Surviving Works

AMMIANI MARCELLINI XIV, 2. 3.

were already consuming their usual rations and dreading the fatal miseries of impending starvation. 20. When rumor spread this far and wide, and constant reports had moved Gallus Caesar, since the Master of the Horse was detained far away at that time, Nebridius, the Count of the East, was ordered to gather military forces from all sides and rush with great zeal to save the city, which was both large and strategically important. Learning of this, the bandits retreated, having accomplished nothing more of note, and dispersed, as is their habit, to seek the trackless heights of the mountains.

III. 1. With matters in Isauria brought to this point, and the King of the Persians preoccupied with border wars and repelling the fiercest tribes that often attack him with a fickle mind and sometimes assist us when we move our arms, a certain man named Nohodares, from the ranks of the nobility, was tasked with raiding Mesopotamia whenever opportunity allowed. He anxiously explored our territory to see if he could find any place to break through by sudden force. 2. And because all the regions of Mesopotamia were frequently disturbed and were guarded by barricades and field stations, he turned his route to the left and settled in the furthest parts of Osrhoene, attempting a new and hitherto untried stratagem: if he had succeeded, he would have devastated everything like a lightning bolt. His plan was as follows. 3. The municipality of Batne, founded in Anthemusia by the hand of the ancient Macedonians, is separated by a short distance from the Euphrates River. It is filled with wealthy merchants. There, by annual custom, near the beginning of the month of September, a great multitude of people of all fortunes gathers for a market to trade in the goods that the Indians and the Seres Likely referring to the Chinese, known for the silk trade send, and many other things usually transported by land and sea. 4. The aforementioned commander, planning to invade this region on the days appointed for the celebration, traveled through the wilderness and the grassy banks of the Abora River; he was betrayed by the information of his own men, who were taken