Res Gestae

While that usurper[*](Procopius.) of whose many deeds and his death we have told, still survived, on the twenty-first of July in the first consulship of Valentinian with his brother,[*](365.) horrible phenomena suddenly spread through the entire extent of the world, such as are related to us neither in fable nor in truthful history.

For a little after daybreak, preceded by heavy and repeated thunder and lightning, the whole of the firm and solid earth was shaken and trembled, the sea with its rolling waves was driven back and withdrew from the land, so that in the abyss of the deep thus revealed men saw many kinds of sea-creatures stuck fast in the slime; and vast mountains and deep valleys, which Nature, the creator, had hidden in the unplumbed depths, then, as one might well believe, first saw the beams of the sun.

Hence, many ships were stranded as if on dry land, and since many men roamed about without fear in the little that remained of the waters, to gather fish and similar things[*](E.g. shells.) with their hands, the roaring sea, resenting, as it were, this forced retreat, rose in its turn; and over the boiling shoals it dashed mightily upon islands and broad stretches of the mainland, and levelled innumerable buildings in the cities and wherever else they were found; so that amid the mad discord of the elements the

For the great mass of waters, returning when it was least expected, killed many thousands of men by drowning; and by the swift recoil of the eddying tides a number of ships, after the swelling of the wet element subsided, were seen to have foundered, and the lifeless bodies of shipwrecked persons lay floating on their backs or on their faces.[*](Cf. Pliny, N.H. vii. 77: observatum est. . . virorum cadavera supina fluitare, feminarum prona, velut pudori defunctarum parcente natura. )

Other great ships, driven by the mad blasts, landed on the tops of buildings (as happened at Alexandria), and some were driven almost two miles inland, like a Laconian ship which I myself in passing that way saw near the town of Mothone,[*](Called Methone by Thucydides, ii. 25. It was in the southern part of Messenia. There was another Methone in Magnesia.) yawning[*](Cf. Virg., Aen. i. 123, rimisque fatiscunt. ) apart through long decay.

While throughout the Orient the changing[*](365–6 A.D.) course of events was developing as we have narrated, the Alamanni, after the sad losses and wounds which they had suffered from their frequent battles with Julianus Caesar, having at last renewed their strength (which yet did not equal its old vigour), and being an object of dread for the reasons which we have mentioned above,[*](The ill-treatment of their envoys; see xxvi. 5, 7.) were already overleaping the frontiers of Gaul. And immediately after the first of January, while throughout those icebound regions the grim season of winter bristled, they hurried forth in divisions,[*](There were three divisions; see 2, 2 and 4.) and, without restraint a host was ranging everywhere.

Charietto,[*](Cf. xvii. 10, 5.) who was then commanding general throughout both Germanies, along with soldiers eager for war, set out to meet their first division, taking as a partner in the campaign Severianus, who was also a general, an aged and feeble man, who at Cabillona[*](To-day Chalôn-sur-Saône; cf. xiv. 10, 3, 5; xv. 11, 11.) commanded the

Accordingly, when the force had been more closely united in one, and with the speed of haste they had built a bridge over a small stream, the Romans, on seeing the savages at a distance, assailed them with arrows and other light missiles, which the enemy vigorously returned throw for throw.

But when the forces came to close quarters and fought with drawn swords, our men’s lines were broken by the foe’s fiercer onset, and found no means either of resisting or of acting bravely. And when they Severianus, who had been thrown from his horse and pierced through by a missile, they were all terrified and put to flight.

Lastly Charietto himself, by boldly opposing his body and by reproachful words, held back his retreating men, and by confidence caused by his long stand, tried to wipe out shame and disgrace; but fell pierced by a fatal shaft.

After his death the standard of the Eruli and Batavians was taken, which the barbarians with insulting cries and dancing with joy frequently raised on high and displayed, until after hard struggles it was recovered.