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[1] While the linked course of the fates was bringing this to pass in the Roman world, Julian Caesar at Vienne was admitted by Augustus,¹ then consul for the eighth time, into the fellowship of the consular fasti. Urged on by his native energy, he dreamed of the din of battle and the slaughter of savages, already preparing to gather up the broken fragments of the province, if only fortune should at last aid him with her favouring breeze.

[2] Accordingly, since the great deeds that he had the courage and good fortune to perform in Gaul surpass many valiant achievements of the ancients, I shall describe them one by one in progressive order, endeavouring to put in play all the resources of my modest ability, if only they will suffice.

[3] Now whatever I shall tell (and no wordy deceit adorns my tale, but untrammelled faithfulness to fact, based upon clear proofs, composes it) will almost belong to the domain of the panegyric.

[4] For some law of a higher life seems to have attended this youth from his noble cradle even to his last breath. For with rapid strides he grew so conspicuous at home and abroad that in his foresight he was esteemed a second Titus, son of Vespasian, in the glorious progress of his wars as very like Trajan, mild as Antoninus Pius, and in searching out the true and perfect reason of things in harmony with Marcus Aurelius, in emulation of whom he moulded his conduct and his character.²

[5] And since (as the authority of Cicero informs us)³ we take delight in the loftiness of all noble arts, as we do of trees, but not so much in their roots and stumps, just so the beginnings of his surpassing ability were then veiled by many overshadowing features. Yet they ought to be preferred to his many admirable later achievements, for the reason that while still in early youth, educated like Erechtheus⁴ in Minerva’s retreat, and drawn from the peaceful shades of the Academy, not from a soldier’s tent, to the dust of battle, he vanquished Germany, subdued the meanders of the freezing Rhine, here shed the blood of kings breathing cruel threats, and there loaded their arms with chains.

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

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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).) — 16.1 focus

Iuliani Caesaris laus.

[1] Haec per orbem Romanum fatorum ordine contexto versante, Caesar apud Viennam in collegium fastorum a consule octiens Augusto adscitus, urgente genuino vigore, pugnarum fragores caedesque barbaricas somniabat, colligere provinciae fragmenta iam parans, si adfuisset fortuna¹ flatu tandem secundo.

[2] Quia igitur res magnae quas per Gallias virtute felicitateque correxit, multis veterum factis fortibus praestant, singula serie progrediente monstrabo, instrumenta omnia mediocris ingenii (si suffecerint) commoturus.

[3] Quicquid autem narrabitur, quod non falsitas arguta concinnat, sed fides integra rerum absolvit, documentis evidentibus fulta, ad laudativam paene materiam pertinebit.

[4] Videtur enim lex quaedam vitae melioris hunc invenem a nobilibus cunis ad usque spiritum comitata supremum. Namque incrementis velocibus ita domi forisque colluxit, ut prudentia Vespasiani filius Titus alter aestimaretur, bellorum gloriosis cursibus Traiani simillimus, clemens ut Antoninus, rectae perfectaeque rationis indigine congruens Marco, ad cuius aemulationem actus suos effingebat et mores.

[5] Et quoniam (ut Tulliana docet auctoritas) omnium magnarum artium sicut arborum altitudo nos delectat, radices stirpesque non item, sic praeclarae huius indolis rudimenta, tune multis obnubilantibus tegebantur, quae anteferri gestis eius postea multis et miris, hac ratione deberent, quod adulescens primaevus, ut Erechtheus in secessu Minervae nutritus, ex Academiae quietis umbraculis, non e militari tabernaculo, in pulverem Martium tractus, strata Germania, pacatisque rigentis Rheni meatibus, cruenta spirantium regum hic sanguinem fudit, alibi manus catenis afflixit.

Notes on the current edition

History

1. That is, Constantius Augustus.

2. This is also stated by Eutropius, x. 16, 5, and by Julian himself in his Letter to Themistius, p. 253, 13; ii. p. 203, L.C.L.

3. Orator, 43, 147; a very free quotation.

4. One of the earliest kings of Athens, because of his discovery of many useful arts said to have been educated by Minerva; cf. Iliad, ii. 546 f.

Ammianus Marcellinus Res Gestae 16.1

John C. Rolfe (Translator)

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