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Monti was both the battlefield of the Regions and also, in times early and late, the scene of the most splendid pageants of Church and State. There is a strange passage in the writings of Ammianus Marcellinus, a pagan Roman of Greek birth, contemporary with Pope Damasus in the latter part of the fourth century. Muratori quotes it, as showing what the Bishopric of Rome meant even in those days.
It will be remembered that Bracciolini recovered the work of Ammianus Marcellinus: it is then reasonable to presume that he had read, if not studied his history. Tacitus lived a good three hundred years before that historical epitomist of not much note or weight; and could not, on his authority, have been dragged, like his "discoverer" and student, Bracciolini, into this monstrous error.
The Mogul khans derived a considerable revenue from the salt of the Crimea. The alum of Caramonia was a great object of traffic. He is the first author, after Ammianus Marcellinus, who mentions rhubarb as an article of medicine and commerce.
But happily not till the end of the sermon I became aware, just in front of me, of a row of smartest Paris bonnets, net-lace shawls, brocades, and satins, fit for duchesses; and as the centre of each blaze of finery 'offam non faciem, as old Ammianus Marcellinus has it the unmistakable visage of a Chinese woman.
I approach this mighty temple. A goose and globe, encircled in an oval, at once inform me that it was constructed by a 'Son of the Sun, or a 'Phrah, or 'Pharaoh. It is remarkable that the Greeks never once mention this memorable title, simply because they have always translated it by their celebrated personification, 'Sol, or 'Apollo. In the obelisk of Hermapion, given by Ammianus Marcellinus, we should therefore read, in the third column, instead of 'the powerful Apollo, 'the powerful Phrah, the all-splendid Son of the Sun. Proceeding with the inscription, I also discover that the temple was constructed by Rameses the Second, a monarch of whom we have more to hear, and who also raised some of the most wonderful monuments of Thebes.
"Verumque confitentibus latifundia perdidere Italiam." PLINY, Hist. Nat.xviii. 7. MICHELET, i. 96. AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS, c. xvi. See also GIBBON, vi. 264. GIBBON, vi. 262. The free traders seem not insensible to these inevitable results of their favourite principles; but they meet them by describing such consequences as rather advantageous than injurious.
But this native splendor," continues Ammianus, "is degraded, and sullied, by the conduct of some nobles, who, unmindful of their own dignity, and of that of their country, assume an unbounded license of vice and folly.
Ammianus Marcellinus, a Roman historian, who lived during these times, adverting to this subject, says: "It was no wonder to see those who were ambitious of human greatness, contending with so much heat and animosity for that dignity, because when they had obtained it, they were sure to be enriched by the offerings of the matrons, and of appearing abroad in great splendor, of being admired for their costly coaches, and sumptuous feasts, outdoing sovereign princes in the expenses of their table."
Previously the royal headdress had been either a mere cap of a Scythic type, but lower than the Scyths commonly wore it; or the ordinary diadem, which was a band round the head terminating in two long ribbons or ends, that hung down behind the head on the back. Ammianus says that among the titles assumed by the Parthian monarchs was that of "Brother of the Sun and Moon."
Ammianus Marcellinus, who terminates his useful work with the defeat and death of Valens, recommends the more glorious subject of the ensuing reign to the youthful vigor and eloquence of the rising generation.
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