being made for accelerating his journey, the
general was preparing to repel the charges which had been brought
against him; but the emperor prevented him, forbidding him in
conciliatory language, saying that this was not an opportunity suitable
for undertaking any controversy in defence of his cause, when the
imminent necessity of affairs rather prompted that no delay should be
interposed to the restoration of parties to their pristine concord
before the disunion got worse.

21. Therefore, after a long deliberation about many things, the first
and most important matter in which consultation was held, was by what
means Silvanus could be led to think the emperor still ignorant of his
conduct. And the most likely manner to confirm him in his confidence
appeared to be that he should be informed, in a complimentary despatch,
that Ursicinus was appointed his successor, and that he was invited to
return to court with undiminished power.

22. After this affair was arranged, the officer who had brought the news
to Milan was ordered to depart with some tribunes and ten of the
Protectores and domestic guard as an escort, given to him at his own
request, to aid him in the discharge of his public duty. And of these I
myself was one, with my colleague Verrinianus; and all the rest were
either friends or relations of mine.

23. And now all of us, fearing mainly for ourselves, accompanied him a
long distance on his journey; and although we seemed as exposed to
danger as gladiators about to fight with wild beasts, yet considering in
our minds that evils are often the forerunners of good, we recollected
with admiration that expression of Cicero's, uttered by him in
accordance with the eternal maxims of truth, which runs in these
words:[44]--"And although it is a thing most desirable that one's
fortune should always continue in a most flourishing condition; still
that general level state of life brings not so much sensation of joy as
we feel when, after having been surrounded by disasters or by dangers,
fortune returns into a happier condition."

24. Accordingly we hastened onwards by forced journeys, in order that
the master of the horse, who was eager to acquire the honour of
suppressing the revolt, might make his appearance in the suspected
district before any rumour of the usurpation of Silvanus had spread
among the Italians. But rapidly as we hastened, fame, like the wind, had
outstripped us, and had revealed some part of the fa