Res Gestae

Now earthquakes take place in four ways; for they are either brasmatiae,[*](A Greek word from βράζειν. boil up. ) or upheavings, which lift up the ground from far within, like a tide and force upward huge masses, as in Asia Delos came to the surface, and Hiera, Anaphe, and Rhodes, called in former ages Ophiusa and Pelagia, and once drenched with a shower of gold;[*](Cf. Claudian, De Cons. Stil. iii. 226, Auratos Rhodiis imbres nascente Minerva indulsisse lovem perhibent: Iliad ii. 670; Pindar, Olymp. 7, 59 ff. (L.C.L. pp. 72 f.)) also Eleusis[*](An ancient town of Boeotia near Lake Copais. It was not swallowed up by an earthquake, but destroyed by an inundation (Strabo, ix. 2, 18; Paus. ix. 24, 2); and it was not an island.) in Boeotia, Vulcanus in the Tyrrhenian Sea, and many more islands. Or they are climatiae[*](Moving sidewise.) which rush along to one side and obliquely, levelling cities, buildings, and mountains. Or they are chasmatiae, or gaping, which with their intensive movement suddenly open abysses and swallow up parts of the earth; as in the Atlantic Ocean an island more extensive than all Europe,[*](Atlantis; see Plato, Timaeus, pp. 24e-25a.) and in the Crisaean Gulf,[*](Salona Bay, a part of the Corinthian Gulf; see Diod. xiv. 48, 49.) Helice and Bura; and in the Ciminian district of Italy the town of Saccumum;[*](Its exact location is unknown: it was near Lago di Vico.) these were all sunk into the deep abysses of Erebus, and lie hidden in eternal darkness.

Among these three sorts of earthquakes the mycematiae[*](Bellowing.) are heard with a threatening roar, when the elements break up into their component parts and clash of their own accord, or slide back when the ground settles. For then of necessity the crashing and rumbling of the earth must resound like the bellowing of a bull. But to return to the episode which we began.

Now Caesar, while wintering in Paris, hastened with the greatest diligence to forestall the Alamanni, who were not yet assembled in one body, but were all venturesome and cruel to the point of madness after the battle of Strasburg; and while waiting for the month of July, when the campaigns in Gaul begin, he was for a long time in much anxiety. For he could not leave until the grain supply was brought up from Aquitania during the mild summer season, after the breaking up of the cold weather and frost.

But as careful planning is victorious over nearly all difficulties, he turned over in his mind many various possibilities; and this at last he found to be the only one, namely, without waiting for the height of the season, to fall upon the savages before he was looked for. And having settled on this plan, he had the grain allowance for twenty days taken from what was to be consumed in the winter quarters, and baked up to serve for some time; he put this hard-tack (as they commonly call it) on the backs of his willing soldiers, and relying on this supply he set out under favourable auspices (as he did before), thinking that within the fifth or sixth month two urgent and inevitable campaigns might be brought to completion.

After these preparations he first of all aimed at the Franks, those namely whom custom calls the Salii,[*](They dwelt between the Maas and the Schelde.) who once had the great assurance to venture to

But quicker than a flash he followed them up after their departure, and sending his general Severus along the river bank, fell upon the whole troop suddenly and smote them like a thunderstorm; at once they took to entreaties rather than to resistance, and he turned the outcome of his victory into the timely direction of mercy by receiving them in surrender with their property and their children.

The Chamavi[*](A German people, living at the mouth of the Rhine; they later crossed the river, to drive the Salii from their homes.) also had ventured to make a similar attempt; with the same rapidity he attacked these, killed a part of them, and a part, who resisted stoutly and were taken alive, he put in irons; others, who made tracks for home in headlong flight, he allowed for the time to get away unharmed, in order not to tire his soldiers by a long chase. A little later they sent delegates to make supplication and to provide for their safety, and as they lay prostrate on the ground before his eyes he granted them peace on condition that they should return unmolested to their homes.

So, as everything was proceeding in accordance with his prayers, he made haste with watchful solicitude to put the well-being of the provinces in every way on a firm footing; and he planned to repair (as time would permit) three forts situated in a straight line along the banks overhanging the river Meuse, which had long since been overthrown by the obstinate assaults of the savages; and they were immediately restored, the campaign being interrupted for a short time.

And to the end that speed might make his wise policy safe, he took a part of the seventeen days’ provisions, which the soldiers, when they marched forward on their expedition carried about their necks, and stored it in those same forts, hoping that what had been deducted might be replaced from the harvests of the Chamavi.

But it turned out far otherwise; for the crops were not yet even ripe, and the soldiers, after using up what they carried, could find no food anywhere; and resorting to outrageous threats, they assailed Julian with foul names and opprobrious language, calling him an Asiatic,[*](Cf. Quint. xii. 10, 17, Asiana gens tumidior alioqui atque iactantior, vaniore etiam dicendi gloria inflata est.) a Greekling[*](Cf. Juvenal, iii. 78 ff.) and a deceiver, and a fool with a show of wisdom. And as some are usually to be found among the soldiers who are noteworthy for their volubility, they kept bawling out such words as these and many others to the same purport:

Where are we being dragged, robbed of the

And let no man imagine us incitors to mutiny; we protest that we are speaking for our lives alone, asking for neither gold nor silver, which we have not been able to handle or even look upon for a long time, and which are denied us just as if it were against our country that we had been convicted of having undertaken so much toil and danger.

And they had good reason for their complaints. For through all their career of laudable achievements, and the critical moments of hazard, the soldiers, though worn out by their labours in Gaul, had received neither donative nor pay from the very day that Julian was sent there, for the reason that he himself had no funds available anywhere from which to give, nor did Constantius allow any to be expended in the usual manner.

And it was evident that this was done through malice rather than through niggardliness, from the fact that when this same Julian was asked by a common soldier, as they often do, for money for a shave, and had given him some small coin, he was assailed for it with slanderous speeches by Gaudentius,[*](He appears as agens in rebus, xv. 3, 8, and as set as a spy over Julian in xxi. 7, 2. He was finally executed by Julian’s order.) who was then a secretary. He had remained in Gaul for a long time to watch Julian’s actions, and Caesar afterwards ordered that he be put to death, as will be shown in the proper place.[*](xxii. 11, 1.)

At length, after the mutiny had been quelled, not without various sorts of fair words, they built a pontoon bridge and crossed the Rhine; but when they set foot in the lands of the Alamanni, Severus, master of the horse, who had previously been a warlike and energetic officer, suddenly lost heart.