fourth century, and who has been regarded by his critics from Gibbon down as a historian of distinguished merit, gives us an idea of mental conditions in his time, and was himself not free from belief in magic. It is true that in declaiming against the degeneracy of the Roman aristocracy he ridicules their trust in astrology, saying that many of them deny the existence of higher powers in heaven, yet think it imprudent to appear in public or dine or take a bath without first having consulted an almanac as to Mercury's whereabouts or the exact position of the moon in Cancer.[1] Yet he believed in omens, portents and auspices, as the following citations will indicate and as one might show by other passages.
The first passage is one in which Ammianus speaks of Alexandria as formerly having been a great place of learning and as even in his degenerate days a considerable intellectual centre. According to him, it is a sufficient recommendation for any medical man if he say that he was educated at Alexandria.[2]
There whatever lies hidden is laid bare by geometry; music
- ↑ Ammianus Marcellinus. Rerum gestarum libri qui supersunt. F. Eyssenhardt recensuit. Berlin, 1871. Book xxviii, ch. iv, sec. 24, "Multi apud eos negantes esse superas potestates in caelo, nee in publico prodeunt nee prandent nee lavari arbitrantur se cautius posse, antequam ephemeride scrupulose sciscitata didicerint, ubi sit verbi gratia signum Mercurii, vel quotam cancri sideris partem polum discurrens optineat luna." Very likely, however, Ammianus—whom we shall see defending divination in general himself cherished a moderate trust in astrology and was rather satirizing the infidelity of the nobles—their inconsistency in so minutely ruling their lives by the planets when they denied the existence of "superas potestates in caelo." There is an English translation of Ammianus by C. D. Yonge (London, 1862; Bohn Library).
- ↑ Ibid., bk. xxii, ch. xvi, sec. 18. "Pro omni tamen experimento sufficiat medico ad commendandam artis auctoritatem, si Alexandriae se dixerit eruditum."
