Page:Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus.djvu/314

302 contented himself with issuing an edict in which he condemned the crime which had been committed in stern language, and threatening all with the severest vengeance if anything should be attempted for the future contrary to the principles of justice and law.

XII
§1. the mean time, while preparing the expedition against the Persians, which he had long been meditating with all the vigour of his mind, he resolved firmly to avenge their past victories; hearing from others, and knowing by his own experience, that for nearly sixty years that most ferocious people had stamped upon the East bloody records of massacre and ravage, many of our armies having often been entirely destroyed by them.

2. And he was inflamed with a desire for the war on two grounds: first, because he was weary of peace, and dreaming always of trumpets and battles; and secondly, because, having been in his youth exposed to the attacks of savage nations, the wishes of whose kings and princes were already turning against us, and whom, as was believed, it would be easier to conquer than to reduce to the condition of suppliants, he was eager to add to his other glories the surname of Parthicus.

3.  But when his inactive and malicious detractors saw that these preparations were being pressed forward with great speed and energy, they cried out that it was an unworthy and shameful thing for such unseasonable troubles to be caused by the change of a single prince, and laboured with all their zeal to postpone the campaign; and they were in the habit of saying, in the presence of those whom they thought likely to report their words to the emperor, that, unless he conducted himself with moderation during his excess of prosperity, he, like an over-luxuriant crop, would soon be destroyed by his own fertility.

4. And they were continually propagating sayings of this kind, barking in vain at the inflexible prince with secret attacks, as the Pygmies or the clown Thiodamas of Lindus assailed Hercules.

5.  But he, as more magnanimous, allowed no delay to take place, nor any diminution in the magnitude of his