Res Gestae

Ammianus Marcellinus

Ammianus Marcellinus. Ammianus Marcellinus, with an English translation, Vols. I-III. Rolfe, John C., translator. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; W. Heinemann, 1935-1940 (printing).

Other men, taking great pride in coaches higher than common and in ostentatious finery of apparel, sweat under heavy cloaks, which they fasten about their necks and bind around their very throats, while the air blows through them because of the excessive lightness of the material; and they lift them up with both hands and wave them with many gestures, especially with their left hands,[*](Probably to display their rings; cf. Pliny, N.H. xxxiii. 9, manus et prorsus sinistrae maximam auctoritatem conciliavere auro. ) in order that the over-long fringes and the tunics embroidered with party-coloured threads in multiform figures of animals may be conspicuous.

Others, though no one questions them, assume a grave expression and greatly exaggerate their wealth, doubling the annual yield of their fields, well cultivated (as they think), of which they assert that they possess a great number from the rising to the setting sun; they are clearly unaware that their forefathers, through whom the greatness of Rome was so far flung, gained renown, not by riches, but by fierce wars, and not differing from the common soldiers in wealth, mode of life, or simplicity of attire, overcame all obstacles by valour.

For that reason the eminent Valerius Publicola was buried by a contribution of money,[*](In 503 B.C.; see Livy, ii. 16, 7.) and through the aid of her husband’s friends[*](Valerius Maximus, iv. 4, 6, says that it was the senate that came to their aid.) the needy wife of

v1.p.43

Regulus and her children were supported. And the daughter of Scipio[*](Cn. Cornelius Scipio, who wrote from Spain in the second Punic war, asking to be recalled, that he might provide a dowry for his daughter; see Valerius Maximus, iv. 4, 10.) received her dowry from the public treasury, since the nobles blushed to look upon the beauty of this marriageable maiden long unsought because of the absence of a father of modest means.

But now-a-days, if as a stranger[*](Ensslin, p. 7 (see Bibliography), refers this to Ammianus; cf. note on 6, 2, above.) of good position you enter for the first time to pay your respects to some man who is well-to-do[*](For bene nummatum, cf. Horace, Epist. i. 6, 38.) and therefore puffed up, at first you will be greeted as if you were an eagerly expected friend, and after being asked many questions and forced to lie, you will wonder, since the man never saw you before, that a great personage should pay such marked attention to your humble self as to make you regret, because of such special kindness, that you did not see Rome ten years earlier.