The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus. Ammianus Marcellinus
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the rewarder of good deeds, is continually bringing to pass: would that she could always do so! She is a kind of sublime agent of the powerful Deity, dwelling, according to common belief, above the human circle; or, as others define her, she is a substantial protection, presiding over the particular destinies of individuals, and feigned by the ancient theologians to be the daughter of Justice, looking down from a certain inscrutable eternity upon all terrestrial and mundane affairs.
26. She, as queen of all causes of events, and arbitress and umpire in all affairs of life, regulates the urn which contains the lots of men, and directs the alternations of fortune which we behold in the world, frequently bringing our undertakings to an issue different from what we intended, and involving and changing great numbers of actions. She also, binding the vainly swelling pride of mankind by the indissoluble fetters of necessity, and swaying the inclination of progress and decay according to her will, sometimes bows down and enfeebles the stiff neck of arrogance, and sometimes raises virtuous men from the lowest depth, leading them to a prosperous and happy life. And it is on this account that the fables of antiquity have represented her with wings, that she may be supposed to be present at all events with prompt celerity. And they have also placed a rudder in her hand and given her a wheel under her feet, that mankind may be aware that she governs the universe, running at will through all the elements.[23]
27. In this untimely manner did the Cæsar, being himself also already weary of life, die, in the twenty-ninth year of his age, having reigned four years. He was born in the country of the Etrurians, in the district of Veternum,[24] being the son of Constantius, the brother of the Emperor Constantine; his mother was Galla, the sister of Rufinus and Cerealis, men who had been ennobled by the offices of consul and prefect.
28. He was a man of splendid stature and great beauty of person and figure, with soft hair of a golden colour, his newly sprouting beard covering his cheeks with a tender down, and in spite of his youth his countenance showed dignity and authority. He differed as much from the temperate habits of his brother Julian, as the sons of Vespasian, Domitian and Titus, differed from each other.
29. After he had been taken by the emperor as his colleague, and raised to the highest eminence of power, he experienced the fickle changeableness of fortune which mocks mortality, sometimes raising individuals to the stars, at others sinking them to the lowest depths of hell.
30. And though the examples of such vicissitudes are beyond number, nevertheless I will only enumerable a few in a cursory manner. This changeable and fickle fortune made Agathocles, the Sicilian, a king from being a potter, and reduced Dionysius, formerly the terror of all nations, to be the master of a grammar school. This same fortune emboldened Andriscus of Adramyttium, who had been born in a fuller's shop, to assume the name of Philip, and compelled the legitimate son of Perseus[25] to descend to the trade of a blacksmith to obtain a livelihood. Again, fortune surrendered Mancinus[26] to the people of Numantia, after he had enjoyed the supreme command, exposed Veturius[27] to the cruelty of the Samnites, Claudius[28] to that of the Corsicans, and made Regulus[29] a victim to the ferocity of the Carthaginians. Through the injustice of fortune, Pompey,[30] after he had acquired the surname of the Great by the grandeur of his exploits, was murdered in Ægypt at the pleasure of some eunuchs, while a fellow named Eunus, a slave who had escaped from a house of correction, commanded an army of runaway slaves in Sicily. How many men of the highest birth, through the connivance of this same fortune, submitted to the authority of Viriathus and of Spartacus![31] How many heads at which nations once trembled have fallen under the deadly hand of the executioner! One man is thrown into prison, another is promoted to unexpected power, a third is hurled down from the highest rank and dignity. But he who would endeavour to enumerate all the various and frequent instances of the caprice of fortune, might as well undertake to number the sands or ascertain the weight of mountains.
[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 tender age.
[2] Hannibalianus was another nephew of Constantine. That emperor raised his own three sons, Constantine, Constantius, and Constans, to the dignity of Cæsar; and of his two favourite nephews, Dalmacius and Hannibalianus, he raised the first, by the title of Cæsar, to an equality with his cousins; "in favour of the latter he invented the new and singular appellation of Fortitissimus, to which he annexed the flattering distinction of a robe of purple and gold. But of the whole series of Roman princes in any age of the empire Hannibalianus alone was distinguished by the title of king, a name which the subjects of Tiberius would have detested as the profane and cruel insult of capricious tyranny."—Gibbon, cxviii. The editor of Bohn's edition adds in a note: "The title given to Hannibalianus did not apply to him as a Roman prince, but as king of a territory assigned to him in Asia. This territory consisted of Pontus, Cappadocia, and the lesser Armenia, the city of Cæsarea being chosen for his residence."—Gibbon, Bohn's edition, vol. ii. pp. 256, 257.
[3] "There was among the commanders of the soldiery one prefect who was especially entitled Præsens, or Præsentalis, because his office was to be always in the court or about the person of the prince, and because the emperor's body-guard was under his particular orders."—H. Valesius.
[4] The passage is found in Cicero's Oration pro Cluentio, c. 25.
[5] Sciron was a pirate slain by Theseus, v. Ov. Metam. vii. 44 and the Epistle of Ariadne to Theseus.
"Cum fuerit Sciron lectus, torvusque Procrustes."
[6] His victory over Magnentius, whom he defeated at Mursa, on the Doave, in the year 351. Magnentius fled to Aquileia, but was pursued, and again defeated the next year, at a place called Mons Seleuci, in the neighbourhood of Gap, and threw himself on his own sword to avoid falling into the hands of Constantius.
[7] Hesiod. Ammianus refers to the passage in Hesiod's Op. et Dies, 289, beginning—τῆς δ’ ἀρεῆς ίδρῶτα θεοὶ προπάροιθεν ἔθησαν.
[8] A nomenclator was a slave who attended a great noble in his walk through the city to remind him of the names of those whom he met. See Cicero pro Muræna, c. 36.
[9] The name of a slave in the Eunuch, of Terence, who says, act. iv sc. 8—Sannio alone stays at home.
[10] It was customary on such solemnities, as also on the occasion of assuming the toga virilis, or entering on any important magistracy, to make small presents of money to the guests who were invited to celebrate the occasion. Cf. Plin. Epist. x. 117.