[1] Then, after getting rid of Lucillianus, thinking that it was no time for delay or for inaction, bold as he was and confident in times of peril, he marched to the city, which he looked on as surrendered. And advancing with rapid steps, he had no sooner come near the suburbs, which were large and extended to a great distance, than a crowd of soldiers and people of all sorts, with many lights, flowers, and good wishes, escorted him to the palace, hailing him as Augustus and Lord.

[2] There, rejoicing in his success and in the good omen, and with increased hope of the future, since he believed that following the example of a populous and famous metropolis the other cities also would receive him as a health- giving star, he gave chariot races on the following day, to the joy of the people. But with the dawn of the third day, impatient of delay, he hastened along the public highways, and since no one ventured to oppose him, placed a force in the pass of Succi, ¹ and entrusted its defence to Nevitta, as a faithful officer. And it will now be suitable in a brief digression, to describe the situation of this place.

[3] The closely united summits of the lofty mountain ranges Haemus and Rhodope, of which the one rises immediately from the banks of the Danube and the other, from those of the Axius, ² on our side, end with swelling hills in a narrow pass, and separate Illyricum and Thrace. On the one side they are near to the midlands of Dacia and to Serdica, ³ on the other they look down upon Thrace and Philippop- olis, ⁴ great and famous cities; and as if nature had fore-knowledge that the surrounding nations must come under the sway of Rome, the pass was purposely so fashioned that in former times it opened obscurely between hills lying close together, but afterwards, when our power rose to greatness and splendour, it was opened even for the passage of carts; and yet it could sometimes be so closed as to check the attempts of great leaders and mighty peoples.

[4] The part of this pass, which faces Illy- ricum, since it rises more gently, is sometimes easily surmounted, as though it kept no guard. But the opposite side, over against Thrace, precipitous and falling sheer downward, is made difficult on both sides by rough paths, and is hard to get over even when there is no opposition. At the foot of these heights on both sides lie spacious plains, the upper one extending as far as the Julian Alps, ⁵ the other so flat and open that there is no hindrance to its habitation as far as the strait ⁶ and the Propontis.

[5] After these arrangements had been made in a matter so momentous and so urgent, the emperor, leaving the commander of the cavalry there, returned to Naessus ⁷ (a well-supplied town), from which he might without hindrance attend to everything that would contribute to his advantage.

[6] There he made Victor, the writer of history, ⁸ whom he had seen at Sirmium and had bidden to come from there, consular governor of Pannonia Secunda, and honoured him with a statue in bronze, a man who was a model of temperance, and long afterwards prefect of the City. ⁹

[7] And now, lifting himself higher and believing that Constantius could never be brought into harmony with him, he wrote to the senate a sharp oration full of invective, in which he specifically charged Constantius with disgraceful acts and faults. When these were read in the House, while Tertullus was still acting as prefect, the striking independence of the nobles was manifest as well as their grateful affection; ¹⁰ for with complete agreement they one and all shouted: We demand reverence for your own creator. ¹¹

[8] Then he passed on to abuse the memory of Constantine as an innovator and a disturber of the ancient laws and of customs received of old, openly charging that he was the very first to advance barbarians even to the rods and robes of consuls. In so doing he showed neither good taste nor consideration; for instead of avoiding a fault which he so bitterly censured, he himself soon afterwards joined to Mamertinus as colleague in the consulship Nevitta, ¹² a man neither in high birth, experience, nor renown comparable with those on whom Constantine had conferred the highest magistracy, but on the contrary uncultivated, somewhat boorish, and (what was more intolerable) cruel in his high office.