Res Gestae

There was a certain Antoninus, at first a rich merchant, then an accountant in the service of the governor of Mesopotamia, and finally one of his body-guard, a man of experience and sagacity, who was widely known throughout all that region. This man, being involved in great losses through the greed of certain powerful men, found on contending against them that he was more and more oppressed by unjust means, since those who examined the case were inclined to curry favour with men of higher position. Accordingly, in order not to kick against the pricks, he turned to mildness and flattery and acknowledged the debt, which by collusion had been transferred to the account of the privy purse. And then, planning to venture upon a vast enterprise, he covertly pried into all parts of the entire empire, and being versed in the language of both tongues,[*](See note 2, p. 198.) busied himself with calculations, making record of what troops were serving anywhere or of what strength, or at what time expeditions would be made, inquiring also by tireless questioning whether supplies of arms, provisions, and other things that would be useful in war were at hand in abundance.

And

And to the end that he might elude the sentinels, he bought at no great price a farm in Iaspis, a place washed by the waters of the Tigris. And since because of this device no one ventured to ask one who was now a landholder with many attendants his reason for coming to the utmost frontier of the Roman empire, through friends who were loyal and skilled in swimming he held many secret conferences with Tamsapor, then acting as governor of all the lands across the river, whom he already knew; and when active men had been sent to his aid from the Persian camp, he embarked in fishing boats and ferried over all his beloved household in the dead of night, like Zopyrus, that famous betrayer of Babylon, but with the opposite intention.[*](Zopyrus pretended to desert to Babylon, in order to betray the city to his king, Darius. Antoninus actually deserted, to betray his native country.)

After affairs in Mesopotamia had been brought to this pass, the Palace gang, chanting the old refrain with a view to our destruction, at last found an opportunity for injuring the most valiant of men, aided and abetted by the corps of eunuchs, who

So it was decided that Sabinianus, a cultivated man, it is true, and well to-do,[*](For bene nummatus, cf. Hor., Epist. i. 6, 38.) but unfit for war, inefficient, and because of his obscurity still far removed from obtaining magisterial rank, should be sent to govern the eastern regions; but that Ursicinus should return to court to command the infantry and succeed Barbatio: to the end that by his presence there that eager inciter to revolution (as they persisted in calling him) might be open to the attacks of his bitter and formidable enemies.

While this was being done in the camp of Constantius, after the manner of brothels and the stage, and the distributors[*](The diribitores were originally those who sorted and counted the ballots at elections; in 7 B.C. Agrippa built the diribitorium in the Campus Martius for their use; see Suet., Claud. 18. Diribitores seems to have acquired the meaning of distributors of bribes; see Suet., Aug. 40, 2, where however the word itself does not occur.) were scattering the price of suddenly purchased power through the homes of the powerful, Antoninus was conducted to the king’s winter quarters and received with open arms, being graced with the distinction of the turban, an honour shared by those who sit at the royal table and allowing men of merit among the Persians to speak words of advice and to vote in the assemblies. Thus, not with poles or tow-rope (as the saying is), that is, not by ambiguous or obscure subterfuges, but under full sail he attacked his country, urging on the aforesaid king, as long ago Maharbal chided the slowness of Hannibal, and kept insisting that he could win victories, but not take advantage of them.[*](Livy, xxii. 51; Florus, i. 22, 19.)

For having been brought up in their