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
5. But it will be sufficient out of the many instances of his clemency
which he afforded in judging causes to mention this one, which is not
irrelevant to our subject or insignificant. A certain woman being
brought before the court, saw that her adversary, formerly one of the
officers of the palace, but who had been displaced, was now, contrary to
her expectation, re-established and girt in his official dress,
complained in a violent manner of this circumstance; and the emperor
replied, "Proceed, O woman, if you think that you have been injured in
any respect; he is girt as you see in order to go more quickly through
the mire; your cause will not suffer from it."
6. And these and similar actions led to the belief, as he was constantly
saying, that that ancient justice which Aratus states to have fled to
heaven in disgust at the vices of mankind, had returned to earth; only
that sometimes he acted according to his own will rather than according
to law, making mistakes which somewhat darkened the glorious course of
his renown.
7. After many trials he corrected numerous abuses in the laws, cutting
away circuitous proceedings, and making the enactments show more plainly
what they commanded or forbade. But his forbidding masters of rhetoric
and grammar to instruct Christians was a cruel action, and one deserving
to be buried in everlasting silence.
XI.
§ 1. At this time, Gaudentius the secretary, whom I have mentioned above
as having been sent by Constantius to oppose Julian in Africa, and a man
of the name of Julian, who had been a deputy governor, and who was an
intemperate partisan of the late emperor, were brought back as
prisoners, and put to death.
2. And at the same time, Artemius, who had been Duke of Egypt, and
against whom the citizens of Alexandria brought a great mass of heavy
accusations, was also put to death, and the son of Marcellus too, who
had been commander both of the infantry and of the cavalry, was publicly
executed as one who had aspired to the empire by force of arms. Romanus,
too, and Vincentius, the tribunes of the first and second battalion of
the Scutarii, being convicted of aiming at things beyond their due, were
banished.
3. And after a short time, when the death of Artemius was known, the
citizens of Alexandria who had feared his return, lest, as he
threatened, he should come back among them with power, and avenge
himself on many of them for the offences which he had received, now
turned all their anger against George, the bishop, by whom they had, so
to say, been often attacked with poisonous bites.
4. George having been born in a fuller's shop, as was reported, in
Epiphania, a town of Cilicia, and having caused the ruin of many
individuals, was, contrary both to his own interest and to that of the
commonwealth, ordained bishop of Alexandria, a city which from its own
impulses, and without any special cause, is continually agitated by
seditious tumults, as the oracles also show.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account