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).

Hence it was that triumphs were refused[*](Cf. Val. Max. ii. 8, 4 an) to Publius Scipio for the recovery of Spain; to Fulvius, when Capua was overcome after long contests, and to Opimius, when, after shifting fortunes of war, the people of Fregellae, at that time our deadly enemies, were forced to surrender.

In fact, the ancient records teach us that treaties made in extreme necessity with shameful conditions, even when both parties had taken oath in set terms, were at once annulled by a renewal of war. For example, when in days of old our legions were sent under the yoke at the Caudine Forks in Samnium[*](Cf. Val. Max. ii. 8, 4 an) ; when Albinus in Numidia devised a shameful peace[*](See Sallust, Jug. 38.) ; and when Mancinus, the author of a disgracefully hasty treaty, was surrendered to the people of Numantia.[*](See xiv. 11, 32; Florus, i. 34, 4 ff.)

So then, after the inhabitants had been withdrawn, and the city had been handed over, the tribune

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Constantius was sent to deliver the strongholds, with the surrounding country, to the Persian grandees. Then Procopius was sent with the remains of Julian, in order to inter him, as he had directed when still alive,[*](Cf. xxiii. 2, 5.) in the suburb of Tarsus.

Procopius set out to fulfil his mission,[*](Or perhaps, on the analogy of exsequiae, on his mournful errand, or for the funeral. ) but immediately after burying the body he disappeared and in spite of the most careful search could not be found anywhere,[*](He perhaps wished to escape the fate of Jovianus; see 8, 18.) until long afterwards he suddenly appeared at Constantinople, clad in the purple.

After this business had been thus attended to, we came by long marches to Antioch; where for successive days, as though the divinity were angered, many fearful portents were seen, which those skilled in such signs declared would have sad results.

For the statue of the Caesar Maximianus, which stood in the vestibule of the royal palace, suddenly dropped the brazen ball, in the form of the globe of heaven, which it was holding,[*](Cf. xxi. 14, 1, note.) the beams of the council hall gave forth an awful creaking, and in broad daylight comets were seen, about which the views of those versed in natural history are at variance.[*](Cf. Pliny, N.H. ii. 91 ff.)

For some think that they are so called because they are numerous stars united in one body,[*](Democritus and Anaxagoras, cf. Arist., Meteor. 1, 1; opposed by Sen. Nat., Quaest. vii. 7.)

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and send out writhing fires resembling hair.[*](The view of Aristotle and the Peripatetics; cometa is from coma (Greek κομη), hair. This opinion, which is nearest the truth, is attributed by Aristotle and Plutarch to Pythagoras.) Others believe that they take fire from the dryer exhalations of the earth, which gradually rise higher. Others again think that the rays streaming from the sun are prevented by the interposition of a heavier cloud from going downward, and when the brightness is suffused through the thick substance, it presents to men’s eyes a kind of star-spangled light. Yet others have formed the opinion that this phenomenon occurs when an unusually high cloud is lit up by the nearness of the eternal fires, or at any rate, that comets are stars like the rest, the appointed times of whose rising and setting[*](I.e. their appearance and disappearance.) are not understood by human minds. Many other theories about comets are to be found in the writings of those who are skilled in knowledge of the universe; but from discussing these I am prevented by my haste to continue my narrative.

The emperor lingered for a time at Antioch, bowed down by the weight of divers cares, but pursued by an extraordinary desire for getting out of the place. Accordingly, he left there on a day in the dead of winter, sparing neither horse nor man, although many signs (as has been said) forbade, and entered Tarsus, the famous city of Cilicia, of whose origin I have already spoken.[*](Cf. xiv. 8, 3.)