Res Gestae

Ammianus Marcellinus

Ammianus Marcellinus. Ammianus Marcellinus, with an English translation, Vols. I-III. Rolfe, John C., translator. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; W. Heinemann, 1935-1940 (printing).

On the other hand, the exulting Persians sent forth such a shower of arrows that they prevented their opponents from seeing the bowmen. Before them slowly marched the elephants, which with their huge size of body and horrifying crests, struck terror into horses and men. Further off, the trampling of the combatants, the groans of the falling, the panting of the horses, and the ring of arms were heard, until finally both parties were weary of inflicting wounds and the darkness of night ended the battle.

On that day fifty Persian grandees and satraps fell, besides a great number of common soldiers, and among them the distinguished generals Merena[*](Cf. 1, 11, above.) and Nohodares[*](Cf. xviii. 6, 16.) were

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slain. The boastfulness of antiquity may view with amazement the twenty battles of Marcellus in various places;[*](Pliny, N.H. vii. 92, and Solinus, 1,107, speak of thirty-nine.) it may add Sicinius Dentatus,[*](Val. Max. iii. 2, 24; Gell. ii. 11, 2; etc.) honoured with a multitude of military crowns; it may besides admire Sergius,[*](Cf. Pliny and Solin., l.c. ) who (they say) was wounded twenty-three times in different battles, and whose last descendant Catiline tarnished the glorious renown of these victories with an indelible stain. Yet the joy in our success was marred by sorrow.[*](This sentence comes in abruptly: Büchele seems to refer it to what precedes.)