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).

But then the artillery of slander was turned against Julian, the future famous emperor, lately brought to account, and he was involved, as was unjustly held, in a two-fold accusation: first, that he had moved from the estate of Macellum,[*](A villa or castle near Caesarea, where Gallus and Julian were brought up.) situated in Cappadocia, into the province of Asia, in his desire for a liberal education;[*](Julian was devoted to the study of Greek literature and philosophy. He wrote a great many books, some of which have been preserved: orations, letters, satires, and a few epigrams.) and, second, that he had visited his brother Gallus as he passed through

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Constantinople.

And although he cleared himself of these implications and showed that he had done neither of these things without warrant, yet he would have perished at the instigation of the accursed crew of flatterers, had not, through the favour of divine power, Queen Eusebia befriended him; so he was brought to the town of Comum, near Milan, and after abiding there for a short time, he was allowed to go to Greece for the sake of perfecting his education, as he earnestly desired.

Nor were there wanting later actions arising from these occurrences which one might say had a happy issue, since the accusers were justly punished, or their charges came to naught as if void and vain. But it sometimes happened that rich men, knocking at the strongholds of the mighty, and clinging to them as ivy does to lofty trees, bought their acquittal at monstrous prices; but poor men, who had little or no means for purchasing safety, were condemned out of hand. And so both truth was masked by lies and sometimes false passed for true.

At that same time Gorgonius also, who had been appointed the Caesar’s head chamberlain, was brought to trial; and although it was clear from his own confession that he had been a party in his bold deeds, and sometimes their instigator, yet through a plot of the eunuchs justice was overshadowed with a clever tissue of lies, and he slipped out of danger and went his way.

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While these events were taking place at Milan, troops of soldiers were brought from the East to Aquileia together with several courtiers, their limbs wasting in chains as they drew feeble breaths and prayed to be delivered from longer life amid manifold miseries. For they were charged with having been tools of the savagery of Gallus, and it was through them, it was believed, that Domitianus and Montius were torn to pieces and others after them were driven to swift destruction.

To hear their defence were sent Arbetio and Eusebius, then grand chamberlain, both given to inconsiderate boasting, equally unjust and cruel. They, without examining anyone carefully or distinguishing between the innocent and the guilty, scourged and tortured some and condemned them to banishment, others they thrust down to the lowest military rank, the rest they sentenced to suffer death. And after filling the tombs with corpses, they returned as if in triumph and reported their exploits to the emperor, who in regard to these and similar cases was openly inflexible and severe.

Thereupon and henceforth Constantius, as if to upset the predestined order of the fates, more eagerly opened his heart and laid it bare to the plotters, many in number. Accordingly, numerous gossip - hunters suddenly arose, snapping with the jaws of wild beasts at even the highest officials, and afterwards at poor and rich indifferently, not like those Cibyrate hounds of Verres[*](Two brothers from Cibyra, in Phrygia, Tlepolemus and Hiero, tools of Verres; cf. Cic., Verr., iv. 21, 47; iv. 13, 30.) fawning upon the tribunal of only one

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governor, but afflicting the members of the whole commonwealth with a visitation of evils.

Among these Paulus and Mercurius were easily the leaders, the one a Persian by origin, the other born in Dacia; Paulus was a notary, Mercurius, a former imperial steward, was now a treasurer. And in fact this Paulus, as was told before,[*](xiv. 5, 8.) was nicknamed the Chain, because he was invincible in weaving coils of calumny, exerting himself in a wonderful variety of schemes, just as some expert wrestlers are in the habit of showing excessive skill in their contests.

But Mercurius was dubbed Count of Dreams, because, like a slinking, biting cur, savage within but peacefully wagging its tail, he would often worm his way into banquets and meetings, and if anyone had told a friend that he had seen anything in his sleep, when nature roams more freely, Mercurius would give it a worse colour by his venomous skill and pour it into the open ears of the emperor; and on such grounds a man, as though really chargeable with inexpiable guilt, would be beaten down by a heavy burden of accusation.

Since rumour exaggerated these reports and gave them wide currency, people were so far from revealing their nightly visions, that on the contrary they would hardly admit in the presence of strangers that they had slept at all, and certain scholars lamented that they had not been born near Mount Atlas, where it is said that dreams are not seen[*](Cf. Herodotus, iv. 184.) ; but how that happens we may leave to those who are most versed in natural science.