Res Gestae

Valentinian now sent Merobaudes[*](Cf. Zos., iv. 17.) on ahead with the division of foot-soldiers under his command, and in company with Count Sebastianus, to plunder and burn the cantons of the barbarians; the emperor himself quickly moved his camp to Acincum,[*](Modern Ofen.) joined together boats for the sudden emergency, and having with swift energy made a bridge of planks upon them, crossed through another quarter into the territory of the Quadi. They indeed were watching for his coming from the steep mountains, to which most of them, in doubt and uncertain what was happening, had withdrawn with their families; but they were overcome with amazement when, contrary to their expectation, they saw the imperial standards in their territories.

Valentinian then advanced forcing the pace as far as occasion demanded, put to death without distinction of age all those who were still roaming about and were taken unawares

Therefore, setting this[*](I.e., selecting winter quarters.) aside for a time, in spite of the great need for a halt,[*](That is, the need of rest for his soldiers.) he quickly moved from there, marched along the banks of the river, and having protected his camp with an adequate force and with castles came to Bregitio.[*](Szoeny near Comorn.) There the fate which had long been designed to end the emperor’s labours foretold his approaching end by a repeated series of portents.

For a very few days before his arrival comets blazed in the heavens; these foreshadow the downfall of men of high position, and of their origin I have already given an account.[*](See xxv. 10, 3.) Before that, at Sirmium, with sudden crash of the clouds, a thunderbolt fell and set fire to a part of the palace, the senate house, and the forum. Also at Savaria, where the emperor was still settled, an owl perched on the top of the imperial bath, and uttered notes foretelling death; and no skilful[*](Lit. by taking aim. ) hand could bring it down with arrows or with stones, although many vied with one another in eager attacks upon it.

Again, when he was on his way from the aforesaid city to a campaign, he wished to go out through the same gate by which he had entered, in order to gain an omen that he would quickly return to Gaul; but while the neglected

And on the night before the day which was to deprive him of life, he had a vision (as men often do in their sleep); he saw his absent wife sitting with disordered hair and dressed in mourning attire; and it was possible to infer that she was his own Fortune, on the point of leaving him in the garb of sorrow.

Then the next morning, when he came out somewhat gloomy and with frowning brow, the horse that was brought to him would not allow him to mount, but reared its fore feet high in the air contrary to its usual manner; whereupon the emperor fell into one of his innate fits of anger and, being naturally cruel, ordered the groom’s[*](See xxix. 3, 5, note.) right hand, which as usual had supported him in leaping on to the animal, to be cut off. And the guiltless young man would have suffered a cruel fate, had not Cerealis, the tribune in charge of the stable, at the risk of his own life postponed the terrible wrong.[*](And since the death of Valentinian gave Valens other things to think of, the sentence was, as the language implies, probably not carried out.)

After this, envoys of the Quadi appeared, humbly begging for peace and forgetfulness of their past offences; and in order to obtain this without

When it was decided that the envoys be received and allowed to return home with the grant of the truce for which they were asking (for neither lack of supplies nor the unfavourable time of year allowed further attacks upon them), on the advice of Aequitius[*](Chief marshal of the court, xxxi. 12, 15.) they were admitted to the councilchamber. And as they stood there with bended limbs weak and stricken by fear, on being bidden to tell their mission, they gave the usual series of excuses and supported them by adding the pledge of an oath. They declared that there had been no common consent of the chiefs of their race in any wrong that had been done us, but that the hostile acts had been committed by bands of foreign brigands dwelling near the river; and they added, and maintained that it was a valid excuse for their conduct, that the building of a barrier,[*](See xxix. 6, 2.) which was begun both unjustly and without due occasion, roused their rude spirits to anger.

At this the emperor burst into a mighty fit of wrath, and being particularly incensed during the first part of his reply, he railed at the whole nation in noisy and abusive language, as ungrateful and forgetful of acts of kindness. Then he gradually calmed himself and seemed more inclined to mildness, when, as if struck by a bolt from the sky, he was seen to be speechless and suffocating,[*](Cf. xxiv. 4, 30.) and his face was tinged with a fiery flush.[*](On the death of Valentinian see Zos. iv. 17.) On a sudden his blood was checked[*](Cf. § 5, below.) and the sweat of death broke out upon him. Then, that he might not fall before the eyes of a throng of the common sort, his body-servants rushed to him

There he was laid upon a bed; but although he was drawing more feeble remnants of breath, the vigour of his mind was not yet lessened, and he recognized all those who stood about him, whom the chamberlains had summoned With all speed, in order to avert any suspicion that he had been murdered. And since all parts of his body were burning hot, it was necessary to open a vein, but no physician could be found, since he had sent them to various places, to give attention to the soldiers who were attacked by the plague.

At last however one was found, but although he repeatedly pierced a vein, he could not draw even a single drop of blood, since the emperor’s inner parts were consumed by excessive heat, or (as some thought) because his body was dried up, since some passages for the blood (which we now all hemorrhoids) were closed and incrusted by he cold chills.

He felt the disease crushing him with a mighty force, and knew that the fated and of his life was at hand; and he tried to speak or give some orders, as was indicated by the gasps that often heaved his sides,[*](Cf. Virg. Aen. ix. 415.) by the grinding of his teeth, and by movements of his arms as if of men fighting with the cestus; but finally his strength failed him, his body was covered with livid spots, and after a long struggle for life he breathed his last, in the fifty-fifth year of his age and the twelfth of his reign, less a hundred days.[*](He was made Augustus A.D. Kal. Mart. (Feb. 23), 364, and died A.D. xv. Kal. Dec. (Nov. 18), 375.)

It is now in place to go back and (as we have often done) in a brief epilogue run through the deeds of this emperor, from the very birth of his father to his own decease, without omitting to distinguish his faults or his good qualities, brought to light as they were by greatness of power, which is always wont to lay bare a man’s inmost character.

His father, the elder Gratianus, was born at Cibalae, a town of Pannonia, of a humble family, and from his early boyhood was surnamed Funarius,[*](Cf. Pseud.-Aurel. Vict., Epit., 45, 2.) because when he was not yet grown up and was carrying round a rope for sale, and five soldiers tried with all their might to tear it from him, he gave way not an inch; he thus rivalled Milo of Croton, from whom no possible exercise of strength could ever take an apple, when he held it tightly in his left or his right hand, as he often did.

Hence, because of his mighty strength of body and his skill in wrestling in the soldiers’ fashion[*](On this see Capit., Max. Duo, 6, 5 ff.) he became widely known, and after holding the position of one of the bodyguard and of a tribune, he commanded the army in Africa with the title of count. There he incurred the suspicion of theft, but he departed long afterwards and commanded the army in Britain with the same rank; and at last, after being honourably discharged, he returned to his home. While he was living there far from the noise and bustle, his property was confiscated by Constantius, on the ground that when civil discord was raging he was said to have shown hospitality to Magnentius when the usurper

Because of his father’s services Valentinian was favoured from early youth, and being commended also by the addition of his own merits, he was clad in the insignia of imperial majesty at Nicaea. He took as his imperial colleague his brother Valens, to whom he was greatly attached both by the tie of fraternity and by sympathy, a man with an equal amount of excellent and bad qualities, as we shall point out in the proper place.

Valentinian, then, after suffering many annoyances and dangers while he was a private citizen,[*](I.e., not yet emperor (cf. Lucan, v. 666, of Julius Caesar, quoted on p. 520, n. 1).) had no sooner begun to reign than he went to Gaul, to fortify the strongholds and cities lying near the rivers; for these were exposed to the raids of the Alamanni, who were raising their heads higher after learning of the death of the emperor Julian, who was absolutely the only one whom they feared after the death of Constans.

But Valentinian also was rightly dreaded by them, both because he increased the armies with a strong reinforcement and because he so fortified both banks of the Rhine with lofty castles and strongholds, that nowhere should an enemy be able to hurl himself at our territories unobserved.[*](xxviii. 2, 1.)