The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus

highest eminence of power, he experienced the fickle changeableness of fortune which mocks mortality, sometimes raising individuals to the stars, 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 legitimate son of Perseus[25] to descend to the trade of a blacksmith to obtain a livelihood. Again, fortune surrendered Mancinus[26] to the people of Numantia, after he had enjoyed the supreme command, exposed Veturius[27] to the cruelty of the Samnites, Claudius[28] to that of the Corsicans, and made Regulus[29] a victim to the ferocity of the Carthaginians. Through the injustice of fortune, Pompey,[30] after he had acquired the surname of the Great by the grandeur of his exploits, was murdered in Ægypt 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![31] 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, a third is hurled down from the highest rank and dignity. But he who would endeavour to enumerate all the various and frequent instances of the caprice of fortune, might as well undertake to number the sands or ascertain the weight of mountains.

[1] Gallus and his brother Julian were the nephews of the great Constantine, sons of his brother Julius. When Constantius, 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.

[2] Hannibalianus was another nephew of Constantine. That emperor raised his own three sons, Constantine, Constantius, and Constans, to the dignity of Cæsar; and of his two favourite nephews, Dalmacius and Hannibalianus, he raised the first, by the title of Cæsar, to an equality with his cousins; "in favour of the latter he invented the new and singular appellation of Fortitissimus, to which he annexed the flattering distinction of a robe of purple and gold. But of the whole series of Roman princes in any age of the empire Hannibalianus alone was distinguished by the title of king, a name which the subjects of Tiberius would have detested as the profane and cruel insult of capricious tyranny."--Gibbon, cxviii. The editor of Bohn's edition adds in a note: "The title given to Hannibalianus did not apply to him as a Roman prince, but as king of a territory assigned to him in Asia. This territory consisted of Pontus, Cappadocia, and the lesser Armenia, the city of Cæsarea being chosen for his residence."--Gibbon, Bohn's edition, vol. ii. pp. 256, 257.

[3] "There was among the commanders of the soldiery one prefect who was especially entitled Præsens, or Præsentalis, because his office was to be always in the court or about the person of the prince, and because the emperor's body-guard was under his particular orders."--H. Valesius.

[4] The passage is found in Cicero's Oration pro Cluentio, c. 25.

[5] Sciron was a pirate slain by Theseus, v. Ov. Metam. vii. 44 and the Epistle of Ariadne to Theseus.

"Cum fuerit Sciron lectus, torvusque Procrustes."