Res Gestae

My mind shrinks from enumerating all the cases, and at the same time I dread seeming to give the impression of purposely having sought out merely the defects of a prince who was a very proper man in other ways. Yet one thing it is just neither to pass over nor to leave unmentioned, namely this, that having two savage, man-eating she-bears, one called Goldflake and the other Innocence, he looked after them with such extreme care that he placed their cages near his own bedroom, and appointed trustworthy keepers, who were to take particular care that the beasts’ lamentable savageness should not by any chance be destroyed. Finally, after he had seen the burial of many corpses of those whom Innocence had torn to pieces, he allowed her to return to the forest unhurt, as a good and faithful servant, in the hope that she would have cubs like herself . . .

These, then, are undeniable indications of Valentinian’s character and his blood-thirsty tendency. But, on the other hand, no one, not even one of his persistent detractors, will reproach him with lack of ingenuity in behalf of the state, especially if one bears in mind that it was a more valuable service to check the barbarians by frontier defences than to defeat them in battle. And when he had given[*](There is a lacuna of five lines, doubtless containing a description of a line of fortifications with watch-towers.) . . . if any of the enemy made a move, he was seen from above from the watchtowers, and overcome.

But among many other cares, his first and principal aim was to capture alive by violence or by craft King Macrianus,[*](King of the Alamanni, xviii. 2, 15; xxviii. 5, 8.) just as, long before, Julian took Vadomarius; for Macrianus, amid the frequent changes in the policy followed towards him, had increased in power, and now was rising against our countrymen with full-grown strength. Accordingly, having first provided what the circumstances and the time demanded, and having learned from the reports of deserters where the said king, who expected no hostile move, could be seized, Valentinian threw a pontoon across the Rhine as quietly as his means allowed, lest anyone should interfere with the bridge while it was being put together.

And