Kitap 29
2.4
As a result, throughout the oriental provinces owners of books, through fear of a like fate, burned their entire libraries; so great was the terror that had seized upon all.Cf. also Zos. iv. 14. In this way Valens greatly diminished our knowledge of the ancient writers, in particular of the philosophers. Indeed, to speak briefly, at that time we all crept about as if in Cimmerian darkness,See xxviii. 4, 18, note. feeling the same fears as the guests of the Sicilian Dionysius, who, while filled to repletion with banquets more terrible than any possible hunger, saw with a shudder the swords hanging over their heads from the ceilings of the rooms in which they reclined and held only by single horsehairs.Cf. Cic., Tusc. Disp. v. 21, 61 f.
2.5
At that time Bassianus also, one of a most illustrious family and serving as a secretary of the first class,See Index II, Vol. I, s.v. notarii. was accused of trying to gain foreknowledge of higher power, although he himself declared that he had merely inquired about the sex of a child which his wife expected; but by the urgent efforts of the kinsfolk by whom he was defended, he was saved from death; but he was stripped of his rich patrimony.
