Res Gestae

After the king had been sent off from Cappadocia, Constantius going by way of Melitena (a town of Lesser Armenia), Lacotena, and Samosata, crossed the Euphrates and came to Edessa. There he lingered for a long time, while he was waiting for the troops of soldiers that were assembling from

When he came near the walls and surveyed only a heap of ashes, he wept and groaned aloud as he thought of the calamities the wretched city had endured. And Ursulus, the state-treasurer, who chanced to be there at the time, was filled with sorrow and cried: Behold with what courage the cities are defended by our soldiers, for whose abundance of pay the wealth of the empire is already becoming insufficient. And this bitter remark the throng of soldiers recalled later at Chalcedon and conspired for his destruction.[*](Cf. xxii. 3, 7-8.)

After this advancing in close order and coming to Bezabde, Constantius pitched his tents and encircled them with a palisade and with deep trenches. Then, riding about the circuit of the fort at a distance, he learned from many sources that the parts which before had been weakened by age and neglect had been restored to greater strength than ever.