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).

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

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midst, as a man well informed on all matters, finding eager hearers, desirous of having their ears tickled, who did not praise him but like Homer’s Phaeacians[*](Cf. Odyssey, xiii. 1, and Index.) admired him in silence, he would rehearse the history of the past forty years. He showed that after constant successes in war, especially at Hileia and Singara,[*](In 348, see Gibbon, ch. xviii.) where that furious contest at night took place and our troops were cut to pieces with great carnage, as if some fetial priest were intervening[*](The fetiales had to do with treaties and declaring war. Their persons were sacrosanct and they sometimes intervened to present terms of peace when the opposing armies were drawn up ready for battle.) to stop the fight, the Persians did not yet reach Edessa nor the bridges of the Euphrates, in spite of being victorious; whereas trusting to their prowess and their splendid successes, they ought so to have extended their kingdom as to rule over all Asia, especially at a time when through the continual commotions of civil wars Rome’s stoutest soldiers were shedding their blood on two sides.