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).

But he, a judge more severe than a Cassius,[*](Cassius, city praetor in 111 B.C., was feared as a judge; Cic., Brut. 25, 97; Val. Max. iii. 7, 9; cf. xxvi. 10, 10; xxx. 8, 13.) or a Lycurgus,[*](Not the celebrated Spartan lawgiver, but the statesman and orator of Athens, a contemporary of Demosthenes. He is often cited as a severe judge, e.g. Plutarch, Vitae X Orat. 541 F.; Plautus, Bacch. 111; Diod. Sicul. xvi. 88, 1.) weighed the evidence in the cases with impartial justice and gave every man his due, never deviating from the truth, and showing particular severity towards calumniators, whom he hated because he had experienced the impudent madness of

v2.p.249
many such folk even to the peril of his life, while he was still a humble private citizen.