Res Gestae

Then returning to Ravenna, five months later, he gave Amalabirga, another sister of his,[*](Others call her his niece.) in marriage to Herminifred, king of the Turingi, and in that way gained peace with all the nations round about. He was besides a lover of building and restorer of cities.

At Ravenna he repaired the aqueduct which the emperor Trajan had constructed, and thus brought water into the city after a long time. He completely finished the palace, but did not dedicate it. He completed the colonnades around the palace. He also built baths and a palace at Verona, and added a colonnade extending all the way from the gate to the Palace; besides that, he restored the aqueduct at Verona, which had long since been destroyed, and brought water into the city, as well as[*](For this use of alius see Class. Phil. xxiii. (1928), pp. 60 ff., and for its use in Ammianus, Amer. Jour. of Phil. lvii. (1936), pp. 137 ff.) surrounding[*](circuit, late Latin for circumdedit. ) the city with new walls. Also at Ticinum[*](Modern Pavia.) he built a palace, baths, and an amphitheatre, besides[*](See note 2.) new city walls.

He also showed many favours to the other cities. And he so won the good-will of the neighbouring nations, that they offered to make treaties with him, in the hope that he would be their king. Indeed, merchants flocked to him from the various provinces, for his organization was such that if anyone

And he followed this principle so fully throughout all Italy, that he gave no city a gate; and where there were already gates, they were never shut; and every one could carry on his business at whatever hour he chose, as if it were in daylight. In his time sixty measures of wheat were bought for a single gold-piece,[*](Cf. 11, 53.) and thirty amphorae of wine for the same price.

Now at that same time the emperor Anastasius had three grandsons, namely, Pompeius, Probus, and Hypatius. Considering which one of them he should make his successor, he invited them to have luncheon with him one day, and after luncheon to take their midday siesta within the palace, where he had a couch prepared for each of them. Under the pillow on one couch he ordered the symbol of royalty to be put, and decided that whichever of them chose that couch for his nap, in him he ought to recognise the one to whom he should later turn over the rule. One of the grandsons threw himself down on one couch, but the other two, from brotherly affection, took their places together on another, and so it happened that none of them slept on the couch where the emblem of royalty had been placed.

When Anastasius saw this, he began to ponder, and learning from it that none of them should rule, he began to pray to God that He would show him a sign, so that while he still lived he might know who should receive the royal power after his death. While he was considering the question with fasting and