By this device the Gauls entered the gate about daybreak in diminished numbers, a part severely others slightly wounded (the losses of that night were four hundred); and if a mightier fate had not prevented, they would have slain, not Rhesus nor the Thracians encamped before the walls of Troy,, x. 435 ff.; Virgil, , i. 469 ff. but the king of the Persians in his own tent, protected by a hundred thousand armed men.

In honour of their officers, as leaders in these brave deeds, after the destruction of the city the emperor ordered statues in full armour to be made and set up in a frequented spot at Edessa, and they are preserved intact to the present time.

When on the following day the slaughter was revealed, and among the corpses of the slain there were found grandees and satraps, and dissonant ories and tears bore witness to the disasters in this or that place, everywhere mourning was heard and the indignation of the kings at the thought that the Romans had forced their way in through the guards posted before the walls. And as because of this event a truce of three days was granted by common consent, we also gained time to take breath.

Then the enemy, horrified and maddened by the unexpected mishap, set aside all delay, and since force was having little effect, now planned to decide the contest by siege-works; and all of them, fired with the greatest eagerness for battle, now hastened to meet a glorious death or with the downfall of the city to make offering to the spirits of the slain.