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).

It was the knowledge of this that led Remigius, marshal of the court, when he perceived that the emperor was boiling with anger at something which had occurred, to hint among other things that some outbreaks of the barbarians threatened; and when Valentinian heard this, immediately he was so overcome with fear that he became as calm and mild as Antoninus the Good[*](I.e., Antoninus Pius; cf. xvi. 1, 4.) himself.

He never intentionally chose cruel judges, but if he had learned that Those whomhehad once advanced[*](To that rank.) were acting cruelly,

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he maintained that he had found men like Lycurgus[*](Not the Spartan lawgiver, but a contemporary of Demosthenes; see xxii. 9, 9, note.) and Cassius,[*](Cf. xxii. 9, 9, note; and for Cato and Cassius, xxvi. 10, 10.) those ancient pillars of justice; and he often urged them in writing to punish even light offences with all severity.

Those in trouble, whom a reverse of fortune had befallen, found no refuge in the kindness of their prince, which has always been a longed-for haven, as it were, for those tossed on a stormy sea. For the purpose of a just rule (as the philosophers teach) is supposed to be the advantage and safety of its subjects.

It is fitting after this to pass to those acts of his which were praiseworthy and to be imitated by right-thinking men; and if he had regulated the rest of his conduct in accordance with these, his career would have been that of a Trajan or a Marcus.[*](Marcus Aurelius.) He was very indulgent towards the provincials and everywhere lightened the burden of their tributes; he was always timely in founding towns and establishing frontier defences. He was an excellent critic of military discipline, failing only in this, that while he punished even slight offences of the common soldiers, he suffered the serious offences of his higher commanders to go to excess, often turning a deaf ear to the complaints made against them.[*](Cf. 5, 3, and Zos. iv. 16.) The result of this was turmoil in Britain, disaster in Africa, and the devastation of Illyricum.

In every observance of chastity he was pure at home and abroad; he was stained by the foul touch of no obscene feelings or lewdness; and for

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that reason he controlled the wantonness of the imperial court as if by a curb; and this course he could easily keep; he showed no indulgence to his own kindred, whom he either restrained in retirement or honoured with unimportant posts, with the exception of his brother, whom, compelled by press of circumstances, he admitted to a share in his own eminence.