7. In an oration delivered before him (Panegyr. Vet. i. 8)
Mamertinus expresses a doubt whether his hero, in imitating
the conduct of Hannibal and Scipio, had ever heard of their
names. From thence we may fairly infer that Maximian was
more desirous of being considered as a soldier than as a man
of letters: and it is in this manner that we can often
translate the language of flattery into that of truth.