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).

And no words of an accuser, even though bribed, were required amid these accumulations of evils, in order that these crimes might be committed, at least ostensibly, under the forms of law, as has sometimes been done by cruel emperors; but whatever the implacable Caesar had resolved upon was rushed to fulfilment, as if it had been carefully weighed and determined to be right and lawful.

It was further devised that sundry low-born men, whose very insignificance made them little to be feared, should be appointed to gather gossip in all

v1.p.9

quarters of Antioch and report what they had heard. These, as if travellers, and in disguise, attended the gatherings of distinguished citizens, and gained entrance to the houses of the wealthy in the guise of needy clients; then, being secretly admitted to the palace by a back door, they reported whatever they had been able to hear or learn, with one accord making it a rule to add inventions of their own and make doubly worse what they had learned, but suppressing the praise of Caesar which the fear of impending evils extorted from some against their will.