And when the contending parties are stripped of everything, and days, months and years are used up, at last the case, now worn out with age, is introduced, and those brilliant principalsThe heads of the knighthood (ordo splendidus); cf. xxiii. 6, 83, nobilitas omnis et splendor. come forth, bringing with them other shadows of advocates. And when theyhave come within the barriers= fori cancelli; cf. Cic., 58, 124, tantus est ex omnibus spectaculis usque a Capitolio, tantus ex fori cancellis plausus excitatus. of the court, and the fortunes or safety of some one begins to be discussed, and they ought to work to turn the sword or ruinous loss from an innocent person, the advocates on both sides wrinkling their brows and waving their arms in semblance of the gestures of actors (so that they lack only the oratorical pipeSee Cic., iii. 60, 225; Plut., 2, 4–5; Gaius Gracchus is said to have had a player on a pipe stationed behind him, when he made a speech, to regulate the force of his delivery; Val. Max. viii. 10, 1; Quint. i. 10, 27; Gell. i. 11, 10 ff. of Gracchus behind them) stand for a long time opposite each other. At last, in accordance with a prearranged agreement, the one who is more confident in speech utters a kind of a sweet prologue, promising to emulate the ornamental language of a speech for CluentiusOf Cicero. or Ctesiphon;Demosthenes’ and when all are wishing for the end, such is the method of his peroration that the advocates, after the semblance of a trial has gone on for three years, allege that they are not yet fully informed; and after they have obtained a further postponement, as if they had struggled with AntaeusCf. xxviii. 1, 46, note. of old, they persistently demand the pay for their danger and toil.

But yet, in spite of this, advocates suffer many inconveniences, not easy to be endured by a man who would live rightly. For, allured by the profits of their sedentaryWith the underlying sense of base, contemptible. trade, they differ among themselves and become enemies, and they offend many by their outbursts of abusive ferocity (as has been said), which they blab out in a torrent when they have no arguments strong enough to fortify the weakness of the cases which have been entrusted to them.

And they have to deal with judges who sometimes are taught by the sophisms of Philistion or Aesopus,Lindenbrog thought Aesopus was the famous tragic actor, but that seems doubtful because of the connection; cf. xxvi. 6, 15, mimicam cavillationem; Solinus, ch. x. (on Sicily). Valesius took him to be the celebrated writer of fables; Wagner believed that both Philistion and Aesopus were writers of mimes contemporary with Cicero. rather than reared in the discipline of your Aristides the Just or Cato. Such men, having bought public office for large sums of money, like tiresome creditors prying into the resources of every kind of fortune, shake out booty from other men’s bosoms.

Finally, the profession of advocate has, with the rest, this serious and dangerous evil, which is native to almost all litigants, that although their cases may be lost by a thousand accidents, they think their ill-success lies wholly in the ability of their advocates, and they are accustomed to attribute the outcome of every contest to them; and they vent their anger not on the weakness of their case or the frequent injustice of the magistrate who decides it, but only on their defenders. But let us return to the point from which we made the digression.

When spring was already ripening,Ammianus takes up his narrative from the end375 A.D. of chapter 3. Valentinian moved from Trier and hastened by quick marches along the familiar roads; and when he came to the regions for which he was aiming, he was met by a deputation of the Sarmatians,Cf. xxvi. 4, 5; xxix. 6, 15. who threw themselves at his feet and begged in peaceful terms that his visit might be favourable and merciful to them, since he would find that their countrymen were neither participants in, nor aware of, any outrage.

When they often repeated these same statements, after mature deliberation the emperor made this answer: that these acts must be investigated, in the place where they were said to have been committed, and punished in the light of the most reliable evidence. And when thereafter he entered Carnuntum,Modern Haimburg, in Pannonia, on the Danube; near Vienna. a town of the prefecture of Illyricum, now indeed deserted and in ruins, but very convenient for the leader of an army, he proceeded (whenever chance or design gave the opportunity) to check the attacks of the savages from a station near by.