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).

And now, after the pitiful downfall of the murdered Caesar, the trumpet of court trials sounded and Ursicinus was arraigned for high treason, since jealousy, the foe of all good men, grew more and more dangerous to his life.

For he fell victim to this difficulty, that the emperor’s ears were closed for receiving any just and easily proved defence, but were open to the secret whispers of plotters, who alleged that Constantius’ name was got rid of throughout all the eastern provinces and that the above-mentioned general was longed for both at home and abroad as being formidable to the Persian nation.

Yet in the face of events this high-souled hero stood immovable, taking care not to abase himself too abjectly, but lamenting from his heart that uprightness was so insecure, and the more depressed for the single reason that his friends, who had before been numerous, had deserted him for more powerful men, just as lictors are in the habit of passing, as custom requires, from magistrates to their successors.

Furthermore, he was attacked with the blandishments of counterfeit courtesy by Arbitio, who kept openly calling him his colleague and a brave man, but who was exceedingly shrewd in devising

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deadly snares for a straightforward character and was at that time altogether too powerful. For just as an underground serpent, lurking below the hidden entrance to its hole, watches each passer-by and attacks him with a sudden spring, so he, through envy of others’ fortune even after reaching the highest military position, without ever being injured or provoked kept staining his conscience from an insatiable determination to do harm.