Res Gestae

In a remote part of the walls on the southern side, which looks down on the river Tigris, there was a tower rising to a lofty height, beneath which yawned rocks so precipitous that one could not look down without

Through these dark passages, left unguarded because of their steepness, led by a deserter in the city who had gone over to the opposite side, seventy Persian bowmen from the king’s bodyguard who excelled in skill and bravery, protected by the silence of the remote spot, suddenly one by one in the middle of the night mounted to the third story of the tower and there concealed themselves; in the morning they displayed a cloak of red hue, which was the signal for beginning battle, and when they saw the city surrounded on all sides with the floods of their forces, emptying their quivers, and throwing them at their feet, with a conflagration of shouts and yells they sent their shafts in all directions with the utmost skill. And presently all the Persian forces in dense array attacked the city with far greater fury than before.

We were perplexed and uncertain where first to offer resistance, whether to those who stood above us or to the throng mounting on scaling-ladders and already laying hold of the very battlements; so the work was divided among us and five of the lighter ballistae were moved and placed over against the tower, rapidly pouring forth wooden shafts, which sometimes pierced even two men at a time. Some of the enemy fell, severely wounded; others, through

This being so quickly accomplished and the engines restored to their usual places, with a little greater confidence all ran together to defend the walls.

And since the wicked deed of the deserter increased the soldiers’ wrath, as if they were entering a level ground in a sham fight they used such strength of arm as they hurled their various weapons, that as the day inclined towards noon the enemy were scattered in bitter defeat, and lamenting the death of many of their number, retreated to their tents through fear of wounds.

Fortune thus breathed upon us some hope of safety, since a day had passed without harm to us and with disaster to the enemy; so the remainder of that day was devoted to rest, for refreshing our bodies. But at the arrival of the following dawn we saw from the citadel a countless throng which after the capture of the fortress of Ziata was being taken to the enemy’s camp; for in that stronghold, which was both capacious and well fortified (it has a circuit of ten stadia) a multitude of people of all sorts had taken refuge.

For other fortifications also were seized and burned during those same days, and from them many thousands of men had been dragged, and were following into slavery, among them many feeble old men, and women already advanced in years, who, when they gave out for various reasons, discouraged by the long march and

The Gallic soldiers, seeing these throngs of wretches, with a reasonable, but untimely, impulse demanded that the opportunity be given them of encountering the enemy, threatening death to the tribunes who forbade them, and to the higher officers, if they in their turn prevented them.