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).

As a matter of fact, he was the object of many genuine plots of traitors, such as Aureolus, Postumus, Ingenuus, Valens[*](In Illyricum, Gaul, Pannonia and Achaia respectively.) surnamed Thessalonicus, and several others, yet he often showed leniency in punishing crimes which would bring death to the victim; but he also tried to make false or doubtful cases appear well-founded by excessively violent tortures.

And in such affairs he showed deadly enmity to justice, although he made a special effort to be considered just and merciful. And as sparks flying from a dry forest even with a light breeze of wind come with irresistible course and bring danger to rural villages, so he also from trivial causes roused

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up a mass of evils, unlike that revered prince Marcus,[*](Marcus Aurelius.) who, when Cassius had mounted to imperial heights in Syria, and a packet of letters sent by him to his accomplices had fallen into the emperor’s hands through the capture of their bearer, at once ordered it to be burned unopened, in order that, being at the time still in Illyricum, he might not know who were plotting against him, and hence be forced to hate some men against his will.[*](Cf. Dio, lxii. 26, 38.)

And, as some right- thinking men believed, it would have been a striking indication of true worth in Constantius, if he had renounced his power without bloodshed, rather than defended it so mercilessly.

And this Tully also shows in a letter to Nepos, in which he taxes Caesar with cruelty, saying: For happiness is nothing else than success in noble actions. Or, to express it differently, happiness is the good fortune that aids worthy designs, and one who does not aim at these can in no wise be happy. Therefore, in lawless and impious plans, such as Caesar followed, there could be no happiness. Happier, in my judgement, was Camillus in exile than was Manlius[*](M. Manlius saved the Roman citadel when the Gauls took the city in 387 B.C. Later, because he defended the commons, he was accused of aspiring to regal power and hurled from the Tarpeian Rock.) at that same time, even if (as he had desired) he had succeeded in making himself king.[*](A fragment preserved by Ammianus alone, not found in Cicero’s extant works.)

Heraclitus the Ephesian[*](The weeping philosopher, as Democritus was the laughing philosopher; cf. Juvenal, x. 33 ff. He flourished about 535-475 B.C.) also agrees with this, when he reminds us that the weak and cowardly have sometimes, through the mutability of fortune, been victorious over eminent men; but that the most conspicuous praise is won,

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when high-placed power sending, as it were, under the yoke the inclination to harm, to be angry, and to show cruelty, on the citadel of a spirit victorious over itself has raised a glorious trophy.