Book 26
6.16
Raised in a laughable manner to this dishonour of all honours,One of Ammianus’ few word-plays; cf. Sail., Hist. i. 55, 22, Maur.; Gell. xii. 9, 3 ff.; Treb. Poll., Claud. 5, 4. he ad- dressed his supporters with servile flattery, and promised them ample riches and dignities as the first-fruits of his principate. Then he appeared in public, surrounded by a number of armed men, and now advancing with more confidence and with upraised standards, attended with a fearful din of shields mournfully clashing together, which the soldiers from fear of his being pelted from housetops with stones or pieces of tile held closely joined together over the very crests of their helmets.
6.17
And as he advanced more boldly,Val. takes intimidius as equivalent to timidius, com- paring Vell. ii. 37, 2, armis infractus. the people neither opposed nor favoured him; nevertheless, they were aroused by the sudden charm of novelty which is inborn in most of the commons, and they were still more strongly moved because they one and all (as we have already said) hated Petronius, who was enriching himself by violence, and was reviving transactions that were long since buried, and debts of the misty past brought up again against all classes.See § 7, above.
