[10] It was customary on such solemnities, as also on the occasion of assuming the toga virilis, or entering on any important magistracy, to make small presents of money to the guests who were invited to celebrate the occasion. Cf. Plin. Epist. x. 117.
[11] The Latin is Dux. It is about this period that the title Duke and Count, which we have already had, arose, indicating however at first not territorial possessions, but military commands; and it is worth noticing that the rank of Count was the higher of the two.
[12] Constantine, on his conversion to Christianity, had issued an edict forbidding the consultation of oracles; but the practice was not wholly abandoned till the time of Theodosius.
[13] Schools was the name given at Rome to buildings where men were wont to meet for any purpose, whether of study, of traffic, or of the practice of any art. The schools of the Palatine were the station of the cohorts of the guard. The "Protectors or Guards" were a body of soldiers of higher rank, receiving also higher pay; called also "Domestici or household troops," as especially set apart for the protection of the imperial palace and person. The "Scutarii" (shield-bearers) belonged to the Palatine schools; and the Gentiles were troops enlisted from among those nations which were still accounted barbarous.
[14] Gibbon here proposes for le_n_itatem to read le_v_itatem, fickleness; himself describing Montius as "a statesman whose art and experience were frequently betrayed by the levity of his disposition."--Cap. xix., p. 298, vol. iii., Bohn's edition.
[17] It will be observed that Ammianus here speaks of himself as in attendance upon Ursicinus.
[20] As we say, Out of the frying-pan into the fire.
[22] A paleness such as overspread the countenance of Adrastus when he saw his two sons-in-law, Pydeus and Polynices, slain at Thebes. Virgil speaks of Adrasti pallentis imago, Æn. vi. 480.
[23] Ammianus here confounds Nemesis with Fortuna. Compare Horace's description of the latter goddess, Lib. i. Od. 34:--
" ... Valet ima summis Mutare, et insignia attenuat deus Obscura promens: hinc apicem rapax Fortuna cum stridore acuto Sustulit; hic posuisse gaudet."
Or, as it is translated by Dr. Francis:--