conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What could be a title for a book about Greece, Roman, Together with the genre: New, Used & Rental Textbooks, Humanities?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: A title for this book could be 'The Later Roman Empire'
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know the first four paragraphs for this book?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The Later Roman Empire
  The successes I have mentioned were admittedly the work of his excellent generals, but the personal exploits of a man of such quick understanding and long military experience were undoubtedly numerous. Among these none would have been more glorious than to take that formidable figure king Macrianus alive. Valentinian made great efforts to do this when he heard to his distress and sorrow that Macrianus had escaped from the Burgundians, whom he had himself put in motion against the Alamanni.
  This is a brief summary of the emperor's achievements. Now in the belief that posterity, being free from the constraints of fear and shameful servility, is an impartial judge of the past, I will enumerate Valentinian's defects and follow them by an account of his good qualities. He occasionally feigned mildness, although his naturally hot temper made him more prone to severity; he forgot that the ruler of an empire should shun all extremes like a precipice. He was never content with a slight punishment, and often ordered a proliferation of bloody trials, in which some people were brought to death's door by grim tortures. His propensity to inflict injury was so excessive that he never commuted the sentence of anyone condemned to death, though even the cruellest rulers have occasionally done so. Both at home and abroad he could have found many past examples of humanity and compassion to imitate, qualities which philosophers call kindly sisters of the virtues. Of these it will be enough to cite the following. Artaxerxes the great king of Persia, called 'Long-hand' because of the length of one limb, was so mild-tempered that he modified the various punishments which that rude people was in the habit of inflicting. In the case of some criminals he cut off their turbans instead of their heads, and instead of cropping men's ears for their offences in the regular royal way he sheared off the strings hanging from their fur caps. This merciful behaviour won him such acceptance and respect from his subjects that with their unanimous support he performed a number of wonderful feats which are chronicled by the writers of Greece. In one of the Samnite wars a magistrate of Praeneste, who had been slack in obeying an order to hurry to his post, was brought out to expiate his offence. Papirius Cursor, who was then dictator, caused the lictor to make ready his axe, and then, when the panic-stricken officer had abandoned all hope of reprieve, ordered a bush nearby to be cut down. By this practical joke the praetor was both punished and exonerated, but, far from being despised for it, Papirius got the upper hand in a long, hard war inherited from his fathers, and was reputed to be the only man who could have resisted Alexander the Great if he had set foot on Italian soil. Perhaps it was because he was ignorant of these precedents and failed to reflect that a merciful disposition in a ruler is always a comfort in distress that Valentinian reinforced his punishments by the use of fire and sword, which to virtuous minds are the last resort in adversity. Isocrates makes this point in a fine passage, in which he maintains in imperishable words that a defeated commander is sometimes more worthy of pardon than one who does not know what is right. It was this thought, I believe, that inspired Cicero's noble statement in his defence of Oppius: 'To be strong enough to save another has often been thought honourable, but it has never been a disgrace to be too weak to destroy him.'
  Greed for gain, regardless of right and wrong, and eagerness to find new ways of enriching himself by the ruin of others welled up in this emperor and burned ever fiercer. Some tried to justify this by the example of the emperor Aurelian, who, finding the treasure exhausted after the deplorable events of the reign of Gallienus, fell upon the rich like a tidal wave. In the same way, they argued, Valentinian, after the disasters of the Parthian campaign, had to find immense sums to reinforce and pay his troops. This accounted for the mixture of greed and cruelty with which he amassed great resources, affecting not to know that there are some things which one ought not to do even though one has the power. In this he was very unlike Themistocles. The latter, after the battle with the Persians and the destruction of their army, was strolling over the battlefield when he saw some golden bracelets and a collar lying on the ground. He turned to one of his companions and said: 'You may take them, since you are not Themistocles', implying that personal gain was beneath the dignity of a self-respecting commander. Examples of similar restraint can be found in abundance in Roman generals. These I will pass over. They are not proofs of perfect virtue, since after all it is not particularly praiseworthy to keep one's hands off the property of others. I will, however, give one instance among many of the honesty of common folk in early times. When Marius and Cinna left the rich dwellings of the proscribed to be plundered by the commons of Rome, the mob, which for all its roughness had a respect for human rights, forbore to touch the fruits of other men's labours; even among the poor and people of the lowest class no one could bring himself to take advantage of permission to enrich himself by the miseries of his countrymen.
  Furthermore, this emperor in his inmost heart was consumed with envy, and, knowing that most vices can generally masquerade as virtues, was apt to say that jealousy is the inseparable associate of the severity inherent in lawful power. Men in supreme positions, believing that they are above the law, are inclined to suspect those who oppose them and to remove from their neighbourhood anyone better than themselves. So Valentinian hated the well-dressed, the educated, the rich, and the highly born, and disparaged the brave, wishing to monopolize all good qualities himself, a fault which we are told was glaringly apparent in the emperor Hadrian.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know three more paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: AMPELIUS (3) Antiochene, former master of offices and proconsul, prefect of Rome 371–2; a voluptuary, but tried to control taverns (28.4); prefect during trials conducted by Maximin (28.1).
  ANATOLIUS (3) Native of Beirut, governor of Syria in 349 and friend of Libanius; refused city prefecture of Rome in 355. Prefect of Illyricum 357–60, praised by A. for lightening tax burden (19.11); died in office (21.6).
  ANATOLIUS (5) Pagan and close friend of Julian; appointed by him master of offices (20.9); with Julian on Persian expedition, killed in same battle (25.3); body later found and buried (25.6).
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know the last paragraph?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: VIVENTIUS Pannonian, quaestor 364, conducts investigations into magic (26.4); prefect of Rome 365, fails to quell Christian riots (27.3); prefect of Gaul 368–71 (cf. 30.5).
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Reverse the sentences.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: 5).. 30.3); prefect of Gaul 368–71 (cf.4); prefect of Rome 365, fails to quell Christian riots (27.VIVENTIUS Pannonian, quaestor 364, conducts investigations into magic (26