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).

But this surely it is right neither to pass by nor consign to silence, that when that happiest of days dawned near Argentoratus, which in a sense brought lasting freedom to the Gauls, while I hastened about amid showers of weapons, you, upheld by your might and by long experience, overcame the enemy, rushing on like mountain torrents, either striking them down with the steel or plunging them in the river’s depths; and that too with but few of our number left upon the field, whose funerals we honoured with plentiful praise rather than with grief.

After such great and glorious exploits, posterity, I believe, will not be silent about your services to your country, which are now well known to all nations, if you defend with courage and resolution the man whom you have honoured with a higher title of majesty, in case any adverse fortune should assail him.