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[2] On these and similar grounds many united in a common attempt at dissuasion and in particular the praetorian prefect Modestus, 1 a man wholly subjected to the influence of the eunuchs of the court, of a boorish nature refined by no reading of the ancient writers. He, wearing a forced and deceptive expression, declared that the trivialities of private cases at law were beneath the dignity of the imperial majesty. Accordingly Valens, thinking that the examination of swarms 2 of legal cases was devised to humble 3 the loftiness of the royal power, in accordance with the advice of Modestus, abstained from it [p. 321] wholly, thereby opening the doors to robbery; and this grew stronger day by day through the wickedness of judges and advocates in collusion; for they sold their decisions of the cases of poorer people to officers in the army, or to powerful men within the palace, and thus gained either wealth or high position.

1 Cf. xix. 12, 6. He was general in the Orient under Constantius and was made praetorian prefect by Julian.

2 See p. 330, note 1.

3 Cf. humilitati, xxix. 2, 16.

Ammianus Marcellinus. With An English Translation. John C. Rolfe, Ph.D., Litt.D. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1935-1940.

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