Res Gestae

Accordingly, after careful consideration, and long hesitation, we returned, to find Sabinianus a man full of haughtiness, but of insignificant stature and small and narrow mind, barely able to endure the slight noise of a banquet without shameful apprehension, to say nothing of the din of battle.

Nevertheless, since scouts, and deserters agreeing with them, most persistently declared that the enemy were pushing all their preparations with hot haste, while the manikin[*](Sabinianus: see xviii. 5, 5; 7, 7; and for his small size, 6, 7, above. His inaction is vividly expressed by oscitante. ) yawned, we hastily marched to Nisibis,[*](A city of Mesopotamia, in Mygdonia, surrendered to the Persians in the time of Jovian; modern Nisibin.) to prepare what was useful, lest the Persians, masking their design of a siege, might surprise the city when off its guard.

And while within the walls the things that required haste were being pushed vigorously, smoke and gleaming fires constantly shone from the Tigris on past Castra Maurorum[*](See also xxv. 7, 9. It lay north of Nisibis and was called by the Arabic geographers by a name meaning pagus mororum, or the place of mulberries, of which Maurorum seems to be a corruption. Sisara is a neighbouring fortress.) and Sisara and all the neighbouring country as far as the city, in greater number than usual and in a continuous line, clearly showing that the enemy’s bands of plunderers had burst forth and crossed the river.

Therefore, for fear that the roads might be blocked, we hastened on at full speed, and when we were within two miles, we saw a fine-looking boy, wearing a neck-chain, a child eight years old (as we guessed) and the son of a man of position (as he said), crying in the

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.

This writing meant that the king of the Persians had crossed the rivers Anzaba and Tigris, and, urged on by Antoninus, aspired to the rule of the

There was at that time in Corduene,[*](A mountainous region in Armenia, taken by Caesar Maximnianus from the Persians in the time of Galerius, but not yet wholly freed from their rule. Later it was separated from the Persian dominion by Jovian: cf. xxv. 2.) which was subject to the Persian power, a satrap called Jovinianus on Roman soil, a youth who had secret sympathy with us for the reason that, having been detained in Syria as a hostage and allured by the charm of liberal studies, he felt a burning desire to return to our country.