eturn to the
subject we originally proposed to ourselves.

V.

Sec. 1. While these events were taking place in the East, Constantius was
passing the winter at Arles; and after an exhibition of games in the
theatre and in the circus, which were displayed with most sumptuous
magnificence, on the tenth of October, the day which completed the
thirtieth year of his reign, he began to give the reins more freely to
his insolence, believing every information which was laid before him as
proved, however doubtful or false it might be; and among other acts of
cruelty, he put Gerontius, a count of the party of Magnentius, to the
torture, and then condemned him to banishment.

2. And as the body of a sick man is apt to be agitated by even trifling
grievances, so his narrow and sensitive mind, thinking every sound that
stirred something either done or planned to the injury of his safety,
made his victory[6] mournful by the slaughter of innocent men.

3. For if any one of his military officers, or of those who had ever
received marks of honour, or if any one of high rank was accused, on the
barest rumour, of having favoured the faction of his enemy, he was
loaded with chains and dragged about like a beast. And whether any enemy
of the accused man pressed him or not, as if the mere fact that his
name had been mentioned was sufficient, every one who was informed
against or in any way called in question, was condemned either to death,
or to confiscation of his property, or to confinement in a desert
island.

4. For his ferocity was excited to a still further degree when any
mention was made of treason or sedition; and the bloodthirsty
insinuations of those around him, exaggerating everything that happened,
and pretending great concern at any danger which might threaten the life
of the emperor, on whose safety, as on a thread, they hypocritically
exclaimed the whole world depended, added daily to his suspicions and
watchful anger.

5. And therefore it is reported he gave orders that no one who was at
any time sentenced to punishment for these or similar offences should be
readmitted to his presence for the purpose of offering the usual
testimonies to his character, a thing which the most implacable princes
have been wont to permit. And thus deadly cruelty, which in all other
men at times grows cool, in him only became more violent as he advanced
in years, because the court of flatterers which attended on him added
continual fuel