4th cent. AD

Amm. 25.4.17

The History 25.4.17

Author
Ammian
Translator
C. D. Yonge

The History

25.4.17

Ammian

translated by C. D. Yonge

17He was a frequent talker, rarely silent. Too much devoted to divination, so much so as in this particular to equal the emperor Adrian. He was rather a superstitious than a legitimate observer of sacred rites, sacrificing countless numbers of victims; so that it was reckoned that if he had returned from the Parthians there would have been a scarcity of cattle. Like the celebrated case of Marcus Cæsar, about whom it was written, as it is said, “The white cattle to Marcus Cæsar, greeting. If you conquer there is an end of us.”