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).

Formerly judgement-seats gained glory through the support of old-time refinement, when orators of fiery eloquence,[*](Cf. concitatus orator, xiv. 7, 18.) devoted to learned studies, were eminent for talent and justice, and for the fluency and many adornments of their diction; for example Demosthenes, to hear whom, when he was going to speak, as the Attic records testify, the people were wont to flock together from all Greece[*](Cf. Cic., Brutus, 84, 289.) ; and

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Callistratus,[*](According to Xen., Hell. vi. 2, 39; cf. 3, 3; and Diod. Sic., xv. 29, 6, he flourished shortly before the battle of Leuctra (371 B.C.).) to whom, when he pleaded in that celebrated case in defence of Oropos (which is a place in Euboea[*](It is really on the frontier of Attica and Boeotia opposite Euboea. The words are probably a gloss.) ) that same Demosthenes attached himself, forsaking the Academy and Plato; also, Hyperides, Aeschines, Andocides, Dinarchus, and the famous Antiphon of Rhamnus, who, according to the testimony of antiquity, was the first of all to accept a fee for conducting a defence.

Not less eminent among the Romans were men like Rutilius, Galba, and Scaurus, conspicuous for their life, their character, and their uprightness; and later in the various epochs of subsequent times many former censors and consuls, and men who had been honoured with triumphs, such as Crassus, Antonius, Philippus, Scaevola,[*](All these men are mentioned in Cicero’s Brutus; see Index.) and many others, after successful campaigns, after victories and trophies, distinguished themselves by civic services to the State, and winning laurels in the glorious contests of the Forum, enjoyed Fame’s highest honours.