Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae, John C. Rolfe (Translator), 14.11.22

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

View: By Chapter

← Previous Next →

[22] At this, o’erspread with the pallor of Adrastus,¹ he was able to say only that he had slain most of them at the instigation of his wife Constantina,² assuredly not knowing that when the mother of Alexander the Great urged her son to put an innocent man to death and said again and again, in the hope of later gaining what she desired, that she had carried him for nine months in her womb, the king made this wise answer: Ask some other reward, dear mother, for a man’s life is not to be weighed against any favour.

Res Gestae. Ammianus Marcellinus. John C. Rolfe (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1935-1940.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by Tufts University.

Current edition Perseus

History (English) (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).)

Editions (1)

Res Gestae Perseus (Ammianus Marcellinus. Ammianus Marcellinus, with an English translation, Vols. I-III. Rolfe, John C., editor. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; W. Heinemann, 1935-1940 (printing).) — 14.11.22 focus

[22] Ad quae Adrasteo pallore perfusus, hactenus valuit¹ loqui, quod plerosque incitante coniuge iugulaverit Constantina, ignorans profecto Alexandrum Magnum urgenti matri ut occideret quendam insontem, et dictitanti spe impetrandi postea quae vellet, eum se per novem menses utero portasse praegnantem, ita respondisse prudenter: Aliam, parens optima, posce mercedem; hominis enim salus beneficio nullo pensatur.

Notes on the current edition

History

1. Proverbial; cf. Virgil, Aen. vi. 480, Adrasti pallentis imago. Adrastus turned pale at the death of his sons-in-law Tydeus and Polynices (when the seven champions attacked Thebes), and never recovered his colour.

2. See note 1, p. 4.

Ammianus Marcellinus Res Gestae 14.11.22

John C. Rolfe (Translator)

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Current edition Perseus

Notes on the current edition

Stable identifiers