HKB
"Cum fuerit Sciron lectus, torvusque Procrustes."
[6] His victory over Magnentius, whom he defeated at Mursa, on the Doave, in the year 351. Magnentius fled to Aquileia, but was pursued, and again defeated the next year, at a place called Mons Seleuci, in the neighbourhood of Gap, and threw himself on his own sword to avoid falling into the hands of Constantius.
[7] Hesiod. Ammianus refers to the passage in Hesiod's Op. et Dies, 289, beginning--+tês d' aretês hidrôta theoi proparoithen ethêsan+.
[8] A nomenclator was a slave who attended a great noble in his walk through the city to remind him of the names of those whom he met. See Cicero pro Muræna, c. 36.
[9] The name of a slave in the Eunuch, of Terence, who says, act. iv sc. 8--Sannio alone stays at home.
[10] It was customary on such solemnities, as also on the occasion of assuming the toga virilis, or entering on any important magistracy, to make small presents of money to the guests who were invited to celebrate the occasion. Cf. Plin. Epist. x. 117.
[11] The Latin is Dux. It is about this period that the title Duke and Count, which we have already had, arose, indicating however at first not territorial possessions, but military commands; and it is worth noticing that the rank of Count was the higher of the two.
[12] Constantine, on his conversion to Christianity, had issued an edict forbidding the consultation of oracles; but the practice was not wholly abandoned till the time of Theodosius.
[13] Schools was the name given at Rome to buildings where men were wont to meet for any purpose, whether of study, of traffic, or of the practice of any art. The schools of the Palatine were the station of the cohorts of the guard. The "Protectors or Guards" were a body of soldiers of higher rank, receiving also higher pay; called also "Domestici or household troops," as especially set apart for the protection of the imperial palace and person. The "Scutarii" (shield-bearers) belonged to the Palatine schools; and the Gentiles were troops enlisted from among those nations which were still accounted barbarous.
[14] Gibbon here proposes for lenitatem to read levitatem, fickleness; himself describing Montius as "a statesman whose art and experience were frequently betrayed by the levity of his disposition."--Cap. xix., p. 298, vol. iii., Bohn's edition.
[15] Châlons sur Saône.
[16] Near Basle.
[17] It will be observed that Ammianus here speaks of himself as in attendance upon Ursicinus.
[18] Maximianus Herculius.
[19] Diocletian.
[20] As we say, Out of the frying-pan into the fire.
[21] The town of Pettau, on the Drave.
[22] 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, Æn. vi. 480.
[23] Ammianus here confounds Nemesis with Fortuna. Compare Horace's description of the latter goddess, Lib. i. Od. 34:--
" ... Valet ima summis Mutare, et insignia attenuat deus Obscura promens: hinc apicem rapax Fortuna cum stridore acuto Sustulit; hic posuisse gaudet."
Or, as it is translated by Dr. Francis:--
"The hand of Jove can crush the proud Down to the meanness of the crowd: And raise the lowest in his stead: But rapid Fortune pulls him down, And snatches his imperial crown, To place, not fix it, on another's head."
[24] Near the modern city of Sienna.
[25] See Plutarch's Life of Æmilius, c. 37. The name of the young prince was Alexander.
[26] Called also Hostilius; cf. Vell. Paterc. ii. 1.
[27] Cf. Liv. ix. c. x.; Cicero de Officiis, iii. 30.
[28] Cf. Val. Max. vi. 3.
[29] Cf. Horace, Od. iv. ult.; Florus, ii. 1. The story of the cruelties inflicted on Regulus is now, however, generally disbelieved.
[30] The fate of Pompey served also as an instance to Juvenal in his satire on the vanity of human wishes.