had sent some of their comrades to exhort him by trustworthy and sure promises to remain there relying upon them, since they were posted in great force among the neighbouring stations; but those about him watched him with such diligent care that he could get no opportunity of seeing them, or of hearing their message. 16. Then, as letter after letter from the emperor urged him to quit that city, he took ten public carriages, as he was desired to do, and leaving behind him all his retinue, except a few of his chamberlains and domestic officers, whom he had brought with him, he was in this poor nanner compelled to hasten his journey, his guards forcing him to use all speed; while he from time to time, with many regrets, bewailed the rashness which had placed him in a mean and despised condition at the mercy of nien of the lowest class. 17. And amid all these circumstances, in moments when exhausted nature sought repose in sleep, his senses were kept in a state of agitation by dreadful spectres making unseemly noises about him; and crowds of those whom he had slain, led on by Domitianus and Montius, seemed to seize and torture him with all the torments of the Furies. 18. For the mind, when freed by sleep from its connection with the body, is nevertheless active, and being full of the thoughts and anxieties of mortal pursuits, engenders mighty visions which we call phantoms. 19. Therefore his melancholy fate, by which it was destined he should be deprived of empire and life, leading the way, he proceeded on his journey by continual relays of horses, till he arrived at Petobio,' a town in Noricura. Here all disguise was thrown off, and the Count Barbatio suddenly made his appearance, with Apodemius, the secretary for the provinces, and an escort of soldiers whom the emperor had picked out as men bound to him by especial favours, feeling sure that they could not be turned from their obedience either by bribes or pity. 20. And now the affair was conducted to its conclusion without further disguise or deceit, and the whole portion of the palace which is outside the walls was surrounded by The town of Pettau, on the Drave. armed men. Barbatio, entering the palace before daybreak, stripped the Cæsar of his royal robes, and clothed him with a tunic and an ordinary soldier's garment, assuring him with many protestations, as if by the especial command of the emperor, that he should be exposed to no further suffering: and then said to him, "Stand up at once." And having suddenly placed him in a private carriage, he conducted him into Istria, near to the town of Pola, where it is reported that Crispus, the son of Constantine, was formerly put to death. 21. And while he was there kept in strict confinement, being already terrified with apprehensions of his approaching destruction, Eusebius, at that time the high chamberlain, arrived in haste, and with him Pentadius the secretary, and Mallobaudes the tribune of the guard, who had the emperor's orders to compel him to explain, case by case, on what accounts he had ordered each of the individuals whom he had executed at Antioch to be put to death. 22. He being struck with a paleness like that of Adrustus at these questions, was only able to reply that he had put most of them to death at the instigation of his wife Constantina; being forsooth ignorant that when the mother of Alexander the Great urged him to put to death some one who was innocent, and in the hope of prevailing with him, repeated to him over and over again that she had borne him nine months in her womb, and was his mother, hat emperor made her this prudent answer, "My excellent mother, ask for some other reward; for the life of a man cannot be put in the balance with any kind of service." 23. When this was known, the emperor, giving way to unchangeable indignation and anger, saw that his only hope of establishing security finaly lay in putting the Casar to death. And having sent Serenianus, whom we have already spoken of as having been accused of treason, but acquitted by intrigue, and Pentadius the secretary, and Apodemius the secretary for the provinces, he commanded that they should put him to death. And A paleness such as overspread the countenance of Adrastus when he saw his two sons-in-law, Pydeus and Polynices, slain at Thebes. Virgil speaks of Adrasti pallentis imago, En. vi. 480. accordingly his hands were bound like those of some convicted thief, and he was beheaded, and his carcass, which but a little while ago had been the object of dread to cities and provinces, deprived of head and defaced: it was then left on the ground. 24. In this the supervision of the supreme Deity manifested itsolf to be everywhere vigilant. For not only did the cruelties of Gallus bring about his own destruction, but they also who, by their pernicious flattery and instigation, and charges supported by perjury, had led him to the perpetration of many murders, not long afterwards died. miserably. Scudilo, being afflicted with a liver complaint which penetrated to his lungs, died vomiting; while Barbatio, who had long busied himself in inventing falso accusations against Gallus, was accused by secret information of aiming at some post higher than his command of infantry, and being condemned, though unjustly, was put to death and so by his melancholy end made atonement to the shade of the Cæsar. 25. These, and innumerable other actions of the same kind, Adrastea, who is also called Nemesis, the avenger of wicked and 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, prosiding 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. Sho 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 tho 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 foot, that mankind may be aware that she governs the universo, running at will through all the elements.' 27. In this untimely manner did the Caesar, 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,' 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. IIe 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, ho experienced the fickle changeableness of fortune which mocks mortality, sometimos raising individuals to the Ammianus hero confounds Nemesis with Fortuna. Horace's description of the latter goddess, Lib. i. Od. 34: "... Valet ima summis Mutare, et insignia attenuat deus Or, as it is translated by Dr. Francis: "The hand of Jove can crush the proud But rapid Fortune pulls him down, To place, not fix it, on another's head." Near the modern city of Sienna. Compare starɛ, 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 legitimato son of Perseus' to descend to the trade of a blacksmith to obtain a livelihood. Again, fortune surrendered Mancinus' to the people of Numantia, after he had enjoyed the supreme command, exposod Veturius to the cruelty of the Samnites, Claudius to that of the Corsicans, and made Regulus a victim to the ferocity of the Carthaginians. Through the injustice of fortune, Pompey, after he had acquired the surname of the Great by the grandeur of his exploits, was murdered in Egypt 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!" 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, 1 Soo Plutarch's Lifo of Æmilius, c. 87. The name of the young prince was Alexander, 2 Called also Hostilins; cf. Vell. Patero. ii. 1. Cf. Liv. ix. c. x.; Cicero de Officiis, iii. 30. • Of Val. Max. vi. 8. Cf. Horace, Od. iv. ult.; Florus, ii. 1. The story of the cruelties inflicted on Regulus is now, however, generally disbelieved. The fate of Pompey served also as an instance to Juvenal in his satire on the vanity of human wishes. Provida Pompeio diderat Campania febres Sat. X. 283, &c. Spartacus was the colebrated leader of the slaves in the Servile War. |