Res Gestae

Seated upon these, their drivers carried knives with handles bound to their right hands, remembering the disaster suffered at Nisibis; and if the strength of the driver proved no match for the excited brute, that he might not turn upon his own people (as happened then) and crush masses of them to the ground, he would with a mighty stroke cut through the vertebra which separates the head from the neck. For long ago Hasdrubal, brother of Hannibal, discovered that in that way brutes of this kind could quickly be killed.[*](Livy, xxvii. 49, 1 ff.)

Although these sights caused no little fear, the emperor, guarded by troops of armed men and with his trustworthy generals, full of confidence, as the great and dangerous power of the enemy demanded, drew up his soldiers in the form of a crescent with curving wings to meet the enemy.

And in order that the onset of the bowmen might not throw our ranks into confusion, he advanced at a swift pace, and so ruined the effectiveness of the arrows.[*](By reaching the enemy before they could use their bows at all (ante iactum sagittarum (Justin, l. c.)), or with good effect. Cf. Frontinus, Strat. ii. 2, 5, Ventidius . . . ita procursione subita . . . se admovit, ut sagittas, quibus ex longinquo usus est, comminus adplicitus eluderet. Similar tactics were used by Miltiades at Marathon; Hdt. vi. 112; Just. ii. 9, 11.) Then the usual signal for battle was given, and the Roman infantry in close order with mighty effort drove the serried ranks of the enemy before them.

And in the heat of the combat that followed, the clash of shields, the shouts of the men, and the doleful sound of the whirring arrows continued without intermission. The plains were covered with blood and dead bodies, but the Persian losses were greater; for they often lacked endurance in battle and could with difficulty maintain a close contest man to man, since they were accustomed to fight bravely at long range,

In this battle (as was said) the loss of the Persians was clearly the greater, while that of our men was very slight. But noteworthy among the various calamities of the combats was the death of Vetranio,[*](osimus,, iii. 28, calls him Brettanio. The Zianni were probablya Thracian tribe; see Index II.) a valiant fighter, who commanded the legion of the Zianni.

After this three days were devoted to a truce, while each man gave attention to his own wound or his neighbour’s, but since we were without supplies we were tormented by hunger that was already unendurable; and because grain and fodder had everywhere been burned, and both men and animals experienced extreme danger, a great part of the food which the pack-animals of the tribunes and generals carried was distributed even to the lowest soldiers, who were in dire want.

And the emperor, who had no dainties awaiting him, after the manner of princes, but a scant portion of porridge under the low poles of a humble tent—a meal which would have been scorned even by one who served as a common