While the said general was panting through this dust of Mars throughout Mauritania and Africa, the Quadi, who had long been quiet, were suddenly aroused to an outbreak; they are a nation now not greatly to be feared,They had been conquered by Constaltius; see xvii. 12, 9 ff. but were formerly immensely warlike and powerful, as is shown by their swift and sudden swoops in former times, their siege of Aquileia in company with the Marcomanni, the destruction of Opitergium,Modern Oderzo. and many other bloody deeds performed in rapid campaigns; so that when they broke through the Julian Alps, the emperor Marcus Pius,I.e., Marcus Aurelius. of whom we have previously written,In a lost book. could with difficulty check them. And, for savages, they had a just cause of complaint.

For Valentinian from the very beginning of his reign burned with a desire of protecting his frontiers, which was indeed praiseworthy, but carried too far; for he ordered the building of a garrison-camp across the Danube in the very territories of the Quadi, as if they were already claimed for Roman rule. The natives, being indignant at this and cautious for their own interests, tried to prevent them for a time merely by a deputation and by whispered complaints.

But Maximinus,See xxviii. 5 f. being prone to every kind of wickedness and unable to control his native arrogance, which was swollen still more by his prefecture, upbraided Aequitius, who was at the time commander of the cavalry in Illyricum, as rebellious and slothful in not yet having finished the work the earlier construction of which had been arranged; and he added, as if having regard for the general welfare, that if the rank of generalI.e., dux per Valeriam. in ValeriaCf. xix. 11, 4. were given to his own sonFor parvus meaning son cf. Statius, i. 6, 43 f.; una vescitur omrnis ordo mensa: parvi, femina, plebs, eques, senatus; vii. 520. Marcellianus,Called Celestius by Zos. xiv. 16. the fortification would rise without any excuses.

Both objects were presently attained. When the newly appointed general had set out and had reached the spot, with unreasonable arrogance, as was to be expected of the son of such a father, without any words to soothe those whom the dreams of a design never actually carried out was driving from their country, he took up the work which had been begun a short time before, but was suspended because of the opportunity given for protesting.

Finally, when king Gabinius mildly asked that no new step should be taken, he pretended that he would assent, and with feigned kindness invitedFor corrogavit cf. xviii. 2, 13. the king with others to a banquet. But as Gabinius was departing after the feast and suspected no treachery, Marcellianus, with abominable violation of the sacred duties of hospitality, had him murdered.

The report of so atrocious a deed at once spread abroad on all sides and roused the Quadi and the tribes round about them to madness. Weeping for the death of the king, they mustered and sent out devastating bands, which crossed the Danube while no hostility was anticipated, and fell upon the country people, who were busy with their harvest; most of them they killed, the survivors they led home as prisoners, along with a quantity of all kinds of domestic animals.

Surely at that time an irreparable crime would have been committed, to be numbered among the shameful disasters of Roman history; for the daughter of Constantius, when being conducted to marry Gratianus, was very nearly captured while she was taking food in a public villa called Pristensis, but (by the favour of the propitious godhead) Messalla, the governor of the province, was at hand and placed her in a state-carriageA vehicle at the disposal of the officials of the province, the city prefect, and other high dignitaries (iudices). and took her in all haste back to Sirmium, twenty-six miles away.

After the princess was saved by this fortunate chance from the danger of wretched slavery, which, if it had been impossible to ransom the captive, would have branded the state with the greatest disaster, the Quadi, in company with the Sarmatians, ranged more widely; and being peoples most skilled in rapine and brigandage, they drove off as booty human beings of both sexesFor secus cf. xvi. 11, 9. as well as cattle, exulting in the ashes of burned farmhouses and the sufferings of the slain inhabitants, whom they took by surprise and destroyed without any mercy.