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 it is well known that under Caesar Maximianus,[*](Emperor A.D. 286-305, a little over a half-century earlier.) when a fortified camp of the Persian king was pillaged, a common soldier after finding a Parthian jewel-box containing pearls, threw away the gems in ignorance of their value, and went his way, quite satisfied with the beauty of the leather alone.