Res Gestae

After this there was no time for laments or tears. For after caring for Julian’s body as well as the means at hand and the circumstances allowed, in order that he might be laid to rest in the place which he had previously chosen,[*](At Tarsus; see xxiii. 2, 5; and 10, 5, below.) at dawn of the following day, which was the twenty-seventh of June, with the enemy swarming about us on every side, the generals of the army assembled, and having called in the commanders of the legions and of the squadrons of cavalry, they consulted about choosing an emperor.

They were divided into turbulent

After some discussion, all by general agreement united on Salutius, and when he pleaded illness and old age, one of the soldiers[*](Gibbon thinks this was Ammianus himself.) of higher rank, perceiving Salutius’ determined opposition, said: What would you do if the emperor (as often happens) had in his absence committed to you the conduct of this war? Would you not put aside everything else and save the soldiers from the threatening dangers? Do that now, and if we are permitted to see Mesopotamia, the united votes of both armies[*](The eastern and the western army.) will decide upon a lawful emperor.

During this delay, which was slight considering the importance of the matter, before the various opinions had been weighed, a few hot-headed soldiers (as often happens in an extreme crisis) chose an emperor in the person of Jovianus, commander[*](According to Hieronymus’ Chron. he was primicerius, ranking after the comes and the tribunus. Cf. xxvii. 10, 16, domesticorum omnium primus.) of the household troops, who had claims for some slight consideration because of the services of his father. For he was the son of Varronianus, a well- known count,[*](As the context shows, he was a general; see vol. i, Introd., p. xxix, and § 8, below.) who not long since, after ending his military career, had retired to a quieter life.

Now Jovian, as soon as he had been clothed in the imperial robes and suddenly brought out from his tent, already hastening through the ranks of the soldiers, who were getting ready to march.

And since the army extended for four miles, those in the

But if any onlooker of strict justice with undue haste blames such a step taken in a moment of extreme danger, he will, with even more justice, reproach sailors, if after the loss of a skilled pilot, amid the raging winds and seas, they committed the guidance of the helm of their ship to any companion in their peril, whoever he might be.

When this had been done as described, as if by the blind decree of fortune, the standard-bearer of the Joviani,[*](Legions so named by Diocletian, who was called Jovius.) formerly commanded by Varronianus, who was at odds with the new emperor even when he was still a private citizen, just as he had been a persistent critic of his father, fearing danger from an enemy who had now risen above the ordinary rank, deserted to the Persians. And as soon as he had the opportunity of telling what he knew to Sapor, who was already drawing near, he informed the king that the man whom he feared was dead, and that an excited throng of camp-followers had chosen a mere shadow of imperial power in the person of Jovian, up to that time one of the bodyguard, and a slothful, weak man. On hearing this news, for which he had always longed with anxious prayers, the king, elated by the unexpected good fortune, added a corps of the royal cavalry to