Res Gestae

When this was known after the return of the tribunes, the emperor, exulting in the accomplishment without any toil of a task which he thought insuperable, admitted them all, being inflamed with the desire for greater gain, which his crew of flatterers increased by constantly dinning it into his ears that now that foreign troubles were quieted, and peace made everywhere, he would gain more child-producing subjects and be able to muster a strong force of recruits; for the provincials are glad to contribute gold to save their bodies,[*](I.e. they would rather contribute money than personal service or recruits.) a hope which has more than once proved disastrous to the Roman state.[*](It was in fact this hope that led the Romans to allow the Goths to cross the Danube, and thus brought on the defeat at Adrianople in 378; see xxxi., 4, 4, pro militari supplemento quod provinciatim annuum pendebatur, thesaurisaccederet auri cumulus magnus. )

Accordingly, having placed a rampart near Acimincum[*](A city of Pannonia.) and erected a high mound in the manner of a tribunal, ships carrying some light-armed legionaries were ordered to patrol the channel of the river near the banks, with one Innocentius, a field-measurer, who had recommended the plan, in order that, if they should see the savages beginning disorder, they might attack them in the rear, when their attention was turned elsewhere.

But although the Limigantes knew that these plans were being hastened, yet they stood with bared heads, as if composing nothing save entreaties,

And when the emperor was seen on the high tribunal and was already preparing to deliver a most mild address, intending to speak to them as future obedient subjects, one of their number, struck with savage madness, hurling his shoe at the tribunal, shouted Marha, marha (which is their warcry), and the rude crowd following him suddenly raised a barbarian banner and with savage howls rushed upon the emperor himself.

He, looking down from his high place and seeing everything filled with a mob running about with missiles, and death already imminent from their drawn swords and javelins, in the midst as he was of the enemy and of his own men, and with nothing to indicate whether he was a general or a common soldier, since there was no time for hesitation or delay mounted a swift horse and galloped off at full speed.

However, a few of his attendants, while they were trying to keep off the savages, who poured upon them like a stream of fire, were either wounded to the death or trampled down by the mere weight of those who rushed over them; and the royal seat with its golden cushion was seized without resistance.

But when presently it was heard that the emperor had all but been drawn into extreme peril and was not yet on safe ground, the soldiers considered it their first duty to aid him (for they thought him not yet free from danger of death); so, with greater confidence because of their contempt of the enemy, although the attack was so

And so eagerly did our forces rush forth in their desire to wipe out the disgrace by valour, at the same time venting their wrath on the treacherous foe, that they butchered everything in their way, trampling under foot without mercy the living, as well as those dying or dead; and before their hands were sated with slaughter of the savages, the dead lay piled in heaps.

For the rebels were completely overthrown, some being slain, others fleeing in terror in all directions; and a part of them, who hoped to save their lives by vain entreaties, were cut down by repeated strokes. And after all had been killed and the trumpets were sounding the recall, some of our men also, though few, were found among the dead, either trampled under foot in the fierce attack or, when they resisted the fury of the enemy and exposed their unprotected sides, destroyed by the fatal course of destiny.

But conspicuous above the rest was the death of Cella, tribune of the Targeteers, who at the beginning of the fight was first to rush into the thick of the Sarmatian forces.

After this cruel carnage Constantius, having made such arrangements for the safety of the frontiers as considerations of urgency recommended, returned to Sirmium after taking vengeance on a treacherous foe. Then, having quickly attended to what the pressing necessities of the time required, he set out from there and went to Constantinople, in order that being now nearer the Orient he might remedy the disaster which he had suffered at Amida,

Yet in the midst of these anxieties, as if it were prescribed by some ancient custom, in place of civil wars the trumpets sounded for alleged cases of high treason; and to investigate and punish these there was sent that notorious state-secretary Paulus, often called Tartareus.[*](The Diabolical, from Tartarus. He is called Catena in xiv. 5, 8 and xv. 3, 4.) He was skilled in the. work of bloodshed, and just as a trainer of gladiators seeks profit and emolument from the traffic in funerals[*](Gladiatorial shows were given at the funerals of distinguished Romans, as well as at festivals.) and festivals, so did he from the rack or the executioner.

Therefore, as his determination to do harm was fixed and obstinate, he did not refrain from secret fraud, devising fatal charges against innocent persons, provided only he might continue his pernicious traffic.