Res Gestae

These things, as persistent rumour maintained, went on thus with increasing treachery[*](Cf. illecebrosis insidiis, xxx. 1, 19.) and ruthlessness; but Valentinian knew nothing of them, as if his ears were stopped with wax, being eager for indiscriminate gain even from the slightest things, and taking into consideration only what was offered. Yet perhaps he would have spared Pannonia,[*](As his native land; cf. 7, 2, below.) if he had known earlier of these lamentable sources of profit, of which he learned all too late from the following chance occurrence.

After the example of the rest of the provincials the Epirotes also were compelled by the prefect to send envoys to the emperor to offer him their thanks,[*](For the merits of the governor.) and forced a philosopher called Iphicles,[*](A Cynic, formerly intimate with Julian.) a man renowned for his strength of soul, against his own desire to go and perform that duty.

And he, when he came into the emperor’s presence, being recognized and asked the reason for his coming,

By these words the emperor was struck as by a dagger, and like a keen-scented hound he searched into all the conduct of the prefect, asking Iphicles in his native tongue about people whom he personally knew: where in the world, for example, was so and so who excelled his countrymen in honour and reputation; or another, who was rich; or still another of high rank. And when he learned that one had fallen victim to the noose, that another had gone across the sea, that a third had committed suicide or had died under the blows of the knout,[*](plumbo probably refers to a lash with balls of lead fastened to it; cf. xxviii. 1, 29, note; Erfurdt-Wagner say in eculeo, which seems to mean that the victim was lashed as he bestrode the eculeus; or it may refer to weights attached to the victim’s feet; see xxvi. 10, 13, note 3.) he burned with tremendous rage, to which Leo, who was then chief marshal of the Court (oh, horror!), added blazing fuel, a man who himself aspired to the prefecture, in order to fall from a greater height.[*](A common idea; see Juv. x. 105 ff., numerosa parabat excelsae turris tabulata, unde altior esset casus, and Mayor’s note on 106.) And if he had attained and ruled the office, in comparison with what he would have dared, the administration of a Probus would be praised to the skies!

And so the emperor remained at Carnuntum, where throughout the entire three summer months he was preparing arms and supplies, intending, if in anyway fortune favoured, to find opportunity to attack the Quadi, the instigators of the terrible uprising. It was in that town that Faustinus, nephew of Viventius,[*](See xxvii. 3, 11. He succeeded Florentius in Gaul.) the praetorian prefect, when

According to another, who was also suborned to ruin him, when one Nigrinus in jest asked for an appointment as state-secretary, Faustinus laughed at the man and said: Make me emperor, if you want to get that office. Since this jest was unjustly interpreted, Faustinus himself, as well as Nigrinus and others, were put to death.

Valentinian now sent Merobaudes[*](Cf. Zos., iv. 17.) on ahead with the division of foot-soldiers under his command, and in company with Count Sebastianus, to plunder and burn the cantons of the barbarians; the emperor himself quickly moved his camp to Acincum,[*](Modern Ofen.) joined together boats for the sudden emergency, and having with swift energy made a bridge of planks upon them, crossed through another quarter into the territory of the Quadi. They indeed were watching for his coming from the steep mountains, to which most of them, in doubt and uncertain what was happening, had withdrawn with their families; but they were overcome with amazement when, contrary to their expectation, they saw the imperial standards in their territories.