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

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Many people, even senators and women of senatorial families are accused at Rome of poisoning, fornication, and adultery, and executed.

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While among the Persians (as I have already related) ¹ the perfidy of the king was arousing unexpected disturbances, and in the eastern regions [p. 89] wars were rising with renewed strength, somewhat more than sixteen years after the death of ² Nepotianus, ³ Bellona, raging throughout the Eternal City, set all ablaze, being aroused from insignificant beginnings to lamentable massacres; and I could wish that everlasting silence had consigned these to oblivion, lest haply at some time similar crimes should be attempted, which might do more harm from their general example and precedent than through the offences themselves. [2] And although, after long consideration of various circumstances, well-grounded dread restrained me from giving a minute account of this series of bloody deeds, yet I shall, relying on the better morals of the present day, set forth briefly such of them as are worthy of notice and I shall not be sorry to tell concisely what I have feared from events of antiquity. [3] When in the first Medic war the Persians had plundered Asia, they besieged Miletus with mighty forces, threatened the defenders with death by torture, and drove the besieged to the necessity, overwhelmed as they all were by a weight of evils, of killing their own dear ones, consigning their movable possessions to the flames, and each one striving to be first to throw himself into the fire, to burn on the common funeral pyre of their country. [4] Soon after this, Phrynichus composed a play with this disaster as its plot, which he put upon the stage at Athens in the lofty language of tragedy. At first he was heard with pleasure, but as the sad story went on in too tragic style, the people became angry and punished ⁴ him, thinking that [p. 91] consolation was not his object but blame and reproach, when he had the bad taste to include among stage-plays a portrayal even of those sufferings which a well-beloved city had undergone, without receiving any support from its founders. ⁵ For Miletus was a colony of the Athenians founded by Nileus, the son of Codrus (who is said to have sacrificed himself for his country in the Dorian war) and by other Ionians. ⁶ [5] But let us come to our subject.

Maximinus, who formerly held the office of vice- ⁷ prefect at Rome, was born at Sopianae, a town of Valeria, ⁸ of very humble parents, his father being an accountant in the governor's office ⁹ and sprung from ancestors who were Carpi, a people whom Diocletian drove from its ancient abode ¹⁰ and transferred to Pannonia. [6] Maximinus, after some slight study of the liberal arts, and after acting as a pleader without acquiring distinction, became governor of Corsica, also of Sardinia, and finally of Tuscia. ¹¹ then, because his successor lingered too long on the ¹² way, although transferred to the charge of the city's grain supply, he retained also the rule of Tuscia, and at the beginning acted with moderation, for a three-fold reason. [7] First, because the prophecies of his father were still warm ¹³ in his ears, a man exceedingly skilful in interpreting omens from the flight or the notes of birds, who declared he would attain to high power, but would die by the sword of the executioner; secondly, because he had got hold of a man from Sardinia who was highly skilled in [p. 93] calling up baneful spirits and eliciting predictions from the ghosts of the dead. This man he himself afterwards put to death, so the rumour went, in a treacherous fashion,—so long as he survived, Maximinus was more yielding and mild, for fear that he might be betrayed—finally, because while creeping through low places like a serpent under ground ¹⁴ he could not yet stir up causes for death on a larger scale.

[8] The first opportunity to widen the sphere of his operations arose from the following affair. Chilo, a former deputy-governor, and his wife Maxima made complaint before Olybrius, at that time prefect of the city, ¹⁵ declaring that their life had been attempted by poison; and they managed that those whom they suspected should at once be seized and put in prison. The accused were an organ-builder ¹⁶ Sericus, a wrestler ¹⁷ Asbolius, and a soothsayer Campensis. [9] But as the affair languished because of a severe illness with which Olybrius was long affected, those who had brought the charge, impatient of delay, presented a petition, asking that the examination of the dispute should be turned over to the prefect of the grain supply; and from a desire for a speedy decision this was granted. [10] Thus Maximinus gained the power of doing harm and poured out the natural cruelty implanted in his hard heart, as often happens with wild beasts in the amphitheatre, when they break in pieces the back-gates and are at last set free.

And while the business was being looked into in many ways, as if in a kind of preliminary practice, and some persons, whose sides had been torn into furrows, had named certain nobles as having, through their [p. 95] clients and other common people who were notorious as malefactors and informers, made use of men skilled in harmful practices, the hellish judge,“going beyond his last” ¹⁸ (as the saying is), in a malicious report to the emperor informed him that the offences which many men had committed at Rome could not be investigated or punished except by severer measures. ¹⁹ 11. On hearing this, the emperor, in anger, being rather a cruel than a strict foe of vices, gave one general judicial sentence to cover cases of the kind, which he arbitrarily fused with the design of treason, and ruled that all those whom the justice of the ancient code and the edicts of deified emperors had made exempt from inquisitions by torture should, if circumstances demanded, be examined with torments. 12. And that with doubled power and higher rank Maximinus might patch together a greater heap of calamities, the emperor gave him a temporary appointment as acting prefect at Rome; ^{20 21} and he associated with him in the investigation of these charges which were being devised for the peril of many the secretary Leo, afterward chief-marshal of the court, ²² a Pannonian and a grave-robber, ²³ snorting forth cruelty from the grinning jaws of a wild beast, and no less insatiable in his thirst for human blood than Maximinus. 13. The persistent natural bent of Maximinus to cruel conduct was increased by the coming of a colleague of the same character and by the charm of a commission conferring lofty rank. Therefore, full of joy, he turned his steps this way and that, seeming to dance rather than walk, and [p. 97] seeking to imitate the Brahmins, who march (as some say) above the earth among their altars. ²⁴

[14] And now, as the trumpets sounded the signal for the murder of citizens and all were stupified by the horrible situation, besides many harsh and merciless acts, which because of their variety and number cannot be enumerated, the execution of Marinus, a public advocate, was conspicuous. This man was accused of having dared by forbidden arts to try to gain a certain Hispanilla as his wife, and when the truthfulness of the evidence had been perfunctorily examined, Maximinus condemned him to death. [15] And since I think that perchance some of my readers by careful examination may note and bring it against me as a reproach that this, and not that, happened first, or that those things which they themselves saw are passed over, I must satisfy them to this extent: that not everything which has taken place among persons of the lowest class is worth narrating; and if this were necessary to be done, even the arrays of facts to be gained from the public records themselves would not suffice, when there was such a general fever of evils, and a new and unbridled madness was mingling the highest with the lowest; for it was clearly evident that it was not a judicial trial which was to be feared, but a suspension of legal proceedings. ²⁵

[16] Then Cethegus, a senator, was accused of adultery and beheaded, Alypius, a young man of noble birth, was banished for a trifling fault, and others of lower rank were publicly put to death; and every one, seeing in their unhappy fate the [p. 99] picture (as it were) of his own danger, dreamt of the torturer and of fetters and lodgings of darkness.

[17] At the same time, the case of Hymetius also, a man of distinguished character, was tried, of which we know this to have been the course of events. When he was governing Africa as proconsul he took from the storehouses grain intended for the Roman people ²⁶ and sold it to the Carthaginians, who were by that time worn out from lack of food, and a little later, when the crops were again abundant, without any delay completely restored what he had taken. [18] Moreover, since ten bushels had been sold to the needy for one gold-piece, while he himself now bought thirty, ²⁷ he sent the profit from the difference in price to the emperor's treasury. ²⁸ And so Valentinian, suspecting that he had sent less than he should have sent as the result of his trafficking, punished him with a fine of a part of his property. [19] To add to his calamity, this also had happened at that same time, which was not less fatal. The soothsayer Amantius, at that time especially notorious, was betrayed on secret evidence of having been employed by the said Hymetius, for the purpose of committing certain criminal acts, to perform a sacrifice; but when brought to trial, although he stood bent double upon the rack, ²⁹ he denied it with obstinate insistence. [20] Upon his denial, his secret papers were brought from his house and a memorandum in the handwriting of Hymetius was found, begging him that by carrying out a solemn sacrifice he should prevail upon the deity to make the [p. 101] emperors ³⁰ milder towards him; and at the end of the document were read some reproaches of Valentinian as avaricious and cruel. [21] When the emperor learned this from the report of the judges, who gave what had been done a harsh interpretation, he issued orders that the affair should be investigated with excessive strictness. And since Frontinus, an adviser ³¹ of the said Hymetius, was charged with having drawn up the form of prayer that was made, he was mangled with rods, and having confessed his guilt, was exiled to Britain; but Amantius was later found guilty of a capital crime and executed. [22] After this course of events Hymetius was taken to the town of Ocriculum, ³² to be heard by Ampelius, prefect of the city, ³³ and Maximinus, the deputy-prefect; and when it was evident that he would immediately be condemned to death, he boldly appealed to the emperor's protection, when the opportunity was given him, and, defended under the refuge of that name, saved his life. [23] When the emperor was consulted ³⁴ about this matter, he referred the business to the senate. And when they had weighed the case in the scales of justice and learned the truth and had exiled the accused to Boae, ³⁵ a place in Dalmatia, they could hardly bear the wrath of the emperor, who was greatly incensed on learning that a man whom he had intended to be condemned to death had been punished with a milder sentence.

[p. 103] [24] On account of this occurrence and many others of the same kind, the fate which was seen to overtake a few persons began to be feared by all. And lest, by so many evils that were ignored, and gradually creeping on, the mass of troubles should be increased, by resolution of the nobles envoys were sent to the emperor. These were Praetextatus, ³⁶ former prefect of the city, Venustus, a one-time deputy-prefect, ³⁷ and Minervius, who had been a consular governor. They were to ask that punishments should be inflicted that were not too severe for the offences, ³⁸ and that no senator should, in a fashion neither practised nor permitted, be subjected to torture. [25] When the deputation had been admitted to the council-chamber and had presented their request, Valentinian said that he had never made such a decree, and cried out that he was the victim of calumny. But the quaestor Eupraxius ³⁹ mildly contradicted him, and through his freedom of speech the cruel order, which surpassed all examples of harshness, was rescinded.

[26] At about that same time Lollianus, a youth just growing his first beard, son of the ex-prefect Lampadius, ⁴⁰ as the result of a strict examination by Maximinus, was convicted of having written a book on destructive magic arts, when adult age had not yet endowed him with sound judgment. And when it was feared that he would be exiled, by his father's advice he appealed to the emperor and was ordered to be taken to his court; but he went from the smoke (as the saying is) ⁴¹ into the fire; for he was handed over to Phalangius, consular governor [p. 105] of Baetica, and died at the hand of the dread executioner.

[27] Besides these also Tarracius Bassus, afterwards prefect of the city, ⁴² his brother Camenius, a certain Marcianus, and Eusaphius, all men of senatorial rank, were brought to trial on the ground that they were said to be making much of the charioteer ⁴³ Auchenius, and were his accomplices in the use of poisons; but because the evidence was even then doubtful, they were acquitted, as widespread rumour declared, through the influence of Victorinus, who was the closest friend of Maximinus.

[28] Not even women were more immune from similar calamities. For many of high birth belonging to this sex too were charged with the disgrace of adultery or of fornication, and put to death. Conspicuous among these were Charitas and Flaviana, of whom the latter, when she was led to death, was stripped of the clothing which she wore, being allowed not even to keep sufficient covering for the secret parts of her body. But for that reason the executioner was convicted of having committed a monstrous crime, and was burned alive.

[29] Nay more, two senators, Paphius and Cornelius, both of whom confessed to having disgraced themselves by the wicked practices of poisons, by the sentence of the same Maximinus were put to death. Even the head of the mint ⁴⁴ perished by a like fate. But Sericus and Asbolius, mentioned above, ⁴⁵ because when he urged them to name indiscriminately such accomplices as they wished, he had declared on oath that he would order no [p. 107] one to be punished with fire or steel, he killed with heavy blows of lead. ⁴⁶ And after this he consigned the soothsayer Campensis to the flames, being bound in his case by no oath.

[30] It is, I think, fitting now to set forth the cause which drove Aginatius headlong to death, a man of noble descent from his early ancestors, as persistent report declared; for as to this there is no trustworthy documentary evidence. [31] Maximinus, breathing blasts of arrogance, while he was still prefect of the grain supply, and finding no slight incentives to his audacity, went so far as to insult Probus, ⁴⁷ the most distinguished man among all the highest officials, and governing several provinces with the rank of praetorian prefect. [32] Aginatius, filled with indignation at this, and resentful because Maximinus, in conducting examinations, was preferred to him by Olybrius, although he himself was vice-prefect of Rome, secretly informed Probus in a confidential communication ⁴⁸ that the worthless man, one who quarrelled with high merits, could easily be brought low, if Probus decided that it should be done. [33] This letter Probus, as some maintained, without the knowledge of anyone except the bearer, ⁴⁹ sent to Maximinus, fearing him as a man already very highly trained in wickedness and in favour with the emperor. On reading the letter that savage man fell into such a blaze of anger, that from then on he set all devices in motion against Aginatius, after the manner of a serpent crushed by a wound from some unknown person. [34] There was added to this another more powerful impulse to treacherous attacks, which ruined the said Aginatius. For he [p. 109] accused Victorinus after his death of having sold decisions ⁵⁰ of Maximinus during his lifetime, although he himself had received no contemptible legacies from Victorinus' will; and with like impudence he threatened Anepsia also, Victorinus's widow, with charges and litigious suits. [35] The woman, fearful of these troubles, and wishing to protect herself by the help of Maximinus, pretended that her husband in a will which he had made shortly before his death had left him 3000 pounds of silver. Maximinus then, enflamed with excessive greed—for he was not free from that vice also—demanded half of her inheritance. But by no means content even with this, which he thought too little, he devised another plan, honourable and safe (as he thought), and in order not to lose the opportunity which was offered him for profiting from rich estate, he asked for the hand of the step-daughter of Victorinus (Anepsia's own child) for his son; and this was quickly secured with the woman's consent.

[36] Through these and other equally lamentable crimes, which were a blot on the fair aspect of the Eternal City, this man, to be named only with groans, made his violent way over the ruins of many fortunes, passing beyond the limits afforded by the courts. For he is said to have had a cord hanging from a secluded window of his palace, the lower end of which could pick up certain seemingly incriminating charges, supported, it is true, by no evidence, but nevertheless likely to injure many innocent persons. ⁵¹ And sometimes he ordered Mucianus and Barbarus, his attendants, who were most skilled in deception, severally to be cast out of his house. [p. 111] [37] These two then, as if bewailing the fate by which they pretended to be overwhelmed, exaggerated the cruelty of the judge and often repeated the assertion that the accused had no other means of saving their lives than by charging men of high rank with serious crimes; for they declared that by involving such men in the same accusations with themselves they could easily secure an acquittal.

[38] Because of this, with a ruthlessness now passing all bounds, the hands of very many were bound in fetters, and men of noble birth were seen in mourning garb and in distress. And none of them could rightly be blamed, since very often when waiting upon him with bodies bent so as almost to touch the ground, they constantly heard that brigand with the heart of a wild beast shout that no one could be found innocent without his consent. [39] Such words, which accomplishment quickly followed, would surely have terrified men like Numa Pompilius, and a Cato. For, in fact, the business was conducted in such a way that some people could not even contemplate the ills of others with dry eyes, a thing which often happens in the many difficult trials of life. [40] Nevertheless, the iron-hearted judge, often as he deviated from law and justice, was endurable in what may be called one special thing. For at times he could be prevailed upon to show mercy to some; although this, we read in the following passage in Cicero, ⁵² is almost a vice: “For,” he says, “when anger is implacable, there is extreme severity; but if it yields to entreaties, the greatest inconstancy: yet the latter, as a choice of evils, is to be preferred to severity.”

[p. 113] [41] After this, Maximinus received a successor, ⁵³ and was summoned to the emperor's court, as Leo ⁵⁴ had been before him; and there, being promoted to the praetorian prefecture, he was no whit milder, but like the basilisk, ⁵⁵ was harmful even from a distance. [42] At that time, or not much earlier, the brooms with which the assembly-hall of the nobles was swept were seen to bloom, and this was an omen that some men of the most despised station would be raised to high rank in the offices of state.

[43] Although it is high time to return to the course of the history which we have begun, yet, in order not to interfere with the connection of events, I shall linger over a few of the wrongful acts committed by the iniquity of the vice-prefects in the city, since it was according to the nod and wish of Maximinus that they were done by those same subordinates—I might say “attendants”. [44] After him came Ursicinus, inclined to milder measures; he, wishing to be prudent and kindly, had referred to the Court the information that Esaias (with others who had been imprisoned because of adulterous relations with Rufina) was trying to bring a charge of treason against her husband, Marcellus, a former agent of the state. In consequence, Ursicinus was despised as inactive and unfit for the vigorous prosecution of such matters, and was forced to withdraw from his deputyship. [45] To him succeeded Simplicius ⁵⁶ of Hemona, a former [p. 115] teacher of literature and later an adviser ⁵⁷ of Maximinus, a man who during the administration of the prefecture was neither proud nor arrogant, but excited fear by his sidelong glance, and in language of studied moderation plotted severity for many. And first he put to death Rufina, with all who were implicated in, or aware of, the adultery that she had committed, whose case (as we have previously said) ⁵⁸ Ursicinus had referred to the Court; and then many others, regardless of whether they were guilty or innocent. [46] For vying in bloody rivalry with Maximinus, as his leader, ⁵⁹ he strove to outdo him in cutting the sinews of distinguished families, imitating Busiris of old, and Antaeus and Phalaris ⁶⁰ to such a degree that he seemed to lack only the Agrigentine bull of the last-named.

[47] Amid these and such acts so perpetrated a matron called Hesychia, who because of an attempted crime was committed to an official's attendant to be guarded at his house, and was in fear of much cruel treatment, pressed her face in the feather bed on which she was lying and so stopped her nose and her breath and gave up the ghost.

[48] There was added to these another no less cruel evil. For Eumenius and Abienus, both of senatorial rank, being accused under Maximinus of improper conduct with Fausiana, a woman of position, after the death of Victorinus, under whose protection they lived with less anxiety, terrified by Simplicius' coming who with threats planned no less [p. 117] cruelty than Maximinus, fled to secret retreats. [49] But after Fausiana had been found guilty, a charge was made against them also; but though summoned by edicts, ⁶¹ they kept themselves in still closer concealment, and Abienus remained hidden for a long time in the house of Anepsia. But as unexpected chances often aggravate lamentable disasters, a slave of Anepsia, Sapaudulus by name, seized with resentment because his wife ⁶² had been flogged, went by night to Simplicius and reported the matter; then attendants were sent and dragged the accused, whose whereabouts had been pointed out, from their hiding-places. [50] And Abienus, assailed with an additional accusation of improper relations which he was said to have had with Anepsia, was punished with death. But the woman, that she might have strong hope of retaining her life by putting off her punishment, declared that she had been worked upon by evil arts and had suffered violence in the house of Aginatius. [51] Simplicius gave the emperor a spiteful account of what had been done, and Maximinus, who was at court, and, for the reason which I have given above, ⁶³ was hostile to Aginatius, while his hatred was set ablaze with his rise in power, strongly urged the emperor to give him a warrant for putting Aginatius to death; and this the mad and powerful instigator easily brought to pass. [52] But Maximinus, fearing the weight of greater hatred, if a man of patrician stock should die by the sentence of Simplicius, who was his adviser and his friend, kept back the emperor's order for some time, in perplexity and doubt as to whom he would find most trustworthy and efficient in carrying out [p. 119] the cruel design. [53] At last, since like and like readily flock together, ⁶⁴ a Gaul called Doryphorianus was found, reckless to the point of insanity, on whom, since he promised to accomplish the business in a short time, he arranged to have the post of deputy conferred. Accordingly, he gave him with the epistle of Augustus ⁶⁵ a letter of advice instructing the savage but inexperienced man how he might quickly and without any hindrance destroy Aginatius, who, if he gained any possible respite, would perhaps make his escape. [54] Doryphorianus, as had been ordered, hastened to Rome by long days' journeys, and at the beginning of his administration ⁶⁶ cast about with great energy, to see by what act of violence he could without anyone's help destroy a senator of conspicuous lineage. And on learning that Aginatius had long since been found, and was under guard in his own villa, he arranged personally to examine him, and Anepsia as well, as the chief of the guilty persons, in the midst of the horrors of night, when men's minds are commonly dulled in the bonds of terrors: as among countless other instances is shown by Homer's Ajax, ⁶⁷ who wished rather to die by daylight than endure the additional suffering of dread by night. [55] And since the judge, nay, rather the godless brigand, intent only on keeping his promise, carried everything to excess, having ordered Aginatius to be put to the question, he caused [p. 121] a whole train of executioners to enter, and amid the gloomy clanking of chains had the slaves, who were already drooping through long continued filth and neglect, tortured to the very verge of death, to give evidence to endanger their master's life: a thing which our merciful laws forbade to be done in a trial for fornication. [56] Finally, when tortures already almost mortal had extorted from a maid-servant a few ambiguous words, without fully examining the trustworthiness of the testimony, he ordered Aginatius to be led off to execution, hastily and without a hearing, although with loud cries he called upon the emperors' names. Accordingly he was hoisted up ⁶⁸ and put to death; and Anepsia was executed on a like sentence. While Maximinus was thus busied in person when he was in Rome and through his emissaries when he acted from a distance, the Eternal City wept bitterly for its dead.

[57] But the final curses of his victims did not sleep. For, under Gratian, as shall be told later at the proper time, ⁶⁹ not only did this same Maximinus, because of his intolerable arrogance, fall victim to the executioner's sword, but Simplicius also was beheaded in Illyricum. Doryphorianus, too, was charged with a capital crime and thrown into the prison called Tullianum, ⁷⁰ but Gratian, at the suggestion of his mother, had him taken from there, and on his return home put him to death with tremendous tortures. But let us return to the point from which we made this digression. This, if I may say so, was the state of affairs in Rome. ⁷¹ [p. 123]