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).

Just as quiet and peaceful men find pleasure in rest, so the Halani delight in danger and warfare. There the man is judged happy who has sacrificed his life in battle, while those who grow old and depart from the world by a natural death they assail with bitter reproaches, as degenerate and cowardly; and there is nothing in which they take more pride than in killing any man whatever: as glorious spoils of the slain they tear off their heads, then strip off their skins[*](This seems to be the meaning with the punctuation of the text, based on the clausulae. The skins are com. monly understood to be those of the head (i.e. scalps), but apparently wrongly; cf. 2, 14, above, of the Vidini and Geloni.) and hang them upon their war-horses as trappings.

No temple or sacred

v3.p.395

place is to be seen in their country, not even a hut thatched with straw can be discerned anywhere, but after the manner of barbarians a naked sword is fixed in the ground and they reverently worship it as their god of war, the presiding deity of those lands over which they range.[*](Since the leader of the dance of the Salian priests of Mars was called praesul, the term is appropriate here. On this custom see Mela, ii. 1, 15; cf. Justinus, xliii. 3, ab origine rerum pro dis immortalibus hastas coluere, Herodotus, iv. 62; and xvii. 12, 21 above (of the Quadi).)