Res Gestae

But when Heliodorus died (whether naturally or through some deliberate violence[*](Doubtless through his enemies, who were numerous. Hypatius and Eusebius; see 2, 9, above.) is uncertain; I would rather not say too late: I only wish that even the facts did not speak to that effect!) his body was carried out by the undertakers, and many men of rank, clad in mourning, were ordered to precede it, including the brothers who had been consuls.[*](I.e., of subjecting men of rank to such an indignity.)

Thereby the entire rottenness of the folly of the empire’s ruler was then completely revealed; for although he was earnestly besought to refrain from this inexcusable insult,[*](Cf. xxvii. 11, 6.) yet he remained so inflexible that he seemed to have stopped his ears with wax,[*](Cf. xxviii. 1, 12.) as if he were going to pass the rocks of the Sirens.

At last, however, he yielded to insistent prayers, and ordered that some persons should precede the ill-omened bier of the body-snatcher[*](Cf. Suet., Aug. 100, 4.) to the tomb, marching with bare heads and feet,[*](A sign of mourning; cf. Apul., Metam. iii. 1.) some also with folded hands.[*](Cf. xxviii. 1, 15.) My mind shrinks from recalling, during that suspension of justice,[*](Cf. mundanum fulgorem, xiv. 6, 3.) how many men of the highest rank, especially exconsuls, after having carried the staves of honour and worn purple robes, and having their names made known to all the world 10 in the Roman calendar, were

Conspicuous among all of these was our Hypatius, a man recommended from his youth by noble virtues, of quiet and calm discretion, and of a nobility and gentleness measured as it were by the plumb-line;[*](See xiv. 8, 11, note 2; xxi. 16, 3, note 4.) he conferred honour on the fame of his ancestors[*](Cf. C.I.L. i. part 2, ed. 2, 15 (epitaph of Scipio Hispanus), virtutes generis mieis mribus accumulavi. ) and himself gave glory to posterity by the admirable acts of his two prefectures.[*](At a later time; Flavius Hypatius was prefect of Rome in 397, praetorian prefect in 382 and 383.)