Res Gestae

At the time Valens added this also to the rest of his glories, that while in other instances he was so savagely cruel as to grieve that the great pain of his punishments could not continue after death,[*](ferret . . . dolores, hexameter rhythm.) yet he spared the tribune Numerius, a man of surpassing wickedness! This man was convicted at that same time on his own confession of having dared to cut open the womb of a living woman and take out her unripe offspring, in order to evoke the ghosts of the dead and consult them about a change of rulers; yet Valens, who looked on him with the eye of an intimate friend, in spite of the murmurs of the whole Senate gave orders that he should escape unpunished, and retain his life, his enviable wealth, and his military rank unimpaired.

O noble system of wisdom, by heaven’s gift bestowed upon the fortunate, thou who hast often ennobled even sinful natures! How much wouldst thou have corrected in those dark days, if it had been permitted Valens to learn through you that royal power—as the philosophers declare—is nothing else than the care for others’ welfare;[*](Cf. xxv. 3, 18; Cic., De Off. i. 25, 85.) that

A woman of Smyrna confessed before Dolabella,[*](Cf. Val. Max. viii. 1, Amb. 2; Gell. xii. 7, 4. Dolabella is probably the man who was consul with Antony, and after Caesar’s death governed the province of Asia.) the proconsul of Asia, that she had poisoned her husband and her own son by him, because (as she said) she had discovered that they had killed her son by a former marriage; but she was ordered to appear again two days later.[*](I.e., the case was adjourned for that time, as provided by the law of Ser. Sulpicius Galba; cf. Cic., Verr. ii. 1, 7, 20.) Since the council, to which according to custom the matter was referred, uncertain what distinction ought to be made between revenge and crime, hesitated to decide, she was sent before the Areopagites, those strict judges at Athens, whose justice is said to have decided disputes even among the gods.[*](There was a myth that Ares or Mars, to avenge an injury to his daughter, slew Halirrhothius, son of Posidon or Neptune, and that the case came before the Areopagus; of. Aug., De Civ. Dei, xviii. 10.) They, after

After these various deeds of injustice which have already been mentioned, and the marks of torture shamefully branded upon the bodies of such free men as bad survived, the never-closing eye of Justice, the eternal witness and avenger of all things, was watchfully attentive. For the last curses of the murdered, moving the eternal godhead through the just ground of their complaints, had kindled the firebrands of Bellona; so that the truth of the oracle was confirmed, which had predicted that no crimes would go unpunished.

While these events, which have just been[*](372 A.D.) described, during the cessation of the Parthian storm were being spread abroad at Antioch in the form of internal troubles, the awful band of the Furies, after making a rolling flood of manifold disasters, left that city and settled on the shoulders of all Asia, in the following way.

A certain Festinus of Tridentum, a man of the lowest and most obscure parentage, was admitted by Maximinus[*](Cf. xxviii. 1, 5 ff.) even into the ties of affection which true brothers show, for he had been his boon companion and with him had assumed the manly gown. By decree of the fates this man passed over to the Orient, and there in the administration of Syria, and after serving as master of the rolls,[*](Cf. xv. 5, 4, note 3.) he left behind him praiseworthy examples of mildness and of respect for law; and when later he was advanced

But hearing that Maximinus planned to wipe out all decent men, from that time on he decried his actions as dangerous and shameful. But when he learned that Maximinus, merely through the recommendation of the deaths of those whom he had impiously slain, had attained the honour of prefect contrary to his deserts, he was aroused to similar deeds and hopes. Like an actor, suddenly changing his mask, he conceived the desire of doing harm and stalked about with intent and cruel eyes, imagining that the prefecture would soon be his if he also should have stained himself with the punishment of the innocent.

And although many of the various acts which he committed were very harsh, to express it mildly, yet it will suffice to mention a few which are familiar and generally known, and done in emulation of those which had taken place in Rome. For the principle of good or bad deeds is the same everywhere, even if the greatness of the situation is not the same.[*](That is, whether the place, the circumstances, and even the deeds themselves are unlike.)

He executed a philosopher called Coeranius, a man of no slight merit, after he had resisted tortures of savage cruelty, because in a letter to his wife of a personal nature he had added in Greek: But do you take note and crown the house door, which is a common proverbial expression, used in order that the hearer may know that something of greater importance than usual is to be done.

There was a simple-minded old woman who was in the habit of curing intermittent fevers with a harmless charm. He caused her to be put to death as a criminal, after

Among the papers of a distinguished townsman, of which an examination had been ordered for some business reason, the horoscope of a certain Valens was found; when the person concerned was asked why he had cast the nativity of the emperor, he defended himself against the false charge by saying that he had had a brother named Valens, and that he had died long ago. He promised to show this by proofs of full credibility, but they did not wait for the truth to be discovered, and he was tortured and butchered.

In the bath a young man was seen to touch alternately with the fingers of either hand first the marble[*](Of the wall or perhaps the floor of the bath.) and then his breast, and to count the seven vowels,[*](Of the Greek alphabet.) thinking it a helpful remedy for a stomach trouble. He was haled into court, tortured and beheaded.

At this point, as I turn my pen to Gaul, the order and series of events is a turmoil, since we find Maximus, who is now prefect, in the midst of many cruel deeds; for being in possession of extensive power, he was added as an ill-omened incentive to the emperor,[*](Valentinian.) who united with the majesty of his position unendurable tyranny. Therefore, whoever ponders what I have told, should also carefully weigh the rest which are passed over in silence; and, like a reasonable person, he will pardon me for not

For Valentinian, who was naturally savage, as bitterness (which is a foe to righteous conduct) increased in him after the coming of the aforesaid Maximinus, having no one to give better advice or to restrain him, was carried as if by surging waves and tempests from one cruel act to another; to such a degree that, when he was in a passion, often his voice and expression, his gait and his colour, were changed. For his cruelty we have the testimony of various sure pieces of evidence, of which it will suffice to set down a few.

A well-grown youth of the class called pages[*](Belonging to the paedagogium; see xxvi. 6, 15, note.) was posted, holding in leash a Spartan hound, to watch for game at a hunt; but he let the dog loose before the designated time, because the animal in an effort to escape leaped at him in a rush and bit him; for that he was beaten to death with cudgels and buried the same day.

A man in charge of a smithy brought to the emperor a breastplate artistically embellished, and expected a reward for it; but Valentinian ordered him to be put to death with equal cruelty because the piece[*](For species, cf. xiv. 9, 7.) of iron armour had a little less weight than he had stipulated. An elder of the Christian faith from Epirus, who was a favourite of Octavianus,[*](Cf. xxiii. 1, 4.) the former proconsul, . . . and the author of the charges was sent back, although somewhat tardily, to his home.[*](The sentence is corrupt. The earlier editors inserted words from the Chronicle of Hieronymus of 372, meaning was executed because he had concealed Octavianus . . . who had taken refuge at his house. )

Constantianus, an

Africanus, a busy pleader of cases at law in the city, after governing a province, aspired to the rule of another; but when Theodosius, general of the cavalry, supported him in his request, the kind emperor gave this somewhat boorish reply: Go, general, and change his head for him, since he wants a change in his province. And by this pronouncement[*](I.e., use magic arts.) an eloquent man lost his life merely for hastening, like many, for advancement.

Claudius and Sallustius, of the Jovian legion, who had advanced as far as the rank of tribune, were accused by a fellow whose low origin in itself made him an object of contempt, on the ground that when Procopius had aspired to the imperial power they had spoken some good words for him; but although constant inquisitions revealed nothing, the emperor ordered the generals of the cavalry, who were hearing the case, to drive Claudius into exile and condemn Sallustius to death, promising to pardon the latter on his way to execution. But when this had

Accordingly, although inquisitions followed thick and fast, and some died in consequence of excessive torture, not even a trace of the alleged crimes was found. In this business even the bodyguards who had been sent to arrest persons . . .[*](Since de fustibus caesi seems to be an impossible construction, there was probably a lacuna between de and fustibus; see crit. note 2.) were beaten to death with cudgels, contrary to all precedent.