16. He was received with a kiss, since such treatment of him appeared advantageous to the republic; and being now full of joyful hope, he supplied the army with provisions in abundance; and having left some of his own relations as hostages, he departed in order, as he promised, to restore those prisoners whom he had taken at the first beginning of these disturbances. And two days afterwards, without any delay, he restored the town of Icosium (of the founders of which we have already spoken), also the military standards, the crown belonging to the priest, and all the other things which he had taken, as he had been commanded to do.

17. Leaving this place, our general, advancing by long marches, reached Tiposa, where, with great elation, he gave answers to the envoys of the Mazices, who had combined with Firmus, and now in a suppliant tone implored pardon, replying to their entreaties that he would at once march against them as perfidious enemies.

18. When he had thus cowed them by the fear of impending danger, and had commanded them to return to their own country, he proceeded onwards to Caesarea, a city formerly of great wealth and importance, of the origin of which we have given a full account in our description of Africa. When he reached it, and saw that nearly the whole of it had been destroyed by extensive conflagrations, and that the flint stones of the streets were covered with ashes, he ordered the first and second legions to be stationed there for a time, that they might clear away the heaps of cinders and ashes, and keep guard there to prevent a fresh attack of the barbarians from repeating this devastation.

19. When accurate intelligence of these events had arrived, the governors of the province and the tribune Vincentius issued forth from the places of concealment in which they had been lying, and came with speed and confidence to the general. He saw and received them with joy, and, while still at Caesarea, having accurately inquired into every circumstance, he found that Firmus, while assuming the disguise of an ally and a suppliant, was secretly planning how, like a sudden tempest, to overwhelm his army while unprepared for any such danger.

20. On this he quitted Caesarea, and went to the town of Sugabarritanum, which is on the slope of Mount Transcellensis. There he found the cavalry of the fourth cohort of archers, who had revolted to the rebels, and in order to show himself content with lenient punishments, he degraded them all to the lowest class of the service, and ordered them, and a portion of the infantry of the Constantian legion, to come to Tigaviae with their tribunes, one of whom was the man who, for want of a diadem, had placed a neck-chain on the head of Firmus.

21. While these events were proceeding, Gildo and Maximus returned, and brought with them Bellenes, one of the princes of the Mazices, and Fericius, prefect of that nation, both of whom had espoused the faction of the disturber of the public peace, leading them forth in chains.

22. When this order had been executed, Theodosius himself came forth from his camp at daybreak, and on seeing those men surrounded by his army, said, "What, my trusty comrades, do you think ought to be done to these nefarious traitors?" And then, in compliance with the acclamations of the whole army, who demanded that their treason should be expiated by their blood, he, according to the ancient fashion, handed over those of them who had served in the Constantian legion to the soldiers to be put to death by them. The officers of the archers he sentenced to lose their hands, and the rest he condemned to death, in imitation of Curio, that most vigorous and severe general, who by this kind of punishment crushed the ferocity of the Dardanians, when it was reviving like the Lernaean hydra.

23. But malignant detractors, though they praise the ancient deed, vituperate this one as terrible and inhuman, affirming that the Dardanians[182] were implacable enemies, and therefore justly suffered the punishment inflicted on them; but that those soldiers, who belonged to our own standards, ought to have been corrected with more lenity, for falling into one single error. But we will remind these cavillers, of what perhaps they know already, namely, that this cohort was not only an enemy by its own conduct, but also by the example which it set to others.

24. He also commanded Bellenes and Fericius, who have been mentioned above, and whom Gildo brought with him, to be put to death; and likewise Curandius, a tribune of the archers, because he had always been backward in engaging the enemy himself, and had never been willing to encourage his men to fight. And he did this in recollection of the principle laid down by Cicero, that "salutary vigour is better than an empty appearance of clemency."

25. Leaving Sugabarri, he came to a town called Gallonatis, surrounded by a strong wall, and a secure place of refuge for the Moors, which, as such, he destroyed with his battering-rams. And having slain all the inhabitants, and levelled the walls, he advanced along the foot of Mount Ancorarius to the fortress of Tingetanum, where the Mazices were all collected in one solid body. He at once attacked them, and they encountered him with arrows and missiles of all kinds as thick as hail.

26. The battle proceeded for some time vigorously on both sides, till at last the Mazices, though a hardy and warlike race, being unable to withstand the fury of our men and the shock of their arms, after sustaining heavy loss, fled in every direction in disgraceful panic; and as they fled they were put to the sword in great numbers, with the exception only of those who, contriving to make their escape, afterwards, by their humble supplications, obtained the pardon which the times permitted to be granted to them.

27. Their leader Suggena, who succeeded Romanus, was sent into Mauritania Sitifensis to establish other garrisons necessary to prevent that province from being overrun; and he himself, elated by his recent achievements, marched against the nation of the Musones, who, from a consciousness of the ravages and murders of which they had been guilty, had joined the party of Firmus, hoping that he would soon obtain the chief authority.

28. Having advanced some distance, he found, near the town of Addense, that a number of tribes, who, though differing from each other in manners and language, were all animated with one feeling, in fomenting the outbreaks of terrible wars, being urged on and encouraged by the hope of great rewards from a sister of Firmus, named Cyria; who being very rich, and full of feminine resolution, was resolved to make a great effort to help her brother.

29. Therefore Theodosius, fearing to become involved in a war to which his forces were unequal, and that if he with his small force (for he had but three thousand five hundred men) should engage with an immense multitude, he should lose his whole army, at first hesitating between the shame of retreating and his wish to fight, gradually fell back a little; but presently was compelled by the overpowering mass of the barbarians to retire altogether.

30. The barbarians were exceedingly elated at this event, and pursued him with great obstinacy.... Being compelled by necessity to fight, he would have lost all his army and his own life, had not these tumultuous tribes, the moment they saw a troop of the Mazican auxiliaries, with a few Roman soldiers in their front, fancied that a numerous division was advancing to charge them, and in consequence taking to flight, opened to our men a way of escape which was previously shut against them.

31. Theodosius now drew off his army in safety; and when he had reached a town called Mazucanum, he found there a number of deserters, some of whom he burnt alive, and others he mutilated after the fashion of the archers whose hands had been cut off. He then proceeded towards Tipata, which he reached in the course of February.

32. There he stayed some time deliberating, like that old delayer, Fabius, on the circumstances around him, desiring to subdue the enemy, who was not only warlike, but so active as usually to keep out of bowshot, rather by manoeuvres and skill than by hazardous engagements.

33. Still he from time to time sent out envoys, skilled in the arts of persuasion, to the surrounding tribes, the Basurae, the Cautauriani, the Anastomates, the Cafaves, the Davares, and other people in their neighbourhood, trying to bring them over to our alliance, either by presents, threats, or by promises of pardon for past violence ... seeking by delays and intrigues to crush an enemy who offered so stout a resistance to his attacks, just as Pompey in times past had subdued Mithridates.

34. On this account Firmus, avoiding immediate destruction, although he was strengthened by a large body of troops, abandoned the army which he had collected by a lavish expenditure of money, and as the darkness of night afforded a chance of concealment, he fled to the Caprarian mountains, which were at a great distance, and from their precipitous character inaccessible.

35. On his clandestine departure, his army also dispersed, being broken up into small detachments without any leader, and thus afforded our men an opportunity of attacking their camp. That was soon plundered, and all who resisted were put to the sword, or else taken prisoners; and then, having devastated the greater portion of the country, our wise general appointed prefects of tried loyalty as governors of the different tribes through which he passed.

36. The traitor was thrown into consternation by the unexpected boldness of his pursuit, and with the escort of only a few servants, hoping to secure his safety by the rapidity of his movements, in order to have nothing to impede his flight, threw away all the valuable baggage which he had taken with him. His wife, exhausted with continual toil....

37. Theodosius ... showing mercy to none of them, having refreshed his soldiers by a supply of better food, and gratified them by a distribution of pay, defeated the Capracienses and Abanni, who were the next tribes to them, in some unimportant skirmishes, and then advanced with great speed to the town of ... and having received certain intelligence that the barbarians had already occupied the hills, and were spread over the precipitous and broken ground to a great height, so that they were quite inaccessible to any but natives who were intimately acquainted with the whole country, he retired, giving the enemy an opportunity by a truce, short as it was, to receive an important reinforcement from the Ethiopians in the neighbourhood.

38. Then having assembled all their united forces, they rushed on to battle with threatening shouts, and an utter disregard of their individual safety, compelling him to retreat, full of consternation at the apparently countless numbers of their army. But soon the courage of his men revived, and he returned, bringing with him vast supplies, and with his troops in a dense column, and brandishing their shields with formidable gestures, he again engaged the enemy in close combat.

39. The barbarians rattled their arms in a savage manner, and our battalions, with equal rage, pushed on, they also rattling their shields against their knees. Still the general, like a cautious and prudent warrior, aware of the scantiness of his numbers, advanced boldly with his army in battle array, till he came to a point, at which he turned off, though still preserving an undaunted front, towards the city of Contensis, where Firmus had placed the prisoners whom he had taken from us, as in a remote and safe fortress. He recovered them all, and inflicted severe punishment, according to his custom, on the traitors among the prisoners, and also on the guards of Firmus.

40. While he was thus successful, through the protection of the Supreme Deity, he received correct intelligence from one of his scouts that Firmus had fled to the tribe of the Isaflenses. He at once entered their territory to require that he should be given up, with his brother Mazuca, and the rest of his relations: and on being refused, he declared war against the nation.

41. And after a fierce battle, in which the barbarians displayed extraordinary courage and ferocity, he threw his army into a solid circle; and then the Isaflenses were so completely overpowered by the weight of our battalions pressing on them that numbers were slain; and Firmus himself, gallantly as he behaved, after exposing himself to imminent danger by the rashness of his courage, put spurs to his horse, and fled; his horse being accustomed to make his way with great speed over the most rocky and precipitous paths. But his brother Mazuca was taken prisoner, mortally wounded.

42. It was intended to send him to Caesarea, where he had left behind him many records of his atrocious cruelties; but his wounds reopened, and he died. So his head was cut off, and (his body being left behind) was conveyed to that city, where it was received with great joy by all who saw it.

43. After this our noble general inflicted most severe punishment, as justice required, on the whole nation of the Isaflenses, which had resisted till it was thus subdued in war. And he burnt alive one of the most influential of the citizens, named Evasius, and his son Florus, and several others, who were convicted on undeniable evidence of having aided the great disturber of tranquillity by their secret counsels.

44. From thence Theodosius proceeded into the interior, and with great resolution attacked the tribe of the Jubileni, to which he heard that Nubel, the father of Firmus, belonged; but presently he halted, being checked by the height of the mountains, and their winding defiles. And though he had once attacked the enemy, and opened himself a further road by slaying a great number of them, still, fearing the high precipices as places pre-eminently adapted for ambuscades, he withdrew, and led back his army in safety to a fortress called Audiense, where the Jesalenses, a warlike tribe, came over to him, voluntarily promising to furnish him with reinforcements and provisions.

45. Our noble general, exulting in this and similarly glorious achievements, now made the greatest efforts to overtake the original disturber of tranquillity himself, and therefore having halted for some time near a fortress named Medianum, he planned various schemes through which he hoped to procure that Firmus should be given up to him.

46. And while he was directing anxious thoughts and deep sagacity to this object, he heard that he had again gone back to the Isaflenses; on which, as before, without any delay, he marched against them with all possible speed. Their king, whose name was Igmazen, a man of great reputation in that country, and celebrated also for his riches, advanced with boldness to meet him, and addressed him thus, "To what country do you belong, and with what object have you come hither? Answer me." Theodosius, with firm mind and stern looks, replied, "I am a lieutenant of Valentinian, the master of the whole world, sent hither to destroy a murderous robber; and unless you at once surrender him, as the invincible emperor has commanded, you also, and the nation of which you are king, will be entirely destroyed." Igmazen, on receiving this answer, heaped a number of insulting epithets on our general, and then retired full of rage and indignation.

47. And the next morning at daybreak the two armies, breathing terrible threats against each other, advanced to engage in battle: nearly twenty thousand barbarians constituted the front of their army, with very large reserves posted behind, out of sight, with the intention that they should steal forward gradually, and hem in our battalions with their vast and unexpected numbers. These were also supported by a great number of auxiliaries of the Jesalenian tribes, whom we have mentioned as having promised reinforcements and supplies to ourselves.

48. On the other side, the Roman army, though scanty in numbers, nevertheless being full of natural courage, and elated by their past victories, formed into dense columns, and joining their shields firmly together, in the fashion of a testudo, planted their feet firmly in steady resistance; and from sunrise to the close of day the battle was protracted. A little before evening Firmus was seen mounted on a tall horse, expanding his scarlet cloak in order to attract the notice of his soldiers, whom he was exciting with a loud voice at once to deliver up Theodosius, calling him a ferocious and cruel man—an inventor of merciless punishments—as the only means of delivering themselves from the miseries which he was causing them.

49. This unexpected address only provoked some of our men to fight with more vigour than ever, but there were others whom it seduced to desert our ranks. Therefore when the stillness of night arrived, and the country became enveloped in thick darkness, Theodosius returned to the fortress of Duodiense, and, recognizing those soldiers who had been persuaded by fear and Firmus's speech to quit the fight, he put them all to death by different modes of execution; of some he cut off the right hands, others he burnt alive.

50. And conducting himself with ceaseless care and vigilance, he routed a division of the barbarians who, though afraid to show themselves by day, ventured, after the moon had set, to make an attempt upon his camp: some of those who advanced further than their comrades he took prisoners. Departing from this place, he made a forced march through by-roads to attack the Jesalensians, who had shown themselves disloyal and unfaithful. He could not obtain any supplies from their country, but he ravaged it, and reduced it to complete desolation. Then he passed through the towns of Mauritania and Caesarensis, and returned to Sitifis, where he put to the torture Castor and Martinianus, who had been the accomplices of Romanus in his rapine and other crimes, and afterwards burnt them.

51. After this the war with the Isaflenses was renewed; and in the first conflict, after the barbarians had been routed with heavy loss, their king Igmazen, who had hitherto been accustomed to be victorious, agitated by fears of the present calamity, and thinking that all his alliances would be destroyed, and that he should have no hope left in life if he continued to resist, with all the cunning and secrecy that he could, fled by himself from the battle; and reaching Theodosius, besought him in a suppliant manner to desire Masilla, the chief magistrate of the Mazices, to come to him.

52. When that noble had been sent to him as he requested, he employed him as his agent to advise the general, as a man by nature constant and resolute in his plans, that the way to accomplish his purpose would be to press his countrymen with great vigour, and, by incessant fighting, strike terror into them; as, though they were keen partisans of Firmus, they were nevertheless wearied out by repeated disasters.

53. Theodosius adopted this advice, and, by battle after battle, so completely broke the spirits of the Isaflenses, that they fell away like sheep, and Firmus again secretly escaped, and hiding himself for a long time in out-of-the-way places and retreats, till at last, while deliberating on a further flight, he was seized by Igmazen, and put in confinement.

54. And since he had learnt from Masilla the plans which had been agitated in secret, he at last came to reflect that in so extreme a necessity there was but one remedy remaining, and he determined to trample under foot the love of life by a voluntary death; and having designedly filled himself with wine till he became stupefied, when, in the silence of the night, his keepers were sunk in profound slumber, he, fully awake from dread of the misfortune impending over him, left his bed with noiseless steps, and crawling on his hands and feet, conveyed himself to a distance, and then, having found a rope which chance provided for the end of his life, he fastened it to a nail which was fixed in the wall, and hanging himself, escaped the protracted sufferings of torture.

55. Igmazen was vexed at this, lamenting that he was thus robbed of his glory, because it had not been granted to him to conduct this rebel alive to the Roman camp; and so, having received a pledge of the state for his own safety, through the intervention of Masilla, he placed the body of the dead man on a camel, and when he arrived at the camp of the Roman army, which was pitched near the fortress of Subicarense, he transferred it to a pack-horse, and offered it to Theodosius, who received it with exultation.

56. And Theodosius having assembled a crowd of soldiers and citizens, and having asked them whether they recognized the face of the corpse, learnt by their answers that there was no question at all that it was the man; after this he stayed there a short time, and then returned to Sitifis in great triumph, where he was received with joyful acclamations of the people of every age and rank.

VI.

Sec. 1. While Theodosius was thus exerting himself, and toiling in Mauritania and Africa, the nation of the Quadi was roused to make a sudden movement. It was a nation now not very formidable, but one which had formerly enjoyed vast renown for its warlike genius and power, as its achievements prove, some of which were distinguished for the rapidity, as well as for the greatness, of their success; instances are:—Aquileia, which was besieged by them and the Marcomanni; Opitergium, which was destroyed by them, and many other bloody successes which were gained in that rapid campaign when the Julian Alps were passed, and that illustrious emperor Marcus, of whom we have already spoken, was hardly able to offer them any resistance. And indeed they had, for barbarians, just ground of complaint.

2. For Valentinian, who from the beginning of his reign had been full of a resolution to fortify his frontier, which was a glorious decision, but one carried too far in this case, ordered a fortress capable of containing a strong garrison to be constructed on the south side of the river Danube, in the very territories of the Quadi, as if they were subject to the Roman authority. The natives, being very indignant at this, and anxious for their own rights and safety, at first contented themselves with trying to avert the evil by an embassy and expostulations.

3. But Maximin, always eager for any wickedness, and unable to bridle his natural arrogance, which was now increased by the pride which he felt in his rank as prefect, reproached Equitius, who at that time was the commander of the forces in Illyricum, as careless and inactive, because the work, which it was ordered should be carried on with all speed, was not yet finished. And he added, as a man guided only by zeal for the common good, that if the rank of Duke of Valeria were only conferred on his own little son, Marcellianus, the fortification would be soon completed without any more pretexts for delay. Both his wishes were presently granted.

4. Marcellianus received the promotion thus suggested, and set out to take possession of his government; and when he reached it, being full of untimely arrogance, as might be expected from the son of such a father, without attempting to conciliate those whom false dreams of gain had caused to quit their native land, he applied himself to the work which had been recently begun, and had only been suspended to afford an opportunity for the inhabitants to present petitions against it.

5. Lastly, when their king Gabinius requested, in a most moderate tone, that no innovations might be made, he as if intending to assent to his petition, with feigned courtesy invited him and some other persons to a banquet; and then as he was departing after the entertainment, unsuspicious of treachery, he caused him, in infamous violation of the sacred rights of hospitality, to be murdered.

6. The report of so atrocious an act was speedily spread abroad, and roused the indignation of the Quadi and other surrounding tribes, who, bewailing the death of the king, collected together and sent forth predatory bands, which crossed the Danube; and when no hostilities were looked for, attacked the people who were occupied in the fields about the harvest; and having slain the greater portion of them, carried off all the survivors to their own country with a great booty of different kinds of cattle.

7. And at that time an inexpiable atrocity was very near being committed, which would have been reckoned among the most disgraceful disasters which ever happened to the Roman state, for the daughter of Constantius had a narrow escape of being taken prisoner as she was at dinner in a hotel called the Pistrensian, when on her way to be married to Gratian: and she was only saved by the promptitude of Messala the governor of the province, who, aided by the favour of the propitious Deity, placed her in a carriage belonging to him as governor, and conducted her back with all possible speed to Sirmium, a distance of about twenty-six miles.

8. By this fortunate chance the royal virgin was delivered from the peril of miserable slavery; and if she had been taken and her captors had refused to ransom her, it would have been the cause of terrible disasters to the republic. After this the Quadi in conjunction with the Sarmatians, extended their ravages further (since both these tribes were addicted beyond measure to plunder and robbery), carrying off, men, women, and cattle, and exulting in the ashes of burnt villas, and in the misery of the murdered inhabitants, whom they fell upon unexpectedly and slaughtered without mercy.

9. All the neighbouring districts were filled with apprehension of similar evils, and Probus, the prefect of the praetorium, who was at that time at Sirmium, a man wholly unexperienced in war, being panic-struck with the calamitous appearance of these new occurrences, and scarcely able to raise his eyes for fear, was for a long time wavering in doubt what to do. At first he prepared some swift horses and resolved to fly the next night; but afterwards, taking advice from some one who gave him safer counsel, he stayed where he was, but without doing anything.

10. For he had been assured that all those who were within the walls of the city would immediately follow him, with the intention of concealing themselves in suitable hiding-places; and if that had been done, the city, left without defenders, would have fallen into the hands of the enemy.

11. Presently, after his terror had been a little moderated, he applied himself with some activity to do what was most pressing; he cleared out the fosses which were choked up with ruins; he repaired the greater portion of the walls which, through the security engendered by a long peace, had been neglected, and had fallen into decay, and raised them again to the height of lofty towers, devoting himself zealously to the work of building. In this way the work was speedily completed, because he found that the sums which some time before had been collected for the erection of a theatre were sufficient for the purpose he was now pressing forward. And to this prudent measure he added another of like precaution, in summoning a cohort of archer cavalry from the nearest station, that it might be at hand to resist a siege should any take place.

12. By these barriers, as they may be called, the barbarians were forced to abandon their design of besieging the city, since they were not skilful in contests of this kind, and were also hampered by the burden of their booty; accordingly they turned aside to pursue Equitius. And when, from the information given them by their prisoners, they learnt that he had retired to the most remote part of Valeria, they hastened thither by forced marches, gnashing their teeth, and determined on his death, because they believed that it was through his means their innocent king had been circumvented.

13. And as they were hastening onwards with impetuous and vengeful speed, they were met by two legions, the Pannonian and the Moesian, both of approved valour, who, if they had acted in harmony, must unquestionably have come off victorious. But while they were hastening onward to attack the barbarians separately, a quarrel arose between them on the subject of their honour and dignity, which impeded all their operations.

14. And when intelligence of this dissension reached the Sarmatians, who are a most sagacious people, they, without waiting for any regular signal of battle, attacked the Moesians first; and while the soldiers, being surprised and in disorder, were slowly making ready their arms, many of them were killed; on which the barbarians with increased confidence attacked the Pannonians, and broke their line also; and when the line of battle was once disordered, they redoubled their efforts, and would have destroyed almost all of them, if some had not saved themselves from the danger of death by a precipitate flight.

15. Amid these calamitous inflictions of adverse fortune, Theodosius the younger, Duke of Moesia, then in the first bloom of youth, but afterwards a prince of the highest reputation, in many encounters defeated and vanquished the Free Sarmatians (so called to distinguish them from their rebellious slaves), who had invaded our frontier on the other side, till he exhausted them by his repeated victories; and with such vigour did he crush the assembled crowds combined to resist his arms, that he glutted the very birds and beasts with the blood of the vast numbers justly slain.

16. Those who remained having lost all their pride and spirit, fearing lest a general of such evident promptitude and courage should rout or destroy these invading battalions on the very edge of his frontier, or lay ambuscades for them in the recesses of the woods, made from time to time many vain attempts to escape, and at last, discarding all confidence in battle, they begged indulgence and pardon for their past hostility. And being thoroughly subdued, they did nothing for some time contrary to the treaty of peace, being more especially terrified because a strong force of Gallic soldiers had come to the defence of Illyricum.

17. While these events were agitating the empire, and while Claudius was prefect of the Eternal City, the Tiber, which intersects its walls, and which, after receiving the waters of many drains and copious streams, falls into the Tyrrhenian Sea, overflowed its banks, in consequence of an abundance of rain, and extending to a size beyond that of a river, overwhelmed almost everything with its flood.

18. All those parts of the city which lie in the plain were under water, and nothing reared its head above but the hills and other spots of rising ground, which seemed like islands, out of the reach of present danger. And, as the vastness of the inundation permitted of no departure in any direction to save the multitude from dying of famine, great quantities of provisions were brought in barges and boats. But when the bad weather abated, and the river which had burst its bounds returned to its accustomed channel, the citizens discarded all fear, and apprehended no inconvenience for the future.

19. Claudius, as a prefect, conducted himself very quietly, nor was any sedition in his time provoked by any real grievance. He also repaired many ancient buildings; and among his improvements he built a large colonnade contiguous to the bath of Agrippa, and gave it the name of The Colonnade of Success, because a temple bearing that title is close to it.

[176] For an account of this incantation, see Gibbon, Bohn's edition vol. iii., p. 75, note.

[177] The lines of Theognis are—

"Andr' agathon penie panton damnesi malista Kai geros poliou Kyrne, kai epialou Hen de chre pheugonta kai es megaketea ponton Rhiptein, kai petron Kyrne, kat' elibaton."

Which may be thus translated:—

"Want crushes a brave man far worse than age, O Cyrnus! or than fever's fiery rage; Flee, should thy flight beneath the greedy wave, Or from steep rocks but ope a milder grave."

[178] For the purposes of divination.

[179] This sentence is so mutilated as to be unintelligible, but is filled up by conjecture, founded on a knowledge of the facts, thus: "who was executed because he had not given up Octavian, who had been formerly proconsul of Africa, and who had taken refuge in his house when accused of some crime."

[180] The end of this chapter also is lost, as are one or two passages in the beginning of Chapter IV.

[181] Manuscript imperfect.

[182] The Dardanians were a Thracian tribe.



BOOK XXX.

ARGUMENT.

I. Para, king of Armenia, being summoned by Valens to Tarsus, and being detained there under pretence of doing him honour, escapes with three hundred of his countrymen; and having baffled the sentinels on the roads, he regains his kingdom on horseback; but not long afterwards he is slain by Duke Trajan at an entertainment.—II. The embassies of the Emperor Valens and Sapor, king of Persia, who are at variance about the kingdoms of Armenia and Hiberia.—III. Valentinian, after having ravaged several districts of the Allemanni, has a conference with their king Macrianus, and makes peace with him.—IV. Modestus, the prefect of the praetorium, diverts Valens from his purpose of sitting as a judge—A statement of the condition of the bar, of counsel learned in the law, and the different classes of advocates.—V. Valentinian, intending to wage war against the Sarmatians and the Quadi, who had been devastating Pannonia, marches into Illyricum, and having crossed the Danube, he ravages the territories of the Quadi, burns their villages, and slaughters the inhabitants, without regard to age.—VI. Valentinian, while giving answer, in a great passion, to the ambassadors of the Quadi, who are trying to excuse their countrymen, bursts a blood-vessel, and dies.—VII. Who his father was, and what was his conduct as emperor.—VIII. His cruelty, avarice, envy, and cowardice.—IX. His virtues.—X. Valentinian the younger, the son of Valentinian, is saluted as emperor in the camp at Bregetio.

I.

A.D. 374.

Sec. 1. While all these difficulties and disturbances had been caused by the perfidy of the Duke Marcellianus, in treacherously murdering the king of the Quadi, a terrible crime was committed in the East, where Para, king of Armenia was also murdered by secret treachery; the original cause of which wicked action we have ascertained to be this:—

2. Some men of perverse temperament, who delighted in public misfortune, had concocted a number of accusations against this prince for acts which they imputed to him even when scarcely grown up, and had exaggerated them to Valens. Among these men was the Duke Terentius, a man who always walked about with a downcast melancholy look, and throughout his life was an unwearied sower of discord.

3. He, having formed a combination with a few people of Para's nation, whom a consciousness of their own crimes had filled with fear, was continually harping in his letters to the court on the deaths of Cylax and Artabannes; adding also that this same young king was full of haughtiness in all his conduct, and that he behaved with excessive cruelty to his subjects.

4. In consequence of these letters, Para, as if it were intended that he should become a partaker in a treaty of which existing circumstances required ratification, was invited to court with all the ceremony to which he was entitled as a king, and then was detained at Tarsus in Cilicia, with a show of honour, without being able to procure permission to approach the emperor's camp, or to learn why his arrival had been so eagerly pressed; since on this point all around him preserved a rigid silence. At last, however, by means of private information, he learnt that Terentius was endeavouring by letter to persuade the Roman sovereign to send without delay another king to Armenia; lest, out of hatred to Para, and a knowledge of what they had to expect if he returned among them, his nation, which at present was friendly to us, should revolt to the Persians, who had long been eager to reduce them under their power either by violence, fear, or flattery.

5. Para, reflecting on this warning, foreboded grievous mischief for himself; and being a man of forethought and contrivance, as he could not perceive any means of safety, except by a speedy departure, by the advice of his most trusty friends he collected a body of 300 persons who had accompanied him from his own country, and with horses selected for especial speed, acting as men are wont to do under the pressure of great terror and perplexity, that is to say, with more boldness than prudence; late one afternoon he started boldly forth at the head of his escort, formed in one solid body.

6. And when the governor of the province, having received information from the officer who kept the gate, came with prompt energy and found him in the suburb, he earnestly entreated him to remain; but finding that he could not prevail upon him, he quitted him, for fear of his own life.

7. And not long afterwards Para, with his escort, turned back upon the legion which was pursuing him and on the point of overtaking him, and pouring arrows upon them as thick as sparks of fire, though designedly missing them, he put them to flight, filling them, tribune and all, with complete consternation, so that they returned to the city with greater speed than they left it.

8. After this, Para being released from all fear, continued his laborious and rapid journey for two days and two nights, till he reached the Euphrates; where, for want of boats, he was unable to pass the river, which at that place is full of strong currents and too deep to be forded. His men, not being skilful swimmers, were afraid to trust themselves to the stream, and he himself showed more hesitation than any of them; indeed he would have halted there altogether, if while every one was suggesting one plan or another, he had not at last hit upon the following expedient, which seemed the safest in this emergency.

9. They took a number of little beds which they found in the neighbouring houses, and supported them each on two bladders, of which there were plenty at hand in the vineyards. And then he and his nobles placed themselves each on a bed, leading their horses after them, and so floated down and across the stream; by which contrivance, after extreme danger, they at last reached the opposite bank.

10. All the rest swam their horses, and though they were terribly tossed about and often almost sunk by the eddying stream, still, though much exhausted by their wetting, they also reached the opposite bank; when having rested for a short time and refreshed themselves, they proceeded on their way, travelling further than on the previous days.

11. When this transaction became known, the emperor being greatly moved at the king's flight, fearing he would break off his alliance, sent Daniel and Barzimeres to bring him back; the one being a count, the other the tribune of the Scutarii, and he placed under their command a thousand archers prepared for a rapid march by the lightness of their equipment.

12. These officers, trusting to their acquaintance with the country, and feeling sure that Para, as a stranger who was not accustomed to it, would take a roundabout way, sought to cut him off by marking a short cut through some valleys; and having divided their forces, they blockaded the two nearest roads, which were three miles from one another, in order that whichever Para took he might be caught before he expected it. But he escaped their manoeuvre in this way:—

13. A traveller who happened to be hastening towards the western bank of the river, saw that the two roads were filled with armed soldiers, and accordingly quitted this road in order to avoid them, and made his way by an almost invisible path, which lay between them, overgrown with bushes and brambles, and fell in with the Armenians, who were by this time greatly fatigued. He was brought before the king, and, being admitted by him to a private conference, related to him secretly what he had seen, and was detained in safety.

14. And presently, without anything being done to give an idea that they were alarmed, a horseman was sent secretly to the road on the right side to prepare a resting-place and some food. And when he had been gone a little time, another was sent to the left with directions to move with great rapidity, and do the same thing; neither horseman being aware that the other had been sent in a different direction.

15. And after this arrangement had been thus cleverly made, the king himself, with his escort, retraced his steps through the jungle by which the traveller had come, taking him for his guide, and passing through this overgrown path, which was almost too narrow for a loaded horse, he left the Roman soldiers behind him and so escaped. Meanwhile our troops, who had made prisoners of the soldiers who had been thus sent out to impose upon them, waited a long time, while watching for the king, and stretching out their hands, as one may say, to seize the game which they expected would rush into them. And while they were thus waiting for the arrival of Para, he reached his kingdom in safety, where he was received with great joy by his countrymen, and still remained unshaken in his fidelity to us, burying in silence the injuries which he had received.

16. After this, Daniel and Barzimeres, having been thus balked of their prey, returned to Tarsus, and were loaded with bitter reproaches as inactive and blundering officers. But like venomous serpents whose first spring has failed, they only whetted their deadly fangs, in order at the first opportunity to inflict all the injury in their power on the king who had thus escaped them.

17. And, with a view to palliate the effect of their own mistake, or rather of the defeat their hopes, which the deeper sagacity of the king had contrived, they began to fill the emperor's ears, which were at all times most ready to receive all kinds of reports with false accusations against Para; pretending that he was skilled in Circean incantations, so as to be able to transform people, or to afflict them with sickness in a marvellous manner, adding, moreover, that it was by means of arts of this kind that he had rendered himself invisible, and that if allowed to continue changing his shape, he would cause them great trouble, if permitted to live to boast of having deceived them.

18. In this manner the hatred which Valens had conceived against him was increased to an incredible degree; and plan after plan was laid to take his life, either by force or stratagem; and orders to that effect were transmitted by secret letters to Trajan, who at that time was in Armenia, in chief command of the forces in that kingdom.

19. Trajan, accordingly, began to surround Para with treacherous blandishments—at one time showing him some letters of Valens, which appeared to indicate that he was favourably disposed towards the king—at another, partaking cheerfully of his entertainments, he at last, with great apparent respect (but in pursuance of a deliberate plot), invited him to supper. Para, fearing no hostility, came, and was placed in the seat of honour at the feast.

20. Exquisite delicacies were set before him, and the splendid palace resounded with the music of lyres and lutes. Presently, when the wine had circulated freely, the master of the feast quitted it for a moment, under pretence of some natural want, and immediately a ferocious barbarian of the troop they call Suprae[183] was sent in, brandishing a drawn sword, and with a terribly ferocious countenance, to murder the youth, against whose escape ample precautions had now been taken.

21. As soon as he saw him, the king, who as it happened was on the further side of the couch, jumped up and drew his dagger to defend his life by every means in his power, but was stabbed in the breast, and fell like a miserable victim, being shamefully cut to pieces with repeated blows.

22. By this foul contrivance was his credulity shamefully deceived at a feast which is respected even on the coast of the Euxine Sea, under the eye of the Deity of Hospitality; and the blood of a stranger and a guest was sprinkled on the splendid tablecloths, and, by its foaming gore, filled the guests with loathing, who at once dispersed in great horror. If the dead can feel sorrow or indignation, then let that illustrious Fabricius Luscinus groan at the evidence of this deed, knowing with what greatness of mind he himself repelled Demochares (or, as some call him, Nicias), the king's servant, who in a secret conference offered to poison Pyrrhus, at that time desolating Italy with cruel wars, and wrote to the king, bidding him beware of his immediate attendants: such great reverence in the first ages of antiquity was there for the rights of hospitality even when claimed by an enemy.

23. But this modern, strange, and shameful act was excused by the precedent afforded by the death of Sertorius; though the emperor's flatterers were perhaps ignorant that, as Demosthenes—the everlasting glory of Greece—affirms, an unlawful and wicked action cannot be defended by its resemblance to another crime, or by the fact that that crime met with impunity.

II.

Sec. 1. These are the transactions which especially attracted notice in Armenia; but Sapor, after the last defeat which his troops had experienced, having heard of the death of Para, whom he had been earnestly labouring to win to his own alliance, was terribly grieved; and, as the activity of our army increased his apprehensions, he began to dread still greater disasters to himself.

2. He therefore sent Arsaces as his ambassador to the emperor, to advise him utterly to destroy Armenia as a perpetual cause of trouble; or, if that plan should be decided against, asking that an end might be put to the division of Hiberia into two provinces, that the Roman garrison might be withdrawn, and that Aspacuras, whom he himself had made the sovereign of the nation, might be permitted to reign with undivided authority.

3. To this proposal, Valens replied, that he could not change the resolutions which had been agreed to by both of them; and, indeed, that he should maintain them with zealous care. Towards the end of the winter, letters were received from the king of a tenor very contrary to this noble determination of Valens, full of vain and arrogant boasting. For in them Sapor affirmed that it was impossible for the seeds of discord to be radically extirpated, unless those who had been witnesses of the peace which had been made with Julian were all collected, some of whom he knew to be already dead.

4. After this, the matter becoming a source of greater anxiety, the emperor, who was more skilful in choosing between different plans than in devising them himself, thinking that it would be beneficial to the state in general, ordered Victor, the commander of the cavalry, and Urbicius, the Duke of Mesopotamia, to march with all speed to Persia, bearing a positive and plain answer to the proposals of Sapor: namely, that he, who boasted of being a just man, and one contented with his own, was acting wickedly in coveting Armenia, after a promise had been made to its inhabitants, that they should be allowed to live according to their own laws. And unless the soldiers who had been left as auxiliaries to Sauromaces returned without hindrance at the beginning of the ensuing year, as had been agreed, he would compel Sapor by force to perform what he might at present do with a good grace.

5. And this embassy would in all respects have been a just and honourable one, if the ambassadors had not, contrary to their instructions, accepted some small districts in this same Armenia which were offered them. When the ambassadors returned, the Surena (the magistrate who enjoys an authority second only to that of the king) came with them, offering the said districts to the emperor which our ambassadors had ventured to take.

6. He was received with liberality and magnificence; but dismissed without obtaining what he requested. And then, great preparations were made for war, in order that, as soon as the severity of the winter was over, the emperor might invade Persia with three armies; and with this object he began with all speed to bargain for the services of some Scythian auxiliaries.

7. Sapor not having succeeded in obtaining what his vain hopes had led him to reckon on, and being exasperated in an extraordinary degree, because he had learnt that our emperor was preparing for an expedition, nevertheless stifled his wrath, and gave the Surena a commission to endeavour to recover by force of arms (if any one should resist him) the territories which Count Victor and Urbicius had accepted, and to press hostilities with the utmost rigour against those soldiers who had been destined to aid Sauromaces.

8. His orders were at once carried out. Nor was it found possible to prevent or resist their execution, because a new cause of alarm suddenly came on the republic; as the entire nation of the Goths suddenly burst into Thrace. The calamities which we experienced from that event shall be related succinctly in their proper places.

9. These were the occurrences which took place in the East. And while they were proceeding, as has been related, the unfailing arm of justice avenged the losses we had sustained in Africa, and the slaughter of the ambassadors of Tripoli, whose shades were still wandering about unavenged. For Justice, though a late, is yet a scrupulous and unerring discriminator between right and wrong.

10. Remigius, whom we have already spoken of as favouring Count Romanus, who had laid waste these provinces after Leo had succeeded him as master of the offices, retired from office and from public life, and devoted himself to rural pursuits in his own native district near Mayence.

11. And while he was living there in security, Maximin, the prefect of the praetorium, despising him because of his return to a tranquil life, as he was accustomed to attack everything like a terrible pestilence, set to work to do him injury by every means in his power. And, in order to hunt out all his secrets, he seized Caesarius who had formerly been a servant of his, and afterwards had become a secretary of the emperor, and put him to the question, torturing him with great severity to learn from him what Remigius had done, and how much he had received to induce him to countenance the wicked actions of Romanus.

12. But when Remigius heard this in his retreat, to which, as has been said, he had retired; being oppressed by the consciousness of his acts, or perhaps letting the dread of false accusation overpower his reason, he hanged himself.

III.

Sec. 1. The next year Gratian took Equitius as his colleague in the consulship; and Valentinian, after desolating some cantons of the Allemanni, was building a fortress near Basle, which the natives of the country call Robur, when a report was brought to him from the prefect Probus with an account of the disasters which had taken place in Illyricum.

2. He read them with a very careful examination, as became a prudent general; and then being filled with anxious thoughts, he sent his secretary, Paternianus, to that country, to inquire minutely into the whole details of the affair. And, as he soon received from him a true account of all that had taken place, he prepared to repair thither himself with all speed, in order to overwhelm with the first crash of his arms (such was his idea) the barbarians who had dared to pollute our frontier.

3. But, because, as it was now the end of autumn, there were many serious difficulties in the way, all the nobles in the palace pressed him earnestly to allow the time between that and the beginning of spring to be spent in embassies and conferences. Reminding him, in the first place, that the roads were all impassable through frost—that it was impossible to find herbage to feed the cattle, or anything else that would be useful. In the next place, they dwelt on the ferocity of the chieftains who lay nearest to Gaul, and especially of Macrianus whom they greatly dreaded, as it was quite certain that he was no friend to us, and was inclined to attack even the fortified cities.

4. By recapitulating these arguments, and adding others of great weight, they brought the emperor to adopt a wiser plan; and immediately (as was best for the commonwealth) King Macrianus was invited in courteous terms to come to Mayence; and the event proved that he also was well inclined to make a treaty. When he arrived, however, it was marvellous how proud and arrogant he was, as if he were to be the supreme arbiter of the peace. And on a day appointed for a conference he came, carrying himself very loftily, to the very brink of the Rhine, and escorted by a number of his countrymen, who made a great clang with their shields.

5. On the other hand, the emperor, having embarked in a boat, such as is used on that river, and likewise escorted by a strong force, came with great confidence up to the eastern bank, being conspicuous through the brilliancy of his glittering standards; and when the frantic gestures and murmurs of the barbarians had been quieted, a long discussion took place on both sides, and at last a firm friendship was agreed on, and ratified with an oath.

6. When this was over, the king, who had been the cause of all these troubles, retired, quite pacified, and destined to prove an ally to us for the future; indeed, he afterwards, to the very end of his life, gave proof of his constancy and resolution to preserve his agreement with us, by many noble and gallant actions.

7. But subsequently he died in the country of the Franks, which he had invaded and ravaged in a most destructive manner, till at last he was cut off by the manoeuvres of Mellobaudes, the warlike king of that nation, and slain. After the treaty had thus been solemnly ratified, Valentinian retired into winter quarters, at Treves.

IV.

Sec. 1. These were the events which took place in Gaul and the northern countries. But in the east, while all our foreign affairs were quiet, great domestic evils were increasing in consequence of the conduct of the friends and relations of Valens, who had more regard to expediency than honesty; for they laboured with the utmost diligence to bring about the recall from his post a judge of rigid probity, who was fond of deciding lawsuits equitably, out of a fear lest, as in the times of Julian, when Innocence was allowed a fair opportunity of defending itself, the pride of the powerful nobles, which was accustomed to roam at large with unrestrained licence, might again be broken down.

2. With these and similar objects a great number of persons conspired together, being led by Modestus, the prefect of the praetorium, who was a complete slave to the wishes of the emperor's eunuchs, and who, under a specious countenance, concealed a rough disposition which had never been polished by any study of ancient virtue or literature, and who was continually asserting that to look into the minute details of private actions was beneath the dignity of the emperor. He thinking, as he said, that the examination of such matters had been imposed on the nobles to lower their dignity, abstained from all such matters himself, and opened the doors to plunder; which doors are now daily more and more opened by the depravity of the judges and advocates, who are all of the same mind, and who sell the interests of the poor to the military commanders, or the persons of influence within the palace, by which conduct they themselves have gained riches and high rank.

3. This profession of forensic oratory the wisdom of Plato defines to be politikes moriou eidolon, "the shadow of a fraction of the art of government," or a fourth part of the art of flattery. But Epicurus calls it kakotechnia, reckoning it among the wicked arts. Tisias, who has Gorgias of Leontinum on his side, calls the orator an artist of persuasion.

4. And while such has been the opinion formed of this art by the ancients, the craft of some of the Eastern people has put it forward so as to make it an object of hatred to good men, on which account an orator it is sometimes restricted to a limited time for speaking.[184] Therefore, after saying a few words about its unworthy character, as I found by experience while in those countries, I will return to my original subject.

5. The tribunals, in former times, when good taste prevailed, were greatly adorned by our advocates, when orators of spirited eloquence—laborious and accomplished scholars—shone pre-eminent in genius, honesty, fluency, and every kind of embellishment of language. As Demosthenes, who, as we learn from the Athenian records, whenever he was going to speak, drew together a vast concourse of people from the whole of Greece, who assembled for the sake of hearing him; and Callistratus, who, when summing up his noble pleading on the subject of Oropus in Euboea, produced such an impression that that same Demosthenes quitted the academy, at the time when Plato was at its head, to become his follower. And Hyperides, and AEschines, and Andocides, and Dinarchus, and Antiphon the Rhamnusian, who is the first man spoken of in ancient history as having received a fee for pleading a cause.

6. And similarly among the Romans, the Rutilii, and Galbae, and Scauri, men of eminent reputation for purity of life and manners, and for frugality; and in the succeeding generations, many men of censorian and consular rank, and even many who had celebrated triumphs, such as the Crassi, the Antonii, the Philipii, the Scaevolae, and numbers of others, after having commanded armies with glory, gained victories, and raised trophies, became eminent also for their civil services to the State, and won fresh laurels by their noble contests at the bar, thus reaping the highest honour and glory.

7. And after them Cicero, the most excellent of them all, who repeatedly saved many who were in distress from the scorching flames of judgment by the stream of his imperious eloquence, used to affirm "that if men could not be defended without their advocate incurring blame, they certainly could not be carelessly defended without his being guilty of crime."

8. But now throughout all the regions of the East one may see the most violent and rapacious classes of men hovering about the courts of law, and besieging the houses of the rich like Spartan or Cretan hounds, cunningly pursuing different traces, in order to create the occasion of a lawsuit.

9. Of these the chief is that tribe of men who, sowing every variety of strife and contest in thousands of actions, wear out the doorposts of widows and the thresholds of orphans, and create bitter hatred among friends, relations, or connections, who have any disagreement, if they can only find the least pretext for a quarrel. And in these men, the progress of age does not cool their vices as it does those of others, but only hardens and strengthens them. And amid all their plunder they are insatiable and yet poor, whetting the edge of their genius in order by their crafty orations to catch the ear of the judges, though the very title of those magistrates is derived from the name of Justice.

10. In the pertinacity of these men rashness assumes the disguise of freedom—headlong audacity seeks to be taken for constancy, and an empty fluency of language usurps the name of eloquence—by which perverse arts, as Cicero tells us, it is a shame for the holy gravity of a judge be deceived. For he says, "And as nothing in a republic ought to be so incorruptible as a suffrage or a sentence, I do not understand why the man who corrupts such things with money is to be esteemed worthy of punishment, while he who perverts them by eloquence receives commendation. In fact, the latter appears to me to do the most harm, it being worse to corrupt a judge by a speech than by a bribe, inasmuch as no one can corrupt a wise man with a bribe, though it is possible that he may with eloquence."

11. There is a second class of those men who, professing the science of the law, especially the interpretation of conflicting and obsolete statutes, as if they had a bridle placed in their mouths, keep a resolute silence, in which they rather resemble their shadows than themselves. These, like those men who cast nativities or interpret the oracles of the sibyl, compose their countenances to a sort of gravity, and then make money of their supine drowsiness.

12. And that they may appear to have a more profound knowledge of the laws, they speak of Trebatius,[185] and Cascellius, and Alfenus, and of the laws of the Aurunci and Sicani, which have long become obsolete, and have been buried ages ago with the mother of Evander. And if you should pretend to have deliberately murdered your mother, they will promise you that there are many cases recorded in abstruse works which will secure your acquittal, if you are rich enough to pay for it.

13. There is a third class of these men, who, to arrive at distinction in a turbulent profession, sharpen their mercenary mouths to mystify the truth, and by prostituting their countenances and their vile barking, work their way with the public. These men, whenever the judge is embarrassed and perplexed, entangle the matter before him with further difficulties, and take pains to prevent any arrangement, carefully involving every suit in knotty subtleties. When these courts, however, go on rightly, they are temples of equity; but when they are perverted they are hidden and treacherous pitfalls, and if any person falls into them, he will not escape till after many years have elapsed, and till he himself has been sucked dry to his very marrow.

14. There is a fourth and last class, impudent, saucy, and ignorant, consisting of those men who, having left school too early, run about the corners of cities, giving more time to farces than to the study of actions and defences, wearing out the doors of the rich, and hunting for the luxuries of banquets and rich food.

15. And when they have given themselves up to gains, and to the task of hunting for money by every means, they incite men, on any small pretence whatever, to go to law; and if they are permitted to defend a cause, which but seldom happens, it is not till they are before the judge, while the pleadings are being recited, that they begin to inquire into the cause of the client, or even into his name; and then they so overflow with a heap of unarranged phrases and circumlocutions, that from the noise and jabber of the vile medley you would fancy you were listening to Thersites.

16. But when it happens that they have no single allegation they can establish, they then resort to an unbridled licence of abuse; for which conduct they are continually brought to trial themselves, and convicted, when they have poured ceaseless abuse upon people of honour; and some of these men are so ignorant that they do not appear ever to have read any books.

17. And if in a company of learned men the name of any ancient author is ever mentioned, they fancy it to be some foreign name of a fish or other eatable. And if any stranger asks (we will say) for Marcianus, as one with whom he is as yet unacquainted, they all at once pretend that their name is Marcianus.

18. Nor do they pay the slightest attention to what is right; but as if they had been sold to and become the property of Avarice, they know nothing but a boundless licence in asking. And if they catch any one in their toils, they entangle him in a thousand meshes, pretending sickness by way of protracting the consultations. And to produce an useless recital of some well-known law, they prepare seven costly methods of introducing it, thus weaving infinite complications and delays.

19. And when at last days and months and years have been passed in these proceedings, and the parties to the suit are exhausted, and the whole matter in dispute is worn out with age, then these men, as if they were the very heads of their profession, often introduce sham advocates along with themselves. And when they have arrived within the bar, and the fortune or safety of some one is at stake, and they ought to labour to ward off the sword of the executioner from some innocent man, or calamity and ruin, then, with wrinkled brows, and arms thrown about with actor-like gestures, so that they want nothing but the flute of Gracchus at their back,[186] then they keep silence for some time on both sides; and at last, after a scene of premeditated collusion, some plausible preamble is pronounced by that one of them who is most confident in his power of speaking, and who promises an oration which shall rival the beauties of the oration for Cluentius[187] or for Ctesiphon.[188] And then, when all are eager for him to make an end, he concludes his preamble with a statement that the chief advocates have as yet only had three years since the commencement of the suit to prepare themselves to conduct it; and so obtains an adjournment, as if they had to wrestle with the ancient Antaeus, while still they resolutely demand the pay due for their arduous labours.

20. And yet, in spite of all these things, advocates are not without some inconveniences, which are hard to be endured by one who would live uprightly. For being allured by small gains, they quarrel bitterly among themselves, and offend numbers by the insane ferocity of their evil speaking, which they pour forth when they are unable to maintain the weakness of the case intrusted to them by any sound reasoning.

21. And sometimes the judges prefer persons who have been instructed in the quibbles of Philistion or AEsop, to those who come from the school of Aristides the Just, or of Cato—men who, having bought public offices for large sums of money, proceed like troublesome creditors to hunt out every one's fortune, and so shake booty for themselves out of the laps of others.

22. Finally, the profession of a lawyer, besides other things, has in it this, which is most especially formidable and serious (and this quality is almost innate in all litigants), namely that when, through one or other out of a thousand accidents, they have lost their action, they fancy that everything which turned out wrong was owing to the conduct of their counsel, and they usually attribute the loss of every suit to him, and are angry, not with the weakness of their case or (as they often might be) with the partiality of the judge, but only with their advocate. Let us now return to the affairs from which we have thus digressed.

V.

A.D. 375.

Sec. 1. At the beginning of the spring Valentinian quitted Treves, and proceeded by rapid marches along the usual high roads. And as he approached the districts to which he was hastening, he was met by ambassadors from the Sarmatians, who threw themselves at his feet, and, with prayers, breathing no wish but for peace, entreated him to be favourable and merciful to them, assuring him that he would not find any of their countrymen implicated in or privy to any evil action.

2. And when they had frequently repeated this assertion, he, after careful deliberation, made answer to them, that these matters must be diligently inquired into by an accurate investigation in the district where they were said to have happened, and if they had happened, then they must be punished. After this, when he had reached Carnuntum, a city of the Illyrians, now indeed in a desolate and ruinous state, but still very convenient for the general of an army, he from thence sallied out whenever either chance or skill afforded him an opportunity; and by the possession of this post in their neighbourhood, he checked the inroads of the barbarians.

3. And although he alarmed all people in that district, since it was expected that, as a man of active and impetuous feelings, he would speedily command the judges to be condemned through whose perfidy or desertion the empire had been left undefended on the side of the Pannonians, yet when he did arrive he was so lukewarm in the business that he neither inquired into the death of the king Gabricius, nor did he make any accurate investigation into the calamities which the republic had sustained, with a view to learning through whose misconduct or negligence these events had taken place; so that in fact, in proportion as he was severe in punishing his common soldiers, he was remiss in correcting (even by harsh words) those of higher rank.

4. The only person whom he pursued with any especial hatred was Probus; whom from the first moment that he saw him he never ceased to threaten, and to whom he never softened; and the causes of this animosity against him were not obscure nor trivial. When Probus first obtained the rank of prefect of the praetorium, the power of which he was continually labouring to extend by all kinds of means (I wish I could say by all lawful means), he forgot the lessons which he might have learnt from his illustrious descent, and devoted himself more to flattery than to modesty.

5. For reflecting on the resolution of the emperor, who considered nothing but how he might amass money from all quarters, without any distinction between just and unjust actions; he never attempted to lead back the misguided prince into the path of equity, as mild and wise rulers often have done; but rather followed his lead through all his winding and tortuous paths.

6. And to this conduct were owing the heavy distresses which afflicted the emperor's subjects; the ruinous titles, privileges, and exemptions, which alike ate up the fortunes of poor and rich; under different pretexts which were produced, each more powerful than the other, as the fruit of a long experience in injuring. Lastly, the burdens of all tributes and taxes were augmented in a manifold degree; and drove some of the highest nobles from fear of the worst to emigrate from their homes; some also after being drained to the utmost by the cruelty of the revenue officers, as they really had nothing more to give, were thrown into prison, of which they became permanent inmates. And some, becoming weary of life and light, sought a release from their miseries by hanging themselves.

7. Unvarying report made known the treacherous and inhuman character of these transactions; but Valentinian, as if his ears had been stopped with wax, was ignorant of the report, being eager to acquire money indiscriminately, even from the most trivial sources, and thinking only of what was presented to him; though he would perhaps have spared the Pannonian provinces, if he had earlier known of these melancholy sources of gain with which he became acquainted when it was too late, owing to the following occurrence:—

8. Following the example of the inhabitants of other provinces, the people of Epirus were compelled by the prefect to send envoys to thank him, and a certain philosopher named Iphicles, a man of tried courage and magnanimity (who was very unwilling to undertake the commission), was elected to discharge that duty.

9. And when he saw the emperor, having been recognized by him and questioned as to the cause of his arrival, he answered in Greek; and, like a philosopher who professed himself a votary of truth, when the prince inquired more precisely, if those who had sent him did really think well of the prefect, he replied, that they had sent him against their will, and with bitter groans.

10. The emperor, stricken by this speech as by an arrow, now investigated his actions like a sagacious beast, inquiring of him, in his own language, about different persons whom he knew: for instance, where was this man or that man (mentioning some one of high reputation and honour, or some very rich man, or some other person well known as having filled some high office). And when he learnt that this man had been hanged, that that one had been banished beyond the seas, and that a third had killed himself or had expired under torture, he became furiously angry, while Leo, who was at that time master of the offices, added fuel to his passion—O shameful villany! Leo, it should be borne in mind, was at this very time secretly aiming at the prefecture; and had he obtained that office and authority, he would undoubtedly have governed with such audacity, that the administration of Probus would in comparison have been extolled as a model of justice and humanity.

11. So the emperor remained at Carnuntum; and during the three summer months he occupied himself uninterruptedly in preparing arms and magazines, in the hope that chance might afford him a good opportunity of making use of them; intending to take a favourable season for attacking the Quadi, who had lately caused an atrocious disturbance; since in their chief town, Faustinus, the nephew of Juventius, the prefect of the praetorium, who had attained the rank of military secretary, was tortured and then put to death by the executioners, under the very eyes of Probus; having been accused of slaying an ass in some magical operation, as his enemies asserted; but he himself said it was to use for strengthening his hair, which was beginning to fall off.

12. Another charge was also maliciously brought against him, namely, that when a person of the name of Nigrinus had in jest asked him to make him a secretary, he replied in ridicule of the man and his petition, "Make me emperor if you wish to obtain that." And because some gave an unfair interpretation to this jest, Faustinus himself, and Nigrinus, and several other persons were put to death.

13. Accordingly, having sent forward Merobaudes with a strong force of infantry under his command, and Sebastian for his colleague, to ravage the districts of the barbarians with fire and sword, Valentinian speedily moved his camp to Buda; and having with great rapidity made a bridge of boats in order to guard against any sudden mishap, he crossed the river in another place and entered the territories of the Quadi, who from their precipitous mountains were watching for his approach; the main body of their nation, in their perplexity and uncertainty of what might happen, had taken refuge with their families in those hills; but were overwhelmed with consternation when they unexpectedly saw the imperial standards in their country.

14. Valentinian advanced with as much rapidity as he could, slaughtering every one of whatever age whom his sudden inroad surprised straggling about the country, and after burning all their dwellings, he returned safe without having experienced the slightest loss. And then, as autumn was now on the wane, he stopped awhile at Buda, seeking where best to fix his winter quarters in a region subject to very rigorous frost. And he could not find any suitable place except Sabaria, though that town was at the time in a very bad state of defence, having been ruined by frequent sieges.

15. Accordingly when he reached this place, though it was one of great consequence to him, he remained there but a very short time; and having left it, he marched along the bank of the river, which he strengthened with several forts and castles, and manned them with adequate garrisons. He then proceeded to Bregitio; and in that town, after settling down there in quiet, his Destiny, by numerous prodigies, portended to him his approaching fate.

16. For a very few days before some of those comets, which ever give token of the ruins of lofty fortunes, and of which we have already explained the origin, appeared in the heavens. Also, a short time before, a thunderbolt fell at Sirmium, accompanied with a terrific clap of thunder, and set fire to a portion of the palace and senate-house: and much about the same time an owl settled on the top of the royal baths at Sabaria, and pouring forth a funeral strain, withstood all the attempts to slay it with arrows or stones, however truly aimed, and though numbers of people shot at it in diligent rivalry.

17. And again, when the emperor was quitting the city to return to the camp, he set out to leave it by the same gate by which he had entered it, with the object of obtaining an augury that he should speedily return to Gaul. But the spot through neglect had become choked up with ruins; and when they were cleaning it out they found that the door, which had originally closed the entrance, had fallen down: and a great multitude of people, though labouring with all their might, were unable to remove it; so that after waiting the greater part of the day there, he was obliged at last to go out by another gate.

18. And on the night preceding the day on which he died, he saw in a dream, such as often visits a man in his sleep, his absent wife sitting by, with dishevelled hair, and clad in a mourning robe; which some people fancied was Fortune, who was about in this sad apparel to take her leave of him.

19. After this, when he came forth in the morning, his brow was contracted, and his countenance somewhat melancholy; and when his horse was brought to him, it would not let him mount, but reared up its forefeet over the shoulders of the equerry who was holding it. Valentinian, according to the usual bent of his savage temper, grew immoderately furious, and ordered the equerry's hand to be cut off, which had, he said, pushed him aside when mounting a horse he was used to: and the innocent youth would have perished under torture if Cerealis, the principal master of the horse, had not delayed the barbarous infliction at his own risk.

VI.

Sec. 1. After this event ambassadors arrived from the Quadi, with humble supplications, entreating peace, and oblivion of the past: and that there might be no obstacle to their obtaining this, they promised to furnish a body of recruits, and some other things which would be of use to the Roman state.

2. And after they had been received, and had obtained permission to return with the grant of an armistice which they had solicited (but in truth, our want of supplies and the unfavourable season of the year prevented us from harassing them any longer), they were, by the influence of Equitius, who became security for their good behaviour, admitted into the council-chamber. When introduced they seemed quite overcome by fear, bowing down to the ground; and on being ordered to unfold their message, they urged all the customary pretences and excuses, confirming them by an oath; assuring the council that whatever offence had been committed against any of our people, had not been done by the consent of the nobles of the nation, but only by some foreign banditti who dwelt on the borders of the river; they added further, as a fact quite sufficient to establish the truth of their allegations, that the fortress which had been begun to be built both unjustly and unreasonably, had inflamed the savage temper of those rude men to a great pitch of ferocity.

3. By this speech the emperor was excited to most vehement wrath; and as he began to reply to it he grew more indignant, reproaching the whole nation in bitter language, as unmindful of kindness, and ungrateful. But after a time he became pacified, and inclined to a milder view of the case, when suddenly, as if he had been stricken from heaven, his breathing and his voice ceased, and his countenance appeared bloodshot, and in a moment the blood burst forth, and a deadly sweat broke forth over his whole body; and to save him from falling down in the sight of a number of low-born persons, he was led by his servants into one of the private chambers in the interior of the palace.

4. When he was placed on his bed, breathing with difficulty, though the vigour of his intellect was not as yet at all diminished, he recognized those who stood around, having been collected by the chamberlains with great promptitude, to prevent any of them being suspected of having murdered him. And as on account of the fever which was racking his bowels it was necessary to open a vein, yet no surgeon could be found, because he had dispersed them all over different districts to cure the soldiers among whom a dangerous pestilence was raging.

5. At last, however, one was procured; but though he punctured a vein over and over again, he could not produce a single drop of blood, while all the time his bowels were burning with the intensity of his fever; or (as some fancied) because his limbs were wholly dried up in consequence of some of the passages, which we now call haemorrhoidal, were closed up and crusted over through the severity of the cold.

6. The emperor, from the exceeding violence of his agony, felt that the moment of his death was at hand; and attempted to say something, and to give some orders, as was indicated by a sobbing, which shook his whole frame, a gnashing of the teeth, and a series of violent gestures with his arms, resembling those of boxers with the caestus: at last he became exhausted, and covered all over with livid spots, and after a severe struggle he expired, in the fifty-fifth year of his age, having reigned twelve years all but a hundred days.

VII.

Sec. 1. This is a seasonable opportunity to do as we have often done before, namely, to retrace from the original appearance of the father of this emperor down to the time of his own death, all his actions, just touching on them cursorily with a brief mention, not omitting to distinguish between his vices and his virtues, both of which his lofty position held up to the world; being a condition which naturally reveals the inward disposition of every man.

2. The elder Gratian was born at Cibalae, a town of Pannonia, of a mean family; and from his childhood he received the surname of Funarius, because, while still very young, while he was carrying about a rope (funem) for sale, he resisted the attempt of five soldiers who laboured with all their might to take it from him: thus rivalling Milo of Crotona, from whom no amount of strength could ever wrest an apple, whether he held it in his right or his left hand.

3. Therefore, on account of his exceeding personal strength, and his skill in wrestling after the military fashion, he became well known to many persons, was promoted to the rank of an officer of the guard, then to the post of tribune: after this he was made count, and sent to command the forces in Africa: but there he was suspected of theft; and having quitted that province, he was some time afterwards sent to command the army in Britain, with the same authority which he had enjoyed in Africa. At length he received an honourable discharge from military service, and returned home; and while living there in quiet, he suddenly had all his property confiscated by Constantius, on the ground that, when the civil discord was at its height, he was said to have received Magnentius as a guest when passing through his land to carry his designs into execution.

4. The merits of Gratian brought Valentinian into notice from his early youth; and, indeed, he was further aided by his own eminent qualities; so that he received the ornaments of the imperial majesty at Nicaea; when he also made his brother Valens his colleague, as one bound to him not only by his relationship as a brother, but also by the most perfect agreement—Valens, as we shall show at a suitable time, being made up almost equally of vices and of virtues.

5. Therefore Valentinian, after having experienced many dangers and much distress as a private individual, as soon as he began to reign went to visit the towns and cities which were situated on the rivers; and repaired to Gaul, which was exposed to the inroads of the Allemanni, who had begun to recover their courage and to reassume an imposing attitude since they had heard of the death of the Emperor Julian—the only prince whom they had feared since the time of Constans.

6. And Valentinian was deservedly dreaded by them because he took care to keep up the numbers of his army by strong reinforcements, and because also he fortified both banks of the Rhine with lofty fortresses and castles, to prevent the enemy from ever passing over into our territory without being perceived.

7. We may pass over many circumstances, and many acts which he performed with the authority of an emperor whose power was fully established, and many of the reforms which he either effected himself, or caused to be carried out by his vigorous lieutenants. But we must record how, after he had raised his son Gratian to a partnership in the imperial authority, he contrived the secret murder of Vithigabius, the king of the Allemanni, and the son of Vadomarius, a young man in the flower of youth, who was actively stirring up the surrounding nations to tumults and wars; doing this because he found it impossible to procure his death openly. How also he fought a battle against the Allemanni near Solicinium, where he was nearly circumvented and slain by the manoeuvres of the enemy; but where at last he utterly destroyed their whole army with the exception of a few who saved themselves by the aid of the darkness which assisted the rapidity of their flight.

8. Amid all these prudent actions he also turned his attention to the Saxons who had lately broken out with extreme ferocity, making attacks in every direction where they were least expected, and had now penetrated into the inland districts, from which they were returning enriched by a vast booty. He destroyed them utterly by a device which was indeed treacherous, but most advantageous; and he recovered by force all the booty which the defeated robbers were carrying off.

9. Nor did he disregard the condition of the Britons, who were unable to make head against the vast hosts of their enemies, who were overrunning their country; he revived their hopes of better fortune, and re-established liberty and steady tranquillity among them; routing their invaders so completely that scarcely any of them returned to their own country.

10. With similar vigour he crushed Valentinus the Pannonian exile (who was labouring to disturb the general tranquillity in that province), before his enterprise could become dangerous. He also delivered Africa from great dangers at a time when it was thrown into confusion by an unexpected disaster: when Firmus, unable to bear the greediness and arrogance of the soldiers, was exciting the people of Mauritania to every kind of discord and disturbance. With similar resolution would he have avenged the disasters sustained in Illyricum, had he not left that important duty uncompleted, in consequence of being thus cut off by a premature death.

11. And although these various achievements, which we have here recorded, were consummated by the assistance of his admirable generals, yet it is very notorious that he himself also performed many considerable exploits; being a man fertile in resources, and of long experience and great skill in military affairs: and certainly it would have been an admirable crown to his great actions if he had been able to take King Macrianus alive, who at that time was a very formidable sovereign; nevertheless he exerted great energy in attempting to do so, after he heard that he had escaped from the Burgundians, whom he himself had led against the Allemanni; and the certainty of his escape was to him a cause of great sorrow and indignation.