Res Gestae

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.