Res Gestae

At that time Bassianus also, one of a most illustrious family and serving as a secretary of the first class,[*](See Index II, Vol. I, s.v. notarii. ) was accused of trying to gain foreknowledge of higher power, although he himself declared that he had merely inquired about the sex of a child which his wife expected; but by the urgent efforts of the kinsfolk by whom he was defended, he was saved from death; but he was stripped of his rich patrimony.

Amid the crash of so many ruins Heliodorus, that hellish contriver with Palladius of all evils, being a mathematician[*](I.e., an astrologer, a caster of nativities.) (in the parlance of the vulgar) and pledged by secret instructions from the imperial court, after he had been cajoled by every enticement of kindness to induce him to reveal what he knew or could invent, now put forth his deadly stings.

For he was most solicitously pampered with the choicest foods, and earned a great amount of contributed money for presents to his concubines; and so he strode about anywhere and everywhere, displaying his grim face, which struck fear into all. And his assurance was the greater because, in his capacity as chamberlain, he constantly and openly visited the women’s apartments, to which, as he himself desired, he freely resorted, displaying the warrants[*](See xiv. 5, 5, note 3.) of the Father of his People,[*](Ironical, for the emperor.) which were to be a cause of grief to many.

And through these warrants Heliodorus instructed Palladius (as though he were an advocate in public law-suits) what to put at the beginning of his speech, in order the more easily to make it effective and strong, or with which figures of rhetoric he ought to aim at brilliant passages.[*](Text and exact meaning are uncertain. It is not clear what the subject of praemonebat is. G reads Valens for et valere and praemonebatur. )