Res Gestae

There we stayed for two full days, and at dawn of the third day we saw below us the whole circuit of the lands (which we[*](That is, the Greeks.) call ὁρίζοντες[*](The horizon.) ) filled with innumerable troops with the king leading the way, glittering in splendid attire. Close by him on the left went Grumbates, king of the Chionitae,[*](Sapor had recently made peace with them; see xvi. 9, 4.) a man of moderate strength, it is true, and with shrivelled limbs, but of a certain

How long, storied Greece, will you continue to tell us of Doriscus, the city of Thrace, and of the armies drawn up in troops within enclosures and numbered?[*](Cf. Herodotus, vii. 59. Xerxes, in order to reckon the size of his army, assembled ten thousand men and drew a circle around them; then he filled the space again and again with men, until the whole army was thus counted.) For I am too cautious, or (to speak more truly) too timid, to exaggerate anything beyond what is proven by trustworthy and sure evidence.

After the kings had passed by Nineveh, a great city of Adiabene, and after sacrificing victims in the middle of the bridge over the Anzaba and finding the omens favourable, had crossed full of joy, I judged that all the rest of the throng could hardly enter in three days; so I quickly returned to the satrap and rested, entertained with hospitable attentions.

Then I returned, again passing through deserted and solitary places, more quickly

Therefore at once swift horsemen were sent to Cassianus, commander in Mesopotamia, and to Euphronius, then governor of the province, to compel the peasants with their households and all their flocks to move to safer quarters, directing also that the city of Carrhae should quickly be abandoned, since the town was surrounded only by weak fortifications; and in addition that all the plains be set on fire, to prevent the enemy from getting fodder.

These orders were executed without delay, and when the fires had been kindled, the mighty violence of that raging element consumed all the grain, which was filled out on the now yellowing stalk, and every kind of growing plant, so utterly that from the very banks of the Tigris all the way to the Euphrates not a green thing was to be seen. At that time many wild beasts were burned up, especially lions, which are excessively savage in those regions and usually perish or are gradually blinded in the following manner.

Amid the reed-beds and thickets of the Mesopotamian rivers lions range in countless numbers; and during the moderate winter, which is there very mild, they are always harmless. But when the sun’s rays have brought the season of burning heat, in regions parched by drought they are tormented both by the sultry breath of the sun and by crowds of gnats, swarms of which fill all parts of that land. And since these same insects make

While the plains were burning (as was said), tribunes were sent with the guard and fortified the nearer bank of the Euphrates with towers, sharp stakes, and every kind of defence, planting hurling-engines in suitable places, where the river was not full of eddies.[*](So that the Persians would be likely to try to cross.)

While these preparations were being hastened, Sabinianus, that splendid choice[*](Of course, ironical.) of a leader in a deadly war, when every moment should have been seized to avert the common dangers, amid the tombs of Edessa, as if he had nothing to fear when he had made his peace with the dead, and acting with the wantonness of a life free from care, in complete inaction was being entertained by his soldiers with a pyrrhic dance,[*](These were originally war dances in armour, but their scope was extended to pantomime of all kinds; see Suet., Nero, 12, 1 and 2.) in which music accompanied the gestures of the performers— conduct ominous both in itself and in its occasion, since we learn that these and similar things that are ill-omened in word and deed ought to be avoided by every good man as time goes on as foreboding coming troubles.