Res Gestae

But when presently it was heard that the emperor had all but been drawn into extreme peril and was not yet on safe ground, the soldiers considered it their first duty to aid him (for they thought him not yet free from danger of death); so, with greater confidence because of their contempt of the enemy, although the attack was so

And so eagerly did our forces rush forth in their desire to wipe out the disgrace by valour, at the same time venting their wrath on the treacherous foe, that they butchered everything in their way, trampling under foot without mercy the living, as well as those dying or dead; and before their hands were sated with slaughter of the savages, the dead lay piled in heaps.

For the rebels were completely overthrown, some being slain, others fleeing in terror in all directions; and a part of them, who hoped to save their lives by vain entreaties, were cut down by repeated strokes. And after all had been killed and the trumpets were sounding the recall, some of our men also, though few, were found among the dead, either trampled under foot in the fierce attack or, when they resisted the fury of the enemy and exposed their unprotected sides, destroyed by the fatal course of destiny.

But conspicuous above the rest was the death of Cella, tribune of the Targeteers, who at the beginning of the fight was first to rush into the thick of the Sarmatian forces.

After this cruel carnage Constantius, having made such arrangements for the safety of the frontiers as considerations of urgency recommended, returned to Sirmium after taking vengeance on a treacherous foe. Then, having quickly attended to what the pressing necessities of the time required, he set out from there and went to Constantinople, in order that being now nearer the Orient he might remedy the disaster which he had suffered at Amida,