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).

Valentinian then advanced forcing the pace as far as occasion demanded, put to death without distinction of age all those who were still roaming about and were taken unawares

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by his sudden onset, burned the dwellings, and returned without losing a man of those whom he had led with him. He also lingered at Acincum, since the autumn was swiftly passing on, and being in lands where the cold weather always covered everything with ice, he looked about for suitable winter quarters; and he could find no convenient place except Savaria,[*](In Pannonia, modern Stein-am-Anger.) although that town was then weak and had suffered from repeated misfortunes.

Therefore, setting this[*](I.e., selecting winter quarters.) aside for a time, in spite of the great need for a halt,[*](That is, the need of rest for his soldiers.) he quickly moved from there, marched along the banks of the river, and having protected his camp with an adequate force and with castles came to Bregitio.[*](Szoeny near Comorn.) There the fate which had long been designed to end the emperor’s labours foretold his approaching end by a repeated series of portents.

For a very few days before his arrival comets blazed in the heavens; these foreshadow the downfall of men of high position, and of their origin I have already given an account.[*](See xxv. 10, 3.) Before that, at Sirmium, with sudden crash of the clouds, a thunderbolt fell and set fire to a part of the palace, the senate house, and the forum. Also at Savaria, where the emperor was still settled, an owl perched on the top of the imperial bath, and uttered notes foretelling death; and no skilful[*](Lit. by taking aim. ) hand could bring it down with arrows or with stones, although many vied with one another in eager attacks upon it.

Again, when he was on his way from the aforesaid city to a campaign, he wished to go out through the same gate by which he had entered, in order to gain an omen that he would quickly return to Gaul; but while the neglected

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place was being cleared of accumulated debris, the iron-clad door which barred the exit was found to have fallen, and could not be removed by the greatest efforts of a large number of men; and to avoid wasting a day there, he was forced to go out by another gate.

And on the night before the day which was to deprive him of life, he had a vision (as men often do in their sleep); he saw his absent wife sitting with disordered hair and dressed in mourning attire; and it was possible to infer that she was his own Fortune, on the point of leaving him in the garb of sorrow.

Then the next morning, when he came out somewhat gloomy and with frowning brow, the horse that was brought to him would not allow him to mount, but reared its fore feet high in the air contrary to its usual manner; whereupon the emperor fell into one of his innate fits of anger and, being naturally cruel, ordered the groom’s[*](See xxix. 3, 5, note.) right hand, which as usual had supported him in leaping on to the animal, to be cut off. And the guiltless young man would have suffered a cruel fate, had not Cerealis, the tribune in charge of the stable, at the risk of his own life postponed the terrible wrong.[*](And since the death of Valentinian gave Valens other things to think of, the sentence was, as the language implies, probably not carried out.)