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).

After these achievements in the savages’ country, the camp

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was moved to Bregetio,[*](Apparently Flecken Szöny in Hungary, not far from Komorn.) to the end that there also tears or blood might quench what was left of the war of the Quadi, who were astir in those regions. Then their prince Vitrodorus, son of King Viduarius, and Agilimundus, his vassal, along with other nobles and officials[*](For this meaning of iudices see Index of Officials, s.v.) governing various nations, seeing the army in the heart of their kingdom and native soil, prostrated themselves before the marching soldiers, and having gained pardon, did what was ordered, giving their children as hostages by way of pledge that they would fulfil the conditions imposed upon them. Then, drawing their swords, which they venerate as gods, they swore that they would remain loyal.

When these events had been brought to a successful issue, as has been told, the public welfare required that the standards quickly be transported to the Limigantes, former slaves of the Sarmatians,[*](For their revolt, see 12, 18, above. Limigantes seems to be the name that they assumed (Gibbon, ch. xviii.)) for it was most shameful that they had with impunity committed many infamous outrages. For as if forgetting the past, when the free Sarmatians rebelled, those others also found the opportunity most favourable and broke over the Roman frontier, for this outrage alone making common cause with their masters and enemies.

Nevertheless, it was determined after driving out their former masters; according to others, the Limigantes were a tribe of the Sarmatians.

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after deliberation that this act also should be punished less severely than the heinousness of their crimes demanded, and vengeance was confined to transferring them to remote places, where they would lose the opportunity of molesting our territories; yet the consciousness of their long series of misdeeds warned them to fear danger.

Accordingly, suspecting that the weight of war would be directed against them, they got ready wiles and arms and entreaties. But at the first sight of our army, as if smitten by a stroke of lightning and anticipating the utmost, after having pleaded for life they promised a yearly tribute, a levy of their able youth, and slavery; but they were ready, as they showed by gestures and expression, to refuse if they should be ordered to move elsewhere, trusting to the protection of the situation in which they had established themselves in security, after driving out their masters.

For the Parthiscus[*](The modern Theiss.) rushing into those lands with winding course, mingles with the Hister.[*](The Danube.) But while it flows alone and unconfined, it slowly traverses a long expanse of broad plain; near its mouth, however, it compresses this into a narrow tract, thus protecting those who dwell there from a Roman attack by the channel of the Danube, and making them safe from the inroads of other savages by the opposition of its own stream; for the greater part of the country is of a marshy nature, and since it is flooded when the rivers rise, is full of pools and overgrown with willows, and therefore impassable except for those well acquainted with the region. Besides this the larger river, enclosing the winding circuit of an island, which almost reaches the mouth

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of the Parthiscus, separates it from connection with the land.

So, at the emperor’s request, they came with their native arrogance to their bank of the river, not, as the event proved, intending to do what they were bidden, but in order not to appear to have feared the presence of the soldiers; and there they stood defiantly, thus giving the impression that they had come there to reject any orders that might be given.

But the emperor, suspecting that this might happen, had secretly divided his army into several bands, and with swift speed enclosed them, while they were delaying, within the lines of his own soldiers; then standing with a few followers on a loftier mound, protected by the defence of his guards, in mild terms he admonished them not to be unruly.