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).

He never intentionally chose cruel judges, but if he had learned that Those whomhehad once advanced[*](To that rank.) were acting cruelly,

v3.p.369

he maintained that he had found men like Lycurgus[*](Not the Spartan lawgiver, but a contemporary of Demosthenes; see xxii. 9, 9, note.) and Cassius,[*](Cf. xxii. 9, 9, note; and for Cato and Cassius, xxvi. 10, 10.) those ancient pillars of justice; and he often urged them in writing to punish even light offences with all severity.

Those in trouble, whom a reverse of fortune had befallen, found no refuge in the kindness of their prince, which has always been a longed-for haven, as it were, for those tossed on a stormy sea. For the purpose of a just rule (as the philosophers teach) is supposed to be the advantage and safety of its subjects.