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[1] In the course of this time Vulcacius Rufinus ended his life while still in office,
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and Probus
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was summoned from Rome to fill the office of praetorian prefect, a man known for the distinction of his family, his influence, and his great wealth, throughout the whole Roman world, in almost all parts of which he possessed estates here and there, whether justly or unjustly is not a question for my humble judgement.
[2] This man was carried on the swift wings—as the poets’ fancy expresses it-of a kind of congenital good fortune, which showed him to be now generous and ready to advance his friends, but sometimes a cruel schemer, working harm by his deadly jealousies. And although he had great power so long as he lived, because of the sums that he gave away
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and his constant resumption of offices, yet he was sometimes timid when boldly confronted, though arrogant against those who feared him; so that in his moments of confidence he seemed to thunder from tragic buskin, and when he was afraid, to be more humble than any wearer of the slipper.
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[3] And as the finny tribe,
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when removed from its own element, does not breathe very long on dry land, so he pined away when not holding prefectures; these he was compelled to seek because of the constant lawlessness of certain families which on account of their boundless avarice were never free from guilt, and in order to carry out their many evil designs with impunity, plunged their patron into affairs of state.
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[4] Now it must be admitted that he had such natural greatness of spirit that he never ordered a client or a slave to do anything illegal; but, on the other hand, if he learned that any one of them had committed any crime, even though Justice herself cried out against the man, without investigating the matter and without regard to honour and virtue, he defended him. That is a fault which Cicero
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censures in the following words:
For what difference is there between one who advises an act and one who approves it? Or what does it matter whether I wished anything to happen or rejoice that it has happened?
[5] Yet he was suspicious, and fortified by his own character; he could smile rather bitterly and sometimes resorted to flattery in order to work harm.
[6] He had, moreover, what is a conspicuous evil in such characters, especially when one thinks to be able to conceal it, in that he was so merciless and unbending, that if he had made up his mind to injure anyone, he could not be made to relent nor induced to pardon errors; indeed, his ears seemed to be stopped, not with wax,
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but with lead. At the very height of riches and honours he was worried and anxious, and hence always troubled with slight illnesses. This was the course of events throughout the western regions.
Res Gestae. Ammianus Marcellinus. John C. Rolfe (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1935-1940.
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