Res Gestae

But what grieved the very heart of every patriotic citizen was this, that fearful of a rival to his power and

For never (I think) since the founding of our city can it be found by a reader of history that any part of our territory has been yielded to an enemy by an emperor or a consul; but that not even the recovery of anything that had been lost was ever enough for the honour of a triumph, but only the increase of our dominions.

Hence it was that triumphs were refused[*](Cf. Val. Max. ii. 8, 4 an) to Publius Scipio for the recovery of Spain; to Fulvius, when Capua was overcome after long contests, and to Opimius, when, after shifting fortunes of war, the people of Fregellae, at that time our deadly enemies, were forced to surrender.

In fact, the ancient records teach us that treaties made in extreme necessity with shameful conditions, even when both parties had taken oath in set terms, were at once annulled by a renewal of war. For example, when in days of old our legions were sent under the yoke at the Caudine Forks in Samnium[*](Cf. Val. Max. ii. 8, 4 an) ; when Albinus in Numidia devised a shameful peace[*](See Sallust, Jug. 38.) ; and when Mancinus, the author of a disgracefully hasty treaty, was surrendered to the people of Numantia.[*](See xiv. 11, 32; Florus, i. 34, 4 ff.)

So then, after the inhabitants had been withdrawn, and the city had been handed over, the tribune

Procopius set out to fulfil his mission,[*](Or perhaps, on the analogy of exsequiae, on his mournful errand, or for the funeral. ) but immediately after burying the body he disappeared and in spite of the most careful search could not be found anywhere,[*](He perhaps wished to escape the fate of Jovianus; see 8, 18.) until long afterwards he suddenly appeared at Constantinople, clad in the purple.

After this business had been thus attended to, we came by long marches to Antioch; where for successive days, as though the divinity were angered, many fearful portents were seen, which those skilled in such signs declared would have sad results.

For the statue of the Caesar Maximianus, which stood in the vestibule of the royal palace, suddenly dropped the brazen ball, in the form of the globe of heaven, which it was holding,[*](Cf. xxi. 14, 1, note.) the beams of the council hall gave forth an awful creaking, and in broad daylight comets were seen, about which the views of those versed in natural history are at variance.[*](Cf. Pliny, N.H. ii. 91 ff.)

For some think that they are so called because they are numerous stars united in one body,[*](Democritus and Anaxagoras, cf. Arist., Meteor. 1, 1; opposed by Sen. Nat., Quaest. vii. 7.)

The emperor lingered for a time at Antioch, bowed down by the weight of divers cares, but pursued by an extraordinary desire for getting out of the place. Accordingly, he left there on a day in the dead of winter, sparing neither horse nor man, although many signs (as has been said) forbade, and entered Tarsus, the famous city of Cilicia, of whose origin I have already spoken.[*](Cf. xiv. 8, 3.)

Though in excessive haste to leave that place, he determined to adorn the tomb of Julian,[*](See 9, 12, above. According to Zonaras and others, Julian’s body was later taken to Constantinople.) situated just outside the walls on the road which leads to the passes of Mount Taurus. But his remains and ashes, if anyone then

After this the emperor left Tarsus, and making long marches arrived at Tyana, a town of Cappadocia, where on their return the secretary Procopius and the tribune Memoridus[*](They had been sent to Illyricum and Gaul; see 8, 8, above.) met him. They gave him an account of their missions, beginning (as order demanded) with the entry of Lucillianus with the tribunes Seniauchus and Valentinianus, whom he had taken with him, into Mediolanum; but on learning that Malarichus refused to accept the position[*](Of general of the cavalry; see 8, 11, above.) he had gone at full speed to Rheims.

Then, as if that nation were in profound peace, he ran off the track (as the saying is), and quite out of season, since everything was not yet secure, devoted his attention to examining the accounts of a former actuary. This man, being conscious of deceit and wrong-doing, fled for refuge to the army and falsely asserted that Julian was still alive and that a man of no distinction had raised a rebellion; in consequence of his falsehoods a veritable storm broke out among the soldiery, and Lucillianus and Seniauchus were killed. For Valentinianus, who was shortly afterwards emperor, in terror and not knowing where to turn, was safely gotten out of the way by Primitivus, his guest-friend.

This sad news was followed by another message, this time a happy one, namely, that soldiers sent by Jovian,

On receipt of this news Valentinian, who had returned with the others, was entrusted with the command of the second division of the targeteers, and Vitalianus, formerly a soldier in the division of the Eruli, was made a member of the household troops; long afterwards he was raised to the rank of Count, but suffered a defeat in Illyricum. Arintheus was hastily sent to Gaul, bearing letters to Jovinus, urging him to act firmly in holding his position; he was also bidden to punish the originator of the disturbance and to send the ringleaders in the rebellion in fetters to the court.