Res Gestae

But since he insisted that at the time of his first auspices it was not fitting for him to wear a woman’s adornment, they looked about for a horse’s trapping, so that being crowned with it he might display at least some obscure token of a loftier station. But when he declared that this also was shameful, a man called Maurus, afterwards a count and defeated at the pass of Succi,[*](See xxi. 10, 2, notes 3, 4.) but then a standard-bearer[*](See xvi. 12, 20, note.) of the Petulantes, took off the neck-chain which he wore as carrier of the dragon[*](From the time of Trajan the standard of the cohorts; see xvi. 10, 7.) and boldly placed it on Julian’s head. He, driven to the extremity of compulsion, and perceiving that he could not avoid imminent danger if he persisted in his resistance, promised each man five gold pieces[*](The aureus was the standard Roman gold coin, equal to 25 denarii or 100 sesterces.) and a pound of silver.

When this was done, troubled with no less anxiety than before and with quick intuition foreseeing the future, he neither wore a diadem, nor dared to appear anywhere or attend to any of the serious matters that were most pressing.

But when he had withdrawn to seclusion and retirement, alarmed by the change in his fortunes, one of the decurions of the palace, which is a position of dignity,[*](The thirty silentarii, who kept watch before the emperor’s room when important business was going on and maintained quiet, were commanded by three decurions.) hastened at rapid pace to the camp of the Petulantes and Celts, and wildly cried that a shameful crime had been committed, in that the man whom the day before their choice had proclaimed Augustus had been secretly done to death.

Upon hearing this the soldiers, who were equally excited by all news, known to be true or not, some brandishing darts, others with naked swords and uttering threats, rushing forth from different sides and in disorder (as is usual in a sudden commotion) quickly filled the palace. The fearful uproar alarmed the guards, the tribunes, and the count in command of the household troops, Excubitor by name, and in fear of treachery from the fickle soldiers they scattered in dread of sudden death and vanished from sight.