HumanitiesWeb.org - Roman History Roman History - Book XIX. (XIII. Lauricius, of the Isaurians, checks the hordes of banditti.) by Ammianus Marcellinus
Roman History Roman History - Book XIX. XIII. Lauricius, of the Isaurians, checks the hordes of banditti.
by Ammianus Marcellinus
During this period the Isaurians, who had been tranquil for
some time after the transactions already mentioned, and the attempt to
take the city of Seleucia, gradually reviving, as serpents come out of
their holes in the warmth of spring, descended from their rocky and
pathless jungles, and forming into large troops, harassed their
neighbours with predatory incursions; escaping, from their activity as
mountaineers, all attempts of the soldiers to take them, and from long
use moving easily over rocks and through thickets.
So Lauricius was sent among them as governor, with the additional
title of count, to reduce them to order by fair means or foul. He was a
man of sound civil wisdom, correcting things in general by threats
rather than by severity, so that while
he governed the province, which he did for some time, nothing happened
deserving of particular notice.
