It chanced that at that time Valens was at last called forth from Antioch, and after making the long journey arrived at Constantinople, where his stay was for only a very few days,Twelve days according to Socrates, iv. 38. and he was disturbed by a slight outbreak of the populace. He gave the command of the infantry, which Trajanus had formerly held, to Sebastianus, a leader of recognized vigilance, who had shortly before been sent from Italy at his own request.Zos. iv. 22, says that he left Italy through disgust at the growing influence of the eunuchs, and went to Constantinople, where Valens made him a commander-in-chief. He himself went to the imperial villa MelanthiasAgathius (v. 14, D), and after him Suidas (s.v. μελαντιάς), call it a village 140 stadia (102, Suidas) from Constantinople. and tried to win the favour of the soldiers by pay, supplies, and many flattering words.

Having commanded a march from there by written order,Cf. xxiii. 2, 2, expeditionalis tessera; xxi. 5, 13, note. he came to the military post called Nice,A town in Thrace, Socrates, ii. 37, 95; mansio Nice, It. Burdig. p. 569 (cf. statione Nice, 12, 3, below). where he learned from the report of scouts that the barbarians, laden with rich spoils, had returned from the lands at the foot of Rhodope to the neighbourhood of Hadrianopolis; they, on hearing that the emperor was on the march with a large force, were hastening to join their countrymen, who were staying in a permanent garrison near Beroea and Nicopolis. At once, as timeliness of the offered opportunity demanded, Sebastianus had been directed to choose three hundred soldiers from each legion and hasten to the spot, to do, as he promised, something advantageous to the state.