Res Gestae
Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus. Ammianus Marcellinus, with an English translation, Vols. I-III. Rolfe, John C., translator. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; W. Heinemann, 1935-1940 (printing).
Accordingly, after Merobaudes turned back, the matter of succession was carefully considered and the plan was unfolded that the boy Valentinianus,[*](This Valentinianus is not to be confounded with another boy of the same name, then nine years old and the son of Valens, although the ancient writers often confuse them. This Valentinian, son of the emperor of the same name, met a violent death in 392, according to Hieronymus.) son of the deceased emperor and then four years old, should be summoned and given a share in the rule. He was at the time a hundred miles distant, living with his mother Justina[*](According to Zos. iv. 43, she was formerly the wife of Magnentius. Cerealis was her brother.) at the country house called Murocincta.
When this had been approved by unanimous consent, the boy’s uncle
And although, while this was being done, there was some thought that Gratianus would take it amiss that another emperor was chosen without his permission, this fear later vanished and men lived free from care, since Gratianus, besides being a kindly and righteous man, loved his kinsman with great affection and saw to his education.[*](Cf. Ausonius, Gratiarum actio ad Gratianurn, 7: piissimo: huius vero laudis . . . testimonium est . . . instar filii ad imperium frater adscitus. )
Meanwhile Fortune’s rapid wheel, which is always interchanging adversity and prosperity, armed Bellona in the company of her attendant Furies, and transferred to the Orient melancholy events, the coming of which was foreshadowed by the clear testimony of omens and portents.
For after many true predictions of seers and augurs, dogs leaped back when wolves howled, night birds