Evenisset profecto tunc inexpiabile scelus, numerandum inter probresas rei Romanae iacturas; paulo enim afuit, quin filia caperetur Constanti, cibum sumens in publica villa, quam appellant Pristensem, cum duceretur Gratiano nuptura, ni favore propitii numinis, praesens Messalla, provinciae rector, eam iudiciali carpento impositam, ad Sirmium vicensimo sexto lapide disparatam, cursu reduxisset effuso.
Surely at that time an irreparable crime would have been committed, to be numbered among the shameful disasters of Roman history; for the daughter of Constantius, when being conducted to marry Gratianus, was very nearly captured while she was taking food in a public villa called Pristensis, but (by the favour of the propitious godhead) Messalla, the governor of the province, was at hand and placed her in a state-carriage and took her in all haste back to Sirmium, twenty-six miles away.
final_alignments\Ammianus_Marcellinus_Book29.json