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).
Matters thus being firmly settled, so far as circumstances would permit, he returned to winter quarters and found the following sequel to his exertions. Severus, master of the horse, while on his way to Rheims by way of Cologne and Juliers, fell in with some very strong companies of Franks, to
Julian, disturbed by the novelty of the act, and guessing what might come of it if he passed by leaving them unmolested, halted his army and made his plans to surround the strongholds, which the river Meuse flows past; and for fifty-four days (namely in the months of December and January) the delays of the siege were dragged out, while the savages with stout hearts and incredible resolution withstood him.
Then Caesar, being very shrewd and fearing that the savages might take advantage of some moonless night and cross the frozen river, gave orders that every day, from near sunset to the break of dawn, soldiers should row up and down stream in scouting vessels,[*](The Romans kept such armed vessels on the rivers which formed the boundaries of the empire; cf. lusoriae (naves), Vopiscus, Bonosus, 15, 1.) so as to break up the cakes of ice and let no one get an opportunity of easy escape. And because of this device, since they were worn out by hunger, sleeplessness, and extreme desperation, they surrendered of their
A large troop of Franks had set out to rescue them from their danger; but on learning that they had been captured and carried off, without venturing on anything further they retired to their strongholds. And Caesar after these successes returned to Paris to pass the winter.
Now since it was expected that a great number of tribes with greater forces would make head together, our cautious commander, weighing the doubtful issue of wars, was perplexed with great burdens of anxiety. So, thinking that during the truce, short though it was and full of business, some remedy might be found for the calamitous losses incurred by the land-holders, he set in order the system of taxation.
And whereas Florentius, the praetorian prefect, after having reviewed the whole matter (as he asserted) stated that whatever was lacking in the poll-tax and land-tax accounts he supplied out of special levies, Julian, knowing about such measures, declared that he would rather lose his life than allow it to be done.
For he knew that the incurable wounds of such arrangements, or rather derangements[*](The words provisionum and eversionum seem to be chosen for the sake of a word-play. He means that the arrangement proposed would amount to confiscation and the ruin of the province.) (to speak more truly) had often driven provinces to extreme poverty—a thing which (as will be shown later) was the complete ruin of Illyricum.[*](See xix. 11, 2 ff.)