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).

The philosophers, on the other hand, maintained that the brilliance of the sacred fire which suddenly appeared signified nothing at all, but was merely the course of a stronger mass of air sent downward from the aether by some force; or if it did give any sign, it foretold

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an increase in renown for the emperor, as he was beginning a glorious enterprise, since it is well known that flames by their very nature mount on high without opposition.

So when the bridge had been broken down (as was said before) and all had crossed, the emperor thought that the most urgent of all his duties was to address the soldiers, who were advancing confidently through trust in themselves and their leader. Therefore, when the signal had been given with the trumpets, and all the centuries, cohorts and maniples had come together, he took his place upon a mound of earth, surrounded by a ring of high officials, and with calm countenance and favoured with the unanimous devotion of all, spoke as follows:

Seeing the great vigour and eagerness that animate you, my valiant soldiers, I have resolved to address you, in order to explain in full detail that this is not the first time—as some evil-minded men mutter—that the Romans have invaded the Persian kingdom. For not to mention Lucullus and Pompey, who, passing through the Albani and the Massagetae, whom we now call the Alani, broke into this nation also and came to the Caspian Sea, we know that Ventidius,[*](See Plut., Ant. 33, 4; 34, 1; Val. Max. vi. 9, 9.) the lieutenant-general of Antony, inflicted innumerable sanguinary defeats in this region.

But to leave ancient times, I will disclose what recent history has transmitted to us. Trajan, Verus, and Severus returned from here victorious and adorned with trophies,[*](Tropaeati seems to be a word coined by Ammianus.) and the

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younger Gordianus,[*](Emperor from 238-244; see Index I., vol. i., s.v. Gordiani. In 242 he made a campaign against the Per- sians, at first with success; but his troops, incited by Philippus, mutinied and put him to death.) whose monument we just now looked upon with reverence, would have come back with equal glory, after vanquishing the Persian king and putting him to flight at Resaina,[*](A town of Osdroëne.) had he not been struck down by an impious wound inflicted by the faction of Philippus, the praetorian prefect, and a few wicked accomplices, in the very place where he now lies buried. But his shade did not long wander unavenged, for as if their deeds were weighed in the scales of Justice, all who had conspired against him perished by agonising deaths.[*](Cf. Capit., Gordian. 33, and Suet., Jul. 89, of the as- sassins of Julius Caesar.)