Res Gestae

While he was accomplishing these exploits with due caution, the Saxons,[*](Cf. xxviii. 5, 1.) who had already broken out into formidable madness and were always rushing wherever they pleased without reconnaisances, had then invaded the maritime districts, and had almost returned enriched with the spoils which they took; but by a device which was treacherous but expedient he overwhelmed and stripped of their booty the robbers thus forcibly crushed.

Again, when the Britons could not resist the hordes of enemies that were overrunning their country, he restored them to freedom and quiet peace with the hope of better conditions, and allowed almost none of the plunderers to return to his home.[*](Cf. xxvii. 8, 5.)

With like effectiveness he also crushed Valentinus, the exile from Pannonia, who was trying to disturb the public peace in that province, before his design came to a head.[*](Cf. xxviii. 3, 4 ff.) Next, he saved Africa from great dangers, when that country was in the throes of an unexpected disaster; for Firmus was unable to endure the greed and arrogance of the military officials and had aroused the Moorish tribes, whose ardour can always easily be fanned to any plan of dissension.[*](Cf. xxix. 5, 3, 15, 25.) With equal courage he would have avenged the lamentable catastrophes in Illyricum, had he not

And although these successes which I have mentioned were brought about by his admirable generals, yet it is also well known that he himself, being a man of nimble mind and hardened by long experience in military life, performed very many exploits; and among these it would have been a most glorious feat[*](Cf. xxix. 4, 2, 5.) if he had been able to take King Macrianus alive, who was at that time formidable. He had made great efforts to do so after he learned with grief and sorrow that the king had escaped from the Burgundians, whom Valentinian himself had aroused against the Alamanni.

This is a brief account of the emperor’s deeds. Now, in the belief that posterity, being bound neither by fear nor by base flattery, is usually an uncorrupted judge of the past, I shall give a summary of his defects, to be followed by an account of his excellent qualities.

He sometimes assumed an appearance of mildness, although his hot temper made him more inclined to severity; for he evidently forgot that a ruler should avoid all excess, as he would a precipice.