Res Gestae

And because the calamities of a siege alarmed me, I set the boy down within a half-open postern gate and with winged speed hastened breathless to our troop; and I was all but taken prisoner.

For a tribune called Abdigildus was fleeing with his camp-servant, pursued by a troop of the enemy’s cavalry. And while the master made his escape, they caught the slave and asked him (just as I passed by at full gallop) who had been appointed governor. And when they heard that Ursicinus had entered the city a short time before and was now on his way to Mount Izala, they killed their informant and a great number, got together into one body, followed me with tireless speed.

When through the fleetness of my mount I had outstripped them and come to Amudis, a weak fortress, I found our men lying about at their ease, while their horses had been turned out to graze. Extending my arm far forward and gathering up my cloak and waving it on high, I showed by the usual sign that the enemy were near, and joining with them I was hurried along at their pace, although my horse was now growing tired.

We were alarmed, moreover, by the fact that it was full moon at night and by the level stretch of plain, which (in case any pressing emergency surprised us) could offer no hiding-places,

Therefore we devised the plan of placing a lighted lantern on a single pack-animal, binding it fast, so that it should not fall off, and then turning loose the animal that carried the light and letting him go towards the left without a driver, while we made our way to the mountain heights lying on the right, in order that the Persians, supposing that a tallow torch[*](Sebalis fax, which seems to occur only here, is the same as sebacea, a torch or candle made of tallow (sebum) instead of wax.) was carried before the general as he went slowly on his way, should take that course rather than any other; and had it not been for this stratagem, we should have been surrounded and captured and come into the power of the enemy.

Saved from this danger, we came to a wooded tract planted with vineyards and fruitbearing orchards, called Meiacarire,[*](According to Valesius, from Syrian maia or maio, water, and carire, cold; the former word appears also in Emmaus. ) so named from its cold springs. There all the inhabitants had decamped, but we found one soldier hiding in a remote spot. He, on being brought before the general, because of fear gave contradictory answers and so fell under suspicion. But influenced by threats made against him, he told the whole truth, saying that he was born at Paris in Gaul and served in a cavalry troop; but in fear of punishment for a fault that he had once committed he had deserted to the Persians. Then, being found to be of upright character, and to have married and reared children, he was sent as a spy to our territories and often brought back trustworthy news. But now

Then with our anxious cares increasing we went from there as quickly as circumstances allowed to Amida,[*](Modern Diarbekir, see Gibbon, ii. p. 269, Bury.) a city afterwards notorious for the calamities which it suffered.[*](Ch. ix. below, and xix, 1–8.) And when our scouts had returned there, we found in the scabbard of a sword a parchment written in cipher, which had been brought to us by order of Procopius, who, as I said before, had previously been sent as an envoy to the Persians with Count Lucillianus. In this, with intentional obscurity, for fear that, if the bearers were taken and the meaning of the message known, most disastrous consequences would follow, he gave the following message:—

Now that the envoys of the Greeks have been sent far away and perhaps are to be killed, that aged king, not content with Hellespontus, will bridge the Granicus and the Rhyndacus[*](Two rivers of Mysia, in north-western Asia Minor, the former celebrated for the victory of Alexander the Great over the Persians, the latter for the defeat of Mithradates by Lucullus.) and come to invade Asia with many nations. He is naturally passionate and very cruel, and he has as an instigator and abetter the successor of the former Roman emperor Hadrian;[*](Referring of course to the deserter Antoninus.) unless Greece takes heed, it is all over with her and her dirge chanted.