After Marcellus had been worsted, as I have said, and had returned to Serdica,Modern Sophia, Bulgaria. his native place, in the camp of Augustus, under pretext of upholding his imperial majesty, many abominable acts were committed.

For if anyone consulted a soothsayer about the squeaking of a shrew-mouse, the meeting with a weasel on the way, or any like portent, or used some old wife’s charm to relieve pain (a thing which even medical authority allows), he was indicted (from what source he could not guess), was haled into court, and suffered death as the penalty.

At about that time a certain slave, Danus by name, was accused by his wife on trifling charges merely to intimidate him; this woman was approached by Rufinus, who had come to know her in some way or other. He was the man who had given certain information that he had learned through Gaudentius, one of the agents,See note 2, p. 98. and had caused the death of Africanus, then governor-general of Pannonia, along with his guests, as I have related;xv. 3, 7. he was even then, because of his obsequiousness, chief steward of the praetorian prefecture.

This Rufinus (as he kept boastfully saying) led the fickle woman, first into shameful relations with him, and then into a dangerous deceit; he induced her by a tissue of lies to charge her guiltless husband with high treason, and to allege that he had stolen a purple robe from Diocletian’s tomb and with several accomplices was concealing it.

And having thus framed these matters to the destruction of many persons, Rufinus himself, in hope of greater profit, flies to the emperor’s camp, to stir up his customary scandals. And when the fact was divulged, Mavortius, then praetorian prefect, a man of high resolution, was bidden to look into the charge with a keen investigation, having associated with him, to hear the case in common, Ursulus, count of the largesses,See Introd., pp. xl f. likewise a man of praiseworthy severity.

So when the affair had been exaggerated, after the standard of the times, and after the torture of many persons nothing was discovered, and the judges were hesitating in perplexity, at last truth, crushed to earth, breathed again, and at the point of necessity the woman confessed that Rufinus was the contriver of the whole plot, and did not even keep back the shame of her adultery. And at once the laws were consulted and the judges, unanimous in their love of right and justice, condemned them both to death.

Constantius, on learning this, raged and lamented, as if the defender of his own life had perished; he sent fast horsemen and commanded Ursulus in threatening terms to return to the court. And when he had come there and wished to approach the emperor, the courtiers tried to keep him from being able to appear in defence of the truth. But he, scorning those who would hold him back, burst through fearlessly and, entering the council-chamber, with frank speech and bold heart told what had been done; and by this confidence having stopped the mouths of the flatterers, he delivered both the prefect and himself from a grave danger.

Then a thing happened in Aquitania which fame bruited more widely abroad. A crafty old fellow who was invited to a sumptuous and elegant banquet, such as are very frequent in that country, noticed that the purple borders of the linen couch-covers were so very broad that the skill of the attendants made them seem all one piece, and that the table was covered with similar cloths; and by turning the front part of his cloak inward with both hands, he so adorned its whole structure, that it resembled an emperor’s garmentThe veterator showed that the table decorations could be used for an imperial cloak, and implied that they had been so used. ; and this action ruined a rich estate.

With like malice a certain member of the secret service in Spain, who also was invited to a dinner, when he heard the slaves who were bringing in the evening lights cry (as the manner is): May we conquer,I.e. the darkness, a formula at lighting up; cf. Varro, vi. 4, Graeci quoque, cum lumen affertur, solent dicere φῶς ἀγαθόν; perun (see crit. note) may possibly be for pereundum est nocti. gave the expression a serious meaning, and wickedly destroyed a noble house.Vincamus was interpreted as referring to some plot.

These and similar actions kept growing more and more common, for the reason that Constantius, who was excessively timid and fearful for his life, always anticipated that a knife was at his throat, like that famous Sicilian despot, Dionysius, who because of that same infirmity actually taught his daughters to be barbers, in order that he might not trust the shaving of his cheeks to an outsider; and he surrounded the little house in which he used to sleep, with a deep trench and spanned it with a knockdown bridge,That is, a bridge which could be taken apart. the planks and pins of which he took apart and carried with him when he went off to bed; and reassembled them at daybreak, when he was on his way out.