Res Gestae

For he was most solicitously pampered with the choicest foods, and earned a great amount of contributed money for presents to his concubines; and so he strode about anywhere and everywhere, displaying his grim face, which struck fear into all. And his assurance was the greater because, in his capacity as chamberlain, he constantly and openly visited the women’s apartments, to which, as he himself desired, he freely resorted, displaying the warrants[*](See xiv. 5, 5, note 3.) of the Father of his People,[*](Ironical, for the emperor.) which were to be a cause of grief to many.

And through these warrants Heliodorus instructed Palladius (as though he were an advocate in public law-suits) what to put at the beginning of his speech, in order the more easily to make it effective and strong, or with which figures of rhetoric he ought to aim at brilliant passages.[*](Text and exact meaning are uncertain. It is not clear what the subject of praemonebat is. G reads Valens for et valere and praemonebatur. )

And since it would be a long story to tell all this gallows-bird[*](The word may mean one who crucifies or one who deserves to be crucified—hence hangman or gallows-bird. The latter seems preferable.) contrived, I will recount this one case, showing with what audacious confidence he smote the very pillars of the patriciate. For made enormously insolent by secret conferences

Eagerly drinking this in, the menacing madman,[*](Valens.) to whom nothing ought to have been permitted, since he thought that everything, even what was unjust, was allowed him,[*](Cf. Seneca, De Ira, iii. 12, 7, nihil tibi liceat, dum irasceris. Quare? Quia vis omnia licere; and Consol. ad Polybium, 7, 2.) inexorably summoned from the farthest boundaries of the empire all those whom the accuser, exempt from the laws, with profound assurance had insisted ought to be brought before him, and ordered a calumnious trial to be set on foot.

And when in much-knotted bonds of constriction justice had long been trodden down and tied tightly, and the wretched scoundrel persisted in his strings of assertions, severe tortures could force no confession, but showed that these distinguished men were far removed even from any knowledge of anything of the kind. Nevertheless, the calumniator was as highly honoured as before, while the accused were punished with exile and with fines; but shortly afterwards they were recalled, had their fines remitted, and were restored to their former rank and honour unimpaired.

Yet after these so lamentable events Valens acted with no more restraint or shame; since excessive power does not reflect that it is unworthy for men of right principles, even to the disadvantage of their enemies, willingly to plunge into crime, and that nothing is so ugly as for a cruel nature to be joined to lofty pride of power.[*](Cf. Cic., Ad Quint. Frat. i. 1, 13, 37, nihil est tam deformed quam ad summum imperium etiam acerbitatem naturae adiungere. )

But when Heliodorus died (whether naturally or through some deliberate violence[*](Doubtless through his enemies, who were numerous. Hypatius and Eusebius; see 2, 9, above.) is uncertain; I would rather not say too late: I only wish that even the facts did not speak to that effect!) his body was carried out by the undertakers, and many men of rank, clad in mourning, were ordered to precede it, including the brothers who had been consuls.[*](I.e., of subjecting men of rank to such an indignity.)

Thereby the entire rottenness of the folly of the empire’s ruler was then completely revealed; for although he was earnestly besought to refrain from this inexcusable insult,[*](Cf. xxvii. 11, 6.) yet he remained so inflexible that he seemed to have stopped his ears with wax,[*](Cf. xxviii. 1, 12.) as if he were going to pass the rocks of the Sirens.

At last, however, he yielded to insistent prayers, and ordered that some persons should precede the ill-omened bier of the body-snatcher[*](Cf. Suet., Aug. 100, 4.) to the tomb, marching with bare heads and feet,[*](A sign of mourning; cf. Apul., Metam. iii. 1.) some also with folded hands.[*](Cf. xxviii. 1, 15.) My mind shrinks from recalling, during that suspension of justice,[*](Cf. mundanum fulgorem, xiv. 6, 3.) how many men of the highest rank, especially exconsuls, after having carried the staves of honour and worn purple robes, and having their names made known to all the world 10 in the Roman calendar, were

Conspicuous among all of these was our Hypatius, a man recommended from his youth by noble virtues, of quiet and calm discretion, and of a nobility and gentleness measured as it were by the plumb-line;[*](See xiv. 8, 11, note 2; xxi. 16, 3, note 4.) he conferred honour on the fame of his ancestors[*](Cf. C.I.L. i. part 2, ed. 2, 15 (epitaph of Scipio Hispanus), virtutes generis mieis mribus accumulavi. ) and himself gave glory to posterity by the admirable acts of his two prefectures.[*](At a later time; Flavius Hypatius was prefect of Rome in 397, praetorian prefect in 382 and 383.)