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).

At that same time Frigeridus, who was carefully making many useful plans for the general security, and was hastening to fortify the pass of Succi,[*](See xxi. 10, 2 ff., and note 1.) in order that the roving light-armed bands

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of the enemy might not, like torrents swollen by melting snow, roam at large over the northern provinces, was given a successor in the person of a general called Maurus, notoriously venal under a pretence of boldness, and changeable and unreliable in all his conduct. He it was who (as I have told in my narrative of previous events)[*](Cf. xx. 4, 18.) when Caesar Julian was in doubt about the crown to be put upon his head, with haughty cleverness took off his neck-chain and boldly offered it to him for the purpose, being at the time one of Julian’s bodyguard.

Thus even in the dizzy whirl of disasters a careful and active leader[*](Frigeridus.) was removed, whereas he should have been recalled to active service at the demand of such important affairs, even if he had long since retired to a peaceful life.

It chanced that at that time Valens was at last called forth from Antioch, and after making the long journey arrived at Constantinople, where his stay was for only a very few days,[*](Twelve days according to Socrates, Hist. Eccl. iv. 38.) and he was disturbed by a slight outbreak of the populace. He gave the command of the infantry, which Trajanus had formerly held, to Sebastianus, a leader of recognized vigilance, who had shortly before been sent from Italy at his own request.[*](Zos. iv. 22, says that he left Italy through disgust at the growing influence of the eunuchs, and went to Constantinople, where Valens made him a commander-in-chief.) He himself went

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to the imperial villa Melanthias[*](Agathius (v. 14, D), and after him Suidas (s.v. μελαντιάς), call it a village 140 stadia (102, Suidas) from Constantinople.) and tried to win the favour of the soldiers by pay, supplies, and many flattering words.

Having commanded a march from there by written order,[*](Cf. xxiii. 2, 2, expeditionalis tessera; xxi. 5, 13, note.) he came to the military post called Nice,[*](A town in Thrace, Socrates, Hist. Eccl. ii. 37, 95; mansio Nice, It. Burdig. p. 569 (cf. statione Nice, 12, 3, below).) where he learned from the report of scouts that the barbarians, laden with rich spoils, had returned from the lands at the foot of Rhodope to the neighbourhood of Hadrianopolis; they, on hearing that the emperor was on the march with a large force, were hastening to join their countrymen, who were staying in a permanent garrison near Beroea and Nicopolis. At once, as timeliness of the offered opportunity demanded, Sebastianus had been directed to choose three hundred soldiers from each legion and hasten to the spot, to do, as he promised, something advantageous to the state.

He advanced by rapid marches until he was seen near Hadrianopolis, when the gates were strongly barred, and he was not allowed to approach them; for the besieged feared that he came as one who had been captured by the enemy, and won over to their side, and some harm might be caused to the city; such as had happened through the general Acacius, when the troops of Magnentius had captured him by treachery, and brought about the opening of the fastnesses of the Julian Alps.