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).

Although untrained in letters, he was nevertheless so wise that even now some of his sayings

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are regarded among the people as aphorisms, and for that reason I am glad to place on record a few out of many. He said, One who has gold and a demon cannot hide the demon. Also, A poor Roman plays the Goth, a rich[*](For this meaning of utilis, cf. Gregory of Tours, iv. 3, and passim. The rich Goth imitates the luxury of the wealthy Romans.) Goth the Roman.

A certain man died, leaving a wife and a little son who did not know his mother. Her son, when a small boy, was taken from her by some one, carried to another province, and there brought up. When he became a youth, he somehow returned to his mother, who had now become betrothed to another man. When the mother saw her son, she embraced him, thanking God that she had seen her son again, and he lived with her for a month. And behold! the mother’s betrothed came, and seeing the young man, asked who he was. She replied that he was her son. But when her betrothed learned that the youth was her son, he began to ask the return of the earnest-money[*](As his part of the agreement of betrothal; arra is derived from a Hebrew word.) and to say: Either deny that he is your son, or I certainly depart hence. The mother yielded to her betrothed and began to deny her son, whom she herself had before acknowledged, saying: Leave my house, young man, since I took you up as a stranger. But he kept saying that he had come back to his mother and to the house of his father. To make a long story short, while this was going on the son appealed against his mother to the king, who ordered her to appear before him. And he said to her: Woman, your son appeals against you; what have you to say? Is he your son, or not? She replied: He is not my son, but I

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took him up as a stranger. And when the woman’s son had told the whole story in order to the king, he again said to the woman: Is he your son, or not? She said: He is not my son. The king said to her: How much property have you, woman? She replied: As much as a thousand gold-pieces. And when the king declared with an oath that he would not make anyone else than the young man himself her husband, and that she should receive no other husband, then the woman was disconcerted and confessed that the young man was her son.[*](Suet., Claud. 15, 2, tells a similar story of Claudius.) And there are many other things told of the king.

Afterwards Theodoric took to wife[*](accepta uxore is perhaps an example of the participle as a finite verb.) a Frankish woman named Augoflada. For before he began to reign he had a wife,[*](Her name was Ermenberga.) who had borne him daughters. One of these, called Areaagni, he gave in marriage in Gaul to Alaric, king of the Visigoths, and another daughter of his, Theodegotha, to Sigismund, son of King Gundebadus.[*](Jordanes mentions two natural daughters, Theudigotha and Ostrogotha, who also were married.)

Theodoric, through Festus, made peace with the emperor Anastasius with regard to his assumption of the rule, and Anastasius sent back to him all the ornaments of the Palace, which Odoacar had transferred to Constantinople.