Res Gestae

After these arrangements had thus been made, he himself feigned a march across the Tigris, an expedition for which he had also ordered supplies to be carefully prepared, but then turned to the right and, after passing a quiet night, called next morning for the mount which he usually rode. And when the horse, called Babylonius, was brought to him, it was laid low by a missile from the artillery, and as it rolled on the ground in unbearable pain, it scattered about its ornaments, which were adorned with gold and precious stones. Delighted by this omen, Julian cried out amid expressions of joy from the bystanders, that Babylon had fallen to the ground, stripped of all its adornments.

Then delaying for a time, in order to confirm the omen by favourable signs from victims, he came to the fortified camp of Davana at the source of the river Belias, a tributary of the Euphrates. Here we rested and took food, and on the following day arrived at Callinicum, a strong fortress, and most welcome because of its

The next day he marched on from there along the brow of the river-banks, since the waters were rising from streams flowing in on all sides, and kept on with his armed force until he came to an outpost, where he encamped. There the princes of the Saracen nations as suppliants on bended knees presented him with a golden crown and did obeisance to him as lord of the world and of its peoples; and they were gladly received, since they were adapted for guerilla warfare.

And while he was giving them audience his fleet arrived, equal to that of the mighty king Xerxes, under the command of the tribune Constantianus and Count Lucillianus; and the broad Euphrates was almost too narrow for it, consisting as it did of a thousand cargo-carriers of varied construction, and bringing an abundance of supplies, weapons, and also siege-engines; there were besides fifty warships and an equal number which were needed for making bridges.