Res Gestae

Ammianus Marcellinus

Ammianus Marcellinus. Ammianus Marcellinus, with an English translation, Vols. I-III. Rolfe, John C., translator. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; W. Heinemann, 1935-1940 (printing).

And while the combat still went on with fire and sword, the tower collapsed and a way was made into the city; the defenders, scattered by the great danger, abandoned the place; the Persian hordes, raising shouts and yells, rushed from all sides and without opposition filled every part of the city; and after a very few of the defenders had been slain here and there, all the rest were taken alive by Sapor’s order and transported to the remotest parts of Persia.

This city was defended by two legions, the First Flavian and the First Parthian, as well as by a considerable number of natives, with the help of some horsemen who had hastily taken refuge there because of the sudden danger. All these (as I have said) were led off with hands bound, and none of our men could aid them.

For the greater part of the army was in camp guarding Nisibis, which was a very long distance off; besides, even in former days no one had ever been able to aid Singara when

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in trouble, since all the surrounding country was dried up from lack of water. And although in early times a stronghold had been established there as a convenient place for learning in advance of sudden outbreaks of the enemy, yet this was a detriment to the Roman cause, since the place was several times taken with the loss of its defenders.

After the destruction of the city the king prudently turned aside from Nisibis, doubtless remembering what he had often suffered there,[*](Nisibis was besieged three times by the Persians. It was finally ceded to them by Jovian; see xxv. 7, 9-11.) and marched to the right by side roads to Bezabde, which its early founders also called Phaenicha, hoping to gain entrance into the place by force or by winning the defenders with flattering promises. Bezabde was a very strong fortress, placed upon a hill of moderate height which sloped towards the banks of the Tigris, and where it was low and therefore exposed to danger it was fortified with a double wall. For the defence of the place three legions were assigned, the Second Flavian, the Second Armenian, and also the Second Parthian with a great number of bowmen of the Zabdiceni, on whose soil, at that time subject to us, this town was situated.

On his first attack the king himself, with a troop of horsemen gleaming in full armour and

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himself towering above the rest, rode about the circuit of the camp, and with over-boldness advanced to the very edge of the trenches. But becoming the target of repeated missiles from the ballistae and of arrows, he was protected by a close array of shields placed side by side as in a tortoise-mantlet, and got away unhurt.