Res Gestae

While these preparations were being hastened, Sabinianus, that splendid choice[*](Of course, ironical.) of a leader in a deadly war, when every moment should have been seized to avert the common dangers, amid the tombs of Edessa, as if he had nothing to fear when he had made his peace with the dead, and acting with the wantonness of a life free from care, in complete inaction was being entertained by his soldiers with a pyrrhic dance,[*](These were originally war dances in armour, but their scope was extended to pantomime of all kinds; see Suet., Nero, 12, 1 and 2.) in which music accompanied the gestures of the performers— conduct ominous both in itself and in its occasion, since we learn that these and similar things that are ill-omened in word and deed ought to be avoided by every good man as time goes on as foreboding coming troubles.

Meanwhile the kings passed

And now they had come to a hamlet called Bebase, from which as far as the town of Constantina,[*](Formerly Antoninupolis, renamed after its restoration by Constantine, see 9, 1, below.) which is a hundred miles distant, everything is parched by constant drought except for a little water to be found in wells. There they hesitated for a long time what to do, and finally were planning to cross, being confident of the hardiness of their men, when they learned from a faithful scout that the Euphrates was swollen by the melted snows and overflowing in wide pools, and hence could not be forded anywhere.