Accesserat hoc quoque eodem tempore ad Valentis ceteras laudes, quod cum in aliis ita saeviret infeste, ut poenarum maiores aegre ferret finiri cum morte dolores, Numerium tribunum, malitia quendam exsuperantem, eisdem diebus convictum, confessumque quod exsecto vivae mulieris ventre, atque intempestivo partu extracto, infernis manibus excitis, de permutatione imperii consulere ausus est, familiaritatis contuitu, ordine omni mussante, abire iussit, inlaesum, salutem et invidendas opes et militiae statum integrum retenturum.
At the time Valens added this also to the rest of his glories, that while in other instances he was so savagely cruel as to grieve that the great pain of his punishments could not continue after death, yet he spared the tribune Numerius, a man of surpassing wickedness! This man was convicted at that same time on his own confession of having dared to cut open the womb of a living woman and take out her unripe offspring, in order to evoke the ghosts of the dead and consult them about a change of rulers; yet Valens, who looked on him with the eye of an intimate friend, in spite of the murmurs of the whole Senate gave orders that he should escape unpunished, and retain his life, his enviable wealth, and his military rank unimpaired.
final_alignments\Ammianus_Marcellinus_Book29.json