Res Gestae

But while Julian was lingering at Cercusium, to the end that his army with all its followers might cross the Abora on a bridge of boats, he received a sorrowful letter from Sallustius, prefect of Gaul,

But the emperor, disregarding his cautious counsellor, pushed confidently on, since no human power or virtue has ever been great enough to turn aside what the decrees of fate had ordained. Immediately upon crossing the bridge he ordered it to be destroyed, so that no soldier in his own army might entertain hope of a return.

Here also, with like fatality, an unfavourable omen appeared: the outstretched corpse of a certain attendant slain by the hand of an executioner, whom the resident prefect[*](See xiv. 1, 10, note.) Salutius had condemned to death because, after promising to supply additional provisions within a designated time, he had been prevented by an accident from keeping his word. But on the day after the wretched man had been executed another fleet arrived, as he had promised, bringing an abundance of supplies.

Setting out from there we came to a place called Zaitha, which means Olive tree. Here we saw, conspicuous from afar, the tomb of the Emperor Gordianus,[*](Zosimus, iii. 14, locates the tomb at Dura: see below, ch. 8.) of whose deeds from early childhood, his successful campaigns, and his treacherous murder we have spoken at the appropriate time.[*](In one of the lost books.)

When Julian had there, in accordance with his native piety, made offerings to the deified emperor, and was on his way to Dura (a deserted town), he saw a troop of soldiers in the distance and halted. And while he was in doubt what they were bringing, they presented him with a lion of huge size, which

And, in fact, we read of other ambiguous oracles, the meaning of which only the final results determined: as, for example, the truth of the Delphic prediction which declared that Croesus, after crossing the river Halys, would overthrow a mighty kingdom;[*](This oracle is often quoted; see Hdt. i. 53, where the envoys announced to Croesus: ἢν στρατεύηται ἐπὶ πέρσας, μεγάλην ἀρχήν μιν καταλύσειν: Cic., Div. ii. 56, 115, Croesus Halyn penetrants magnam pervertet opum vim. ) and another which in veiled language designated the sea as the place for the Athenians to fight against the Medes;[*](The oracle bade the Greeks defend themselves with wooden walls. In general, see Cic., Div. ii. 26, 56.) and a later one than these, which was in fact true, but none the less ambiguous: Aeacus’ son, I say, the Roman people can conquer.[*](Cf. Ennius, Ann. 174, Remains of Old Latin, L.C.L., i.)

However, the Etruscan soothsayers, who accompanied the other adepts in interpreting prodigies, since they were not believed when they often tried to prevent this campaign, now brought out their books on war, and showed that this sign was adverse and prohibitory to a prince invading another’s territory, even though he was in the right.

But they were spurned by the opposition of the philosophers, whose authority was then highly valued, but who were sometimes in error and very persistent in matters with which they had little acquaintance. They, indeed, advanced as a specious argument for establishing belief in their knowledge,

Likewise, on the following day, which was the seventh of April, as the sun was already sloping towards its setting, starting with a little cloud thick darkness suddenly filled the air and daylight was removed; and after much menacing thunder and lightning a soldier named Jovian, with two horses which he was bringing back after watering them at the river, was struck dead by a bolt from the sky.