Res Gestae

And they would have pressed in through the gates of the city, mingled with the throng of fugitives, had not the general called Victor, who had himself received a flesh-wound in the shoulder from an arrow, raising his hand and

Let the poets of old sing of Hector’s battles and extol the valour of the Thessalian leader;[*](Achilles.) let long ages tell of Sophanes, Aminias, Callimachus, Cynaegirus,[*](On these heroes see respectively Hdt. ix. 74, 75; viii. 93; vi. 114; Justin. ii. 9, 16 ff.; Val. Max. iii. 2, 22.) those glorious high lights of the Medic wars: but not less distinguished was the valour of some of our soldiers on that day, as is shown by the admission of all men.

After their fear was past, trampling on the overthrown bodies of their foes, our soldiers, still dripping with blood righteously shed, gathered at their emperor’s tent, rendering him praise and thanks because he had won so glorious a victory, everywhere without recognition whether he was leader or soldier, and considering the welfare of others rather than his own. For as many as 2500 Persians had been slain, with the loss of only seventy of our men.[*](Zosimus, iii. 25, says that 2500 Persians were killed and not more than seventy-five Romans.)

Julian addressed many of them by name, whose heroic deeds performed with unshaken courage he himself had witnessed, and rewarded them with naval, civic, and camp crowns.[*](See Gell. v. 6.)

Fully convinced that similar successes would follow these, he prepared to offer many victims to Mars the Avenger; but of ten fine bulls that were brought for this purpose nine, even before they were brought to the altar, of their own accord sank in sadness to the ground; but the tenth broke his bonds

Having held council with his most distinguished generals about the siege of Ctesiphon, the opinion of some was adopted, who felt sure that the undertaking was rash and untimely, since the city, impregnable by its situation alone, was well defended; and, besides, it was believed that the king would soon appear with a formidable force.

So the better opinion prevailed, and the most careful of emperors, recognizing its advantage, sent Arintheus with a band of light-armed infantry, to lay waste the surrounding country, which was rich in herds and crops; Arintheus was also bidden, with equal energy to pursue the enemy, who had been lately scattered and concealed by impenetrable by-paths and their familiar hiding-places.[*](Here there seems to be an extensive lacuna, since the sending of envoys to Julian by Sapor (Socrat. iii. 19) and other important events are missing; see crit. note.)

But Julian, ever driven on by his eager ambitions, made light of words of warning, and upbraiding his generals for urging him through cowardice and love of ease to loose his hold on the Persian kingdom, which he had already all but won;

And it seemed as if Bellona herself lighted the fire with fatal torch, when he gave orders that all the ships should be burned, with the exception of twelve of the smaller ones, which he decided to transport on wagons as helpful for making bridges. And he thought that this plan had the advantage that the fleet, if abandoned, could not be used by the enemy, or at any rate, that nearly 20,000 soldiers would not be employed in transporting and guiding the ships, as had been the case since the beginning of the campaign.[*](Gregory Nazianzen says that a Persian, who played the part of Zopyrus (see xviii. 5, 3, note), advised Julian to take this step; cf. Aug. De Civ. Dei, iv. 29; v. 21.)

Then, as every man murmured, in fear for his life, and manifest truth made clear, that if the dryness of the country or high mountains made it necessary to retreat, they could not return to the waters; and as the deserters, on being put to the torture, openly confessed that they had used deceit, orders were given to use the greatest efforts of the army to put out the flames. But the frightful spread of the fire had already consumed the greater number of the ships, and only the twelve could be saved unharmed which had been set aside to be kept.[*](See § 4, above.)

By this disaster the fleet was needlessly lost, but Julian, trusting to his united army, since none of the soldiers was distracted by other duties, and now stronger in numbers, advanced into the interior, where the fruitful country furnished an abundance of supplies.

On learning this the enemy, in order to torment us with hunger, set fire to the plants and the ripe grain; and we, being prevented from advancing by the conflagration, were forced to stay in a permanent