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).

And they have to deal with judges who sometimes are taught by the sophisms of Philistion or Aesopus,[*](Lindenbrog thought Aesopus was the famous tragic actor, but that seems doubtful because of the connection; cf. xxvi. 6, 15, mimicam cavillationem; Solinus, ch. x. (on Sicily). Valesius took him to be the celebrated writer of fables; Wagner believed that both Philistion and Aesopus were writers of mimes contemporary with Cicero.) rather than reared in the discipline of your Aristides the Just or Cato. Such men, having bought public office for large sums of money, like tiresome creditors prying into the resources of every kind of fortune, shake out booty from other men’s bosoms.

Finally, the profession of advocate has, with the rest, this serious and dangerous evil, which is native to almost all litigants, that although their cases may be lost by a thousand accidents, they

v3.p.335
think their ill-success lies wholly in the ability of their advocates, and they are accustomed to attribute the outcome of every contest to them; and they vent their anger not on the weakness of their case or the frequent injustice of the magistrate who decides it, but only on their defenders. But let us return to the point from which we made the digression.