Page:Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus.djvu/308

 right, he went to Pessinus, to see the ancient temple of Cybele; from which town in the second Punic war, in accordance with the warning of the Sibylline verses, the image of the goddess was removed to Rome by Scipio Nasica.

6. Of its arrival in Italy, with many other matters connected with it, we made mention in recording the acts of the emperor Commodus; but as to what the reason was for the town receiving this name writers differ.

7. For some have declared that the city was so called ἀπὸ τοῦ πεσεῖν, from falling; inventing a tale that the statue fell from heaven; others affirm that Ilus, the son of Tros, king of Dardania, gave the place this name, which Theopompus says it received not from this, but from Midas, formerly a most powerful king of Phrygia.

8. Accordingly, having paid his worship to the goddess, and propitiated her with sacrifices and prayers, he returned to Ancyra; and as he was proceeding on this way from thence he was disturbed by a multitude; some violently demanding the restoration of what had been taken from them, others complaining that they had been unjustly attached to different courts; some, regardless of the risk they ran, tried to enrage him against their adversaries, by charging them with treason.

9. But he, a sterner judge than Cassius or Lycurgus, weighed the charges with justice, and gave each his due; never being swayed from the truth, but very severe to calumniators, whom he hated, because he himself, while still a private individual and of low estate, had often experienced the petulant frenzy of many in a way which placed him in great danger.

10. And though there are many other examples of his patience in such matters, it will suffice to relate one here. A certain man laid an information against his enemy, with whom he had a most bitter quarrel, affirming that he had been guilty of outrage and sedition; and when the emperor concealed his own opinion, he renewed the charge for several days, and when at last he was asked who the man was whom he was accusing, he replied, a rich citizen. "When the emperor heard this he smiled and said, "What proof led you to the discovery of this conduct of his?" He replied, "The man has had made for himself a purple silk robe."