Surviving Works

AMMIANI MARCELLINI XIV, 5.

thus much regarding this pernicious nation; now let us return to the proposed text.

V. 1. While these things were being done in the East, Constantius, spending the winter at Arelate, after having presented theatrical and circus games with ambitious display, on the sixth day before the Ides of October—which marked the thirtieth year of his reign—weighing the burdens of his own arrogance more heavily, accepted any report, whether doubtful or false, as clear and proven. Among other things, he had Gerontius, a count of the Magnentian faction, tortured and punished with the misery of exile. 2. And just as a sick body is accustomed to being shaken even by light injuries, so his narrow and delicate mind, thinking that whatever had been whispered was done or planned to the detriment of his own safety, made his victory mournful through the slaughter of the innocent. 3. For if anyone, whether military or honored, or a noble among his own people, was even rumored to have supported the enemy faction, he was dragged along with chains thrown on him like a wild beast. And with an enemy pressing the charge, or even without one, as if the mere fact of being named, reported, or accused were sufficient, he was condemned to death, the forfeiture of property, or the solitude of an island.

4. Added to his harshness—wherever the dignity of the empire was said to be diminished or harmed—were the bloody flatteries of those near him, who exaggerated the quantity of his irritable suspicions and pretended to grieve exceedingly if the life of the Prince was lost. They exclaimed with feigned voices that the state of the whole world hung as if by a thread from his safety. 5. Therefore, it is said that no one was ever recalled after being condemned to punishment for these or similar reasons, even after a petition was offered as was customary, a practice which even inexorable princes have often followed. And this destructive vice, which sometimes cools in others, boiled over in him with the progress of age, as a cohort of flatterers fueled his stubborn resolve.

6. Among them stood out Paulus, a Notary, born in