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).
He was most cautious in bestowing high official positions: under his rule no money-changer[*](Nummularius is used in a broad sense, including bankers; for a dishonest money-changer, see Suet., Galba, 9. ) governed a province, no office was ever sold, except at the beginning of his reign, a time when it is usual for some crimes to be committed with impunity through reliance on the distractions of a new ruler.[*](Text and exact meaning are uncertain; the sense apparently is that some persons commit crimes, hoping that amid the press of business by which the new emperor is overwhelmed he will be forced to overlook them.)
In war, whether offensive or defensive, he was most skilful and careful, a veteran in the heat and dust of the battlefield. In council he was a foresighted persuader of what was right and a dissuader of wrong, most strict in examining all ranks of the military service. He wrote a neat hand, was an elegant painter and modeller, and an inventor of new kinds of arms.[*](Cf. Pseud.-Aurel. Vict., Epit. 45, 6: pingere venustissime . . . fingere cero seu limo simulacra, nova arma meditari.) His memory was lively; so was his speech (although he spoke seldom), and he was vigorous therein, almost to the point of eloquence. He loved neatness, and enjoyed banquets that were choice but not extravagant.
Finally, his reign was distinguished by toleration, in that he remained neutral in religious differences neither troubling anyone on that ground nor ordering him to reverence this or that. He did
His strong and muscular body, the gleam of his hair, his brilliant complexion, his grey eyes, with a gaze that was always sidelong and stern, his fine stature, and his regular features[*](Cf. membrorum recta compage, xiv. 11, 28.) completed a figure of regal charm and majesty.
After the last invocation of the emperor[*](The conclamatio, or last call to the dead, to see wheather any life remained. Or it may mean, after the public lamentations for his death, the completion of his funerals rites.) his[*](375 A.D.) body was prepared for burial, in order to be sent to Constantinople and interred among the remains of the deified rulers. Meanwhile the campaign that was approaching was suspended, and an uncertain outcome of the situation was feared, because of the cohorts serving in Gaul, which were not always of devoted loyalty to legitimate emperors, and regarded themselves as arbiters of the imperial power;[*](Cf. Vopiscus, Saturninus, 7, 1: Gallus, ex gents hominum inquietissima et avida semper vel faciendi principis vel imperil.) and it was suspected that they might take the opportunity to venture on some new step; and this fact added some hopes of attempting a revolution—that Gratianus was still at Trier (where his father, when he was on the point of beginning his march, had arranged for him to stay) and even then knew nothing of what had happened.
When affairs were in this critical state, and all
He, being a sharp-wittedman, either guessing what had happened, or perhaps having learned it from the messenger who summoned him, and suspecting that the Gallic troops would violate the terms of peace, pretended that an order-ticket had been sent to him to return with the messenger, in order to guard the banks of the Rhine because the barbarians were getting wilder. And Sebastianus, who was still unaware of the emperor’s death, he sent to a more distant post, which had been secretly ordered; for although Sebastianus was a quiet and peace-loving man, he stood in high favour with the troops, and hence he was particularly to be feared at that time.
Accordingly, after Merobaudes turned back, the matter of succession was carefully considered and the plan was unfolded that the boy Valentinianus,[*](This Valentinianus is not to be confounded with another boy of the same name, then nine years old and the son of Valens, although the ancient writers often confuse them. This Valentinian, son of the emperor of the same name, met a violent death in 392, according to Hieronymus.) son of the deceased emperor and then four years old, should be summoned and given a share in the rule. He was at the time a hundred miles distant, living with his mother Justina[*](According to Zos. iv. 43, she was formerly the wife of Magnentius. Cerealis was her brother.) at the country house called Murocincta.