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[1] After this three days were devoted to a truce, while each man gave attention to his own wound or his neighbour’s, but since we were without supplies we were tormented by hunger that was already unendurable; and because grain and fodder had everywhere been burned, and both men and animals experienced extreme danger, a great part of the food which the pack-animals of the tribunes and generals carried was distributed even to the lowest soldiers, who were in dire want.
[2] And the emperor, who had no dainties awaiting him, after the manner of princes, but a scant portion of porridge under the low poles of a humble tent—a meal which would have been scorned even by one who served as a common soldier-
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regardless of himself distributed through the tents of the poorer of his men whatever was demanded for his own needs.
[3] Moreover, when he was forced for a time to indulge in an anxious and restless sleep, he threw it off in his usual manner, and, following the example of Julius Caesar, did some writing in his tent. Once when in the darkness of night he was intent upon the lofty thought of some philosopher, he saw somewhat dimly, as he admitted to his intimates, that form of the protecting deity of the state which he had seen in Gaul when he was rising to Augustan dignity,
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but now with veil over both head and horn of plenty, sorrowfully passing out through the curtains of his tent.
[4] And although for a moment he remained sunk in stupefaction, yet rising above all fear, he commended his future fate to the decrees of heaven, and now fully awake, the night being now far advanced, he left his bed, which was spread on the ground, and prayed to the gods with rites designed to avert their displeasure. Then he thought he saw a blazing torch of fire, like a falling star, which furrowed part of the air and disappeared. And he was filled with fear lest the threatening star of Mars had thus visibly shown itself.
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[5] That fiery brilliance was of the kind that we call
διάσσων,
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which never falls anywhere or touches the earth; for anyone who believes that bodies can fall from heaven is rightly considered a layman,
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or a fool. But this sort of thing happens in many ways, and it will be enough to explain a few of them.
[6] Some believe that sparks glowing from the ethereal force, are not strong enough to go very far and then are extinguished; or at least that beams of light are forced into thick clouds, and because of the heavy clash throw out sparks, or when some light has come in contact with a cloud. For this takes the form of a star, and falls downward, so long as it is sustained by the strength of the fire; but, exhausted by the greatness of the space which it traverses, it loses itself in the air, passing back into the substance whose friction gave it all that heat.
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[7] Accordingly, before dawn the Etruscan soothsayers were hastily summoned, and asked what this unusual kind of star portended. Their reply was, that any undertaking at that time must be most carefully avoided, pointing out that in the Tarquitian books,
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under the rubric
On signs from heaven it was written, that when a meteor was seen in the sky, battle ought not to be joined, or anything similar attempted.
[8] When the emperor scorned this also, as well as many other signs, the soothsayers begged that at least he would put off his departure for some hours; but even this they could not gain, since the emperor was opposed to the whole science of divination,
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but since day had now dawned, camp was broken.
Res Gestae. Ammianus Marcellinus. John C. Rolfe (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1935-1940.
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