Page:Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus.djvu/13

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THE HISTORY OF AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS.

THE FIRST THIRTEEN BOOKS ARE LOST.


BOOK XIV.

ARGUMENT.

I. The cruelty of the Cæsar Gallus.—II. The incursions of the Isaurians.—III. The unsuccessful plans of the Persians.—IV. The invasion of the Saracens, and the manners of that people.—V. The punishment of the adherents of Magnentius.—VI. The vices of the senate and people of Rome.—VII. The ferocity and inhumanity of the Cæsar Gallus.—VIII. A description of the provinces of the East.—IX. About the Cæsar Constantius Gallus.—X. The Emperor Constantius grants the Allemanni peace at their request.—XI. The Cæsar Constantius Gallus is sent for by the Emperor Constantius, and beheaded.

I.
A.D. 353.

§ 1. After the events of an expedition full of almost insuperable difficulties, while the spirits of all parties in the state, broken by the variety of their dangers and toils, were still enfeebled; while the clang of trumpets was ringing in men's ears, and the troops were still distributed in their winter quarters, the storms of angry fortune surrounded the commonwealth with fresh dangers through the manifold and terrible atrocities of Cæsar Gallus:[1] who, when just entering into the prime of life, having been raised with

  1. Gallus and his brother Julian were the nephews of the great Constatine, sons of his brother Julius. When Constantinius, who succeeded Constantine on the throne, murdered his uncles and most of his cousins, he spared these two, probably on account of their tender age.