Res Gestae

In fact, the matter was handled exactly as if many men had importuned Claros,[*](A city of Ionia near Colophon, the seat of a famous oracle of Apollo.) the oaks of Dodona,[*](A city of Epirus, in the country of the Molossians, where there was in an oak grove a celebrated temple and oracle of Zeus.) and the once famous oracles of Delphi with regard

Therefore the palace band of courtiers, ingeniously fabricating shameful devices of flattery, declared that he would be immune to ordinary ills, loudly exclaiming that his destiny had appeared at all times powerful and effective in destroying those who made attempts against him.

And that into such doings strict investigation was made no man of good sense will find fault. For we do not deny that the safety of a lawful prince, the protector and defender of good men, on whom depends the safety of others, ought to be safeguarded by the united diligence of all men; and in order to uphold him the more strongly when his violated majesty is defended, the Cornelian laws[*](On the Cornelian Laws (Lex Cornelia maiestatis), see Cicero in Pisonem, 21. They were emended and enlarged by Julius Caesar as the Lex Iuliua maiestatis. ) exempted no one of whatever estate from examination by torture, even with the shedding of blood.[*](See Cod. Theod. ix., Tit. 35, in maiestatis crimine omnibus aequa est condicio. )

But it is not seemly for a prince to rejoice beyond measure in such sorrowful events, lest his subjects should seem to be ruled by despotism rather than by lawful power. And the example of Tully ought to be followed, who, when it was in his power to spare or to harm, as he himself tells us,[*](A fragment of Cicero preserved only by Ammianus; perhaps from the Oratio Metellina (Cic., ad Att. 1, 13, 5).) sought excuses for pardoning rather than opportunities for punishing; and that is the province of a mild and considerate official.

At that same time in Daphne, that charming and magnificent suburb of Antioch, a portent was born, horrible to see and to report: an infant,

Portents of this kind often see the light, as indications of the outcome of various affairs; but as they are not expiated by public rites, as they were in the time of our forefathers, they pass by unheard of and unknown.

In these days the Isaurians, who had long been quiet after the acts of which an account is given above[*](See xiv. 2, 1 ff.) and the attempted siege of the city of Seleucia, gradually coming to life again just as snakes are wont to dart forth from their holes in the spring time, sallying forth from their rocky and inaccessible mountain fastnesses, and massed together in dense bands, were harrying their neighbours with thefts and brigandage, eluding the frontier-defences of our soldiers by their skill as mountaineers and from experience easily running over rocks and through thickets.

In order to quiet them by force or by reason, Lauricius was sent as governor with the added rank of count; being a man skilled in statesmanship, he corrected many evils by threats rather than by actual severity, so that for a long time, while he governed the province, nothing occurred which was thought deserving of punishment.

Such was the course of events throughout Illyricum and the Orient. But in Britain in the tenth consulship of Constantius and the third of Julian raids of the savage tribes of the Scots and the Picts, who had broken the peace that had been agreed upon, were laying waste the regions near the frontiers, so that fear seized the provincials, wearied as they were by a mass of past calamities. And Julian, who was passing the winter in Paris and was distracted amid many cares, was afraid to go to the aid of those across the sea, as Constans once did (as I have told),[*](In one of the lost books; it was in 343.) for fear of leaving Gaul without a ruler at a time when the Alamanni were already roused to rage and war.

Therefore he decided that Lupicinus,[*](Cf. xviii. 2, 7.) who was at that time