The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus: During the Reigns of the Emperors Constantius, Julian, Jovianus, Valentinian, and ValensAmmianus Marcellinus
History
The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus: During the Reigns of the Emperors Constantius, Julian, Jovianus, Valentinian, and Valens
Ammianus Marcellinus
Rome -- History -- Empire, 284-476
8. For it is well known that when, in the time of the Cæsar Maximian,
the camp of the king of Persia was plundered; a common soldier, after
finding a Persian bag full of pearls, threw the gems away in ignorance
of their value, and went away contented with the mere beauty of his bit
of dressed leather.
9. In those days it also happened that a barber who had been sent for to
cut the emperor's hair, came handsomely dressed; and when Julian saw
him, he was amazed, and said, "I did not send for a superintendent, but
for a barber." And when he was asked what he made by his business, he
answered that he every day made enough to keep twenty persons, and as
many horses, and also a large annual income, besides many sources of
accidental gain.
10. And Julian, angry at this, expelled all the men of this trade, and
the cooks, and all who made similar profits, as of no use to him,
telling them, however, to go where they pleased.
V.
§ 1. And although from his earliest childhood he was inclined to the
worship of the gods,[121] and gradually, as he grew up, became more
attached to it, yet he was influenced by many apprehensions which made
him act in things relating to that subject as secretly as he could.
2. But when his fears were terminated, and he found himself at liberty
to do what he pleased, he then showed his secret inclinations, and by
plain and positive decrees ordered the temples to be opened, and victims
to be brought to the altars for the worship of the gods.
3. And in order to give more effect to his intentions, he ordered the
priests of the different Christian sects, with the adherents of each
sect, to be admitted into the palace, and in a constitutional spirit
expressed his wish that their dissensions being appeased, each without
any hindrance might fearlessly follow the religion he preferred.
4. He did this the more resolutely because, as long licence increased
their dissensions, he thought he should never have to fear the unanimity
of the common people, having found by experience that no wild beasts are
so hostile to men as Christian sects in general are to one another. And
he often used to say, "Listen to me, to whom the Allemanni and Franks
have listened;" imitating in this an expression of the ancient emperor
Marcus Aurelius. But he omitted to notice that there was a great
difference between himself and his predecessor.
5. For when Marcus was passing through Palestine, on his road to Egypt,
he is said, when wearied by the dirt and rebellious spirit of the Jews,
to have often exclaimed with sorrow, "O Marcomanni, O Quadi, O
Sarmatians, I have at last found others worse than you!"
VI.
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