Res Gestae

And while within the walls the things that required haste were being pushed vigorously, smoke and gleaming fires constantly shone from the Tigris on past Castra Maurorum[*](See also xxv. 7, 9. It lay north of Nisibis and was called by the Arabic geographers by a name meaning pagus mororum, or the place of mulberries, of which Maurorum seems to be a corruption. Sisara is a neighbouring fortress.) and Sisara and all the neighbouring country as far as the city, in greater number than usual and in a continuous line, clearly showing that the enemy’s bands of plunderers had burst forth and crossed the river.

Therefore, for fear that the roads might be blocked, we hastened on at full speed, and when we were within two miles, we saw a fine-looking boy, wearing a neck-chain, a child eight years old (as we guessed) and the son of a man of position (as he said), crying in the

And because the calamities of a siege alarmed me, I set the boy down within a half-open postern gate and with winged speed hastened breathless to our troop; and I was all but taken prisoner.