by Eutropius
15
Neque multo post, cum Germaniciani exercitus a Galliarum praesidio tollerentur, consensu militum Iulianus factus Augustus est, interiectoque anno ad Illyricum obtinendum profectus Constantio Parthicis proeliis occupato. Qui rebus cognitis ad bellum civile conversus in itinere obiit inter Ciliciam Cappadociamque anno imperii octavo et tricesimo, aetatis quinto et quadragesimo, meruitque inter Divos referri, vir egregiae tranquillitatis, placidus, nimium amicis et familiaribus credens, mox etiam uxoribus deditior, qui tamen primis imperii annis ingenti se modestia egerit, familiarium etiam locupletator neque inhonoros sinens, quorum laboriosa expertus fuisset officia, ad severitatem tum propensior, si suspicio imperii moveretur, mitis alias, et cuius in civilibus magis quam in externis bellis sit laudanda fortuna.
XV
Not long after, when the German armies were withdrawing from the defence of Gaul, JULIAN was made emperor by the unanimous consent of the army, and, after the lapse of a year, went to take the government of Illyricum, while Constantius was engaged in the war with Parthia. Constantius, hearing what had occurred, and returning to the civil strife, died on his march between Cilicia and Cappadocia, in the thirty-eighth year of his reign, and the forty-fifth of his age, and was deservedly enrolled among the gods. He was a man of a remarkably tranquil disposition, good-natured, trusting too much to his friends and courtiers, and at last too much in the power of his wives. He conducted himself with great moderation in the commencement of his reign; he enriched his friends, and suffered none, whose active services he had experienced, to go unrewarded. He was however somewhat inclined to severity, whenever any suspicion of an attempt on the government was excited in him; otherwise he was gentle. His fortune is more to be praised in civil than in foreign wars.
16
Hinc Iulianus rerum potitus est ingentique apparatu Parthis intulit bellum, cui expeditioni ego quoque interfui. Aliquot oppida et castella Persarum in deditionem accepit vel vi expugnavit Assyriamque populatus castra apud Ctesiphontem stativa aliquamdiu habuit. Remeansque victor, dum se inconsultius proeliis inserit, hostili manu interfectus est VI Kal. Iul., imperii anno septimo, aetatis altero et tricesimo, atque inter Divos relatus est, vir egregius et rem publicam insigniter moderaturus, si per fata licuisset. Liberalibus disciplinis adprime eruditus, Graecis doctior atque adeo, ut Latina eruditio nequaquam cum Graeca scientia conveniret, facundia ingenti et prompta, memoriae tenacissimae, in quibusdam philosopho propior. In amicos liberalis, sed minus diligens quam tantum principem decuit. Fuerunt enim nonnulli, qui vulnera gloriae eius inferrent. In provinciales iustissimus et tributorum, quatenus fieri posset, repressor. Civilis in cunctos, mediocrem habens aerarii curam, gloriae avidus ac per eam animi plerumque inmodici, religionis Christianae nimius insectator, perinde tamen, ut cruore abstineret, M. Antonino non absimilis, quem etiam aemulari studebat.
XVI
Julian then became sole emperor, and made war, with a vast force, upon the Parthians; in which expedition I was also present. Several towns and fortresses of the Persians he induced to surrender, or took them by storm; and, having laid waste Assyria, fixed his camp for some time at Ctesiphon. As he was returning victorious, and mingling rashly in the thick of a battle, he was killed by the hand of an enemy, on the 26th of June, in the seventh year of his reign, and the thirty-second of his age, and was enrolled among the gods. He was a remarkable man, and one that would have governed the empire with honour, if he had but been permitted by the fates. He was eminently accomplished in liberal branches of knowledge, but better read in the literature of the Greeks, so much so indeed that his Latin was by no means comparable to his Greek learning. He was possessed of great and ready eloquence, and of a most tenacious memory. In some respects he was more like a philosopher than a prince. Towards his friends he was liberal, yet less discriminating as to the objects of his generosity than became so great an emperor; for there were some of them that cast a stain on his glory. To the people of the provinces he was most just, and remitted the taxes on them as far as was possible. He was indulgent towards all men; he felt no great anxiety about the public treasury; but of glory he was a great lover, and manifested even an intemperate desire for the attainment of it. He was a persecutor of the Christian religion, yet so that he abstained from shedding blood. He was not unlike Marcus Antoninus, whom he even studied to rival.
17
Post hunc Iovianus, qui tunc domesticus militabat, ad obtinendum imperium consensu exercitus lectus est, commendatione patris militibus quam sua notior. Qui iam turbatis rebus exercitu quoque inopia laborante uno a Persis atque altero proelio victus pacem cum Sapore, necessariam quidem, sed ignobilem, fecit, multatus finibus ac nonnulla imperii Romani parte tradita. Quod ante eum annis mille centum et duobus de viginti fere, ex quo Romanum imperium conditum erat, numquam accidit. Quin etiam legiones nostrae ita et apud Caudium per Pontium Telesinum et in Hispania apud Numantiam et in Numidia sub iugum missae sunt, ut nihil tamen finium traderetur. Ea pacis conditio non penitus reprehendenda foret, si foederis necessitatem tum cum integrum fuit mutare voluisset, sicut a Romanis omnibus his bellis, quae commemoravi, factum est. Nam et Samnitibus et Numantinis et Numidis confestim bella inlata sunt neque pax rata fuit. Sed dum aemulum imperii veretur, intra Orientem residens gloriae parum consuluit. Itaque iter ingressus atque Illyricum petens in Galatiae finibus repentina morte obiit, vir alias neque iners neque inprudens.
XVII
After him JOVIAN, who attended him in the expedition as one of his body-guard, was chosen by the suffrages of the soldiers to fill the throne; a man better known to the army by the fame of his father than by his own. As affairs were now in confusion, and the army distressed for want of provisions, Jovian, after being defeated in one or two battles by the Persians, made peace with Sapor, a peace which was necessary indeed, but ignominious, for he was obliged to contract his boundaries, a portion of the Roman dominions being ceded to the enemy; a disgrace which had never occurred, before his time, since the Roman empire had been founded, during a space of one thousand one hundred and eighteen years. And though our legions were made to pass under the yoke, both at Caudium by Pontus Telesinus, at Numantia in Spain, and in Numidia, yet no part of the Roman territory was given up on any of those occasions. Such terms would not have been altogether reprehensible, if he had been resolved, when it should be in his power, to throw off the obligation of the treaty, as was done by the Romans in all the wars that I have mentioned; for war was immediately after made upon the Samnites, Numantines, and Numidians, and the peace was never ratified. But being in dread, as long as he remained in the east, of a rival for the imperial dignity, he thought too little of his glory. After marching from thence, accordingly, and directing bis course towards Illyricum, he died suddenly on the borders of Galatia. He was a man, in other parts of his conduct, deficient neither in energy nor understanding,
18
Multi exanimatum opinantur nimia cruditate (inter cenandum enim epulis indulserat), alii odore cubiculi, quod ex recenti tectorio calcis grave quiescentibus erat, quidam nimietate prunarum, quas gravi frigore adoleri multas iusserat. Decessit imperii mense septimo, tertio decimo Kal. Mart., aetatis, ut qui plurimum vel minimum tradunt, tertio et tricesimo anno, ac benignitate principum, qui ei successerunt, inter Divos relatus est. Nam et civilitati propior et natura admodum liberalis fuit. Is status erat Romanae rei Ioviano eodem et Varroniano consulibus anno urbis conditae millesimo centesimo et octavo decimo. Quia autem ad inclitos principes venerandosque perventum est, interim operi modum dabimus. Nam reliqua stilo maiore dicenda sunt. Quae nunc non tam praetermittimus, quam ad maiorem scribendi diligentiam reservamus.
XVIII
Many think that he was carried off by a violent fit of indigestion, for he had indulged in delicacies at supper; others suppose that he died of the odour of his chamber, which, from a recent plastering of lime, was dangerous to such as slept in it; others imagine that he fell a victim to the overpowering effects of charcoal, which he had ordered to be burnt in great abundance
on account of the extreme cold. He died in the seventh month of his reign, on the 18th of April, in the thirty-third year of his age, and, by the kindness of the emperors that succeeded him, was enrolled among the gods; for he was inclined to equity, and liberal by nature.
Such was the state of the Roman empire in the consulship of the Emperor Jovian and Varronianus, in the year one thousand, one hundred and nineteen from the foundation of the city. But as we have now come to illustrious and venerable princes, we shall here fix a limit to the present part of our work; for the things that remain must be told in a more elevated style; and we do not, for the present, so much omit them, as reserve them for higher efforts in writing.
The Biography
Statue of Emperor Valentinian II (371-392), who reigned from 375 to 392 — Eutropius served as imperial consul under Valentinian II in 387.
Life of Eutropius by J. C. Hazzard
OF THE LIFE of Eutropius we know very little. Only once in his work does he mention himself, Bk. X, Ch. 16. He was proconsul in Asia in 371 A.D., and praetorian praefect 380-387 A.D. He is said to have been the secretary of the Emperor Constantine the Great.
The only one of his works that is extant is the Breviārium, a brief history of Rome from the founding of the city to the death of the Emperor Jovian, 364 A.D. He dedicated the work to the Emperor Valens, 364-378 A.D., composing it probably at the emperor’s request.
Through the republican period he follows Livy, whom he knows at first hand. Afterwards he takes Suetonius and the Augustan History for his guides. His style is simple and terse, and the diction is very good for the age in which the book was written. As a historian his judgment is cool and impartial. He makes some blunders, but mostly in the matter of dates. A Greek translation made by a certain Capito, a Lycian, is mentioned, but it has been lost. A later Greek version by Paeanius is extant.
The Delphi Classics Catalogue
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Anton Chekhov
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Dickensiana Volume I
Edgar Allan Poe
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Alexandre Dumas (English)
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G. K. Chesterton
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George Gissing
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H. P. Lovecraft
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Laurence Sterne
Mary Shelley
Sheridan Le Fanu
Washington Irving
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Arnold Bennett
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Bret Harte
Captain Frederick Marryat
Charles Kingsley
Charles Reade
G. A. Henty
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Wallace
E. M. Forster
E. Nesbit
George Meredith
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Jerome K. Jerome
John Ruskin
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M. E. Braddon
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M. R. James
R. M. Ballantyne
Robert E. Howard
Samuel Johnson
Stendhal
Stephen Crane
Zane Grey
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Algernon Blackwood
Anatole France
Beaumont and Fletcher
Charles Darwin
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Edward Gibbon
E. F. Benson
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Friedrich Nietzsche
George Bernard Shaw
George MacDonald
Hilaire Belloc
John Bunyan
John Webster
Margaret Oliphant
Maxim Gorky
Oliver Goldsmith
Radclyffe Hall
Robert W. Chambers
Samuel Butler
Samuel Richardson
Sir Thomas Malory
Thomas Carlyle
William Harrison Ainsworth
William Dean Howells
William Morris
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Anthony Hope
Aphra Behn
Arthur Morrison
Baroness Emma Orczy
Captain Mayne Reid
Charlotte M. Yonge
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E. W. Hornung
Ellen Wood
Frances Burney
Frank Norris
Frank R. Stockton
Hall Caine
Horace Walpole
One Thousand and One Nights
R. Austin Freeman
Rafael Sabatini
Saki
Samuel Pepys
Sir Issac Newton
Stanley J. Weyman
Thomas De Quincey
Thomas Middleton
Voltaire
William Hazlitt
William Hope Hodgson
Series Seven
Adam Smith
Benjamin Disraeli
Confucius
David Hume
E. M. Delafield
E. Phillips Oppenheim
Edmund Burke
Ernest Hemingway
Frances Trollope
Galileo Galilei
Guy Boothby
Hans Christian Andersen
Ian Fleming
Immanuel Kant
Karl Marx
Kenneth Grahame
Lytton Strachey
Mary Wollstonecraft
Michel de Montaigne
René Descartes
Richard Marsh
Sax Rohmer
Sir Richard Burton
Talbot Mundy
Thomas Babington Macaulay
W. W. Jacobs
Series Eight
Anna Katharine Green
Arthur Schopenhauer
The Brothers Grimm
C. S. Lewis
Charles and Mary Lamb
Elizabeth von Arnim
Ernest Bramah
Francis Bacon
Gilbert and Sullivan
Grant Allen
Henryk Sienkiewicz
Hugh Walpole
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
John Locke
John Muir
Joseph Addison
Lafcadio Hearn
Lord Dunsany
Marie Corelli
Niccolò Machiavelli
Ouida
Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Sigmund Freud
Theodore Dreiser
Walter Pater
W. Somerset Maugham
Series Nine
Aldous Huxley
August Strindberg
Booth Tarkington
C. S. Forester
Erasmus
Eugene Sue
Fergus Hume
George Moore
Gertrude Stein
Giovanni Boccaccio
Izaak Walton
J. M. Synge
Johanna Spyri
John Galt
Maurice Leblanc
Max Brand
Molière
