Res Gestae

Then, through fear of similar attempts, Aequitius blockaded the three narrow passes leading to the northern provinces, one through Dacia Ripensis,[*](Dacia was divided by the Danube into Dacia Ripensis on the south and Dacia Mediterranea on the north.) a second, the best known, through Succi,[*](Cf. xxi. 10, 2.) the third through Macedonia, and called Acontisma.[*](Cf. xxvii. 4, 8.) And in consequence of these prudent measures, the usurper of illegitimate power was disappointed in his vain hope of seizing Illyricum and lost a great source of material for the war.

While these things were thus going on, Valens, shocked by the terrible news and already returning through Galatia, on hearing what had happened at Constantinople advanced with distrust and fear. His sudden terror made him unfit for all ways of precaution, and his spirit had sunk so low that he even thought of casting aside his imperial robes as a heavy burden; and he would actually have done so, had he not been kept by the remonstrances of his intimates from the shameful intention and given courage by the advice of better men; accordingly, he

When these were already approaching, Procopius himself, having returned from Nicaea, to which place he had gone shortly before, with the Divitenses and a promiscuous rabble of deserters which he had got together in a brief space of time, hastened to Mygdus, a place laved by the river Sangarius.

There the legions were already advancing upon each other, ready for battle, when Procopius rushed alone between them, while they were exchanging volleys, as if he wished to challenge the enemy. And by a stroke of good fortune as if he recognised in the enemy’s lines a certain Vitalianus—whether he actually knew him is a matter of doubt—he saluted him courteously in Latin, and called him forward in a friendly fashion. Then he held out his hand to him and kissed him, to the amazement of all on both sides, and cried out:

So this is the old loyalty of Roman armies and their oaths bound by firm religious rites! Is this your pleasure, my brave men? All this mass of Roman swords uplifted for strangers! That a base Pannonian should shake and trample upon the world, to gain a throne which he never so much as dared to pray for, we groan over your wounds and ours! No, no—follow rather the house of your own royal line, one who has taken up arms with the greatest justice, not in order to seize what is another’s, but to restore himself to the possession of his ancestral majesty.

Through these calm words, all the men who had come to fight hotly against him were pacified, and willingly went over to his side with the eagles