in Pisonem

And that into such doings strict investigation was made no man of good sense will find fault. For we do not deny that the safety of a lawful prince, the protector and defender of good men, on whom depends the safety of others, ought to be safeguarded by the united diligence of all men; and in order to uphold him the more strongly when his violated majesty is defended, the Cornelian lawsOn the Cornelian Laws (Lex Cornelia maiestatis), see Cicero in Pisonem, 21. They were emended and enlarged by Julius Caesar as the Lex Iuliua maiestatis. exempted no one of whatever estate from examination by torture, even with the shedding of blood.See Cod. Theod. ix., Tit. 35, in maiestatis crimine omnibus aequa est condicio.

But it is not seemly for a prince to rejoice beyond measure in such sorrowful events, lest his subjects should seem to be ruled by despotism rather than by lawful power. And the example of Tully ought to be followed, who, when it was in his power to spare or to harm, as he himself tells us,A fragment of Cicero preserved only by Ammianus; perhaps from the Oratio Metellina (Cic., ad Att. 1, 13, 5). sought excuses for pardoning rather than opportunities for punishing; and that is the province of a mild and considerate official.

At that same time in Daphne, that charming and magnificent suburb of Antioch, a portent was born, horrible to see and to report: an infant, namely, with two heads, two sets of teeth, a beard, four eyes and two very small ears; and this misshapen birth foretold that the state was turning into a deformed condition.

Portents of this kind often see the light, as indications of the outcome of various affairs; but as they are not expiated by public rites, as they were in the time of our forefathers, they pass by unheard of and unknown.

In these days the Isaurians, who had long been quiet after the acts of which an account is given aboveSee xiv. 2, 1 ff. and the attempted siege of the city of Seleucia, gradually coming to life again just as snakes are wont to dart forth from their holes in the spring time, sallying forth from their rocky and inaccessible mountain fastnesses, and massed together in dense bands, were harrying their neighbours with thefts and brigandage, eluding the frontier-defences of our soldiers by their skill as mountaineers and from experience easily running over rocks and through thickets.

In order to quiet them by force or by reason, Lauricius was sent as governor with the added rank of count; being a man skilled in statesmanship, he corrected many evils by threats rather than by actual severity, so that for a long time, while he governed the province, nothing occurred which was thought deserving of punishment.

Book XX

Such was the course of events throughout Illyricum and the Orient. But in Britain in the tenth consulship of Constantius and the third of Julian raids of the savage tribes of the Scots and the Picts, who had broken the peace that had been agreed upon, were laying waste the regions near the frontiers, so that fear seized the provincials, wearied as they were by a mass of past calamities. And Julian, who was passing the winter in Paris and was distracted amid many cares, was afraid to go to the aid of those across the sea, as Constans once did (as I have told),In one of the lost books; it was in 343. for fear of leaving Gaul without a ruler at a time when the Alamanni were already roused to rage and war.

Therefore he decided that Lupicinus,Cf. xviii. 2, 7. who was at that time commander-in-chief, should be sent to settle the troubles either by argument or by force; he was indeed a warlike man and skilled in military affairs, but one who raised his brows like hornsCf. xvi. 10, 12, elatus in arduum supercilium. and ranted in the tragic buskin (as the saying is), and about whom men were long in doubt whether he was more covetous or more cruel.

Therefore, taking the light-armed auxiliaries, to wit the Aeruli,A tribe of Gothic origin which settled in Gaul; associated with the Batavi also in xx, 4, 2; xxvii. 8, 7. the Batavians, and two companies of Moesians, in the dead of winter the leader aforesaid came to Boulogne, and after procuring ships and embarking all his troops, he waited for a favourable breeze and then sailed to Richborough, which lay opposite, and went on to London, intending there to form his plans according to the situation of affairs and hasten quickly to take the field.

While this was going on, Ursicinus, after the storming of Amida, had returned to the emperor’s service as commander of the infantry; for, as I have said, he succeeded Barbatio.See xviii. 5, 5. There he was met by detractors, who at first spread whispered slanders, then openly added false charges.

These the emperor, since he judged most matters according to his prejudices and was ready to listen to secret attackers, took seriously and appointed Arbitio and Florentius,Son of Nigrinianus; of. xv. 5, 12. master of the offices, to investigate as judges the reasons for the destruction of Amida.

These men rejected the evident and plausible reasons, and fearing that Eusebius, then head chamberlain, would take offence if they admitted evidence which clearly showed that what had happened was the result of the persistent inaction of Sabinianus, they turned from the truth and examined into trivial matters far remote from the business in hand.

The accused, exasperated at this injustice, said: Although the emperor despises me, the importance of the present business is such, that it cannot be examined into and punished, except by the judgement of the prince; yet let him know, as if from the words of a seer, that so long as he grieves over what he has learned on no good authority to have happened at Amida, and so long as he is swayed by the will of eunuchs, not even he in person with all the flower of his army will be able next spring to prevent the dismemberment of Mesopotania.

When this had been reported and much had been added in a malicious light, Constantius was angered beyond measure; and without sifting the matter or allowing the details of which he was ignorant to be explained, he ordered the victim of the calumnies to give up his command in the army and go into retirement. And by an extraordinary advancement Agilo, a former tribune of the household troops and of the targeteers,See xiv. 7, 9, note 3. was promoted to his place.

At that same time, throughout the regions of the East the heaven was seen to be overcast with dark mist, through which the stars were visible continually from the first break of day until noon. It was an additional cause of terror when the light of heaven was hidden and its orb removed utterly from the sight of the world, that the timorous minds of men thought that the darkening of the sun lasted too long;I.e. that the sun had disappeared for good and all. but it thinned out at first into the form of the crescent moon, then growing to the shape of the half-moon, and was finally fully restored.

This phenomenon never takes place so clearly as when the moon, after its shifting courses,See note 2, p. 10, § 4, below. brings back its monthly journey to the same starting-point after fixed intervals of time; that is to say, when the entire moon,I.e. the full moon; cf. § 7, below. in the abode of the same sign of the zodiac, is found in a perfectly straight line directly under the sun, and for a brief time stands still in the minute points which the science of geometry calls parts of parts.I.e. parts of degrees, or minutes; cf. Pliny, N.H. ii. 48, scripulis partium.

And although the revolutions and movements of both heavenly bodies, as the searchersThe natural philosophers. for intelligible causes had observed, after the course of the moon is completed,At the end of each lunar month. meet at one and the same point always at the same distance from each other,I.e. are in conjunction. yet the sun is not always eclipsed at such times, but only when the moon (by a kind of fiery plumb-line)According to Clark’s punctuation, based upon metrical clausulae (Introd., p. xxii); but igneo seems to be more naturally taken with orbi. is directly opposite the sun and interposed between its orb and our vision.

In short, the sun is hidden and his brightness suppressed, when he himself and the orb of the moon, the lowest of all the heavenly bodies, accompanying each other and each keeping its proper course, maintaining the relation of height between them and being in conjunction, as Ptolemy wisely and elegantly expresses itμαθνηατικὴ σύνταξις, vi. 6. have come to the points which in Greek we call ἀναβιβάζοντας and καταβιβάζοντας ἐκλειπτικοὶ σύνδεσμοιAscending and descending ecliptic nodes. The moon in its course shifts from one side to the other of the ecliptic, or sun’s course (see § 2, above). The nodes are the points where the moon passes the ecliptic; the node where she passes from the south to the north side is called ascending, that where she changes from north to south, descending. (that is, eclipse nodes). And if they merely graze the spaces adjacent to these nodes, the eclipse will be partial.

If, on the other hand, they stand in the nodes themselves which closely unite the ascent and the descent, the heaven will be overcast with thicker darkness, so that because of the density of the air we cannot see even objects which are near and close at hand.

Now it is thought that two suns are seen, if a cloud, raised higher than common and shining brightly from its nearness to the eternal fires,I.e. the sun. reflects a second brilliant orb, as if from a very clear mirror.