Atque ut natantium genus, elemento suo expulsum, haud ita diu spirat in terris, ita ille marcebat absque praefecturis, quas ob iugi familiarum licentia, capessere cogebatur, numquam innocentium per cupiditates immensas, utque multa perpetrarent impune, dominum suum mergentium in rem publicam.
And as the finny tribe, when removed from its own element, does not breathe very long on dry land, so he pined away when not holding prefectures; these he was compelled to seek because of the constant lawlessness of certain families which on account of their boundless avarice were never free from guilt, and in order to carry out their many evil designs with impunity, plunged their patron into affairs of state.
final_alignments\Ammianus_Marcellinus_Book27.json