full speed to Mediolanuum.

6.	After this the next thing was to summon
Caesar and induce him to make equal haste, and in
order to remove suspicion.  Constantius with many
feigned endearments urged his sister, the Caesar's
wife, at last to satisfy his longing and visit him.
And although she hesitated, through fear of her
brother's habitual cruelty, yet she set forth, hoping
that, since he was her own brother, she might be able
to pacify him.  But after she had entered Bithynia,
at the station called Caeni Gallicani, she was
carried off by a sudden attack of fever.  After her
death the Caesar, considering that the support on
which he thought he could rely had failed him,
hesitated in anxious deliberation what to do.

7.	For in the midst of his embarrassments
and troubles his anxious mind dwelt on this one
thought, that Constantious, who measured everything
by the standard of his own opinion, was not one to
accept any excuse or pardon mistakes; but being
especially inclined to the ruin of his kin, would
secretly set a snare for him and punish him with
death, if he caught him off his guard.

8.	But in such a critical situation and
anticipating the worst if he were not on the watch,
he secretly aimed at the highest rank, if any
chance should offer; but for a twofold reason
he feared treachery on the part of those nearest
to his person, both because they stood in dread of
him as cruel and untrustworthy, and because they
feared the fortune of Constantius which in civil
discords usually had the upper hand. [2]

9.	Amid this huge mass of anxieties he
received constant letters from the emperor,
admonishing and begging him to come to him and
covertly hinting that the commonwealth could not
be divided and ought not to be, but that each
ought to the extent of his powers to lend it aid
when it was tottering, doubtless referring to the
devastation of Gaul.

10.	To this he added an example of not so very
great antiquity, that Diocletian and his
colleague [1] were obeyed by their Caesars as by
attendants, who did not remain in one place but
hastened about hither and thither, and that in Syria
Galerius, clad in purple, walked for nearly a mile
before the chariot of his Augustus [2] when the
latter was angry with him.

11.	After many other messengers came Scudilo,
tribune of the targeteers, a skilled artist in
persuasion, under the cloak of a somewhat rough
nature.  He alone of all, by means of flattering
words mingled with false oaths, succeeded in
persuading Gallus to set out, constantly repeating
with hypocritical expression that his cousin would
ardently wish to see him, that being a mild and
merciful prince he would overlook anything that
was done through inadvertence  that he would
make him a sharer in his rank, to be a partner
also in the labours which the northern provinces,
for a long time wearied, demanded.

12.	And since, when the fates lay hands upon
men, their senses are apt to be dulled and blunted,
Gallus was roused by these blandishments to the 
hope of a better destiny, and leaving Antioch under
the lead of an unpropitious power, he proceeded to
go straight from the smoke into the fire, as the
old proverb has it; and entering Constantinople as
if in the height of prosperity and security, he
exhibited horse-races and crowned Thorax the
charioteer as victor.

13.	On learning this Constantius was enraged
beyond all human bounds, and lest by any chance
Gallus should become uncertain as to the future and
should try in the course of his journey to take
measures for his own safety, all the soldiers in the
towns through which he would pass were purposely
removed.

14.	And at that time Taurus, who had been sent
to Armenia as questor, boldly passed that way
without addressing him or going to see him.  Others
however, visited him by the emperor's orders, under
pretext of various matters of business, but really
to take care that he should not be able to make
any move or indulge in any secret enterprise 
among these was Leontius, then quaestor and later
prefect of the city. Lucillianus, as count commander
of the household troops, and a tribune of the
targeteers called Bainobaudes.

15.	Thus, after covering long distances over
level country, he had entered Hadrianopolis, a city
in the region of Mt. Haemus, formerly called
Uscudama, and for twelve days was recovering his
strength, exhausted by his exertions.  There he
learned that certain Theban legions that were
passing the winter in near-by towns had sent some
of their comrades to encourage him by faithful and
sure promises to remain there, since they were full
of confidence in their strength and were posted in
large numbers in neighbouring encampments; but
owing to the watchful care of those about him, he
could not steal an opportunity of seeing them or
hearing the message that they brought.

16.	Then, as letter followed letter, urging him
to leave, making use of ten public vehicles, as was
directed, and leaving behind all his attendants
with the exception of a few whom he had brought with
him to serve in his bedroom and at his table, he was
driven to make haste, being without proper care of
his person and urged on by many, railing from time to
time at the rashness which had reduced him, now mean
and abject, to submit to the will of the lowest of
mankind.

17.	Yet all this time, whenever nature allowed
him sleep, his senses were wounded by frightful
spectres that shrieked about him, and throngs of
those whom he had slain, led by Domitianus and Montius,
would seize him and fling him to the claws of the
Furies, as he imagined in his dreams.

18.	For the mind, when freed from the bonds of
the body, being always filled with tireless
movement, from the underlying thoughts and worries
which torment the minds of mortals, conjures up
the nocturnal visions to which we [1] give the
name of phantasies.

19.	And thus with the way opened by the sad
decree of fate, by which it was ordained that he
should be stripped of life and rank, he hurried by
the most direct way and with relays of horses and
came to Petobio, a town of Noricum.  There all the
secret plots were revealed and Count Barbatio
suddenly made his appearance - he had commanded
the household troops under Gallus - accompanied by
Apodemius, of the secret service, [2] and at the
head of soldiers whom Constantius had chosen because
they were under obligation to him for favours and
could not, he felt sure, be influenced by bribes
or any feeling of pity.

20.	And now, the affair was being carried on with
no disguised intrigue, but where the palace stood
without the walls Barbatio surrounded it with
armed men.  And entering when the light was now dim
and removing the Caesar's royal robes, he put upon
him a tunic and an ordinary soldier's cloak,
assuring him with frequent oaths, as if the the
emperor's command, that he would suffer no further
harm.  Then he said to him : "Get up at once," and
having unexpectedly placed him in a private carriage,
he took him to Histria, near the town of Pola, where
in former times, as we are informed, Constantine's
son Crispus was killed.

21.	And while he was kept there in closest
confinement, already as good as buried by fear of
his approaching end, there hastened to him Eusebius,
at that time grand chamberlain, Pentadius, the
secretary, and Mallobaudes, tribune of the guard, [1]
to compel him by order of the emperor to inform them,
case by case, why he had ordered the execution of all
those whom he had put to death at Antioch.

22.	At this, o'erspread with the pallor Adrastus, [2]
he was able to say only that he had slain most of them
at the instigation of his wife Constantina, [3]
assuredly not knowing that when the mother of Alexander
the Great urged her son to put an innocent man to
death and said again and again, in the hope of later
gaining what she desired, that she had carried him for
nine months in her womb, the king made this wise
answer: "Ask some other reward, dear mother, for a
man's life is not to be weighed against any favour."

23.	On hearing this the emperor, smitten with 
implacable anger and resentment, rested all his hopes
of securing his safety on destroying Gallus ; and
sending Serenianus, who, as I have before shown,
had been charged with high treason and acquitted by
some jugglery or other, and with him Pentadius the
secretary and Apodemius of the secret service, he
condemned him to capital punishment.  Accordingly
his hands were bound, after the fashion of some guilty
robber, and he was beheaded.  Then his face and head
were mutilated, and the man who a little while
before had been a terror to cities and provinces
was left a disfigured corpse.

24.	But the justice of the heavenly power was
everywhere watchful; for not only did his cruel
deeds prove the ruin of Gallus, but not long
afterwards a painful death overtook both of those
whose false blandishments and perjuries led him,
guilty though he was, into the snares of destruction.
Of these Scudilo, because of an abscess of the
liver, [1] vomited up his lungs and so died;
Barbatio, who for a long time had invented false
accusations against Gallus, charged by the
whispers of certain men of aiming higher than the
mastership of the infantry, was found guilty and
by an unwept end made atonement to the shades of
Caesar, whom he had treacherously done to death.

25.	These and unnumerable other instances of
the kind are sometimes (and would that it were
always so!) the work of Adrastia, [2] the
chastiser of evil deeds and the rewarder of good
actions, whom we also call by the second name
Nemesis.  She is, as it were, the sublime
jurisdiction of an efficient divine power,
dwelling, as men think, above the orbit of the
moon  or as others define her, an actual guardian
presiding with universal sway over the destinies
of individual men.  The ancient theologians,
regarding her as the daughter of Justice, say that
from an unknown eternity she looks down upon all
the creatures of earth.

26.	She, as queen of causes and arbiter and
judge [1] of events, controls the urn with its
lots and causes the changes of fortune, [2] and
sometimes she gives our plans a different result
than that at which we aimed, changing and
confounding many actions.  She too, binding the
vainly swelling pride of mortals with the
indissoluble bond of fate, and tilting
changeably, as she knows how to do, the balance
of gain and loss, now bends and weakens the
uplifted necks of the proud, and now, raising
the good from the lowest estate, has given her
wings in order that she might be thought to
come to all with swift speed ; and it has given
her a helm to hold and has put a wheel beneath
her feet, in order that none may fail to know
tht she runs through all the elements and rules
the universe. [3]

27.	By this untimely death, although
himself weary of his existence, the Caesar passed
from life in the twenty-ninth year of his age,
after a rule of four years.  He was born in
Etruria at Massa in the district of Veternum,
being the son of Constantius, the brother of
the emperor Constantine, and Galla, the sister
of Rufinus and Cerealis, who were distinguished
by the venture [1] of consul and prefect.

28.	He was conspicuous for his handsome
person, being well proportioned, with well-knit
limbs.  He had soft golden hair, and although his
beard was just appearing in the form of tender
down, yet he was conspicuous for the dignity
of greater maturity.  But he differed as much
from the disciplined character of his brother
Julian as did Domitian, son of Vespasian, from
his brother Titus.

29.	Raised to the highest rank in Fortune's
gift, he experienced her fickle changes, which
make sport of mortals, now lifting some to the
stars, now plunging them in the depths of Cocytus.
But although instances of this are innumerable,
I shall make cursory mention of the few.

30.	It was this mutable and fickle Fortune
that changed the Sicilian Agathocles from a potter
to a king, and Dionysius, once the terror of
nations, to the head of an elementary school,
at Corinth.

31.	She it was that raised Andriscus [2] of
Adramyttium, who was born in a fullery, to the
title of the Pseudo-Philip, and taught the
legitimate son of Perseus the blacksmith's trade
as a means of livelihood. [3]

32.	She, too, delivered Mancinus, after
his supreme command, to the Numantinans,
Veturius to the cruelty of the Samnites, and
Claudius to the Corsicans, and she subjected
Regulus to the savagery of the Carthaginians.
Through her injustice Pompey, after he had
gained the surname Great by his glorius deeds,
was butchered in Egypt to give the eunuchs'
pleasure.

33.	Eunus, too, a workhouse slave,
commanded an army of runaways in Sicily.  How
many Romans of illustrious birth at the nod of
that same arbiter of events embraced the knees
of a Viriathus [1] or a Spartacus! [2].  How
many heads dreaded by all nations has the fatal
executioner lopped off!  One is led to prison,
another is elevated to unlooked-for power, a
third is cast down from the highest pinnacle
of rank.

34.	But if anyone should desire to know
all these instances, varied and constantly
occurring as they are, he will be mad enough
to think of searching out the number of the
sands and the weight of the mountains.

   
[1] Footnotes not yet inlcuded.

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