Res Gestae

Others say that Valens did not give up the ghost at once, but with his bodyguard[*](See Index II, Vol. I.) and a few eunuchs was taken to a peasant’s cottage near by, well fortified in its second storey; and while he was being treated by unskilful hands, he was surrounded by the enemy, who did not know who he was, but was

For while the pursuers were trying to break open the bolted doors, they were assailed with arrows from a balcony of the house; and fearing through the inevitable delay to lose the opportunity for pillage, they piled bundles of straw and firewood about the house, set fire to them, and burned it men and all.

From it one of the bodyguard leaped through a window, but was taken by the enemy; when he told them what had happened, he filled them with sorrow at being cheated of great glory, in not having taken the ruler of the Roman empire alive. This same young man, having later escaped and returned secretly to our army, gave this account of what had occurred.

When Spain had been recovered, with a similar disaster the second of the Scipios,[*](I.e., Cn. Cornelius Scipio Calvus, 212 B.C. Livy, xxv. 36, 13.) we are told, was burned with a tower in which he had taken refuge and which the enemy had set on fire.[*](Cf. Livy, xxv. 36, 13; Appian, Bell. Hisp. 3, 16 (Rom. Hist. vi. 3, 16).) This much, at any rate, is certain, that neither Scipio nor Valens had the fortune of burial[*](Cf. Iliad, 456; Virg., Aen. xi. 22; Val. Max. iv. 4, 2.) which is death’s final honour.

Amid this manifold loss of distinguished men, the deaths of Trajanus and Sebastianus stood out. With them fell thirty-five tribunes, without special assignments, and leaders of bodies of troops,[*](On numeri, see xiv. 7, 19; on vacantes, Introd., Vol. I, p. xliv.) as well as Valerianus and Aequitius, the one having charge of the stables, the other, of the Palace. Among these also Potentius lost his life in the first flower of his youth; he was tribune of the promoti,[*](See xv. 4, 10, note 3, and Index II, Vol. I.) respected by all good men and honoured both for his own services and those of his father Ursicinus, formerly a commander-in-chief. Certain

The annals record no such massacre of a battle except the one at Cannae, although the Romans more than once, deceived by trickery due to an adverse breeze of Fortune, yielded for a time to illsuccess in their wars, and although the storied dirges of the Greeks have mourned over many a contest.

Thus then died Valens, at the age of almost fifty and after a reign of a little less than fourteen years.[*](As a matter of fact, he reigned four months more than fourteen years, having been made Augustus by his brother in March of the year 364. He lost his life Aug. 8, 378. Pseud.-Aur. Vict. Epit. 46, gives 13 years and 5 months; Socrates and Sozomenus give 16 years.)

Of his merits, as known to many, we shall now speak, and of his defects. He was a firm and faithful friend, severe in punishing ambitious designs, strict in maintaining discipline in the army and in civil life, always watchful and anxious lest anyone should elevate himself on the ground of kinship with him; he was excessively slow towards conferring or taking away official positions,[*](Cf. xviii. 6, 22; xxiii. 5, 15; xxvii. 6, 4.) very just in his rule of the provinces, each of which he protected from injury as he would his own house, lightening the burden of tributes with a kind of special care, allowing no increase in taxes, not extortionate in estimating the indebtedness from arrears,[*](To the crown in payment for supplies; cf. xvi. 5, 15, tributariae rei reliqua; Spart. Hadr. 6, 5; 21, 7 and 12.) a harsh and bitter enemy of thievish officials and of those

Besides all this, he combined liberality with moderation, and although there are many instances of such conduct, yet it will suffice to set forth one. Since there are always at court some men who are greedy for others’ possessions, if anyone, as often happens, claimed a lapsed estate[*](I.e., one which had fallen to the emperor for lack of heirs.) or anything else of the kind, he distinguished clearly between justice and injustice, allowing those who intended to protest[*](That is, the former owners or other interested parties.) a chance to state their case; and if he gave it to the petitioner, he often added as sharers in the gifts gained three or four absentees, to the end that restless people might act with more restraint, when they saw that by this device the gain for which they were so greedy was diminished.

As to the public buildings which he restored or built from their very beginning in various cities and towns, in order not to be prolix I say nothing, but leaving this matter to the objects themselves to demonstrate it more obviously than I can. Such conduct is worthy, I think, of emulation by all good men; let me now run through his defects.

He was immoderately desirous of great wealth, and impatient of toil, rather affecting awesome austerity than possessing it, and somewhat inclined to cruelty; he had rather an uncultivated mind, and was trained neither in the art of war nor in liberal studies; he was ready to gain advantage and profit at the expense of others’ suffering, and more intolerable when he attributed offences that were committed to contempt of, or injury to, the imperial dignity; then he vented his rage in

It was unendurable also, that although he wished to appear to refer all controversies and judicial investigations to the laws, and entrusted the examination of such affairs to the regular judges as being specially selected men, nevertheless he suffered nothing to be done contrary to his own caprice. He was in other ways unjust, hot tempered, and ready to listen to informers without distinguishing truth from falsity—a shameful fault, which is very greatly to be dreaded even in these our private affairs of every-day occurrence.

He was a procrastinator and irresolute. His complexion was dark, the pupil of one of his eyes was dimmed,[*](Very likely by cataract.) but in such a way as not to be noticed at a distance; his body was well-knit, his height neither above nor below the average; he was knock-kneed, and somewhat pot-bellied.

This will be enough to say about Valens, and it is fully confirmed by the testimony of records contemporary with me. But it is proper not to omit the following story. At the time of the oracle of the tripod, for which, as I have said,[*](Cf. xxix. 1, 7.) Patricius and Hilarius were responsible, he had heard of those three prophetic verses, of which the last is:

1. When in Mimas’ plains the war-god Ares rages.[*](Cf. xxix. 1, 33.)

Finally, after his death and the departure of the enemy, it is said that near the place where he was thought to have fallen a monument made of a heap of stones was found, to which was fastened a tablet engraved with Greek characters, showing that a distinguished man of old called Mimas was buried there.[*](Cedrenus (Hist. Comp. p. 314 B) and Zonaras (xiii. 16, p. iii, 32 A) speak of this, and say that the inscription read: Here lies Mimas, a Macedonian general. They connect Valens’ fears, not with the tripod, but with a dream of the emperor’s.)