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).

For they perceived that the throne, which they were on their way to usurp in the face of the greatest dangers, had beyond their hope been granted to him by the ordinary course of law. And as rumour is wont to exaggerate all novelties, he hastened on from there, now raised still higher, as though in some chariot of Triptolemus,[*](It was drawn by winged dragons and given to him by Ceres, to carry a knowledge of agriculture through the world. See Hygin. Fab. 147; Ovid, Metam. v. 641 ff.) which the poets of old, because of its swift turnings, represented as drawn through the air by winged

v2.p.191
dragons; and dreaded by land and sea and opposed by no delays, he entered Heraclea, also called Perinthus.