k, a cheat,
and a fool pretending to be wise. And as it is commonly the case among
soldiers that some men are found of remarkable fluency of speech, they
poured forth such harangues as this:--

4. "Whither are we being dragged, having lost all hope of good fortune?
We formerly, indeed, suffered terrible hardships in the snow, and cruel
biting frost; but now (oh, shame!), when we have the fate of the enemy
in our hands, we are wasting away with famine, the most miserable of all
deaths. Let no one think that we are stirrers up of tumults; we declare
that we are speaking for our very lives. We do not ask for gold or
silver, which it is long since we have touched or seen, and which are as
much denied to us as if we had been convicted of having encountered all
our toils and perils in the service of the enemies of the republic."

5. And their complaints were just. For after all his gallant exploits
and all his doubtful changes and dangers, the soldiers were exhausted by
his Gallic campaigns, without even receiving either donation or pay from
the time that Julian was sent to take the command; because he himself
had nothing to give, nor would Constantius permit anything to be drawn
for that purpose from the treasury, as had been the custom.

6. And at a later period it was manifest that this was owing more to
ill-will than to parsimony, because when Julian had given some small
coin to one of the common soldiers, who, as was the custom, had asked
for some to get shaved with, he was attacked for it with most insulting
calumnies by Gaudentius, the secretary, who had long remained in Gaul as
a spy upon his actions, and whom he himself subsequently ordered to be
put to death, as will be related in its fitting place.

X.

Sec. 1. When at length their discontent was appeased by various kinds of
caresses, and when the Rhine had been crossed by a bridge of boats,
which was thrown over it, Severus, the master of the horse, up to that
time a brave and energetic soldier, suddenly lost all his vigour.

2. And he who had frequently been used to exhort the troops, both in
bodies and as individuals, to gallant acts, now seemed a base and timid
skulker from battle, as if he feared the approach of death. As we read
in the books of Tages[81] that those who are fated to be soon struck by
lightning, so lose their senses that they cannot hear thunder, or even
greater noises. And he marched on in a lazy way, not natural to him, and
even threa