Book 25
10.13
For it is said that he was unable to endure the unwholesome odour of a recently plastered bedroom, or that his head was swollen from the burning of a great amount of charcoal and so he died, or at any rate that he had a fit of acute indigestion from an immoderate amount of food of different kinds.Sozomenus, vi. 6, Orosius, vii. 31. Zonaras, xiii. 14, D, A, gives the coal gas as the cause. The latter adds that he had drunk to excess and (as some said) was given a poisoned sponge; Chrysostom, Homilia, xv., says directly that he was poisoned. Ammianus, by his reference to Aemilianus, seems to imply that he was strangled; cf. Cic., Pro Milone, 7, 16; Ad Fam.ix. 21, 3. At all events he died in the thirty-third year of his age.Having reigned 8 months. The end of his life was like that of Scipio Aemilianus,Livy, Epit. lix.; Val. Max. iv. 1, 12, 3; viii. 15, 4. but so far as I know no investigation was made of the death of either.
10.14
He walked with a dignified bearing; his expression was very cheerful. His eyes were gray. He was so unusually tall that for some time no imperial robe could be found that was long enough for him. He took as his model Constantius, often spending the afternoon in some serious occupation, but accustomed to jest in public with his intimates.
