Res Gestae

It chanced that at that time Valens was at last called forth from Antioch, and after making the long journey arrived at Constantinople, where his stay was for only a very few days,[*](Twelve days according to Socrates, Hist. Eccl. iv. 38.) and he was disturbed by a slight outbreak of the populace. He gave the command of the infantry, which Trajanus had formerly held, to Sebastianus, a leader of recognized vigilance, who had shortly before been sent from Italy at his own request.[*](Zos. iv. 22, says that he left Italy through disgust at the growing influence of the eunuchs, and went to Constantinople, where Valens made him a commander-in-chief.) He himself went

Having commanded a march from there by written order,[*](Cf. xxiii. 2, 2, expeditionalis tessera; xxi. 5, 13, note.) he came to the military post called Nice,[*](A town in Thrace, Socrates, Hist. Eccl. ii. 37, 95; mansio Nice, It. Burdig. p. 569 (cf. statione Nice, 12, 3, below).) where he learned from the report of scouts that the barbarians, laden with rich spoils, had returned from the lands at the foot of Rhodope to the neighbourhood of Hadrianopolis; they, on hearing that the emperor was on the march with a large force, were hastening to join their countrymen, who were staying in a permanent garrison near Beroea and Nicopolis. At once, as timeliness of the offered opportunity demanded, Sebastianus had been directed to choose three hundred soldiers from each legion and hasten to the spot, to do, as he promised, something advantageous to the state.

He advanced by rapid marches until he was seen near Hadrianopolis, when the gates were strongly barred, and he was not allowed to approach them; for the besieged feared that he came as one who had been captured by the enemy, and won over to their side, and some harm might be caused to the city; such as had happened through the general Acacius, when the troops of Magnentius had captured him by treachery, and brought about the opening of the fastnesses of the Julian Alps.

However, when Sebastianus was recognized, although late, and allowed to enter the city, his men were refreshed with such food and rest as

Fritigern was greatly alarmed by this stroke, and feared lest the general, whom he had always heard to be successful,[*](For this meaning of impetrabilis, cf. xiv. 8, 5, and Plautus, Most. 1162, etc.) might make an unexpected attack upon his scattered and heedless bands, which were intent only upon pillage, and utterly destroy them; he therefore recalled all his men to the vicinity of the town of Cabyle and quickly left that neighbourhood, in order that his people, by living in the open plains, might not suffer from famine or from secret attacks.

While this was going on in Thrace, Gratian, having informed his uncle by letter with what energy he had overthrown the Alamanni, sent on ahead by land all his baggage and packs, and descending the Danube with a band of light-armed troops, came to Bononia[*](Ptolemy locates this place in Upper Pannonia, the modern Banastar; cf. xxi. 9, 6.) and entered Sirmium. Having delayed there for four days, he went on over the same river to the Camp of Mars,[*](A small town in Dacia Ripensis (in Moesia, according to Sozomenus, ix. 5).) although attacked by intermittent fevers. In that region the Halani unexpectedly fell upon him, and he lost a few of his followers.