of their safety, and desirous of trying every possible resource, before
the ambassadors who had been first sent had returned, sent Jovinus and
Pancratius to lay before the emperor a faithful account of the
sufferings which they had endured, and which they themselves had seen:
these envoys found the former ambassadors, Severus and Flaccianus, at
Carthage; and on asking them what they had done, they learnt that they
had been referred for a hearing to the deputy and the count. And
immediately after this Severus was attacked by a dangerous illness and
died; but notwithstanding what they had heard, the new ambassadors
proceeded on their journey to the court.

17. After this, when Palladius arrived in Africa, the count, who knew on
what account he had come, and who had been warned before to take
measures for his own safety, sent orders to the principal officers of
the army by certain persons who were in his secrets, to pay over to him,
as being a person of great influence, and being the person most nearly
connected with the principal nobles of the palace, the chief part of
the money for the soldiers' pay which he had brought over, and they
obeyed him.

18. So he, having been thus suddenly enriched, reached Leptis; and that
he might arrive at a knowledge of the truth, he took with him to the
districts that had been laid waste, Erecthius and Aristomenes, two
citizens of great eloquence and reputation, who freely unfolded to him
the distress which their fellow-citizens and the inhabitants of the
adjacent districts had suffered. They showed him everything openly; and
so he returned after seeing the lamentable desolation of the province:
and reproaching Romanus for his inactivity, he threatened to report to
the emperor an accurate statement of everything which he had seen.

19. He, inflamed with anger and indignation, retorted that he also
should soon make a report, that the man who had been sent as an
incorruptible secretary had converted to his own uses all the money
which had been sent out as a donation to the soldiers.

20. The consequence was that Palladius, being hampered by the
consciousness of his flagitious conduct, proceeded from henceforth in
harmony with Romanus, and when he returned to court, he deceived
Valentinian with atrocious falsehoods, affirming that the citizens of
Tripoli complained without reason. Therefore he was sent back to Africa
a second time with Jovinus, the last of all the ambassadors (for
Pancra