Part 47 (2/2)

8. This disastrous intelligence was accompanied by one piece of favourable news,--that the soldiers who had been sent by Jovian were approaching (men known in the camp as the heads of the cla.s.ses), who brought word that the Gallic army had cordially embraced the cause of Jovian.

9. When this was known, the command of the second cla.s.s of the Scutarii was given to Valentinian, who had returned with those men; and Vitalia.n.u.s, who had been a soldier of the Heruli, was placed among the body-guards, and afterwards, when raised to the rank of count, met with very ill success in Illyric.u.m. And at the same time Arinthaeus was despatched into Gaul with letters for Jovinus, with an injunction to maintain his ground and act with resolution and constancy; and he was further charged to make an example of the author of the disturbance which had taken place, and to send the ringleaders of the sedition as prisoners to the court.

10. When these matters had been arranged as seemed most expedient, the Gallic soldiers obtained an audience of the emperor at Aspuna, a small town of Galatia, and having been admitted into the council chamber, after the message which they brought had been listened to with approval, they received rewards and were ordered to return to their standards.

A.D. 364.

11. When the emperor had made his entry into Ancyra, everything necessary for his procession having been prepared as well as the time permitted, Jovian entered on the consuls.h.i.+p, and took as his colleague his son Varronia.n.u.s, who was as yet quite a child, and whose cries as he obstinately resisted being borne in the curule chair, according to the ancient fas.h.i.+on, was an omen of what shortly happened.

12. Here also the appointed termination of life carried off Jovian with rapidity. For when he had reached Dadastana, a place on the borders of Bithynia and Galatia, he was found dead in the night; and many uncertain reports were spread concerning his death.

13. It was said that he had been unable to bear the unwholesome smell of the fresh mortar with which his bedchamber had been plastered. Also that his head had swollen in consequence of a great fire of coals, and that this had been the cause of his death; others said that he had died of a surfeit from over eating. He was in the thirty-third year of his age. And though he and Scipio aemilia.n.u.s both died in the same manner, we have not found out that any investigation into the death of either ever took place.

14. Jovian was slow in his movements, of a cheerful countenance, with blue eyes; very tall, so much so that it was long before any of the royal robes could be found to fit him. He was anxious to imitate Constantius, often occupying himself with serious business till after midday, and being fond of jesting with his friends in public.

15. He was given to the study of the Christian law, sometimes doing it marked honour; he was tolerably learned in it, very well inclined to its professors, and disposed to promote them to be judges, as was seen in some of his appointments. He was fond of eating, addicted to wine and women, though he would perhaps have corrected these propensities from a sense of what was due to the imperial dignity.

16. It was said that his father, Varronia.n.u.s, through the warning of a dream, had long since foreseen what happened, and had foretold it to two of his most faithful friends, with the addition that he himself also should become consul. But though part of his prophecy became true, he could not procure the fulfilment of the rest. For though he heard of his son's high fortune, he died before he could see him.

17. And because the old man had it foretold to him in his sleep that the highest office was destined for his name, his grandson Varronia.n.u.s, while still an infant, was made consul with his father Jovian, as we have related above.

[151] Primicerius: he was the third officer of the guard; the first being the lower; the second, the tribune--answering, as one might say, to our major.

[152] The Zianni were an Armenian tribe. The legion belonged to the Thracian establishment.

[153] Tarquitius was an ancient Etruscan soothsayer, who had written on the subject of his art.

[154] That is Marcus Aurelius.

[155] It must be remembered that throughout Ammia.n.u.s's history a count is always spoken of as of higher rank than a duke.

[156] From ???, hair.

BOOK XXVI.

ARGUMENT.

I. Valentinian, the tribune of the second school of the Scutarii, by the unanimous consent of both the civil and military officers, is elected emperor at Nicaea, in his absence--A dissertation on leap-year.--II. Valentinian, being summoned from Ancyra, comes with speed to Nicaea, and is again unanimously elected emperor, and having been clothed in the purple, and saluted as Augustus, harangues the army.--III. Concerning the prefecture of Rome, as administered by Ap.r.o.nia.n.u.s.--IV. Valentinian at Nicomedia makes Valens, his brother, who was master of the horse, his colleague in the empire, and repeats his appointment at Constantinople, with the consent of the army.--V. The two emperors divide the counts and the army between them, and soon afterwards enter on their first consuls.h.i.+p, the one at Milan, the other at Constantinople--The Allemanni lay waste Gaul--Procopius attempts a revolt in the East.--VI. The country, family, habits, and rank of Procopius; his obscurity in the time of Jovian, and how he came to be saluted emperor at Constantinople.--VII. Procopius, without bloodshed, reduces Thrace to acknowledge his authority; and by promises prevails on the cavalry and infantry, who were marching through that country, to take the oath of fidelity to him; he also by a speech wins over the Jovian and Victorian legions, which were sent against him by Valens.--VIII. Nicaea and Chalcedon being delivered from their blockades, Bithynia acknowledges the sovereignty of Procopius; as presently, after Cyzicus is stormed, the h.e.l.lespont does likewise.--IX. Procopius is deserted by his troops in Bithynia, Lycia, and Phrygia, is delivered alive to Valens, and beheaded.--X. Marcellus, a captain of the guard, his kinsman, and many of his partisans are put to death.

I.

A.D. 364.

-- 1. Having narrated with exceeding care the series of transactions in my own immediate recollection, it is necessary now to quit the track of notorious events, in order to avoid the dangers often found in connection with truth; and also to avoid exposing ourselves to unreasonable critics of our work, who would make an outcry as if they had been personally injured, if anything should be pa.s.sed over which the emperor has said at dinner, if any cause should be overlooked for which the common soldiers were a.s.sembled round their standards, or if there were not inserted a mention of every insignificant fort, however little such things ought to have room in a varied description of different districts. Or if the name of every one who filled the office of urban praetor be not given, and many other things quite impertinent to the proper idea of a history, which duly touches on prominent occurrences, and does not stoop to investigate petty details or secret motives, which any one who wishes to know may as well hope to be able to count those little indivisible bodies flying through s.p.a.ce, which we call atoms.

<script>