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).
For it is well known that under Caesar Maximianus,[*](Emperor A.D. 286-305, a little over a half-century earlier.) when a fortified camp of the Persian king was pillaged, a common soldier after finding a Parthian jewel-box containing pearls, threw away the gems in ignorance of their value, and went his way, quite satisfied with the beauty of the leather alone.
It happened at that same time that a barber, who had been summoned to trim the emperor’s hair, appeared in splendid attire. On seeing him, Julian was amazed, and said: I sent for a barber, not a fiscal agent. However, he asked the man what his trade brought him in; to which the barber replied twenty daily allowances[*](I.e. loaves.) of bread, and the same amount of fodder for pack-animals (these they commonly call capita), as well as a heavy annual salary, not to mention many rich perquisites.
Incensed by this, Julian discharged all attendants of that kind (as being not at all necessary to him),