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).

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.