appy life. And it is on this account
that the fables of antiquity have represented her with wings, that she
may be supposed to be present at all events with prompt celerity. And
they have also placed a rudder in her hand and given her a wheel under
her feet, that mankind may be aware that she governs the universe,
running at will through all the elements.[23]

27. In this untimely manner did the Caesar, being himself also already
weary of life, die, in the twenty-ninth year of his age, having reigned
four years. He was born in the country of the Etrurians, in the district
of Veternum,[24] being the son of Constantius, the brother of the
Emperor Constantine; his mother was Galla, the sister of Rufinus and
Cerealis, men who had been ennobled by the offices of consul and
prefect.

28. He was a man of splendid stature and great beauty of person and
figure, with soft hair of a golden colour, his newly sprouting beard
covering his cheeks with a tender down, and in spite of his youth his
countenance showed dignity and authority. He differed as much from the
temperate habits of his brother Julian, as the sons of Vespasian,
Domitian and Titus, differed from each other.

29. After he had been taken by the emperor as his colleague, and raised
to the highest eminence of power, he experienced the fickle
changeableness of fortune which mocks mortality, sometimes raising
individuals to the stars, at others sinking them to the lowest depths
of hell.

30. And though the examples of such vicissitudes are beyond number,
nevertheless I will only enumerable a few in a cursory manner. This
changeable and fickle fortune made Agathocles, the Sicilian, a king from
being a potter, and reduced Dionysius, formerly the terror of all
nations, to be the master of a grammar school. This same fortune
emboldened Andriscus of Adramyttium, who had been born in a fuller's
shop, to assume the name of Philip, and compelled the legitimate son of
Perseus[25] to descend to the trade of a blacksmith to obtain a
livelihood. Again, fortune surrendered Mancinus[26] to the people of
Numantia, after he had enjoyed the supreme command, exposed Veturius[27]
to the cruelty of the Samnites, Claudius[28] to that of the Corsicans,
and made Regulus[29] a victim to the ferocity of the Carthaginians.
Through the injustice of fortune, Pompey,[30] after he had acquired the
surname of the Great by the grandeur of his exploits, was murdered in
AEgypt at the pleasure of some