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).

However, in the midst of these courses of wise governing, worthy of the imitation of good emperors, the fury of the savages had blazed forth again more than ever.

And as wild beasts accustomed to live by plundering when their guards are slack do not cease even when these guards are removed and stronger ones put in their place, but ravening with hunger rush upon flocks or herds without regard for their own lives: so they too, when they had used up all that they had seized by pillage, urged on by hunger, were continually driving off booty, and sometimes perishing of want before finding anything.

These were the events in Gaul during that year dubious in prospect, but successful in outcome. But in the court of the Augustus envy kept barking on every side at Arbetio, as one that would soon attain the highest rank and had already prepared the insignia of imperial dignity; and a certain count, Verissimus by name, assailed him with unbridled outcry, openly charging that although he had risen from the common soldiery to the chief military command, he was not satisfied even with this, but thinking it was a slight thing, was aiming at the imperial position.

But in particular one

v1.p.225

Dorus, ex-surgeon of the targeteers, kept pursuing him; he it was who (as I stated)[*](In one of the lost books.) when promoted under Magnentius to be centurion in charge of works of art at Rome,[*](Commander of the night-patrol in charge of public buildings and monuments.) accused Adelphius, prefect of the city, of aiming at a higher station.

And when the matter came to an investigation, and everything needful for the business was at hand, a proof of the charges was looked for; when suddenly, as if by an irregular vote,[*](Cf. Sallust, Jug., xxix. 5, where the reference is to voting on several questions at once; lex multis rebus conferta, Festus, s.v. ) at the instance of the chamberlains (as persistent rumour reported) both those persons under restraint as implicated were released from their fetters; Dorus disappeared, and Verissimus at once held his peace, just as when on the stage the curtain is lowered and put away.[*](We might say The curtain is dropped, but the lowering of the curtain revealed the stage of the Roman theatre. Here the reference is to putting the curtain away and closing the theatre, as in Juvenal, vi. 67 ff., quotiens aulaea recondita cessant et vacuo clusoque sonant fora sola theatro. )