THE HISTORY OF AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS.

THE FIRST THIRTEEN BOOKS ARE LOST.

BOOK XIV.

I. The cruelty of the Caesar Gallus.—II. The incursions of the Isaurians.—III. The unsuccessful plans of the Persians.—IV. The invasion of the Saracens, and the manners of that people.—V. The punishment of the adherents of Magnentius.—VI. The vices of the senate and people of Rome.—VII. The ferocity and inhumanity of the Caesar Gallus.—VIII. A description of the provinces of the East.—IX. About the Caesar Constantius Gallus.—X. The Emperor Constantius grants the Allemanni peace at their request.—XI. The Caesar Constantius Gallus is summoned by the Emperor Constantius and beheaded.

§ 1. AFTER the events of an expedition full of almost insuperable difficulties, while the spirits of all parties in the state, broken by the variety of their dangers and toils, were still enfeebled; while the clang of trumpets was still ringing in men’s ears, and the troops were still distributed in their winter quarters, the storms of angry fortune surrounded the commonwealth with fresh dangers through the manifold and terrible atrocities of Caesar Gallus:¹ who, having been raised in the prime of life with unexpected honor from the lowest depth of misery to the highest rank, exceeded all the legitimate bounds of the power conferred on him, and with preposterous violence threw everything into confusion. For by his near relationship to the royal family, and his connection with the name of Constantine, he was so inflated with pride that, had he possessed more power, it seems he would have ventured to attack even the author of his prosperity.

¹ Gallus and his brother Julian were the nephews of the great Constantine, sons of his brother Julius. When Constantius, who succeeded Constantine on the throne, murdered his uncles and most of his cousins, he spared these two, probably on account of their young age.