Res Gestae 15
Res Gestae: Ammianus Marcellinus (Book 15)
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Res Gestae: Ammianus Marcellinus (Book 15)

The death of Gallus Caesar is reported to the Emperor.

1.  So far as I could investigate the truth, I have,
after putting the various events in clear order,
related what I myself was allowed to witness in the
course of my life, or to learn by meticulous question-
ing of those directly concerned.  The rest, which the
text to follow will disclose, we shall set forth to the
best of our ability with still greater accuracy, feeling
no fear of critics of the prolixity of our work, as they
consider it; for conciseness is to be praised only
when it breaks off ill-timed discursiveness, without
detracting at all from an understanding of the course
of events.

2.  Hardly had Gallus been wholly stripped in
Noricum, when Apodemius, a fiery inciter of disorder
so long as he lived, seized and carried off Caesar's
shoes, and with such swift relays of horses that he
killed some of them by over-driving, was the first to
arrive in Milan as an advance informer.  Entering
the palace, he cast the shoes at Constantius' feet, as
if they were the spoils of the slain Parthian king.
And on the arrival of the sudden tidings, which
showed that an apparently hopeless and difficult
enterprise had been carried out to their satisfaction
with perfect ease, the highest court official, as usual
turning all their desire to please into flattery, extolled
to the skies the emperor's valour and good fortune,
since at his his back two princes, though at different
times, Veteranio 1 to wit and Gallus, had been
cashiered like common soldiers.  

3. So Constantius,
elated by this extravagant passion for flattery, and
confidently believing that from now on he would
be free from every mortal ill, swerved swiftly aside
from just conduct so immoderately that sometimes
in dictation he signed himself "My Eternity," and
in writing with his own hand called himself lord of
the whole world-an expression which, if used by
others, ought to have been received with just 
indignation by one who, as he often asserted, laboured
with extreme care to model his life and character
in rivalry with those of the constitutional emperors.

4.  For even if he ruled the infinity of worlds
postulated by Democritus, of which Alexander the
Great dreamed under the stimulus of Anaxarchus,
yet from reading or hearsay he should have considered
that (as the astronomers unanimously teach) the 
circuit of whole earth, which to us seems endless,
compared with the greatness of the universe has the
likeness of a mere tiny point.



2.  Ursicinus, commander of the cavalry in the Orient,
    Julian, brother of Gallus Caesar, and Gorgonius,
    his grand chamberlain, are accused of treason.

1.  And now, after the pitiful downfall of the 
murdered Caesar, the trumpet of court trials sounded
and Ursicinus was arraigned for high treason, since
more dangerous to his life.  


2. For he fell victim
to this difficulty, that the emperor's ears were
closed for receiving any just and easily proved
defence, but were open to the secret whispers of
plotters, who alleged that Constantius' name was
got rid of throughout all the eastern provinces
and that the above-mentioned general was longed for
both at home and abroad as being formidable to the
Persian nation.  

3. Yet in the face of events this
high-souled hero stood immovable, taking care not
to abase himself too abjectly, but lamenting from
more depressed for the single reason that his friends,
who had before been numerous, had deserted him for
more powerful men, just as lictors are in the habit of
passing, as custom requires, from magistrates to their
successors. 

4. Furthermore, he was attacked with the
blandishments of counterfeit courtesy by Arbitio,
who kept openly calling him his colleague and a brave
man, but who was exceedingly shrewd in devising
deadly snares for a straightforward character and
was at that time altogether too powerful.  For just
as an underground serpent, lurking below the hidden
entrance to its hole, watches each passer by and
attacks him with a sudden spring, so he, through
envy of others' fortune even after reaching the
highest military position, without ever being
injured or provoked kept staining his conscience
from an insatiable determination to do harm. 

5. So,
in the presence of a few accomplices in the secret,
after long deliberation it was privately arranged
with the emperor that on the following night
Ursicinus should be carried off far from the sight
of the soldiers and slain with a trial, just as in
days gone by it is said that Domitius Corbulo was
murdered, a man who had been a loyal and prudent
defender of the provinces amid the notorious
corruption of Nero's time. 

6. When this had been so
arranged and the persons appointed for it were
awaiting the allotted time, the emperor changed his
mind in the direction of mercy, and orders were
given to postpone the wicked deed until after a
second consultation.

7.  But then the artillery of slander was turned
against Julian, the future famous emperor, lately
brought to account, and he was involved, as was
unjustly held, in a two-fold accusation: first, that
he had moved from the estate of Macellum, [1] situated 
in Cappadocia, into the province of Asia, in his desire
for a liberal education; [2] and, second, that he had
visited his brother Gallus as he passed through
Constantinople. 

Footnote: 1. A villa or castle near Caesarea,
where Gallus & Julian were brought up.
          2. Julian was devoted to the study of
Greek literature & philosophy.  He wrote many books
which have been preserved.

8. And although he cleared himself
of these implications and showed that he had
done neither of these things without warrant, yet
he would have perished at the instigation of the
accursed crew of flatterers, had not, through the
favour of divine power, Queen Eusebia befriended
him; so he was brought to the town of Comum,
near Milan, and after abiding there for a short time,
he was allowed to go to Greece for the sake of
perfecting his education, as he earnestly desired.

9.  Nor were there wanting later actions arising from
these occurrences which one might say had a happy
issue, since the accusers were justly punished, or
their charges came to naught as if void and vain.
But it sometimes happened that rich men, knocking
at the strongholds of the mighty, and clinging to them
as ivy does to lofty trees, bought their acquittal at
monstrous prices; but poor men, who had little
or no means for purchasing safety, were condemned
out of hand.  And so both truth was masked by
lies and sometimes false passed for true.

10.  At that same time Gorgonius also, who had
been appointed the Caesar's head chamberlain, was
brought to trial; and although it was clear from his
own confession that he had been a party in his bold
deeds, and sometimes their instigator, yet through
a plot of the eunuchs justice was overshadowed
with a clever tissue of lies, and he slipped out of
danger and went his way.



3.   Punishment is inflicted on the friends and tools of
     Gallus Caesar.


1. While these events were taking place at Milan,
troops of soldiers were brought from the East to
Aquileia together with several courtiers, their
limbs wasting in chains as they drew feeble breaths
and prayed to be delivered from longer life amid
manifold miseries.  For they were charged with
having been tools of the savagery of Gallus, and it
was through them, it was believed, that Comitianus
and Montus were torn to pieces and others after
them were driven to swift destruction.  

2.  To hear
their defence were sent Arbetio and Eusebius, then
grand chamberlain, both given to inconsiderate
boasting, equally unjust and cruel.  They, without
examining anyone carefully or distinguishing
between the innocent and the guilty, scourged and
tortured some and condemned them to banishment,
others they thrust down to the lowest military
rank, the rest they sentenced to suffer death.  And
after filling the tombs with corpses, they returned
as if in triumph and reported their exploits to the
emperor, who in regard to these and similar cases
was openly inflexible and severe.  

3.  Thereupon
and henceforth Constantius, as if to upset the
predestined order to the fates, more eagerly opened his
heart and laid bare to the plotters, many in number.
Accordingly, numerous gossip-hunters suddenly
arose, snapping with the jaws of wild beasts at even
the highest officials, and afterwards at poor and
rich indifferently, not like those Cibyrate hounds
of Verres [1] fawning upon the tribunal of only one
governor, but afflicting the members of the whole
commonwealth with a visitation of evils.  

Footnote: Two brothers from Cibyra, in Phrygia,
Tlepolemus and Hiero, tools of Verres.

4.  Among
these Paulus and Mercurius were easily the leaders,
the one a Persian by origin, the other born in Dacia;
Paulus was a notary, Mercurius, a former imperial
steward, was now a treasurer.  And in fact this
Paulus, as was told before, [1] was nicknamed "the
Chain," because he was invincible in weaving coils
of calumny, exerting himself in a wonderful variety
of schemes, just as some expert wrestlers are in the
habit of showing excessive skill in their contests.

Footnote: 1. xiv.5 8.

5.  But mercurius was dubbed "Count of Dreams,"
because, like a slinking, biting cur, savage within
but peacefully wagging its tail, he would often worm
his way into banquets and meetings, and if anyone
had told a friend the he had seen anything in his
sleep, when nature roams more freely, Mercurius
would give it a worse colour by his venomous skill
and pour it into the open ears of the emperor; and
on such grounds a man, as though really chargeable
with inexpiable guilt, would be beaten down by a
heavy burden of accusation.  

6.  Since rumour
exaggerated these reports and gave them wide
currency, people were so far from revealing their
nightly visions, that on the contrary they would
hardly admit in the presence of strangers that they
had slept at all, and certain scholars lamented that
they had not been born near Mount Atlas, where
it is said that dreams are not seen; [2] but how that 
happens we may leave to those who are most versed
in natural science.

Footnote: 2. Cf. Herodotus, iv. 184.

7.  Amid these dire aspects of trials and tortures
there arose in Illyricum another disaster, which
began with idle words and resulted in peril to many.
At a dinner-party given by Africanus, governor of
Pannonia Secunda, at Sirmium, [1] certain men who
were deep in their cups and supposed that no spy was
present freely criticized the existing rule as most
oppressive; whereupon some assured them, as if from
portents, that the desired change of the times was at
hand; others with inconceivable folly asserted that
through auguries of the forefathers it was meant for
them.  

Footnote: 1. The principal city of Pannonia

8.  One of their number, Gaudentius, of the
secret service, [2] [ a dull man but of a hasty disposition,
had reported the occurrence as serious to Rufinus, who
was then chief steward of the praetorian prefecture,
a man always eager for extreme measures and
notorious for his natural depravity. 

Footnote: 2. Imperial Secret Service.

9.  Rufinus
at once, as though upborne on wings, flew to the
emperor's court and inflamed him, since he was
easily influenced by such suspicions, to such
excitement that without any deliberation Africanus
and all those present at the fatal table were ordered
to be quickly hoisted up and carried out.  That done,
the dire informer, more strongly desirous of things
forbidden, as is the way of mankind, was directed
to continue for two years in his present service,
as he had requested.  

10. So Teutomeres, the
emperor's bodyguard, [3] was sent with a colleague
to seize them, and loading them with chains, as he
had been ordered, he brought them all in.  But when
they came to Aquileia, Marinus, an ex-drillmaster [4]
and now a tribune, [5] who was on furlough at the
time, the originator of that mischievous talk and
besides a man of hot temper, being left in a tavern
while things necessary for their journey were
preparing, and chancing upon a long knife, stabbed
himself in the side, at once plucked forth his vitals,
and so died.  

Footnote: 3. Household troops
          4. His Office was to drill and excercise
the soldiers
          5. Military Officer

11. The rest were brought to Milan
and cruelly tortured; and since they admitted
that while feasting they had uttered some saucy
expressions, it was ordered that they be kept in
close confinement [1] with some hope (though doubtful)
of acquittal.  But the members of the emperor's
guard, after being sentenced to leave the country
for exile, since Marinus with their connivance had
been allowed to die, at the suit of Arbetio
obtained pardon.

Footnote: 1. Cf. Cod.Jst., x.19


4.  Of the Lentienses, a tribe of the Alamanni, a part
    were slain and a part put to flight by Constantius
    Augustus.

1. The affair thus ended, war was declared on
the ...[2 ]and Lentienses, [3] tribes of the Alamanni,
who often made extensive inroads through the
Roman frontier defences.  On that expedition the
emperor himself set out and came to Raetia and
the Campi Canini; [4] and after long and careful
deliberation it seemed both honorable and expedient
that, while he waited there with a part of the
soldiers, Arbetio, commander of the cavalry, with
the stronger part of the army should march on,
skirting the shores of Lake Brigantia, [1] in order to
engage at once with the savages.  Here I will
describe the appearance of this place as briefly as
my project allows.

Footnote: 2. (see critical note)
          3. Dwelling in the neighbourhood of
Lentia, modern Lenze
          4. Plains in Raetia, round about
Bellinzona
          1. Lake Constance

2. Between the defiles of lofty mountains the
Rhine rises and pours with mighty current over high
rocks, without receiving tributary streams, just as
the Nile with headlong descent pours over the
cataracts.  An it could be navigated from its very
source, since it overflows with waters of its own,
did it not run along like a torrent rather than a
quietly flowing river.

3. And now rolling to level ground and cutting its
way between high and widely separated banks, it
enters a vast round lake, which its Raetian neighbour
calls Brigantia [1]  this is four hundred and sixty
stades long and in breadth spreads over an almost
equal space; it is inaccessible through the 
bristling woods of the gloomy forest except where
that old-time practical Roman ability, in spite of
the opposition of the savages, the nature of the
region, and the rigour of the climate.

Footnote: 1.

4. Into this pool, then, the river bursts
roaring with frothing eddies, and cleaving the
sluggish quiet of the waters, cuts through its
midst as if with a boundary line.  And as if the
element were divided by an everlasting discord,
without increasing or diminishing the volume
which it carried in, it emerges with name and
force unchanged, and without thereater suffering
any contact it mingles with Ocean's flood.

5. And what is exceedingly strange, neither
is the lake stirred by the swift passage of the
waters nor is the hurrying river stayed by the foul
mud of the lake, and though mingled they cannot
be blended into one body; but if one's very sight
did not prove it to be so, one would not believe
it possible for them to be kept apart by any power.

6. In the same way the river Alpheus, rising
in Arcadia and falling in love with the fountain
Arethusa, cleaves the Ionian Sea, as the myth tells
us, and hastens to the retreat [1] of the beloved
nymph.

Footnote: 1. The spring of Ortygia, at Syracuse
in Sicily.

7. Arbetio did not wait for the coming of
messengers to announce the arrival of the savages,
although he knew that a dangerous war was on foot,
and when he was decoyed into a hidden ambuscade,
he stood immovable, overwhelmed by the sudden
mischance.

8. For the enemy sprang unexpectedly out of
their lurking places and without sparing pierced 
pierced with many kinds of weapons everything within
reach; and in fact not one of our men could resist,
nor could they hope for any other means of saving
their lives than swift flight.  Therefore the
soldiers, bent on avoiding wounds, straggled here
and there in disorderly march, exposing their backs
to blows.  Very many however, scattering by narrow
by-paths and saved from danger by the protecting
darkness of the night, when daylight returned
recovered their strength and rejoined each his own
company.  In this mischance, so heavy and so
unexpected, and excessive number of soldiers and
ten tribunes were lost.

9. As a result the Alamanni, elated in spirit,
came on more boldly the following day against the
Roman works  and while the morning mist obscured
light they rushed about with drawn swords, gnashing
their teeth and giving vent to boastful threats.
But the targeteers [1] suddenly sallied forth, and
when they were driven back by the opposition of the
enemy's battalions, and were at a standstill, with
one mind they called out all their comrades to the
fight.

Footnote: 1. The scutarii (targeteers) took their
name from their equipment.

10. But when the majority were terrified by the
evidence of the recent disaster, and Arbetio
hesitated, believing that the sequel would be
dangerous, three tribunes sallied forth together :
Arintheus, lieutenant-commander of the heavy-armed
bodyguard, Seniauchus, leader of a squadron of the
household cavalry, [2] and Bappo, an officer of the
veterans. [3]

Footnote: 2. A picked body of troops, divided into
several bodies, distinguished by various names.
          3. Soldiers who were given a higher
rank on account of good service or favour.

11. They with the soldiers under their
command, devoting themselves on behalf of the
common cause, like the Decii of old, [4] poured
like a torrent upon the enemy, and not in a pitched
battle, but in a series of swift skirmishes, put them
all to most shameful flight.  And as they scattered
with broken ranks and encumbered by their haste to
escape, they exposed themselves unprotected, and by
many a thrust of swords and spears were cut to pieces.

Footnote: 4. Father & Son, the father being consul
in 340 B.C., during the war with the Latins, gave
his life for his country, the son followed his example
at the battle of Sentinum in 295 B.C.

12. And many, as they lay there, slain horse and
man together, seemed even then to be sitting fast
upon the back of their mounts.  On seeing this, all
who had been in doubt about going into battle with
their comrades poured forth from the camp, and
careless of all precaution trod underfoot the horde
of savages, except those whom flight had saved from
death, trampling on heaps of dead bodies, and
drenched with the blood of the slain.

13. The battle thus done and ended, the emperor
returned in triumph and joy to Milan, to pass the
winter.


5.	Silvannus the Frank, commander of the infantry
	in Gaul, is hailed as Augustus at Cologne, but
	is treacherously slain on the twenty-eighth day
	of his reign.

1. Now there arises in this afflicted state of
affairs a storm of new calamaties, with no less 
mischief to the provinces, and it would have destroyed
everything at once, had not Fortune, arbitress of
human chances, brought to an end with speedy issue a
most formidable uprising.

2. Since through long neglect Gaul was enduring
bitter massacres, pillage, and the ravages of fire,
as the savages plundered at will and no one helped,
Silvanus, an infantry commander thought capable of
redressingf these outrages, came there at the
emperor's order; and Arbetio urged by whatever
means he could that this should be hastened in order
that the burden of a perilous undertaking might be
imposed upon an absent rival, whose survival even to
this time he looked upon as affliction.

3. A certain Dynamius, superintendent of the
emperor's pack-animals, [1] had asked Silvanus for
letters of recommendation to his friends, in order
to make himself very conspicuous, as if he were one
of his intimates.  On obtaining this request, for
Silvanus, suspecting nothing, had innocently granted
it, he kept the letters, intending to work some
mischief at the proper time.

Footnote: 1. He had charge during campaigns and
journeys of the transportation of the emperor's
baggage.

4. So when the abovementioned commander was
traversing Gaul in the service of the government
and driving forth the savages, who had now lost their
confidence and courage, this same Dynamius, being
restless in action, like the crafty man he was and
practised in deceit, devised a wicked plot.  He had
as abettors and fellow conspirators, as uncertain
rumours declared, Lampadius, [1} the praetorian
prefect, and Eusebius, former keeper of the privy
purse, [2} who had been nicknamed Mattyocopus, [3}
and Aedesius, late master of the rolls, [4] all of
whom the said prefect had arranged to have called
to the consulship as his nearest friends.  With a
sponge he effaced the lines of writing, leaving
only the signature intact, and wrote above it
another text far different from the original,
indicating that Silvanus in obscure terms was
asking and urging his assistants within the palace
or without official position, including both
Tuscus Albinus and many more, to help him, aiming
as he was at a loftieer position and soon to mount
to the imperial throne.

Footnote: 1. See Dessau, Inscr. 4154, note 3.
          2. Public treasure (the emperor's privy
purse.
          3. "Glutton," 
          4. Head of the scrinium memoriae,
consisting of 62 clerks and 12 adiutores, sent out
acta prepared by the scrinia epistularum et
libellorum, and kept on record answers to petitions.

5. This packet of letters, thus forged at his
pleasure to assail the life of an innocent man, the
prefect received from Dynamius, and coming into the
emperor's private room at an opportune time and
finding him alone, secretly handed it to him,
accustomed as he was eagerly to investigate these
and similar charges.  Thereby the prefect hoped
that he would be rewarded by the emperor, as a most
watchful and careful guardian of his safety.  And
when these letters, patched together with cunning
craft, were read to the consistory, [1] orders
were given that those tribunes whose names were
mentioned in the letters should be imprisoned, and
that the private individuals should be brought
to the capital from the provinces.

Footnote: 1. The emperor's council, or secret
cabinet

6. But Malarichus, commander of the gentiles, [2]
was at once struck with the unfairness of the
procedure, and summoning his colleagues, vigorously
protested, exclaiming that men devoted to the empire
ought not to be made victims of cliques and wiles.
And he asked that he himself leaving as hostages
his relatives and having Mallobaudes, tribune of
the heavy-armed guard, as surety for his return -
might be commissioned to go quickly and fetch Silvanus,
who was not entering upon any such attempt as those
most bitter plotters had trumped up.  Or as an
alternative, he asked that he might make a like
promise and that Mallobaudes be allowed to hurry
there and perform what he himself had promised to do.

Footnote: 2. The foreign contingent of the
household troops

7. For he declared that he knew beyond question
that, if any outsider should be sent, Silvanus, being
by nature apprehensive, even when there was nothing
alarming, would be likely to upset the peace.

8. But although his advice was expedient and
necessary, yet he was talking vainly to the winds.
For by Arbetio's advice Apodemius, inveterate and
bitter enemy of every patriot, was sent with a
letter to recall Silvanus.  He, caring little for
what might happen, on arriving in Gaul, departed
from the instructions given him on his setting out
and remained there without either interviewing
Silvanus or citing him to come to court by
delivering the letter; and associating with himself
the fiscal agent of the province, as if the said
infantry commander were proscribed and now to be
executed, he abused his dependents and slaves with
the arrogance of an enemy.

9. In the meantime, however, while Silvanus'
presence was awaited and Apodemius was disturbing
the peace, Dynamius, in order to maintain the
credibility of his wicked inventions with a
stronger argument, had made up a letter tallying
with the one which he had presented to the emperor
through the prefect, and sent it to the tribune of
the Cremona armory, in the name of Silvanus and
Malarichus; in this letter the tribune, as one
privy to their secret designs, was admonished to
prepare everything with speed.

10. When the tribune had read this, hesitating
for a long time and puzzling as to what in the world
it meant (for he did not remember that the man
whose letter he had received had ever talked with him
about any confidential business), he sent the
identical letter back to Malarichus by the carrier
who had brought it, and with him a soldier, begging
Malarichus to explain openly what he wanted, and not
so enigmatically.  For he declared that, being a
somewhat rude and plain man, he had not understood
what had been obscurely intimated.

11. Malarichus, on unexpectedly receiving this,
being even then troubled and sad, and grievously
lamenting his own lot and that of his fellow 
countryman Silvanus, called together the Franks, who
at that time were numerous and influential in the
palace, and now spoke more boldly, raising an outcry
over the disclosure of the plot and the unveiling of
the deceit by which their lives were avowedly
aimed at.

12. And on learning this, the emperor decided that
the matter should be investigated searchingly through
the medium of his council and all his officers.  And
when the judges had taken their seats, Florentius, son
of Nigrinianus, at the time deputy master of the 
offices, [1] on scrutinising the script with greater
care, and finding a kind of shadow, as it were, of
the former letters, [2] perceived what had been done,
namely, that the earlier text had been tampered with
and other matter added quite different from what
Silvanus had dictated, in accordance with the intention
of this patched-up forgery.

Footnote: 1. A very important official, to whom
many of the former functions of the praetorian
prefect had been transferred (or shared).  He was
in complet charge of the discipline of the palace.
          2. 
     
13. Accordingly, when this cloud of deceit had
broken away, the emperor, learning of the events from
a faithful report, deprived the prefect of his powers,
and gave orders that he should be put under examination;
but he was acquitted through an energetic conspiracy
of many persons.  Eusebius, however, former count of
the privy purse, [2] on being put upon the rack,
admitted that this had been set on foot with his
cognizance.

Footnote: 2. Public treasure (the emperor's privy
purse).

14. Aedesius, who maintained with stout denial
that he had known nothing of what was done, got off
scot-free.  And so at the close of the business all
those were acquitted whom the incriminating report had
forced to be produced for trial; in fact Dynamius, as
if given distinction by his illustrious conduct, was
bidden to govern Etruria and Umbria with the rank
of corrector. [1]

Footnote: 1. Governor of a smaller province.

15. Meanwhile Silvanus, stationed at Cologne and
learning from his friends' constant messages what
Apodemius was undertaking the ruin of his fortunes,
knowing the pliant mind of the fickle emperor, and
fearing lest he should be condemned to death absent
and unheard, was put in a most difficult position and
though of entrusting himself to the good faith of
the savages.

16. But he was prevented by Lanigaisus, at that
time a tribune, whom I have earlier stated to have
been the sole witness of Constans' death, while he
was serving as a subaltern. [2]  He assured Silvanus
that the Franks, whose fellow countryman he was,
would kill him or on receipt of a bribe betray him.
So Silvanus, seeing no safety under present conditions,
was driven to extreme measures, and having gradually
spoken more boldly with the chief officers, he
aroused them by the greatness of the reward he
promised; then as a temporary expedient he tore the
purple decorations from the standards of the cohorts,
and the companies, and so mounted to the imperial
dignity.

Footnote: 2. Officer of the court troop, selected
because of their height and handsome appearance,
next in line for appointment as a tribune.

17. And while this was going on in Gaul, as the
day was already drawing to its close, an unexpected
messenger reached Milan, openly declaring that
Silvanus aiming higher than the command of the
infantry, had won over his army and risen to
imperial eminence.

18. Constantius, struck down by the weight of
this unexpected mischance as by a thunderbolt of
Fate, called a council at about midnight, and all
the chief officials hastened to the palace.  And
when no one's mind or tongue was equal to showing
what ought to be done, mention in subdued tones
was made of Ursicinus, as a man conspicuous for
his sagacity in the art of war, and one who had
been without reason provoked by serious injustice.
And when he had been summoned by the master of
ceremonies [1] (which is the more honourable way)
and had entered the council chamber, he was
offered the purple to kiss much more graciously
than ever before.  Now it was the emperor
Diocletian who was the first to introduce this
foreign and royal form of adoration, whereas we
have read that always before our emperors were
saluted like the higher officials. [2]

Footnote: 1. The magister admissionum was
in charge of the actual entrance into the
imperience audience chamber.
          2. Ordinary Dignitary

19. So the man who shortly before with
malicious slander was called the maelstrom of
the East and a seeker after acquisition of
imperial power through his sons, then became a
most politic leader and mighty fellow soldier
of Constantine's, and the only person to
extinguish the fire; but he was really being
attacked under motives honourable, to be sure,
by yet insidious.  For great care was being taken
that Silvanus should be destroyed as a very brave
rebel; or, if that should fail, that Ursicinus,
already deeply gangrened, should be be utterly
annihilated, in order that a rock [1] so greatly
to be dreaded should not be left.

Footnote: 1. "a rock in his path."

20. Accordingly, when arrangements were
being made for hastening his departure, and the
general undertook the refutation of the charges
brought against him, the emperor, forestalling
him by a mild address, forbade it, declaring
that it was not the time for taking up the
defence of a disputed case, when the urgency of
pressing affairs which should be mitigated
before it grew worse, demanded that parties
should mutually be restored to their old-time
harmony.

21. Accordingly, after a many-sided debate,
this point was chiefly discussed, namely, by what
device Silvanus might be led to think that the
emperor even then had no knowledge of his action.
And they invented a plausible means of strengthening
his confidence, advising him in a complimentary
letter to receive Ursicinus as his successor and 
return with his dignities unimpaired.

22. After this had been thus settled,
Ursicinus was ordered to set forth at once,
accompanied (as he had requested) by some tribunes
and ten of the body-guard, to assist the exigencies
of the state.  Among these I myself was one, with
my colleague Verinianus; all the rest were relatives
and friends.

23. And when he left, each of us attended him
for a long distance in fear only for our own
safety.  But although we were, like gladiators, [1]
cast before ravening wild beasts, yet reflecting
that melancholy events after all have this good
sequel, that they give way to good fortune, we
admired that saying of Tully's, delivered even from
the inmost depths of truth itself, which runs as
follows: "And although it is most desirable that
our fortune always remain wholly favourable, yet
that evenness of life does not give so great a
sense of satisfaction as when, after wretchedness
and disaster, fortune is recalled to a better
estate." [2]

Footnote: 1. The bestiarii were matched against
wild beasts
          2. This passaage does not occur in
Cicero's extant works.  A similar one appears in
Ad Quir.post Reditum, i.2.

24. Accordingly, we hastened by forced marches,
since the commander-in-chief of the army, in his
zeal, wished to appear in the suspected districts
before any report of the usurpation had made its
way into Italy.  But for all our running haste,
Rumour had flown before us by some serial path and
revealed our coming; and on arriving at Cologne we
found everything above our reach.

25. For since a great crowd assembled from all
sides gave a firm foundation to the enterprise so
timidly begun, and large forces had been mustered,
it seemed, in view of the state of affairs, more
fitting that our general [3] should complaisantly
favour the upstart [4] emperor's purpose and desire
to be strengthened in the growth of his power by
deceptive omens; to the end that by means of
manifold devices of flattery his feeling of security
might be made more complete, and he might be caught
off his guard against anything hostile.

Footnote:  3. Ursicinus
           4.  Novelli is contemptuous; cf.xxvi.6,15.

26. But the issue of this project seemed
difficult; for special care had to be observed that
the onsets should take advantage of the right
moment, neither anticipating it nor falling short
of it.  Since if they should break out prematurely,
we were all sure to suffer death under a single
sentence.

27. However, our general, being kindly
received and forcing himself - since our very
commission bent our necks - formally to reverence
the high-aiming wearer or the purple, was welcomed
as a distinguished and intimate friend.  In freedom
of access and honourable place at the royal table
he was so preferred to others that he came to be
confidentially consulted about the most important
affairs.

28. Silvanus took it ill that while unworthy
men were raised to the consulship and to high
positions, he and Ursicinus alone, after having
toiled through such heavy and repeated tasks for
the government, had been so scorned that he himself
had been cruelly harassed in an unworthy
controversy through the examination of friends
of his, and summoned to trial for treason, while
Ursicinus, haled back from the East, was
delivered over to the hatred of his enemies; and
these continual complaints he made both covertly
and openly.

29. We however were alarmed, in spite of
these and similar speeches, at the uproarious
complaints of the soldiers on every hand, pleading
their destitution and eager to burst through the
passes of the Cottian Alps [1] with all speed.

Footnote: 1. In order to march to Italy
against Constantius himself.

30. Amid this perplexing distress of spirit
we kept casting about in secret investigation
for some plan likely to have results; and in the
end, after often changing our minds through fear,
we resolved to search with the greatest pains for
discreet representatives, to bind our
communication with solemn oaths, and try to
win over the Bracchiati and Cornuti, troops
wavering in their allegiance and ready to be
swayed by any influence for an ample bribe.

31. Accordingly, the matter was arranged
through some common soldiers as go-between, men
who through their very inconspicuousness were
suited to accomplish it; and just as sunrise was
reddening the sky, a sudden group of armed men,
fired by the expectation of rewards, burst forth;
and as usually happens in critical moments, made
bolder by slaying the sentinels, they forced
their way into the palace, dragged Silvanus from
a chapel where he had in breathless fear taken
refuge, while on his way to the celebration of
a Christian service, and butchered him with
repeated sword thrusts.

32. So fell by this manner of death a
general of no slight merits, who through fear due
to the slanders in which he was ensnared during
his absence by a clique of his enemies, in order
to save his life had resorted to the uttermost
measures of defence.

33. For although he held Constantius under
obligation through gratitude for that timely
act of coming over to his side with his soldiers
before the battle of Murasa, [1] yet he feared
him as variable and uncertain, although he
could point also to the valiant deeds of his
father Bonitus, a Frank it is true, but one who
in the civil war often fought vigorously on the
side of Constantine against the soldiers
of Licinius.

Footnote: Against Magnentius.

34. Now it had happened that before anything
of the kind was set on foot in Gaul, the people
at Rome in the Great Circus (whether excited by
some story or by some presentiment is uncertain)
cried out with a loud voice: "Silvanus is
vanquished." {1]

Footnote: 1. Cf. Gellius, xv.18, for a similar
prophecy.

35. Accordingly, when Silvanus had been slain
at Cologne, as had been related, the emperor
learned of it with inconceivable joy, and swollen
with vanity and pride, ascribed this also to the
prosperous course of his own good fortune, in
accordance with the way in which he always hated
brave and energetic men, as Domitian did in times
gone by, yet tried to overcome them by every
possible scheme of opposition.

36. And so far ws he from praising
conscientious service, that he actually wrote
that Ursicinus had embezzled funds from the
Gallic treasury, which no one had touched.  And
he had ordered the matter to be closely examined,
questioning Remigius, who at that time was already
auditor of the general's office of infantry
supplies, and whose fate it was, long afterwards
in the days of Valentinian, to take his life with
the halter becasue of the affair of the embassy
from Tripoli. [2]

Footnote: 2.

37. After this turn of affairs, Constantius,
as one that now touched the skies with his head
and would control all human chances, was puffed
up by the grandiloquence of his flatterers,
whose number he himself increased by scorning
and rejecting those who were not adepts in that
line; as we read of Croesus, [3] that he drove
Solon headlong out of his kingdom for the reason
that he did not know how to flatter; and of
Dionysius, that he threatened the poet
Philoxenus [4] with death, because when the
tyrant was reading aloud his own silly and
unrythmical verses, and every one else
applauded, the poet alone listened unmoved.

38. But this fault is a pernicious nurse
of vices.  For praise ought to be acceptable
in high places only when opportunity is also
sometimes given for reproach of things ill done.

Footnote: 3. Herotodus
          4. Cf.Diod.Sic.xv.6


6.	The friends and accomplices of Silvanus
	are put to death.

1. And now after this relief the usual
trials were set on foot, and many men were
punished with bonds and chains, as malefactors.
For up rose that diabolical informer Paulus,
bubbling over with joy, to begin practising his
venomous arts more freely; and when the
councillors and officers (as was ordered)
inquired into the matter, Proculus, Silvanus'
adjutant, was put upon the rack.  Since he was
a puny and sickly man, every one feared that his
slight frame would yield to excessive torture,
and that he would cause many persons of all
conditions to be accused of heinous crimes. But
the result was not at all what was expected.

2. For mindful of a dream, in which he
was forbidden while asleep, as he himself
declared, to strike a certain innocent person,
although tortured to the very brink of death,
he neither named or impeached anyone, but
steadfastly defended the action of Silvanus,
proving by credible evidence that he had
attempted his enterprise, not driven on from
ambition, but compelled by necessity.

3. For he brought foward a convincing
reason, made clear by the testimony of many
persons, namely, that four days before
Silvanus assumed the badges [1] of empire,
he paid the soldiers and in Constantius'
name exhorted them to be brave and loyal.
From which it was clear that if he were
planning to appropriate the insignia of
a higher rank, he would have bestowed so
great a quantity of gold as his own gift.

Footnote: 1. These were improvised for
the occasion

4. After him Poemenius, doomed like evil
doers, was haled to execution and perished;
he was the man (as we have told above) [2]
who was chosen to protect his fellow-citizens
when Treves closed its gates against Decentius
Caesar. [3]  Then the counts Asclepiodotus,
Lutto and Maudio were put to death, and many
others, since the obduracy of the times made
an intricate investigation into these and
similar charges.

Footnote: 2. In one of the lost books
          3. Decentius had been given the
rank of Caesar by his brother Magnentius.

7.	Riots of the Roman people are
	suppressed by Leontius, prefect of
	the City.  The Bishop Liberius is deposed.

1. While the dire confusion was causing
these calamities of general destruction, Leontius,
governor of the Eternal City, gave many proofs of
being an excellent judge; for he was prompt in
hearing cases, most just in his decisions, by
nature kindly, although for the sake of
maintaining his authority he seemed to some to
be severe and too apt to condemn.

2. Now the first device for stirring up
rebellion against him was very slight and
trivial.  For when the arrest of the charioteer
Philoromus was ordered, all the commons
followed, as if to defend their own darling,
and with a formidable onslaught set upon the
governor, thinking him to be timid.  But he,
firm and resolute, sent his officers among
them - seized some and put them to torture,
and then without anyone protesting or
opposing him he punished them with exile to
the islands.

3. And a few days later the people again,
excited with their usual passion, and
alleging a scarcity of wine, assembled at the
Septemzodium, [1] a much frequented spot,
where the emperor Marcus Aurelius erected a
Nymphaeum [2] of pretending style.  Thither
the governor resolutely proceeded, although
earnestly entreated by all his legal and
official suite not to trust himself to the
self-confident and threatening throng, which
was still angry from the former disturbance;
but he, hard to frighten, kept straight on,
so boldly that a part of his following
deserted him, though he was hastening into
imminent danger.

Footnote: 1. Probably the well-known
building of Severus at the south-eastern
corner of the Palatine, named from the
seven planets.
          2. Referring probably to the
Septemzodium.

4. Then, seated in his carriage, with
every appearance of confidence he scanned
with keen eyes the faces of the crowds in
their tiers, raging on all sides of him like
serpents, and allowed many insults to be
hurled at him; but recognising one fellow
conspicuous among the rest, of huge stature
and red-headed, he asked him if he were not
Peter, surnamed Valuomeres, as he had heard.
And when the man had replied in insolent
tones that he was none other, the governor,
who had known him of old as the ringleader
of the malcontents, in spite of the outcries
of many, gave orders to bind his hands behind
him and hang him up. [3]

Footnote: 3. To be flogged.

5. On seeing him aloft, vainly begging
for the aid of his fellows, the whole mob,
until then crowded together, scattered
through the various arteries of the city and
vanished so completely that this most doughty
promoter of riots had his sides well flogged,
as if in a secret dungeon, and was banished
to Picenum.  There later he had the hardihood
to offer violence to a maiden of good family,
and under sentence of the governor of Patruinus,
suffered capital punishment.

6. During the administration of this
Leontius, a priest of the Christian religion,
Liberius by name, by order of Constantius [1]
was brought before the privy council on the
charge of opposing the emperor's commands and
the decrees of the majority of his colleagues
in an affair which I shall run over briefly.

Footnote: 1. At Mediolanum, where Constantius
then was.

7.  Athanasius, at that time bishop of
Alexandria, was a man who exalted himself
above his calling and tried to pry into matters
outside his province, as persistent rumours
revealed; therefore an assembly which had been
convoked of members of that same sect - a synod,
as they call it - deposed him from the rank that
he held.

8. For it was reported that, being highly
skilled in the interpretation of prophetic
lots or of omens indicated by birds, he had
sometimes foretold future events; and besides
this he was also charged with other practices
repugnant to the purposes of the religion
over which he presided.

9.  Liberius, when directed by the emperor's
order to depose him from his priesthood by
endorsing the official decree, though holding
the same opinion as the rest strenuously
objected, crying out that it was the height of
injustice to condemn a man unseen and unheard,
thus, of course, openly defying the emperor's will.

10.  For although, Constantius, who was always
hostile to Athanasius, knew that the matter had
been carried out, yet he strove with eager desire
to have it ratified also by the higher power of the
bishop of the Eternal City; [1] and since he could
not obtain this, Liberius was spirited away, but
only with the greatest difficulty and in the
middle of the night, for fear of the populace,
who were devotely attached to him.

Footnote:  One of the earliest indictions of
the growing importance of the Roman bishops.

8.	Julian, brother of Gallus, is appointed
	Caesar by his cousin Constantius Augustus,
	and given command over Gaul.

1.	This, then, was the situation at Rome,
as the preceding text has shown.  But Constantius
was disquieted by frequent messages reporting
that Gaul was in desperate case, since the
savages were ruinously devestating everything
without opposition.  And after worrying for a
long time how he might forcibly avert these
disasters, while himself remaining in Italy as
he desired - for he thought it risky to thrust
himself into a far-distant region - he at
length hit upon the right plan and thought
of associating with himself in a share of the
empire his cousin Julian, [2] who not so very
long before had been summoned from the district
of Achaia and still wore his student's cloak. [3]

Footnote:  2.  Cf. Zosimus, iii. 1ff.
           3.  The palium was the characteristic
Greek cloak, worn among others by students.

2.  When Constantius, driven by the weight
of impending calamities, admitted his purpose
to his intimates, openly declaring (what he had
never done before) that in his lone state he
was giving way before so many and such
frequent crises, they, being trained to
excessive flattery, tried to cajole him,
constantly repeating that there was nothing
so difficult that his surpassing ability and
a good fortune so nearly clestial could not
overcome as usual.  And several, since the
consciousness of their offences [1] pricked
them on, added that the title of Caesar ought
henceforth to be avoided, rehearsing what
had happened under Gallus.

Footnote:  1.  I.e. their offences against
Julian, which made them fear his rise to
greater power.

3.  To them in their obstinate resistance
the queen alone opposed herself, whether she
dreaded journeying to a far country or with
her native intelligence took counsel for the
common good, and she declared that a kinsman
ought to be preferred to every one else.  So,
after much bandying the matter to and fro in
fruitless deliberations, the emperor's
resolution stood firm, and setting aside all
bootless discussion, he decided to admit
Julian to a share in the imperial power.

4.  So when he had been summoned and had
arrived, on an appointed day all his fellow-
soldiers there present were called together,
and a platform was erected on a lofty
scaffolding, surrounded by the eagles and
the standards.  On this Augustus stood, and
holding Julian by the right hand, in a quiet
tone delivered the following address:

5.  "We stand before you, valiant
defenders of our country, to avenge the
common cause with one all but unanimous
spirit; and how I shall accomplish this I
shall briefly explain to you, as impartial
judges.

6.  After the death of those rebellious
tyrants whom mad fury drove to attempt the
designs which they projected, the savages,
as if sacrificing to their wicked Manes with
Roman blood, have forced our peaceful
frontier and are ever-running Gaul,
encouraged by the belief that dire straits
beset us throughout our far-flung empire.

7.  If this evil therefore, which is
already creeping on beyond set bounds, is
met by the accord of our and your wills while
time permits, the necks of these proud tribes
will not swell so high, and the frontiers of
our empire will remain inviolate.  It remains
for you to confirm with happy issue the hope
of the future which I cherish.

8.  This Julian, my cousin as you know,
rightly honoured for the modesty through
which he is as dear to us as through ties of
blood, a young man of ability which is already
conspicuous, I desire to admit to the rank of
Caesar, and this project, if it seems
advantageous, may be confirmed also by
your assent."

9.  As he was attempting to say more to
this effect, the assembly interrupted and
gently prevented him, declaring as if with
foreknowledge of the future that this was the
will of the supreme divinity rather than of
any human mind.

10.  And the emperor, standing motionless
until they became silent, went on with the rest
of his speech with greater assurance: "Since,
then," said he, "your joyful acclaim shows
that I have your approval also, let this 
young man of quiet strength, whose temperate
behaviour is rather to be imitated than
proclaimed, rise to receive this honour
conferred upon him by God's favour.  His
excellent disposition, trained in all good
arts, I seem to have fully described by the
very fact that I have chosen him.  Therefore
with the immediate favour of the God of Heaven
I will invest him with the imperial robes."

11.  This he said and then, after having
clothed Julian in the ancestral purple and
proclaimed him Caesar to the joy of the army,
he thus addressed him, somewhat melancholy in
aspect as he was, and with careworn
countenance:

12.  "My brother, dearest to me of all
men, you have received in your prime the
glorius flower of your origin; with increase
of my own glory, I admit, since I seem to
myself more truly great in bestowing almost
equal power on a noble prince who is my
kinsman, than through that power itself.

13.  Come, then, to share in pains and
perils, and undertake the charge of
defending Gaul, ready to relieve the
afflicted regions with every bounty.  And
if it becomes necesary to engage with the
enemy, take your place with sure footing
amid the standard bearers themselves; be
a thoughtful advisor or daring in due season
animate the warriors by taking the lead
with utmost caution, strengthen them when
in disorder with reinforcements, modestly
rebuke the slothful, and be present as a
most faithful witness at the side of the
strong, as well as of the weak.

14.  Therefore, urged by the great
crisis, go forth, yourself a brave man,
ready to lead men equally brave.  We shall
stand by each other in turn with firm and
steadfast affection, we shall campaign
at the same time, and together we shall
rule over a pacified world, provided
only God grants our prayers, with equal
moderation and conscientiousness.   You
will seem to be present with me everywhere,
and I shall not fail you in whatever you
undertake.  In fine, go, hasten, with
the united prayers of all, to defend
with sleepless care the post assigned
you, as it were, by your country herself."

15.  After this address was ended, no
one held his peace, but all the soldiers
with fearful din struck their shields
against their knees (this is a sign of
complete approval; for when, on the
contrary, they smite their shields with
their spears it is an indication of anger
and resentment), [1] and it was wonderful
with what great joy all but a few
approved Augustus' choice and with due
admiration welcomed the Caesar, brilliant
with the gleam the imperial purple.

Footnote:  1.  See Critical Note
              
16. Gazing long and earnestly on his
eyes, at one terrible and full of charm,
and on his face attractive in its unusual
animation, they divined whtat manner of man
he would be, as if they has perused those
ancient books, the reading of which
discloses from bodily signs the inward
qualities of the soul. [2]  And that he
might be regarded with the greater
respect, they neither praised him beyond
measure nor less than was fitting, and
therefore their words were esteemed as
those of censors, not of soldiers.

Footnote:  2. Cf. Gellius, i. 9,2, (Pythagoras)
            

17.  Finally, he was taken up to sit
with the emperor in his carriage and
conducted to the palace, whispering this
verse from the Homeric song: [3]
"By purple death I'm seized and fate
supreme."  This happened on the sixth
of November of the year when Arbetio
and Lollianus were consuls.

Footnote:  3.  (Iliad, v.83;) a play
on words as the colour blood and royalty

18.  Then, within a few days, Helena,
the maiden sister of Constantius, was
joined in the bonds of wedlock to the
Caesar; and when everything had been
prepared which the imminence of his
departure demanded, taking a small suite,
he set out on the first of Decemeber,
escorted by Augustus as far as the spot
marked by two columns, lying between
Laumello and Pavia, and came by direct
marches to Turin.  There he was
staggered by serious news, which had
lately been brought to the emperor's
court but had purposely been kept
secret, for fear that the preparations
might come to nothing.

19.  The news stated that Cologne, a
city of great renown in Lower Germany,
after an obstinate siege by the savages
in great force, had been stormed and
destroyed.

20.  Overwhelmed by sorrow at this,
the first omen, as it were, of approaching
ills, he was often heard to mutter in
complaining tones that he had gained
nothing, except to die with heavier work.

21.  But when he reached Vienne and
entered the city, all ages and ranks flocked
together to receive him with honour, as a
man both longed for and efficient; and when
they saw him afar off, the whole populace
with the immediate neighbourhood, saluted
him as a commander gracious and fortunate,
and marched ahead of him with a chorus of
praise, the more eagerly beholding royal
pomp in a legitimate prince.  And in his
coming they placed the redress of their
common disasters, thinking that some
helpful spirit had shone upon their
desperate condition.

22.  Then an old woman, who had lost
her sight, on inquiring who had entered
and learning that it was the Caesar
Julian, cried out that he would repair the
temples of the Gods.

9.	Of the origin of the Gauls; and why
	the Celts and Galations were so
	called; and of their learned men.

1. Now, since - as the lofty bard of
Mantus said of old [1] - a greater work I
undertake, a greater train of events
ariseth before me.  I think now a suitable
time to describe the regions and situation
of the Gauls, for fear that amid fiery
encounters and shifting fortunes of battle
I may treat of matters unknown to some and
seem to follow the example of slovenly
sailors, who are forced amid surges and
storms to mend their worn sails and rigging,
which might have been put in order with
less danger.

Footnote: 1. ???

2.  The ancient writers, in doubt as
to the earliest origin of the Gauls, have
left an incomplete account of the matter, but
later Timagenes, [2] a true Greek in accuracy
as well as language, collected out of
various books these facts that had been
long forgotten; which, following his
authority, and avoiding any obscurity, I 
shall state clearly and plainly.

Footnote: 2. Timagenes of Alexandria, who,
according to Suidas, was brouht to Rome as
a prisoner of war by Pompey.  He wrote a
History of Alexander and a History of the
Gauls

3.  Some asserted that the people first
seen in these regions were Aborigines,
called Celts from the name of a beloved
king, and Galatae (for so the Greek language
terms the Gauls) from the name of his
mother.  Others state that the Dorians,
following the earlier Hercules, [3] settled
in the lands bordering on the Ocean.

Footnote:  3. "Earlier" seems to be
contrasted with "the sone of Amphytrion"
in 9, 6 below and "the Theban Hercules"
in 10, 9 whom Ammianus identifies with the son
of Amphytrion.  The story of a hero similar
to Hercules is found i Greece, Italy, Egypte,
the Orient and among the celts and Germans.
The Theban Hercules id generally regarded as
the sone of Amphitryon, but the one here
referred to seems to have been the Italic
hero, locally called Recaranus and Garanus,
who ws later identified with the Greek
Heracles.

4.   The Drysidae [1] say that a part of
the people was in fact indigenous, but that
others also poured in from the remote islands
and the regions across the Rhine, driven from
their homes by continual wars and by the
inundation of the stormy sea.

Footnote: 1. Druids

5.	Some assert that after the
destruction of Troy a few of those who
fled from the Greeks and were scattered
everywhere occupied those regions, which
were then deserted.

6.  But the inhabitants of those countries
affirm this beyond all else, and I have also
read it inscribed upon their monuments, that
Hercules, the son of Amphytrion, hastened to
destroy the cruel tyrants Geryon and Tauriscus,
of whom one oppressed Spain, the other, Gaul;
and having overcome them both that he took to
wife some high-born women and begat numerous
children, who called by their own names the
districts which they ruled.

7.  But in fact a people of Asia from
Phocaea, to avoid the severity of Harpalus, [2]
prefect of king Cyrus, set said for Italy.  A
part of them founded Velia [3] in Lucania, the
rest, Massila [4] in the region of Vienne.
Then, subsequent ages they established no
small number of towns, as their strength and
resources increased.  But I must not discuss
varying opinions, which often causes satiety.

Footnote:  2. An error for Harpagus
           3. Modern Castellamare della Bruca
           4. Marseilles

8.  Throughout these regions men gradually
grew civilised and the study of the liberal arts
flourished, initiated by the Bards, the Euhages
and the Druids. [5]  Now, the Bards sang to the
keen strains of the lyre the valorous deeds of
famous men composed in heroic verse, but the
Euhage, [1] investigating the sublime, attempted
to explain the secret laws of nature.  The Druids,
being loftier than the rest in intellect, and
bound together in fraternal organisations, as the
authority of Pythagoras determined, were elevated
by their investigation of obscure and profound
subjects, and scorning all things human,
pronounced the soul immortal.

Footnote: 5 and 1. The three are connected also by
Strabo (iv. 4. 4), who says that the bards were
poets; the euhages - diviners and natural
philosophers; while th e Druids studied both
natural and moral philosophy.

10.	Of the Gallic Alps and the various
	passes through them.

1. This country of Gaul, because of its
lofty chains of mountains always covered with
formidable snows, was formerly all but unknown
to the inhabitants of the rest of the globe,
except where it borders on the coast; and
bulwarks enclose it on every side, surrounding
it naturally, as if by the art of man.

2.  Now on the southern side it is washed
by the Tuscan and the Gallic Sea; where it looks
up to the heavenly Wain, [2] it is separated
from the wild nations by the channels [3] of
the Rhine.  Where it lies under the west-sloping
sun [4] it is bounded by the Ocean and the
Pyrenaean heights; and where it rises towards
the East it gives place the bulk of the Cottian
Alps.  There King Cottius, after the subjugation
of Gaul, lay hidden alone in their defiles,
trusting to the pathless ruggedness of the
region; finally, when his disaffection was
allayed, and he was admitted to the emperor
Octavian's friendship, in lieu of a remarkable
gift he built with great labour short cuts
convenient to travellers, since they were
midway between other ancient Alpine passes,
about which I shall later tell what I have
learned.

Footnote: 2. The septentriones, the constellation
of ursa major, representing the north.
          3. As it enters the sea, the Rhine
divides into several branches.
          4. As there is no specific western
constellation, sidus seems to mean "sun".

3. In these Cottian Alps, which begin
at the town of Susa, there rises a lofty ridge,
which scarcely anyone can cross without danger.

4.  For as one comes from Gaul it falls off
with sheer incline, terrible to look upon
because of overhanging cliffs on either side,
especially in the season of spring, when the
ice melts and the snows thaw under the warmer
breath of the wind; then over precipitous
ravines on either side and chasms rendered
treacherous through the accumulation of ice,
men and animals descending with hesitating 
step slide forwrd, and wagons as well.  And
the only expedient that has been devised
to ward off destruction is this: they bind
together a number of vehicles with heavy ropes
and hold them back from behind with powerful
efforts of men or oxen at barely a snail's
pace; and so they roll down a little more
safely.  And this, as we have said, happens
in the spring of the year.

5.  But in winter the ground, caked with
ice, and as it were polished and therefore
slippery, drives men headlong in their gait and
the spreading valleys in level places, made
treacherous by ice, sometimes swallow up the
traveller.  Therefore those that know the 
country well drive projecting wooden stakes
along the safer spots, in order that their
line may guide the traveller in safety.  But 
if these are covered with snow and hidden, or
are overturned by the streams running down from
the mountains, the paths are difficult to
traverse even with natives leading the way.

6.  But from the peak of this Italian slope
a plateau extends for seven miles, as far as
the post named from Mars; [1] from there on
another loftier height, equally difficult
to surmount, reaches to the peak of the Matrona, [2]
so called from an accident to a noble lady.  After
taht a route, steep to be sure, but easier to
traverse extends to the fortress of Briancon.

Footnote: 1. Modern Oulx, in the Ant. Itin.
called mansio Martis (military post).
          2. Mont Genevre.

7. The tomb of the prince, who, as we said,
built these roads, is at Susa next to the walls,
and his shades are devoutly venerated for a double
reason: because he had ruled his subjects with
a just government, and when admitted to alliance
with the Roman state, procured eternal peace for
his nation.

8.  And although this road which I have
described is the middle one, the short cut, and
the more frequented, yet there are also others,
constructed long before at various times.

9.  Now the first of these the Theban
Hercules, [3] when travelling leisurely to
destroy Geryon and Tauriscus, constructed near
the Maritime Alps and gave them the name of
Graian Alps [4].  And in like manner he
consecrated the castle and harbour of Monaco to
his lsting memory.  Then, later, after the
passage of many centries, the name Pennine was
devised for these Alps for the following reason.

Footnote: 4. Grecian

10.  Publius Cornelius Scipio, father of
the elder Africannus, when the Saguntines,
famous both for their catastrophies and their
loyalty, were besieged by the Africans [1] with
persistent obstinacy, wishing to help them,
crossed to Spain with a fleet manned by a strong
army.  But as the city had been destroyed by a
superior force, [2] and he was unable to overtake
Hannibal, who had crossed the Rhone three days
before and was hastening to the regions of Italy,
by swift sailing he crossed the intervening 
space - which is not great - and watched at
Genoa, a town of Liguria, for Hannibal's
descent from the mountains, so that if chance
should give him the opportunity, he might fight
with him in the plain while exhausted by the
roughness of the roads.

Footnote: 1. That is the Carthaginians, in 218 B.C.
          2. After a siege of eight months.

11. At the same time, having an eye to
the common welfare, he advised his brother,
Gnaeus Scipio, to proceed to Spain and hold off
Hadrubal, who was planning to burst forth in
like manner from that quarter.  But Hannibal
learned of this from deserters, and being of
a nimble and crafty wit, came under the guidance
of natives from among the Taurini, through the
Tricasini and the extreme edge of the Vocontii
to the passes of the Tricorii.  Starting out
from there, he made another road, where it
hitherto had been impassable; he hewed out a
cliff which rose to a vast height by burning
it with flames of immense power and crumbling
it by pouring on vinegar; [3] then he marched
along the river Druentia, dangerous with its
shifting eddies, and seized upon the district
of Etruria.  So much about the Alps; let us
now turn to the rest of the country.

Footnote: 3. Pliny attributes this power to
vinegar, but Polybius does not mention the
story, which is doubted for various reasons. 

11.	A brief description of the various
	parts of Gaul and of the course of
	the Rhone.

1.  In early times, when these regions lay
in darkness as savage, they are thought to have
been threefold, [1] divided into Celts (the same
as the Gauls), the Aquitanians, and the Belgians,
differing in language, habits and laws.

Footnote: 1. With this part of the account,
cf. Caesar, B.g., i. 1.

2.  Now the Gauls (who are the Celts) are
separated from the Aquitanians by the Garonne
river, which rises in the hills of the Pyrenees,
and after running past many towns disappears
in the Ocean.

3.  But from the Belgians this same nation
is separated by the Marne and the Seine, rivers
of identical size; they flow through the district
of Lyons, and after encircling in the manner of
an island a stronghold of the Parisii called
Lutetia, [2] they united in one channel, and
flowing on together pour into the sea not far
from Castra Constantia. [3]

Footnote: 2. Paris
          3. The site of Harfleur

4.  Of all these nations the Belgae had
the reputation in the ancient writers of being
the most valiant, for the reason that being far
removed from civilised life and not made
effeminate by imported luxuries, they warred
for a long time with the Germans across the Rhine.

5.  The Aquitanians, on the contrary, to whose
coasts, as being near at hand and peaceable,
imported wares are conveyed, had their characters
weakened to effeminacy and easily came under the
sway of Rome.

6.  All the Gauls, ever since under the
perpetual pressure of wars [4] they yielded to
the dictator Julius, have been governed by an
administration divided into four parts.  Of these
Gallia Narbonensis by itself comprised the
districts of Vienne and Lyons; the second had
control of all Aquitania; Upper and Lower
Germany, as well as the Belgians, were governed
by two administrations at that same time.

Footenote: 4. Referring to Caesar's
campaigns

7. But now the provinces over the whole
extent of Gaul are reckoned as follows:  The
first province (beginning on the western front)
is Lower, or Second, Germany, fortified by the
wealth and populous cities of Cologne and Tongres.

8. Next comes First, or Upper, Germany where
besides other free towns are Mayence and Worms
and Spires and Strasburg, famous for the disasters
of the savages. [1]

Footnote: 1. At the battle of Argentoratus
(Strasburg)

9. After these the First province fo Belgium
displays Metz and Treves, splendid abode of
the emperors. [2]

Footnote: 2. Augusta Trevirotum was the 
headquarters of the Roman commanders
on the Rhine, and a frequent residence of
the Roman emperors; Ausonius, in his Ordo
Urbium Nobilium gives it sixth place.

10. Adjoining this is the Second province of
Belgium, in which are Amiens, a city eminent
above the rest, and Chalons [3] and Rheims.

Footnote: 3. Chalons-sur-Marne

11. In the Seine province we see Besancon
and Augst, more important that its many other
towns.  The first Lyonnese province is made 
famous by Lyons, Chalon-sur-Saone, Sens, Bourges,
and Autun with its huge ancient walls.

12. As for the second Lyonnese province,
Rouen and Tours make it distinguished, as well
as Evreux and Troyes.  The Graian and Pennine
Alps, not counting towns of lesser note, have
Avenche, a city now abandoned, to be sure, but
once of no slight importance, as is even yet
evident from its half-ruined buildings.  These
are the goodly provinces and cities of Gaul.

13.  In Aquitania, which trends towards the
Pyrenees mountains and that part of the Ocean which
extends towards Spain, the first province is
Aquitania, much adorned by the greatness of its
cities; leaving out numerous others, Bordeaux
and Clermont are conspicuous, as well as
Saintorige and Poitiers.

14.  The "Nine Nations" [1] are ennobled by
Auch and Bazas.  In the Narbonese province
Eauze, Narbonne, and Toulouse hold the primacy
among the cities.  The Viennese province
rejoices in the distinction conferred by many
cities, of which teh most important are Vienne
itself, Arles and Valence; and joined to these
is Marseilles, by whose alliance and power
we read that Rome was several times supported
in severe crises.

Footnote: 1. The country between the Garonne
and the Pyrenees, Aquitania in the narrower
sense.  The names of the nine nations are
not known.

15.  Near these are Aix-en-Province, Nice,
Antibes, and the Isles d'Hyeres.

16.  And since we have reached these parts
in the course of our work, it would be
unfitting and absurd to say nothing of the
Rhone, a river of the greatest celebrity.
Rising in the Pennine Alps from a plenteous
store of springs, the Rhone flows in headlong
course towards more level places.  It hides
its banks with its own stream [2] and bursts
into the lagoon called Lake Leman.  This it
flows through, nowhere mingling with the
water outside, but gliding along the surface
of the less active water on either hand, it
seeks an outlet and forces a way for itself
by its swift onset.

Footnote: 2. That is, it receives no
tributaries, yet fills its channel full.

17.  From there without any loss of
volume it flows through [3] Savoy and the
Seine Province, [4] and after going on for
a long distance, it grazes the Viennese
Province on the left side and the Lyonnese
on the right side.  Next, after describing
many meanders, it receives the Arar, which
they call the Sauconna, [1] flowing between
Upper Germany and the Seine Province, and
gives it its own name.  This point is the
beginning of Gaul, and from there they
measure distances, not in miles but in
leagues.

Footnote: 3. Really "between."
          4. Maxima Sequanorum.
          1. Saone

18.  After this the Rhone, enriched by
the tributary waters of the Isere, carries
very large craft, which are frequently wont
to be tossed by gales of wind, and having
finished the bounds which nature has set
for it, its foaming waters are mingled with
the Gallic Sea through a broad bay which
they call Ad Gradus [2] at about the
eighteenth milestone distant from Arles.
Let this suffice for the topography of the
region; I shall now describe the appearance
and manners of its people.

Footnote: 2. The Gulf f Lyons

12.	The Manners and Customs of the Gauls.

1. Almost all the Gauls are of tall
stature, fair and ruddy, terrible for the
fierceness of their eyes, fond of quarrelling,
and of overbearing insolence.  In fact, a
whole band of foreigners will be unable to
cope with one of them in a fight, if he calls
in his wife, stronger than he by far and
with flashing eyes; least of all when she
swells her neck and gnashes her teeth, and
poising her huge white arms, proceeds to
rain punches mingled with kicks, like shots
discharged by the twisted cords of the
catapult.

2.  The voices of most of them are
formidable and threatening, alike when
they are good-natured or angry.  But all of
them with equal care keep clean and neat,
and in those districts, particularly in
Aquitania, no man or woman can be seen, be
she never so poor, in soiled and ragged
clothing, as elsewhere.

3.  All ages are most fit for military
service, and the old man marches out on a
campaign with a courage equal to that of 
the man in the prime of life; since his
limbs are toughened by cold and constant toil,
and he will make light of many formidable
dangers.  Nor does anyone of them, for
dread of the service of Mars, cut off his
thumb, as in Italy: [1] there they call
such men "murci," or cowards.

Footnote: 1. Cf. Suet., Aug. 24, 1.

4.  It is a race greedy for wine,
devising numerous drinks similar to wine,
and some among them of the baser sort, with
wits dulled by continual drunkenness (which
Cato's saying pronounced a voluntary kind of
madness) rush about in aimless revels, so that
those words seem true which Cicero spoke when
defending Fonteius: [2] "The Gauls henceforth
will drink wine mixed with water, which they
once thought poison."

Footnote: 2. Ammianus is the only source
for these words.

5.  These regions, and especially those
bordering on Italy, came gradually and with
slight effort under the dominion of Rome;
they were first essayed by Fulvius, [3] then
undermined in petty battles by Sextius, [4]
and finally subdued by Fabius Maximus, [5]
on whom the full completion of this business
(when he had vanquished the formidable tribe
of the Allobroges) [5] conferred that
surname. [6]

Footnote: 3. M. Fulvius Flaccus
          4. C. Sextius Calvinus
          5. In 121 B.C.
          6. Allobrogicus.

6.  Now the whole of Gaul (except where,
as the authority of Sallust [7] informs us,
it was impassable with marshes), after losses
on both sides during ten years of war the
dictator Caesar subdued and joined to us in
an everlasting covenant of alliance.  I have
digressed too far, but I shall at last return
to my subject.

Footnote: 7. Hist. i. 11, Maurenbrecher.

13. The doings of the praetorian prefect,
       Musonianus, in the Orient.

1.  After Domitianus was dispatched by
a cruel death, [1] his successor Musonianus
governed the East with the rank of pretorian
prefect, a man famed for his commancd of both
languages, [2] from which he won higher
distinction than was expected.

Footnote: 1. Cf. xiv. 7, 16.
          2. Greek and Latin; cf. Suet.,
Claud, 42, 1.

2. For when Constantine was closely
investigating the different religious sects,
Manichaeans and the like, and no suitable
interpreter could be found, he chose him, as
a person recommended to him as competent; and
when he had done that duty skilfully, he
wished him to be called Musonianus, whereas he
had hitherto had the name of Strategius.  From
that beginning, having run through many grades
of honour, he rose to the prefecture, a man
intelligent in other respects and satisfactory
to the provinces, mild also and well-spoken,
but on any and every occasion, and especially
(which is odious) in hard-fought lawsuits and
under all circumstances greedily bent upon
filthy lucre.  This became clearly evident
(among many other instances) in the
investigations set on foot regarding the
death of Theophilus, governor of Syria, who,
because of the betrayal of Gallus Caesar,
was torn to pieces in an onslaught of the
rabble upon him; on which occasion sundry
poor men were condemned, although it was known
that they had been away when this happened,
while the wealth perpetrators of the foul
crime were set free after being stripped of
their property.

3.  He was matched by Prosper, who was
at that time still representing the cavalry
commander [1] in Gaul and held military
authority there, and abject coward and, as
the comic poet says, [2] scorning artifice
in thieving and plundering openly.

Footnote: 1. Ursicinus
          2. Plautus, Epidicus

4.  While these men were in league and
enriching themselves by bringing mutual gain
one to the other, the Persian generals
stationed by the rivers, while their king
was busied in the farthest bounds of his
empire, kept raiding our territories with
predatory bands, now fearlessly invading
Armenia and sometimes Mesopotamia, while
the Roman officers were occupied in
gathering the spoils of those who paid them
obedience.

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