Res Gestae

The emperor, angered by this, but keeping silence and concealing his thoughts, forcing the pace, entered Nicomedia on the first of March, and appointed his brother Valens chief of his stable with the rank of tribune.

Then, on his arrival in Constantinople, after much counsel with himself, considering that he was already unequal to

No sooner were these arrangements perfected without disturbance than both emperors were seized with violent and lingering fevers; but as soon as their hope of life was assured, being more successful m investigating various matters than in settling them, they commissioned Ursatius, the chief-marshal of the court, a rough Dalmatian, and Viventius of Siscia,[*](In Pannonia.) who was then quaestor, to make a strict investigation of what they suspected to be the cause of these diseases. Persistent rumour had it, that their purpose was, by asserting that they had been harmed by secret sorcery, to rouse hatred of the memory of the emperor Julian and his friends. But this charge was easily shown to have nothing in it, since no evidence of such plots was found, even in a single word.[*](According to Zosimus (xiii. 14, 15 f.), these designs were frustrated by the activity of the praetorian prefect Salutius.)

At this time, as if trumpets were sounding the war-note throughout the whole Roman world, the most savage peoples roused themselves and poured across

The king of the Persians was laying hands on Armenia, hastening with mighty efforts to bring that country again under his sway, under the false pretext that after the death of Jovian, with whom he had concluded a treaty of peace, nothing ought to prevent his recovery of what he claimed had formerly belonged to his forefathers.

So, then, the emperors spent the winter quietly in perfect harmony, the one eminent through the choice that had fallen upon him, the other joined with him in the office, but only in appearance. After hastening through Thrace, they came to Naessus,[*](Cf. xxi. 10, 5.) where in a suburb called Mediana, distant three miles from the city, they shared the generals between them in view of their coming separation.

To Valentinian, in accordance with whose wish the matter was settled, fell Jovinus,

At the same time Aequitius,[*](See xxvi. 1, 4.) who was not yet a commander-in-chief,[*](He was later made magister armorum; see § 11, below.) but only a count, was put in charge of the army in Illyricum, and Serenianus, who some time before had been retired from service, being a Pannonian[*](Hence a fellow-countryman of Valentinian and Valens.) girded on his sword and was joined with Valens in command of a part of the bodyguard. After matters had been thus arranged, the troops also were divided between the two emperors.

And when after this the two brothers had entered Sirmium, after sharing the places of residence according to the wishes of the superior, Valentinian went off to Mediolanum, Valens to Constantinople.

The Orient was governed by Salutius with the rank of prefect, Italy with Africa and Illyricum by Mamertinus, and the Gallic provinces by Germanianus.

Living therefore in the cities named, the emperors for the first time assumed the consular robes; and this whole year brought heavy losses to the Roman state.

For the Alamanni broke through the frontiers of Germany, being unusually hostile for the following reason: when their envoys had been sent to the headquarters, in order as usual to receive the regular appointed gifts,

And about that time, or not much later, in the Orient Procopius had started a revolution. This and the Alamannic revolt were reported to Valentinian on one and the same day about the first of November as he was on his way to Paris.

Then Valentinian ordered Dagalaifus to go in haste to meet the Alamanni, who after devastating places near the frontier had withdrawn to a distance without the loss of a man. But as to checking the attempt of Procopius before it became ripe, he was distracted by doubt and anxiety, being especially troubled because he did not know whether Valens was alive or whether his death had led Procopius to aspire to the throne.

For Aequitius knew of the matter only from the report of the tribune Antonius, who commanded the soldiers in central Dacia and gave a vague account of the affair from that which he himself had heard; and Aequitius himself had not yet heard anything trustworthy, and so merely reported the circumstance to the emperor in simple words.

Upon hearing the news, Valentinian, after raising the said Aequitius to the rank of a commander-in- chief,[*](lit. of a magister; here, magister militum per Illyricum; cf. xxvi. 7, 11. He had been a count; cf. § 3, above. He was consul with Gratian in 374.) decided to go back to Illyricum, lest the rebel after rushing through Thrace and being already formidable should invade Pannonia with a hostile army. For

But his eager longing to return was modified by the advice of his confidential friends, who advised, nay begged him, not to give up Gaul to the savages who threatened destruction, and not under that pretext to abandon provinces which needed strong support. These were supported by deputations from famous cities, who begged that he should not leave unprotected in such hard and doubtful times cities which by his presence he could save from the greatest dangers, since the glory of his name would strike fear into the Germans.

At last, after giving careful thought to what was expedient, he followed the view of the majority, often repeating that Procopius was only his own and his brother’s enemy, but the Alamanni were enemies of the whole Roman world; and so he resolved for the present nowhere to leave the boundaries of Gaul.

And having returned as far as Rheims, and feeling anxious about Africa, for fear that it might suddenly be invaded, he decided that Neoterius, afterwards consul[*](In 390.) but at that time a secretary, should go to protect that province, and also Masaucio, an officer of the household troops, bearing in mind that, having had long training there under his father, the former Count Cretio,[*](Cf. xxi. 7, 4.) he knew all the suspected places; and he joined with them Gaudentius, an officer of the targeteers, a loyal man who long had been known to him.

Because, then, at one and the same time lamentable storms arose on both sides, we shall set down the single events in their proper place, first giving an account of a part of what took place in the Orient, then of the wars with the savages: since most of the events both in the west and in the east took place in the same months; for I fear that by hastening to return from one place to another by leaps and bounds we might confuse everything and involve the course of events in the deepest darkness.