Page:Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus.djvu/340

 earth, and surrounded by a ring of officers of high rank, spoke thus with a cheerful face, being favourably heard with the unanimous good will of all present.

16.  "Seeing, my brave soldiers, that you are full of great vigour and alacrity, I have determined to address you, to prove to you by several arguments that the Romans are not, as spiteful grumblers assert, now for the first time invading the kingdom of Persia. For, to say nothing of Lucullus or of Pompey, who, having forced his way through the Albani and Massagetse, whom we call Alani, penetrated through this nation also so as to reach the Caspian lake; we know that Ventidius, the lieutenant of Antony, gained many victories in these regions.

17.  "But to leave those ancient times, I will enumerate other exploits of more recent memory. Trajan, and Verus, and Severus have all gained victories and trophies in this country; and the younger Gordian, whose monument we have just been honouring, would have reaped similar glory, having conquered and routed the king of Persia at Resaina, if he had not been wickedly murdered in this very place by the faction of Philip, the prefect of the praetorium, with the assistance of a few other impious men.

18.  "But his shade was not long left to wander unavenged, since, as if Justice herself had laboured in the cause, all those who conspired against him have been put to death with torture. Those men, indeed, ambition prompted to the atrocious deed; but we are exhorted by the miserable fate of cities recently taken, by the unavenged shades of our slaughtered armies, by the heaviness of our losses, and the loss of many camps and fortresses, to the enterprise which we have undertaken. All men uniting in their wishes that we may remedy past evils, and having secured the honour and safety of the republic on this side, may leave posterity reason to speak nobly of us.

19.  "By the assistance of the eternal deity, I, your emperor, will be always among you as a leader and a comrade, relying, as I well believe, on favourable onions. But if variable fortune shall defeat me in battle, it will still be sufficient for me to have devoted myself for the welfare of the Roman world, like ancient Curtii and Mucii, and the illustrious family of the Decii. We have to abolish a most pernicious nation, on whose swords the blood of our kindred is not yet dry. |