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Delationes et calumniae in castris Constantii Augusti, et aulicorun rapacitas.

[1] Superato ut dixi Marcello, reversoque¹ Serdicam, unde oriebatur, in castris Augusti per simulationem tuendae maiestatis imperatoriae, multa et nefanda perpetrabantur.²

[2] Nam si super occentu soricis vel occursu mustelae, vel similis signi gratia consuluisset quisquam³ peritum, aut anile incantamentum ad leniendum adhibuisset dolorem, quod medicinae quoque admittit auctoritas, reus unde non poterat opinari delatus, raptusque in iudicium, poenaliter interibat.

[3] Per id tempus fere servum⁴ quendam, nomine Danum, terrore tenus uxor rerum levium incusarat: hanc incertum unde notam⁵ Rufinus subsedit,⁶ —quo indicante quaedam cognita per Gaudentium, agentem in rebus, consularem Pannoniae tunc Africanum, cum convivis rettulimus interfectum—apparitionis praefecturae praetorianae tum etiam princeps ob devotionem.

[4] Is⁷ (ut loquebatur iactantius) versabilem feminam, post nefandum concubitum, in periculosam fraudem illexit; suasit consarcinatis mendaciis laesae maiestatis arcessere maritum insontem, et fingere quod velamen purpureum, a Diocletiani sepulcro furatus, quibusdam consciis occultabat.

[5] Hisque ad multorum exitium ita formatis, ipse spe potiorum ad imperatoris pervolat castra, excitaturus calumnias consuetas. Reque comperta, iubetur Mavortius, tunc praefectus praetorio, vir sublimis constantiae, crimen acri inquisitione spectare, iuncto ad audiendi societatem Ursulo (largitionum comite) severitatis itidem non improbandae.

[6] Exaggerato itaque negotio ad arbitrium temporum, cum nihil post tormenta multorum inveniretur, iudicesque haererent ambigui, tandem veritas respiravit oppressa, et in abrupto necessitatis mulier Rufinum totius machinae confitetur auctorem, nec adulterii foeditate suppressa; statimque legibus contemplatis, illi amore recti concordes et iusti,⁸ ambos sententia damnavere letali.

[7] Quo cognito Constantius fremens, et tamquam vindicem salutis suae lugens exstinctum, missis equitibus citis, Ursulum redire ad comitatum minaciter iussit. Qui cum eo venisset adireque principem vellet, ab aulicis arcebatur, ne defendendae posset assistere⁹ veritati; sed ille spretis qui prohibebant, perrupit intrepidus, ingressusque consistorium, ore et pectore libero docuit gesta; hacque fiducia linguis adulatorum occlusis, et praefectum et se discrimine gravi subtraxit.

[8] Tune illud apud Aquitanos evenit, quod latior fama vulgarat. Veterator quidam ad lautum convivium rogatus et mundum, qualia sunt in his regionibus plurima, cum vidisset linteorum toralium purpureos¹⁰ clavos ita latissimos, ut sibi vicissim arte ministrantium cohaererent, mensamque operimentis paribus tectam, anteriorem chlamydis partem utraque manu vehens intrinsecus, structuram omnem ut amictus adornaverat principalis; quae res patrimonium dives evertit.

[9] Malignitate simili quidam agens in rebus in Hispania ad cenam itidem invitatus, cum inferentes vespertina lumina pueros exclamasse audisset ex usu vincamus, verbum sollemne¹¹ interpretatum atrociter delevit nobilem domum.

[10] Haec taliaque ideo magis magisque crescebant, quod Constantius impendio timidus et de vita sollicitus,¹² semper se ferro peti¹³ sperabat, ut Dionysius tyrannus ille Siciliae, qui ob hoc idem vitium et tonstrices docuit filias, necui alieno ora committeret leviganda, aedemque brevem, ubi cubitare sueverat, alta circumdedit fossa eamque ponte solubili superstravit, cuius disiectos asseres et axiculos secum in somnum abiens transferebat, eosdemque compaginabat, lucis initio processurus.

[11] Inflabant itidem has malorum civilium bucinas potentes in regia, ea re ut damnatorum petita bona suis accorporarent, essetque materia per vicinitates eorum late grassandi.

[12] Namque ut documenta liquida prodiderunt, proximorum fauces aperuit primus omnium Constantinus, sed eos medullis provinciarum saginavit Constantius.

[13] Sub hoc enim ordinum singulorum auctores, infinita cupidine divitiarum arserunt, sine iustitiae distinctione vel recti, inter ordinarios iudices Rufinus primus praefectus praetorio, et inter militares equitum magister Arbetio, praepositusque cubiculi Eusebius,¹⁴ anus quaestor, et in urbe Anicii, quorum ad avorum¹⁵ aemulationem posteritas tendens, satiari numquam potuit cum possessione multo maiore.

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

Res Gestae (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).)

Translations (1)

History Perseus (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).) — 16.8 focus

[1] After Marcellus had been worsted, as I have said, and had returned to Serdica,¹ his native place, in the camp of Augustus, under pretext of upholding his imperial majesty, many abominable acts were committed.

[2] For if anyone consulted a soothsayer about the squeaking of a shrew-mouse, the meeting with a weasel on the way, or any like portent, or used some old wife’s charm to relieve pain (a thing which even medical authority allows), he was indicted (from what source he could not guess), was haled into court, and suffered death as the penalty.

[3] At about that time a certain slave, Danus by name, was accused by his wife on trifling charges merely to intimidate him; this woman was approached by Rufinus, who had come to know her in some way or other. He was the man who had given certain information that he had learned through Gaudentius, one of the agents,² and had caused the death of Africanus, then governor-general of Pannonia, along with his guests, as I have related;³ he was even then, because of his obsequiousness, chief steward of the praetorian prefecture.

[4] This Rufinus (as he kept boastfully saying) led the fickle woman, first into shameful relations with him, and then into a dangerous deceit; he induced her by a tissue of lies to charge her guiltless husband with high treason, and to allege that he had stolen a purple robe from Diocletian’s tomb and with several accomplices was concealing it.

[5] And having thus framed these matters to the destruction of many persons, Rufinus himself, in hope of greater profit, flies to the emperor’s camp, to stir up his customary scandals. And when the fact was divulged, Mavortius, then praetorian prefect, a man of high resolution, was bidden to look into the charge with a keen investigation, having associated with him, to hear the case in common, Ursulus, count of the largesses,⁴ likewise a man of praiseworthy severity.

[6] So when the affair had been exaggerated, after the standard of the times, and after the torture of many persons nothing was discovered, and the judges were hesitating in perplexity, at last truth, crushed to earth, breathed again, and at the point of necessity the woman confessed that Rufinus was the contriver of the whole plot, and did not even keep back the shame of her adultery. And at once the laws were consulted and the judges, unanimous in their love of right and justice, condemned them both to death.

[7] Constantius, on learning this, raged and lamented, as if the defender of his own life had perished; he sent fast horsemen and commanded Ursulus in threatening terms to return to the court. And when he had come there and wished to approach the emperor, the courtiers tried to keep him from being able to appear in defence of the truth. But he, scorning those who would hold him back, burst through fearlessly and, entering the council-chamber, with frank speech and bold heart told what had been done; and by this confidence having stopped the mouths of the flatterers, he delivered both the prefect and himself from a grave danger.

[8] Then a thing happened in Aquitania which fame bruited more widely abroad. A crafty old fellow who was invited to a sumptuous and elegant banquet, such as are very frequent in that country, noticed that the purple borders of the linen couch-covers were so very broad that the skill of the attendants made them seem all one piece, and that the table was covered with similar cloths; and by turning the front part of his cloak inward with both hands, he so adorned its whole structure, that it resembled an emperor’s garment⁵ ; and this action ruined a rich estate.

[9] With like malice a certain member of the secret service in Spain, who also was invited to a dinner, when he heard the slaves who were bringing in the evening lights cry (as the manner is): May we conquer,⁶ gave the expression a serious meaning, and wickedly destroyed a noble house.⁷

[10] These and similar actions kept growing more and more common, for the reason that Constantius, who was excessively timid and fearful for his life, always anticipated that a knife was at his throat, like that famous Sicilian despot, Dionysius, who because of that same infirmity actually taught his daughters to be barbers, in order that he might not trust the shaving of his cheeks to an outsider; and he surrounded the little house in which he used to sleep, with a deep trench and spanned it with a knockdown bridge,⁸ the planks and pins of which he took apart and carried with him when he went off to bed; and reassembled them at daybreak, when he was on his way out.

[11] These trumpet-blasts of internal revolt⁹ were likewise increased by powerful courtiers, to the end that they might lay claim to the property of condemned persons and incorporate it with their own, and thus have the means of encroaching widely on their neighbours.

[12] For as clear proofs bore witness, the first of all to open the jaws of those nearest to him was Constantine, but it was Constantius who fattened them with the marrow of the provinces.

[13] For under him the leading men of every rank were inflamed with a boundless eagerness for riches, without consideration for justice or right; among the civil functionaries first came Rufinus, the praetorian prefect; among the military, Arbetio, master of the horse, and the head-chamberlain Eusebius, . . . anus,¹⁰ the quaestor, and in Rome itself the members of the Anician family, whose younger generation, striving to outdo their forefathers, could never be satisfied with even much greater possessions.

Notes on the current edition

Res Gestae

1. reuersoque, Lind; euersoque, V.

2. perpetrabantur G; perpetrabant, V.

3. quisquam, Heraeus, cf. xxii. 16, 19; quemquam, V.

4. fere or ferme, Wagner, seruum, Heraeus; fer (lac. 11 letters) num, V.

5. hanc incertum unde notam, Heraeus; incusarat (lac. of 7 letters) certum an*cincertum ( c after * added by V 2) undenso tam, V.

6. subsedit, Clark; subsidebat, Val., subseda, V.

7. is, Val; bis, V.

8. contemplatis, Val.; illi amore recti, Novák ( iudices idem, scripseram); concordes et iusti, Eyssen.; contem (lac. 24 letters) ordes. V.

9. qui cum eo . adsistere, Novák; posse adsistere ueritatis et tale, V.

10. purpureos, Giinther; per duos, V.

11. uerbum, Her., sollemne, Lind.; perun (lac. 8 letters) lemne (lac. 11 letters), V.

12. et sollicitus, Novák in lac. of 18 letters.

13. ferro peti, Novák; feriri, EBG; ferri, V.

14. Eusebius, Lind.; Lucillianus (?), Val.; laps (lac. 19 letters) annus, V.

15. quorum ad auorum, Pet.; aniciique (la c. 27 letters), uorum, V.

Ammianus Marcellinus Res Gestae 16.8

John C. Rolfe (Translator)

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Delationes et calumniae in castris Constantii Augusti, et aulicorun rapacitas.

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