Res Gestae

Now there arises in this afflicted state of affairs a storm of new calamities, with no less mischief to the provinces; and it would have destroyed everything at once, had not Fortune, arbitress of human chances, brought to an end with speedy issue a most formidable uprising.

Since through long neglect Gaul was enduring bitter massacres, pillage, and the ravages of fire, as the savages plundered at will and no one helped, Silvanus, an infantry commander thought capable of redressing these outrages, came there at the emperor’s order; and Arbetio urged by whatever means he could that this should be hastened, in order that the burden of a perilous undertaking might be imposed upon an absent rival, whose survival even to this time he looked upon as an affliction.

A certain Dynamius, superintendent of the emperor’s pack-animals,[*](He had charge during campaigns and journeys of the transportation of the emperor’s baggage; other actuarii are mentioned in xx. 5, 9 (see note), and actuarii a rationibus scrutandis in xxv. 10, 7. Actuarius is an adjective, sc. scriba. ) had asked Silvanus for letters of recommendation to his friends, in order to make himself very conspicuous, as if he were one

So when the abovementioned commander was traversing Gaul in the service of the government and driving forth the savages, who had now lost their confidence and courage, this same Dynamius, being restless in action, like the crafty man he was and practised in deceit, devised a wicked plot. He had as abettors and fellow conspirators, as uncertain rumours declared, Lampadius,[*](See Dessau, Inscr. 4154, note 3.) the praetorian prefect, and Eusebius, former keeper of the privy purse,[*](See Introd., pp. xli. f.) who had been nicknamed Mattyocopus,[*](Glutton, from -κοπέω, cut, and ματτύα, delicacies, delicate food. ) and Aedesius, late master of the rolls,[*](The magister memoriae was a subordinate of the magister officiorum, and head of the scrinium memoriae (first established by Caracalla) consisting of 62 clerks and 12 adiutores. They sent out the acta prepared by the scrinia epistularum et libellorum, and kept on record answers to petitions.) all of whom the said prefect had arranged to have called to the consulship as his nearest friends. With a sponge he effaced the lines of writing, leaving only the signature intact, and wrote above it another text far different from the original, indicating that Silvanus in obscure terms was asking and urging his assistants within the palace or without official position, including both Tuscus Albinus and many more, to help him, aiming as he was at a loftier position and soon to mount to the imperial throne.

This packet of letters, thus forged at his pleasure to assail the life of an innocent man, the prefect received from Dynamius, and coming into the emperor’s

But Malarichus, commander of the gentiles,[*](The foreign contingent of the household troops; see note 3, p. 56.) was at once struck with the unfairness of the procedure, and summoning his colleagues, vigorously protested, exclaiming that men devoted to the empire ought not to be made victims of cliques and wiles. And he asked that he himself—leaving as hostages his relatives and having Mallobaudes, tribune of the heavy-armed guard, as surety for his return—might be commissioned to go quickly and fetch Silvanus, who was not entering upon any such attempt as those most bitter plotters had trumped up. Or as an alternative, he asked that he might make a like promise and that Mallobaudes be allowed to hurry there and perform what he himself had promised to do.

For he declared that he knew beyond question that, if any outsider should be sent, Silvanus, being by nature apprehensive, even when there was nothing alarming, would be likely to upset the peace.

But although his advice was expedient and necessary, yet he was talking vainly to the winds. For by Arbetio’s advice Apodemius, an inveterate

In the meantime, however, while Silvanus’ presence was awaited and Apodemius was disturbing the peace, Dynamius, in order to maintain the credibility of his wicked inventions with a stronger argument, had made up a letter tallying with the one which he had presented to the emperor through the prefect, and sent it to the tribune of the Cremona armory, in the name of Silvanus and Malarichus; in this letter the tribune, as one privy to their secret designs, was admonished to prepare everything with speed.

When the tribune had read this, hesitating for a long time and puzzling as to what in the world it meant (for he did not remember that the men whose letter he had received had ever talked with him about any confidential business), he sent the identical letter back to Malarichus by the carrier who had brought it, and with him a soldier, begging Malarichus to explain openly what he wanted, and not so enigmatically. For he declared that, being a somewhat rude and plain man, he had not understood what had been obscurely intimated.

Malarichus, on unexpectedly receiving this, being even then troubled and

And on learning this, the emperor decided that the matter should be investigated searchingly through the medium of his council and all his officers. And when the judges had taken their seats, Florentius, son of Nigrinianus, at the time deputy master of the offices,[*](The magister officiorum was a very important official, to whom many of the former functions of the praetorian prefect had been transferred (or shared with the prefect). Along with his many duties was complete charge of the discipline of the palace. See Introd., pp. xxxvii. f.) on scrutinizing the script with greater care, and finding a kind of shadow, as it were, of the former letters,[*](For the meaning of apices, see Amer. Jour. of Philol., xlviii. (1927), pp. 1 ff. The word is wrongly translated by Holland, prickes or accents over the letters, and by Yonge, some vestiges of the tops of former words; rightly by Tross, einige Spuren der früheren Buchstaben. ) perceived what had been done, namely, that the earlier text had been tampered with and other matter added quite different from what Silvanus had dictated, in accordance with the intention of this patched-up forgery.

Accordingly, when this cloud of deceit had broken away, the emperor, learning of the events from a faithful report, deprived the prefect of his powers, and gave orders that he should be put under examination; but he was acquitted through an energetic conspiracy of many persons. Eusebius, however, former count of the privy purse,[*](See Introd., pp. xli. f.) on being put upon the rack, admitted that this had been set on foot with his cognizance.