Res Gestae

When the emperor had entered Ancyra, after the necessary arrangements for his procession had been made, so far as the conditions allowed, he assumed the consulship, taking as his colleague in the office his son Varronianus, who was still a small child[*](Previous emperors had had their sons or Caesars declared by the Senate to be of sufficient age for office. This is the first instance of the choice of a minor.) ; and his crying and obstinate resistance to being carried, as usual, on the curule chair, were an omen of what presently occurred.

From here also the destined day for ending his life drove Jovian swiftly on. For when he had come to Dadastana, which forms the boundary between Bithynia and Galatia, he was found dead that night. As to his taking-off, many doubtful points have come up.

For it is said that he was unable to endure the unwholesome odour of a recently plastered bedroom, or that his head was swollen from the burning of a great amount of charcoal and so he died, or at any rate that he had a fit of acute indigestion from an immoderate amount of food of different kinds.[*](Sozomenus, vi. 6, Orosius, vii. 31. Zonaras, xiii. 14, D, A, gives the coal gas as the cause. The latter adds that he had drunk to excess and (as some said) was given a poisoned sponge; Chrysostom, Homilia, xv., says directly that he was poisoned. Ammianus, by his reference to Aemilianus, seems to imply that he was strangled; cf. Cic., Pro Milone, 7, 16; Ad Fam.ix. 21, 3.) At all events he died in the thirty-third year of his age.[*](Having reigned 8 months.) The end of his life was like that of Scipio Aemilianus,[*](Livy, Epit. lix.; Val. Max. iv. 1, 12, 3; viii. 15, 4.) but so far as I know no investigation was made of the death of either.

He walked with a dignified bearing; his expression was very cheerful. His eyes were gray. He was so unusually tall that for some time no imperial robe could be found that was long enough for him. He took as his model Constantius, often spending the afternoon in some serious occupation, but accustomed to jest in public with his intimates.

So too he was devoted to the Christian doctrine and sometimes paid it honour.[*](At Antioch he annulled Julian’s edicts against Christianity.) He was only moderately educated, of a kindly nature, and (as appears from the few promotions that he made) inclined to select state officials with care. But he was an immoderate eater, given to wine and women, faults which perhaps he would have corrected out of regard for

It was said that his father, Varronianus, learned what would happen long beforehand from the suggestion of a dream, and trusted the information to two of his confidential friends, adding the remark that the consular robe[*](The trabea was a white toga, with horizontal stripes of purple. It was worn by the early Roman kings and by the consuls on ceremonial occasions. The usual dress of the consul was the toga praetexta. ) would be conferred also on himself. But although one prophecy was fulfilled, he could not attain the other prediction. For after learning of the elevation of his son, he was overtaken by death before seeing him again.

And since it was foretold to the old man in a dream that the highest magistracy awaited one of that name, his grandson Varronianus, then still a child, was (as I have before related) made consul together with his father Jovianus.