Ammianus Marcellinus, Rerum Gestarum
John C. Rolfe, Ph.D., Litt.D., Ed.

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Many in the Orient, accused of magic and other crimes and condemned, are put to death, some justly, others unjustly.

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During all this time, the notorious Palladius, the fomenter ¹ of all these troubles, who, as we said at first, ² was taken in custody by Fortunatianus, being by the very lowness of his condition ready to plunge into anything, by heaping disaster on disaster, had drenched the whole empire with grief and tears. [2] For having gained leave to name all whom he desired, without distinction of fortune, as dabbling in forbidden practices, like a hunter skilled in observing the secret tracks of wild beasts, he entangled many persons in his lamentable nets, some of them on the ground of having stained themselves with the knowledge of magic, others as accomplices of those who were aiming at treason. [3] And in order that even wives should have no time to weep over the misfortunes of their husbands, men were immediately sent to put the seal ³ on the houses, and during the examination of the furniture of the householder who had been condemned, to introduce privily old-wives' incantations or unbecoming [p. 217] love-potions, contrived for the ruin of innocent people. And when these were read in a court where there was no law or scruple or justice to distinguish truth from falsehood, without opportunity for defence young and old without discrimination were robbed of their goods and, although they were found stained by no fault, after being maimed in all their limbs were carried off in litters to execution. [4] As a result, throughout the oriental provinces owners of books, through fear of a like fate, burned their entire libraries; so great was the terror that had seized upon all. ⁴ Indeed, to speak briefly, at that time we all crept about as if in Cimmerian darkness, ⁵ feeling the same fears as the guests of the Sicilian Dionysius, who, while filled to repletion with banquets more terrible than any possible hunger, saw with a shudder the swords hanging over their heads from the ceilings of the rooms in which they reclined and held only by single horsehairs. ⁶

[5] At that time Bassianus also, one of a most illustrious family and serving as a secretary of the first class, ⁷ was accused of trying to gain foreknowledge of higher power, although he himself declared that he had merely inquired about the sex of a child which his wife expected; but by the urgent efforts of the kinsfolk by whom he was defended, he was saved from death; but he was stripped of his rich patrimony.

[p. 219] [6] Amid the crash of so many ruins Heliodorus, that hellish contriver with Palladius of all evils, being a mathematician ⁸ (in the parlance of the vulgar) and pledged by secret instructions from the imperial court, after he had been cajoled by every enticement of kindness to induce him to reveal what he knew or could invent, now put forth his deadly stings. [7] For he was most solicitously pampered with the choicest foods, and earned a great amount of contributed money for presents to his concubines; and so he strode about anywhere and everywhere, displaying his grim face, which struck fear into all. And his assurance was the greater because, in his capacity as chamberlain, he constantly and openly visited the women's apartments, to which, as he himself desired, he freely resorted, displaying the warrants ⁹ of the Father of his People, ¹⁰ which were to be a cause of grief to many. [8] And through these warrants Heliodorus instructed Palladius (as though he were an advocate in public law-suits) what to put at the beginning of his speech, in order the more easily to make it effective and strong, or with which figures of rhetoric he ought to aim at brilliant passages. ¹¹

[9] And since it would be a long story to tell all this gallows-bird ¹² contrived, I will recount this one case, showing with what audacious confidence he smote the very pillars of the patriciate. For made enormously insolent by secret conferences [p. 221] with people of the court, as has been said, and through his very worthlessness easy to be hired to commit any and every crime, he accused that admirable pair of consuls, the two brothers Eusebius and Hypatius ¹³ (connections by marriage of the late emperor Constantius) of having aspired to a desire for a higher fortune, and of having made inquiries and formed plans about the sovereignty; and he added to the path ¹⁴ which he had falsely devised for his fabrication that royal robes had even been made ready for Eusebius. [10] Eagerly drinking this in, the menacing madman, ¹⁵ to whom nothing ought to have been permitted, since he thought that everything, even what was unjust, was allowed him, ¹⁶ inexorably summoned from the farthest boundaries of the empire all those whom the accuser, exempt from the laws, with profound assurance had insisted ought to be brought before him, and ordered a calumnious trial to be set on foot. [11] And when in much-knotted bonds of constriction justice had long been trodden down and tied tightly, and the wretched scoundrel persisted in his strings of assertions, severe tortures could force no confession, but showed that these distinguished men were far removed even from any knowledge of anything of the kind. Nevertheless, the calumniator was as highly honoured as before, while the accused were punished with exile and with fines; but shortly afterwards they were recalled, had their fines remitted, and were restored to their former rank and honour unimpaired.

[p. 223] [12] Yet after these so lamentable events Valens acted with no more restraint or shame; since excessive power does not reflect that it is unworthy for men of right principles, even to the disadvantage of their enemies, willingly to plunge into crime, and that nothing is so ugly as for a cruel nature to be joined to lofty pride of power. ¹⁷ [13] But when Heliodorus died (whether naturally or through some deliberate violence ¹⁸ is uncertain; I would rather not say “too late”: I only wish that even the facts did not speak to that effect!) his body was carried out by the undertakers, and many men of rank, clad in mourning, were ordered to precede it, including the brothers who had been consuls. ¹⁹ [14] Thereby the entire rottenness of the folly of the empire's ruler was then completely revealed; for although he was earnestly besought to refrain from this inexcusable insult, ²⁰ yet he remained so inflexible that he seemed to have stopped his ears with wax, ²¹ as if he were going to pass the rocks of the Sirens. [15] At last, however, he yielded to insistent prayers, and ordered that some persons should precede the ill-omened bier of the body-snatcher ²² to the tomb, marching with bare heads and feet, ²³ some also with folded hands. ²⁴ My mind shrinks from recalling, during that suspension of justice, ²⁵ how many men of the highest rank, especially exconsuls, after having carried the staves of honour and worn purple robes, and having their names made known to all the world 10 in the Roman calendar, were [p. 225] seen exposed to humiliation. [16] Conspicuous among all of these was our Hypatius, a man recommended from his youth by noble virtues, of quiet and calm discretion, and of a nobility and gentleness measured as it were by the plumb-line; ²⁶ he conferred honour on the fame of his ancestors ²⁷ and himself gave glory to posterity by the admirable acts of his two prefectures. ²⁸

[17] At the time Valens added this also to the rest of his glories, that while in other instances he was so savagely cruel as to grieve that the great pain of his punishments could not continue after death, ²⁹ yet he spared the tribune Numerius, a man of surpassing wickedness! This man was convicted at that same time on his own confession of having dared to cut open the womb of a living woman and take out her unripe offspring, in order to evoke the ghosts of the dead and consult them about a change of rulers; yet Valens, who looked on him with the eye of an intimate friend, in spite of the murmurs of the whole Senate gave orders that he should escape unpunished, and retain his life, his enviable wealth, and his military rank unimpaired.

[18] O noble system of wisdom, by heaven's gift bestowed upon the fortunate, thou who hast often ennobled even sinful natures! How much wouldst thou have corrected in those dark days, if it had been permitted Valens to learn through you that royal power—as the philosophers declare—is nothing else than the care for others' welfare; ³⁰ that [p. 227] it is the duty of a good ruler to restrain his power, to resist unbounded desire and implacable anger, and to know—as the dictator Caesar used to say—that the recollection of cruelty is a wretched support ³¹ for old age. And therefore, if he is going to pass judgment affecting the life and breath of a human being, who forms a part of the world and completes the number of living things, he ought to hesitate long and greatly and not be carried away by headlong passion to a point where what is done cannot be undone; ³² of which we have a very well-known instance in olden times. [19] A woman of Smyrna confessed before Dolabella, ³³ the proconsul of Asia, that she had poisoned her husband and her own son by him, because (as she said) she had discovered that they had killed her son by a former marriage; but she was ordered to appear again two days later. ³⁴ Since the council, to which according to custom the matter was referred, uncertain what distinction ought to be made between revenge and crime, hesitated to decide, she was sent before the Areopagites, those strict judges at Athens, whose justice is said to have decided disputes even among the gods. ³⁵ They, after [p. 229] having considered the case, ordered the woman to appear before them with her accuser a hundred years later, since they did not wish either to acquit a poisoner or punish an avenger of her kindred; for that is never thought late which is the last of all things.

[20] After these various deeds of injustice which have already been mentioned, and the marks of torture shamefully branded upon the bodies of such free men as bad survived, the never-closing eye of Justice, the eternal witness and avenger of all things, was watchfully attentive. For the last curses of the murdered, moving the eternal godhead through the just ground of their complaints, had kindled the firebrands of Bellona; so that the truth of the oracle was confirmed, which had predicted that no crimes would go unpunished.

[21] While these events, which have just been ³⁶ described, during the cessation of the Parthian storm were being spread abroad at Antioch in the form of internal troubles, the awful band of the Furies, after making a rolling flood of manifold disasters, left that city and settled on the shoulders of all Asia, in the following way. [22] A certain Festinus of Tridentum, a man of the lowest and most obscure parentage, was admitted by Maximinus ³⁷ even into the ties of affection which true brothers show, for he had been his boon companion and with him had assumed the manly gown. By decree of the fates this man passed over to the Orient, and there in the administration of Syria, and after serving as master of the rolls, ³⁸ he left behind him praiseworthy examples of mildness and of respect for law; and when later he was advanced [p. 231] to the governorship of Asia with proconsular authority, he sailed to glory with a fair wind, as the saying is. [23] But hearing that Maximinus planned to wipe out all decent men, from that time on he decried his actions as dangerous and shameful. But when he learned that Maximinus, merely through the recommendation of the deaths of those whom he had impiously slain, had attained the honour of prefect contrary to his deserts, he was aroused to similar deeds and hopes. Like an actor, suddenly changing his mask, he conceived the desire of doing harm and stalked about with intent and cruel eyes, imagining that the prefecture would soon be his if he also should have stained himself with the punishment of the innocent. [24] And although many of the various acts which he committed were very harsh, to express it mildly, yet it will suffice to mention a few which are familiar and generally known, and done in emulation of those which had taken place in Rome. For the principle of good or bad deeds is the same everywhere, even if the greatness of the situation is not the same. ³⁹ [25] He executed a philosopher called Coeranius, a man of no slight merit, after he had resisted tortures of savage cruelty, because in a letter to his wife of a personal nature he had added in Greek: “But do you take note and crown the house door,” which is a common proverbial expression, used in order that the hearer may know that something of greater importance than usual is to be done. [26] There was a simple-minded old woman who was in the habit of curing intermittent fevers with a harmless charm. He caused her to be put to death as a criminal, after [p. 233] she had been called in with his own knowledge and had treated his daughter. [27] Among the papers of a distinguished townsman, of which an examination had been ordered for some business reason, the horoscope of a certain Valens was found; when the person concerned was asked why he had cast the nativity of the emperor, he defended himself against the false charge by saying that he had had a brother named Valens, and that he had died long ago. He promised to show this by proofs of full credibility, but they did not wait for the truth to be discovered, and he was tortured and butchered. [28] In the bath a young man was seen to touch alternately with the fingers of either hand first the marble ⁴⁰ and then his breast, and to count the seven vowels, ⁴¹ thinking it a helpful remedy for a stomach trouble. He was haled into court, tortured and beheaded.