Riots of the Roman people are suppressed by Leontius, prefect of the City. The Bishop Liberius is deposed.
While the dire confusion was causing these calamities of general destruction, Leontius, governor of the Eternal City, gave many proofs of being an excellent judge; for he was prompt in hearing cases, most just in his decisions, by nature kindly, although for the sake of maintaining his authority he seemed to some to be severe and too apt to condemn. [2] Now the first device for stirring up rebellion against him was very slight and trivial. For when the arrest of the charioteer Philoromus was ordered, all the commons followed, as if to defend their own darling, and with a formidable [p. 161] onslaught set upon the governor, thinking him to be timid. But he, firm and resolute, sent his officers among them-seized some and put them to the torture, and then without anyone protesting or opposing him he punished them with exile to the islands. [3] And a few days later the people again, excited with their usual passion, and alleging a scarcity of wine, assembled at the Septemzodium, 1 a much frequented spot, where the emperor Marcus Aurelius erected a Nymphaeum 2 of pretentious style. Thither the governor resolutely proceeded, although earnestly entreated by all his legal and official suite not to trust himself to the self-confident and threatening throng, which was still angry from the former disturbance; but he, hard to frighten, kept straight on, so boldly that a part of his following deserted him, though he was hastening into imminent danger. [4] Then, seated in his carriage, with every appearance of confidence he scanned with keen eyes the faces of the crowds in their tiers, raging on all sides of him like serpents, and allowed many insults to be hurled at him; but recognising one fellow conspicuous among the rest, of huge stature and redheaded, he asked him if he were not Peter, surnamed Valuomeres, as he had heard. And when the man had replied in insolent tones that he was none other, the governor, who had known him of old as the ringleader of the malcontents, in spite of the outcries of many, gave orders to bind his hands behind him and hang him up. 3 [5] On seeing him aloft, vainly begging for the aid of his fellows, the [p. 163] whole mob, until then crowded together, scattered through the various arteries of the city and vanished so completely that this most doughty promoter of riots had his sides well flogged, as if in a secret dungeon, and was banished to Picenum. There later he had the hardihood to offer violence to a maiden of good family, and, under sentence of the governor Patruinus, suffered capital punishment. [6] During the administration of this Leontius, a priest of the Christian religion, Liberius by name, by order of Constantius 4 was brought before the privy council on the charge of opposing the emperor's commands and the decrees of the majority of his colleagues in an affair which I shall run over briefly. [7] Athanasius, at that time bishop of Alexandria, was a man who exalted himself above his calling and tried to pry into matters outside his province, as persistent rumours revealed; therefore an assembly which had been convoked of members of that same sect—a synod, as they call it—deposed him from the rank that he held. [8] For it was reported that, being highly skilled in the interpretation of prophetic lots or of the omens indicated by birds, he had sometimes foretold future events; and besides this he was also charged with other practices repugnant to the purposes of the religion over which he presided. [9] Liberius, when directed by the emperor's order to depose him from his priesthood by endorsing the official decree, though holding the same opinion as the rest strenuously objected, crying out that it was the height of injustice to condemn a man unseen and unheard, thus, of course, openly defying the emperor's will. [p. 165] [10] For although Constantius, who was always hostile to Athanasius, knew that the matter had been carried out, yet he strove with eager desire to have it ratified also by the higher power of the bishop of the Eternal City; 5 and since he could not obtain this, Liberius was spirited away, but only with the greatest difficulty and in the middle of the night, for fear of the populace, who were devotedly attached to him.
1 Probably the well-known building of Severus at the south-eastern corner of the Palatine, named from the seven planets; see Suet., L.C.L. ii. p. 321.
2 Referring probably to the Septemzodium. See preceding note, and index, s.v. Marcus.
3 To be flogged.
4 At Mediolanum, where Constantius then was.
5 One of the earliest indications of the growing importance of the Roman bishops.
Ammianus Marcellinus. With An English Translation. John C. Rolfe, Ph.D., Litt.D. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1935-1940.
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