For considering the emperor’s inclination to seek out ways of getting money from every quarter without distinction between right and wrong, he did not call him back when he strayed from the path of justice (as peace-loving counsellors have often done), but himself also followed the emperor on his devious and perverse course.

Hence resulted the grievous troubles of his subjects, and the ruinous items of impostsFor tituli in this sense see xxvii. 3, 10. that had been instituted, long-continued practice in oppression finding one pretext after another, each more effective than the others, enfeebled and cut the sinews of the fortunes of rich and poor alike. Finally, the burden of tributes and the repeated increase in taxes compelled some of the most distinguished families, hounded by the fear of the worst, to leave their country; others, crushed by the severity of the dunning tax-collectors, having nothing to give, became permanent inmates of the prisons; and some of these, now weary of life and light, died by the noose as a welcome release.

These things, as persistent rumour maintained, went on thus with increasing treacheryCf. illecebrosis insidiis, xxx. 1, 19. and ruthlessness; but Valentinian knew nothing of them, as if his ears were stopped with wax, being eager for indiscriminate gain even from the slightest things, and taking into consideration only what was offered. Yet perhaps he would have spared Pannonia,As his native land; cf. 7, 2, below. if he had known earlier of these lamentable sources of profit, of which he learned all too late from the following chance occurrence.

After the example of the rest of the provincials the Epirotes also were compelled by the prefect to send envoys to the emperor to offer him their thanks,For the merits of the governor. and forced a philosopher called Iphicles,A Cynic, formerly intimate with Julian. a man renowned for his strength of soul, against his own desire to go and perform that duty.

And he, when he came into the emperor’s presence, being recognized and asked the reason for his coming, replied in Greek; and when the emperor asked explicitly whether those who sent him thought well of the prefect in their hearts, he said, as became a philosopher who made a profession of truth: With groans and against their will.

By these words the emperor was struck as by a dagger, and like a keen-scented hound he searched into all the conduct of the prefect, asking Iphicles in his native tongue about people whom he personally knew: where in the world, for example, was so and so who excelled his countrymen in honour and reputation; or another, who was rich; or still another of high rank. And when he learned that one had fallen victim to the noose, that another had gone across the sea, that a third had committed suicide or had died under the blows of the knout,plumbo probably refers to a lash with balls of lead fastened to it; cf. xxviii. 1, 29, note; Erfurdt-Wagner say in eculeo, which seems to mean that the victim was lashed as he bestrode the eculeus; or it may refer to weights attached to the victim’s feet; see xxvi. 10, 13, note 3. he burned with tremendous rage, to which Leo, who was then chief marshal of the Court (oh, horror!), added blazing fuel, a man who himself aspired to the prefecture, in order to fall from a greater height.A common idea; see Juv. x. 105 ff., numerosa parabat excelsae turris tabulata, unde altior esset casus, and Mayor’s note on 106. And if he had attained and ruled the office, in comparison with what he would have dared, the administration of a Probus would be praised to the skies!

And so the emperor remained at Carnuntum, where throughout the entire three summer months he was preparing arms and supplies, intending, if in anyway fortune favoured, to find opportunity to attack the Quadi, the instigators of the terrible uprising. It was in that town that Faustinus, nephew of Viventius,See xxvii. 3, 11. He succeeded Florentius in Gaul. the praetorian prefect, when serving as a state-secretary, after an investigation conducted by Probus, was first tortured and then put to death by the hand of the executioner. The charge was that he had killed an ass, as some of his accusers alleged, for use in secret arts, but as he himself declared, to strengthen the weakness of his hair, which was falling out.For this meaning of fluentium, cf. Celsus, vi. 1; fluor capillorum, Seren. Samm. 6; and on remedies from asses, Plin., xxviii. 180; cf. xxix. 106.

According to another, who was also suborned to ruin him, when one Nigrinus in jest asked for an appointment as state-secretary, Faustinus laughed at the man and said: Make me emperor, if you want to get that office. Since this jest was unjustly interpreted, Faustinus himself, as well as Nigrinus and others, were put to death.