Res Gestae

Some of these, though few in number, shrink from the name of gamblers, and therefore desire to be called rather tesserarii,[*](Perhaps a word-play on the two meanings of tesserarii, players with dice and keepers of the watchword. According to Wagner, there was somewhat more skill called for with the tesserae, while with the aleae it was mainly luck.) persons who differ from each other only as much as thieves do from brigands. But this must be admitted, that while all friendships at Rome are lukewarm, those alone which are formed at the gambling table, as if they were gained by glorious toil, have a bond of union and are united by complete firmness of exceeding affection; whence some members of these companies are found to be so harmonious that you would take them for the brothers Quintilius.[*](Condianus and Maximus. They lived under the reign of Commodus, held office together, and were executed together by his order; cf. Dio, lxiii. 5, 3; Lamprid., Comm. 4, 9.) And so you may see a man of low station, who is skilled in the secrets of dice-playing, walking abroad like Porcius Cato[*](Cato Uticensis is meant.) after his unexpected and unlooked-for defeat for the praetorship, with a set expression of dignity and sorrow because at some great banquet or assemblage a former proconsul was given a higher place of honour.

Some lie in wait for men of wealth, old or young, childless or unmarried, or even for those who have wives or children—for no distinction is observed in this respect—enticing them by wonderful

Another, who attained some rank, moderate though it be, walking with neck puffed up, looks askance at his former acquaintances, so that you might think that a Marcellus was returning after the taking of Syracuse.

Many of them, who deny that there are higher powers in heaven, neither appear in public nor eat a meal nor think they can with due caution take a bath, until they have critically examined the calendar[*](I.e., an astronomical calendar; see Juvenal, vi, 573 ff., which Lindenbrog thought that Ammianus had in mind.) and learned where, for example, the planet Mercury is, or what degree of the constellation of the Crab the moon occupies in its course through the heavens.

Another, if he finds a creditor of his demanding his due with too great urgency, resorts to a charioteer[*](Charioteers were notorious for the use of magic arts against their rivals, and in general; see xxvi. 3, 3, note; xxviii. 1, 27.) who is all too ready to dare any enterprise, and causes the creditor to be charged with being a poisoner; and he is not let off until he has surrendered the bill of indebtedness and paid heavy costs. And besides, the accuser has the voluntary

In another place a wife by hammering day and night on the same anvil—as the old proverb has it[*](Cf. Cic., De Orat. ii. 39, 162, and xviii. 4, 2.) —drives her husband to make a will, and the husband insistently urges his wife to do the same. Skilled jurists are brought in on both sides, one in a bedroom, the other, his rival, in the dining-room to discuss disputed points. These are joined by opposing interpreters of horoscopes,[*](Cf. Lucian, Dial. Mort., 11, 1.) on the one side making profuse promises of prefectures and the burial of rich matrons, on the other telling women that for their husbands’ funerals now quietly approaching they must make the necessary preparations. And a maid-servant bears witness, by nature somewhat pale,. . .[*](The rest of this sentence seems hopelessly corrupt and unintelligible.) As Cicero says:[*](De Amic. 21, 79.) They know of nothing on earth that is good unless it brings gain. Of their friends, as of their cattle, they love those best from whom they hope to get the greatest profit.

When these people seek any loan, you will see them in slippers like a Micon or a Laches;[*](Characters in comedy; i.e., they are humble and obsequious.) when

Let us now turn to the idle and slothful commons. Among them some who have no shoes are conspicuous as though they had cultured names, such as the Messores, Statarii, Semicupae and Serapini, and Cicymbricus, with Gluturinus and Trulla, and Lucanicus with Porclaca and Salsula, and countless others.[*](Cf. xxviii. 4, 7. Ammianus is satirical, since these names are derived from humble occupations.)

These spend all their life with wine and dice, in low haunts, pleasures, and the games. Their temple, their dwelling, their assembly, and the height of all their hopes is the Circus Maximus. You may see many groups of them gathered in the fora, the cross-roads, the streets,[*](See Class. Phil. xxxii (1937), 49 ff.) and their other meeting-places, engaged in quarrelsome arguments with one another, some (as usual) defending this, others that.

Among them those who have enjoyed a surfeit of life, influential through long experience, often swear by their hoary hair and wrinkles that the state cannot exist if in the coming race the charioteer whom each favours is not first to rush forth from the barriers, and fails to round the turning-point closely with his ill-omened[*](Perhaps implying that magic arts have been used against him; but see crit. note. In general, cf. Hor., Odes, i. 1, 4 f., metaque fervidis evitata rotis. ) horses.

And when there is such a dry rot of thoughtlessness, as soon as the longed-for day of the chariot-races begins to

If from there they come to worthless theatrical pieces, any actor is hissed off the boards who has not won the favour of the low rabble with money. And if this noisy form of demonstration is lacking, they cry in imitation of the Tauric race[*](Referring to the myth that the Tauri (xxii. 8, 33) sacrificed strangers at the altar of Diana.) that all strangers—on whose aid they have always depended and stood upright[*](Cf. Aurel. Vict., Caesares, 11, 13, mihi quidem . . . plane compertum urbem Romam externorum virtute . . . praecipue crevisse. ) —ought to be driven from the city. All this in foul and absurd terms, very different from the expressions of their interests and desires made by your commons of old, of whose many witty and happy sayings tradition tells us.[*](Cf. xvi. 10, 13.)

And it has now come to this, that in place of the lively sound of approval from men appointed to applaud, at every public show an actor of afterpieces, a beast-baiter, a charioteer, every kind of player, and the magistrates of higher and lower rank, nay even matrons, are constantly greeted with the shout You should be these fellows’ teachers!; but what they ought to learn no one is able to explain.

The greater number of these gentry, given over to over-stuffing themselves with food,[*](Cf. xxii. 12, 6, for similar language.) led by the charm of the odour of cooking[*](Cf. Suet., Claud., 33, 1, ictus nidore prandii. ) and by the shrill voices of the women, like a flock of peacocks screaming with hunger, stand even from cockcrow beside

But enough for the present of this account of affairs in the city. Now let us return to the other events which were caused by various incidents in the provinces.