Res Gestae

After this cruel carnage Constantius, having made such arrangements for the safety of the frontiers as considerations of urgency recommended, returned to Sirmium after taking vengeance on a treacherous foe. Then, having quickly attended to what the pressing necessities of the time required, he set out from there and went to Constantinople, in order that being now nearer the Orient he might remedy the disaster which he had suffered at Amida,

Yet in the midst of these anxieties, as if it were prescribed by some ancient custom, in place of civil wars the trumpets sounded for alleged cases of high treason; and to investigate and punish these there was sent that notorious state-secretary Paulus, often called Tartareus.[*](The Diabolical, from Tartarus. He is called Catena in xiv. 5, 8 and xv. 3, 4.) He was skilled in the. work of bloodshed, and just as a trainer of gladiators seeks profit and emolument from the traffic in funerals[*](Gladiatorial shows were given at the funerals of distinguished Romans, as well as at festivals.) and festivals, so did he from the rack or the executioner.

Therefore, as his determination to do harm was fixed and obstinate, he did not refrain from secret fraud, devising fatal charges against innocent persons, provided only he might continue his pernicious traffic.

Moreover, a slight and trivial occasion gave opportunity to extend his inquisitions indefinitely. There is a town called Abydum, situated in the remotest part of the Thebais[*](A nome, or province, of Egypt.) ; here the oracle of a god called in that place Besa in days of old revealed the future and was wont to be honoured in