Res Gestae

Amid this manifold loss of distinguished men, the deaths of Trajanus and Sebastianus stood out. With them fell thirty-five tribunes, without special assignments, and leaders of bodies of troops,[*](On numeri, see xiv. 7, 19; on vacantes, Introd., Vol. I, p. xliv.) as well as Valerianus and Aequitius, the one having charge of the stables, the other, of the Palace. Among these also Potentius lost his life in the first flower of his youth; he was tribune of the promoti,[*](See xv. 4, 10, note 3, and Index II, Vol. I.) respected by all good men and honoured both for his own services and those of his father Ursicinus, formerly a commander-in-chief. Certain

The annals record no such massacre of a battle except the one at Cannae, although the Romans more than once, deceived by trickery due to an adverse breeze of Fortune, yielded for a time to illsuccess in their wars, and although the storied dirges of the Greeks have mourned over many a contest.

Thus then died Valens, at the age of almost fifty and after a reign of a little less than fourteen years.[*](As a matter of fact, he reigned four months more than fourteen years, having been made Augustus by his brother in March of the year 364. He lost his life Aug. 8, 378. Pseud.-Aur. Vict. Epit. 46, gives 13 years and 5 months; Socrates and Sozomenus give 16 years.)

Of his merits, as known to many, we shall now speak, and of his defects. He was a firm and faithful friend, severe in punishing ambitious designs, strict in maintaining discipline in the army and in civil life, always watchful and anxious lest anyone should elevate himself on the ground of kinship with him; he was excessively slow towards conferring or taking away official positions,[*](Cf. xviii. 6, 22; xxiii. 5, 15; xxvii. 6, 4.) very just in his rule of the provinces, each of which he protected from injury as he would his own house, lightening the burden of tributes with a kind of special care, allowing no increase in taxes, not extortionate in estimating the indebtedness from arrears,[*](To the crown in payment for supplies; cf. xvi. 5, 15, tributariae rei reliqua; Spart. Hadr. 6, 5; 21, 7 and 12.) a harsh and bitter enemy of thievish officials and of those