whose chief care was to set off his exploits by
fine descriptions; it not being the first time that such a thing had
been done.

2. For the greatest glory is always exposed to envy. So we read in
respect of the illustrious generals of old, that, though no fault could
be found in them, still the malignity which found offence in their
greatest actions was constantly inventing false charges and accusations
against them.

3. In the same manner Cimon the son of Miltiades, who destroyed a vast
host of the Persians on the Eurymedon, a river in Pamphylia, and
compelled a nation always insolent and arrogant to beg for peace most
humbly, was accused of intemperance; and again Scipio AEmilianus, by
whose indomitable vigilance two[82] most powerful cities, which had made
great efforts to injure Rome, were both destroyed, was disparaged as a
mere drone.

4. Moreover, wicked detractors, scrutinizing the character of Pompey,
when no pretext for finding fault with him could be discovered, remarked
two qualities in which they could raise a laugh against him; one that he
had a sort of natural trick of scratching his head with one finger:
another that for the purpose of concealing an unsightly sore, he used to
bind one of his legs with a white bandage. Of which habits, the first
they said showed a dissolute man; the second, one eager for a change of
government; contending, with a somewhat meagre argument, that it did not
signify what part of his body he clothed with a badge of royal dignity;
so snarling at that man of whom the most glorious proofs show that no
braver and truer patriot ever lived.

5. During these transactions, Artemius, the deputy governor of Rome,
succeeded Bassus in the prefecture also; for Bassus, who had lately been
promoted to be prefect of the city, had since died. His administration
had been marked by turbulent sedition, but by no other events
sufficiently memorable to deserve mention.

XII.

Sec. 1. In the mean time, while the emperor was passing the winter quietly
at Sirmium, he received frequent and trustworthy intelligence that the
Sarmatians and the Quadi, two tribes contiguous to each other, and
similar in manners and mode of warfare, were conjointly overrunning
Pannonia and the second province of Moesia, in straggling detachments.

2. These tribes are more suited to predatory incursions than to regular
war; they carry long spears, and wear breastplates made of horn scraped
and polished, let into