Res Gestae

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

To this success of the rebels was added another still happier event. For a tribune called Rumitalca, who had been won over to the party of Procopius and given the charge of the palace, upon a carefully devised plan crossed the sea with his soldiers and came to the place formerly called Drepanum, now Helenopolis,[*](Named from the mother of Constantine the Great.) and then with unexpected speed seized Nicaea.

To besiege this city Valens sent, besides others skilled in that kind of fighting, Vadomarius, a former general and king of the Alamanni,[*](Mentioned in xxi. 3, 5, as general in Phoenicia; cf. xxix. 1, 2.) and went on himself to Nicomedia. Leaving that place, he carried on the siege of Chalcedon with great vigour, from the walls of which city insults were hurled at him and he was derisively addressed as Sabaiarius. Now sabaia is a drink

Finally, worn out by scarcity of supplies and the very obstinate resistance of the defenders, he was already pre- paring to depart, when those who had meanwhile been blockaded at Nicaea suddenly opened the gates and rushed out, and after slaying a great part of the besiegers, headed by their bold leader, Rumitalca, hastened eagerly on with the purpose of surrounding Valens from the rear; for he had not left the suburb of Chalcedon. And they would have been successful, if the emperor had not from an earlier rumour learned of the danger that threatened him, and by a hasty retreat by way of the Sunonian lake[*](Near Nicomedia, mentioned by the geographer Ascanius.) and the many windings of the river Gallus[*](The Gallus is in Phrygia, but nothing is known of its windings. There was, however, a river Drako at Helen- opolis in Bithynia, which in a journey to Bithynia one had to cross twenty times.) outwitted the enemy, who were close upon his heels in vain pursuit. And by this mischance Bithynia also fell into the power of Procopius.

When Valens had returned thence by rapid marches to Ancyra and learned that Lupicinus[*](Appointed commander of the infantry (magister militum) by Jovian in the Orient, probably the man mentioned in xx. 1, 2; 4, 3, 9; 9, 9. He did good service against Procopius and was made consul in the following year.) with a force not to be despised was drawing near from the Orient, his hopes for better success were aroused, and he sent his best general Arintheus[*](Cf. xxv. 5, 2; 7,) to attack the enemy.

When Arintheus reached Dadastana, the station where, as we have said,[*](Cf. xxv. 10, 12.) Jovian died, he suddenly saw Hyperechius and his forces opposed to him; he

While affairs were proceeding in this way, a certain Venustus, an attendant on the state-treasury under Valens, who had been sent long before to Nicomedia, in order to distribute into the soldiers’ hands the money that had been raised for the pay of those stationed in various parts of the Orient, hearing of this unfortunate occurrence, and seeing that the time was unfavourable for his task, quickly made his way to Cyzicus with the money he had received.

There he chanced to meet Serenianus, at that time commander of the household troops, who had been sent to protect the treasures there; and since the city had an impregnable circuit of walls, and was known because of its old monuments, he tried to hold it, relying on the hastily formed garrison. Procopius had appointed a strong force to storm that city, in order to join Hellespontus to his side now he held Bithynia.