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).
A second class consists of those who profess a knowledge of law, which, however, the self-contradictory statutes have destroyed, and reticent
In order to seem to have a deeper knowledge of the law, they talk of Trebatius,[*](Horace, Serm. ii. 1; Cicero, Ad Fam. vii. 5, 8, 17.) Cascellius,[*](Of the time of the first triumvirate; cf. Val. Max., vi. 2, 12; Hor., A.P. 371.) and Alfenus,[*](Alfenus Varus, cf. Hor., Serm. i. 3, 130.) and of the laws of the Aurunci and Sicani,[*](Typical of antiquity; cf. Virg., Aen. viii. 51 ff.; Hor., Serm. i. 3, 91; Gell. i. 10, 1, 2.) which were long since forgotten and buried many ages ago along with Evander’s mother.[*](A humorous superlative of antiquus. Evander is typical of antiquity (Hor., Serm. i. 3, 91; etc.), and his mother carries us back a generation.) And if you pretend that you have purposely murdered your mother, they promise, if they have observed that you are a moneyed man,[*](Cf. xiv. 6, 12, note 3; Cic., Agr., ii. 22, 59.) that their many recondite studies will secure an acquittal for you.