Res Gestae 21
Res Gestae: Ammianus Marcellinus (Book 21)
Web Publication by Mountain Man Graphics, Australia
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Res Gestae: Ammianus Marcellinus (Book 21) |
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NOTE: This page is under construction. In this earlier phase: 1) Ammianus' reference to Apollonius of Tyana, 21.14.5 2) Ammianus' obituary to Constantius commencing 21:16
Apollonius of Tyana in Ammianus Marcellinus (Book 21) |
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Apollonius of Tyana is mentioned twice in the Res Gestae by Ammianus Marcellinus, the minor reference occurring in a geographical digression which included Tyana. The major reference is located in a section related to theological matters, and has been presented in full context below ... LOEB (Rolfe) Volume II, p.167 Ammianus Marcellinus BOOK XXI 14. Omens of the death of Constantius Augustus. 1. In this welter of adverse event Constantius' fortune, already wavering and at a standstill, showed clearly the signs almost as plain as words, that a crisis in his life was at hand. For at night he was alarmed by apparitions, and when he was not yet wholly sunk into sleep, the ghost of his father seemed to hold out to him a fair child, and when he took it and set it in his lap, it shook from him the ball which he had held in his right hand and threw it to a great distance. And this foretold a change in the state, although the seers gave reassuring answers. 2. After that he admitted to his more intimate attendants that, as though forsaken, he ceased to see a kind of secret something which he used to think occassionally appeared to him, though somewhat dimly; and it was supposed that a sort of guardian spirit, assigned to protect his life, had deserted him, since he was destined quickly to leave this world. 3. For the theologians maintain that there are associated with all men at their birth, but without interference with the established course of destiny, certain divinities of that sort, as directors of their conduct; but they have been seen by only a very few, whom their manifold merits have raised to eminence. 4. And this oracles and writers of distinction have shown; among the latter is also the comic poet Menander, in whom we read these two searii: "A daemon is assigned to every man At birth, to be the leader of his life". 5. Likewise from the immortal poems of Homer we are given to understand that it was not the gods of heaven that spoke with brave men, and stood by them or aided them as they fought. bu that guardians spirits attended them; and through reliance upon their special support, it is said, that Pythagoras, Socrates, and Numa Pompilius became famous; also the earlier Scipio, and (as some believe) Marius and Octavianus, who first had the title of Augustus conferred upon him, and Hermes Trismegistus, Apollonius of Tyana, and Plotinus, who ventured to discourse on this mystic theme, and to present a profound discussion on the question by what elements these spirits are linked with men's souls, and taking them to their bosoms, as it were, protect them (as long as possible) and give them higher instruction, if they perceive that they are pure and kept from the pollution of sin through association with an immaculate body.
Editorial Notation ... |
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Clearly the author Ammianus Marcellinus associates the historical figure of Apollonius of Tyana with a host of others in the Hellenic/Pythagorean cultural histriography known to the fourth century. The history of that part of antiquity (0-300 CE) cannot be known without resolving the reasons and the methods by which the memory of this Apollonius of Tyana was calumnified (by Eusebius?), and in succeeding generations, his books, letters, statues and biographies destroyed, by the new ROMAN religious order promoted by Constantine, irrespective (in this instance) of its original inception date. Note that the highlighting of the word "calumnified". Such is a key operative word in the mainstream christian history as presented by its "Historian" Eusebius in HE. Pete Brown EDITOR MOUNTAIN MAN GRAPHICS
Constantius' Obituary by Ammianus Marcellinus ... |
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16. The virtues of Constantius Augustus, and his faults. 1. Observing, therefore, a true distinction between his good qualities and his defects, it will always be fitting to set forth his good points first [1]. He always maintained the dignity of imperial majesty, and his greatness and lofty spirit disdained the favout of the populace. He was exceedingly sparing in confering the higher dignitaries, with few exceptions allowing no innovations in the way of additions to the administrative offices; and he never let the military lift their heads too high. 2. Under him no leader of an army was advancing to the rank of clarissimus. For they all were (according to my personal recollection) all perfectissimi [2]. The governor of a province never officially met a commander [3] of the cavalry, nor was the latter official allowed to take part in civil affairs. But all the military and civil officials always looked up to the praetorian prefects with the old-time respect, as the peak of all authority. 3. In the maintenance of the soldiers he was exceedingly careful; somewhat critical at times in evaluating services, he bestowed appointments at court by the plumb line [4], as it were. Under him no one who was to hold a high position was apppointed to a post in the palace suddenly or untried, but a man who after ten years was to be marshall of the court, or head treasurer, or to fill any similar post, was thoroughly known. It very rarely happened that any military officer passed to a civil magistracy, and on the other hand, none were put in command of soldiers who had not grown hardy in the dust of battle. 4. He made great pretensions to learning [5], but after failing in rhetoric because of dullness of mind, he turned to making verses, but accomplished nothing worth while. 5. By a prudent and temperate manner of life and by moderation in eating and drinking he maintained such sound health that he rarely suffered from illnesses, but such that he had were of a dangerous character. For that abstinence from dissipation and luxury have this effect on the body is shown by repeated experience, as well as by the statements of physicians. 6. He was content with little sleep when time and circumstances so required. Throughout the entire span of his life he was so extraordinarily chaste, that not even a suspicion could be raised against him even by an ill-disposed attendant on his private life, a charge which malice, even if it fails to discover it, still trumps up, having regard to the unrestrained liberty of supreme power. 7. In riding, in hurling the jabelin, and especially in the skilful use of the bow, and in all the exercises of the foot-soldiers, he was an adept. That no one ever saw him wipe his mouth or nose in public, or spit, or turn his face in either direction [6], or that so long as he lived he never tasted fruit, I leave unmentioned, since it has often been related. 8. Having given a succinct account of his merits, as far as I could know them, let us now come to an enumeration of his defects. While in administrative affairs he was comparable to other emperors of medium quality, if he found any indication, however slight or groundless, of an aspiration to the supreme power, by endless investigations, in which he made no distinction between right and wrong, he easily surpassed the savagery of Caligula, Domitan, and Commodus. For it was in rivalry of the cruelty of those emperors that at the beginning of his reign he destroyed root and branch of all who were related to him by blood and race. 9. To add to the sufferings of the wretches who were reported to him for impairment of, or insult to, his majesty, his bitterness and agry suspicions were stretched to the uttermost in all such cases. If anything of the kind was bruited abroad, he gave himself up to inquisitions with more eagerness that humanity, and appointed for such trials merciless judges; and in the punishment of some he tried to make their death lingering, if nature allowed, in some particulars being even more ruthless that Gellienus in such inquisitions. 10. As a matter of fact, he was the object of many genuine plots of traitors, such as Aureolus, Postumus, Ingenuus, Valens [7] surnamed Thessalonicus, and several others, yet he often showed leniency in punishing crimes which would bring death to the victim; but he also tried to make false or doubtful cases appear well-founded by excessively violent tortures. 11. And in such affairs he showed deadly enmity to justice, although he made a special effort to be considered just and merciful. And as sparks flying from a dry forest even with a slight breeze of wind come with irresistable course and bring danger to rural villages, so he also from trivial causes roused up a mass of evils, unlike that revered prince Marcus [8], who, when Cassius had mounted to imperial heights in Syria, and a packet of letters sent by him to his accomplices had fallen into the emperor's hands through the capture of their bearer, at once ordered it to be burned unopened, in order that, being at the time still in Illyricum, he might not know who were plotting against him, and hence be forced to hate some men against his will. [9] 12. And, as some right-thinking men believed, it would have been a striking indication of true worth in Constantius, if he had renounced his power without bloodshed, rather than defended it so mercilessly. 13. And this Tully also shows in a letter to Nepos, in which he taxes Caesar with cruelty, saying: "For happiness is nothing else than success in noble actions. Or, to express it differently, happiness is the good fortune that aids worthy designs, and one who does not aim at these can in no wise be happy. Therefore in lawless and impious plans, such as Caesar followed, there could be no happiness. Happier, in my judgement, was Camilus in exile than was Manlius [10] at that same time, even if (as he had desired) he had succeeded in making himself king." [11] 14. Heraclitus the Euphesian [12] also agrees with this, when he reminds us that the weak and cowardly have sometimes, through the mutability of fortune, been victorious over emminent men; but that the most conspicuous praise is won, when high-placed power sending, as it were, under the yoke of inclinations to harm, to be angry, and to show cruelty, on the citadel of a spirit victorious over itself has raised a glorious trophy. 15. Now, although this emperor in foreign wars met with loss and disaster, yet he was elated by his success in civil conflicts and drenched with aweful gore from the internal wounds of the state. It was on this unworthy rather thatn just or usual ground [13] that in Gaul and Pannonia he erected triumphal arches [14] at great expense commemorating the ruin of the provinces [15], and added records of his deeds, that men might read of him so long as those monuments could last. 16. He was to an excessive degree under the influence of his wives, and the shrill-voiced eunuchs, and certain of the court officials, who applauded his every word, and listened for his "yes" or "no", in order to be able to agree with him. 17. The bitterness of the times were increased by the insatiate extortion of the tax-collectors, who brought him more hatred than money; and to many this seemed more intolerable, for the reason that he never investgated a dispute, nor had regard for the welfare of the provinces, although they were oppressed by the multiplication of taxes and tributes. And besides this, he found it easy to take away exemptions which he had once given. 18. The plain [16] and simple religion of the Christians he obscured by a dotard's superstition, and by subtle and involved discussions about dogma, rather than by seriously trying to make them agree, he roused many controversies; and as these spread more and more, he fed them with contentious words. And since throngs of bishops hastened hither and thither on the public post-horses to the various synods, as they call them, while he sought to make the whole ritual conform to his own will, he cut the sinews of the courier service. 19. His bodily appearance and form were as follows: he was rather dark, with bulging eyes and sharp-sighted; his hair was soft and his regularly shaven cheeks were neat and shining; from the meeting of neck and shoulders to the groin he was unusually long, and his legs were very short and bowed, for which reason he was good at running and leaping. 20. When the corpse of the deceased emperor had been washed and placed in a coffin, Jovianus, who was at that time still an officer in the body- guard, was ordered to escort it with regal pomp to Constantinople, to ne interred beside his kinsfolk. 21. And as he sat in the carraige that bore the remains, samples of the soldiers' rations ("probae" as they themselves call them) were presented to him, as they commonly are to emperors [17], and the public courier horses were shown to him, and the people thronged about him in the customary manner. These and similar things foretold imperial power for the said Jovianus, but of an empty and shadowy kind, since he was merely the director of a funeral procession. [1] With this chapter, cf. 24:5:1-4 [2] See Introd. Clarissimi were member of the senatorial order who, as the sons of senators, inherited their rank; but the title included those who were made senators by adlectio. [3] On his arrival in the provence. [4] The metaphorical use of this expression does not seem to be common; it occurs also in Ausonius, Parentalia, v.8, ad perpendicualrum se suosque habuit. [5] cf. Eusebius, Vita Constantini, iv. 51 [6] cf. 16:10:10 [7] In Illyricum, Gaul, Pannonia and Archaia respectively. [8] Marcus Aurelius [9] cf. Dio 62:26:38 [10] M. Manlius saved the Roman citadel when the Gauls took the city in 387 BCE. Later, because he defended the commons, he was accused of aspiring to regal power and hurled from the Tarpeian Rock. [11] A fragment preserved by Ammianus alone, not found in Cicero's extant works. [12] "The weeping philosopher," as Democritus was "the laughing philosopher"; cf. Juvenal, 10.33 ff He flourished about 535-475 BCE. [13] It was usual to celebrate a triumph only over foreign enemies, and the same rule applied to triumphal arches. ED: Research the "Arch of Constantine". [14] Although this term is so common in English, this is the first and only occurrence in Latin literature, and it is found besides only in four late inscriptions from Northen Africa. [15] That is, his victories over his rivals, and the bloodshed and ruin attending them. [16] Cf. absolutio, 14:10:13, responsum absolutum, 30:1:4, planis absolutisque decretis, 22:5:2 [17] The emperors took pains to see that the soldiers were well fed. Cf. Spartianus, Hadr, 11:1; Lamridius, Alex. Sev 15:5