of a Roman warrior, were broken
off and had no power to hurt the man who was hit. The Roman bowmen are
always slower indeed, but inasmuch as their bows are extremely stiff and
very tightly strung, and one might add that they are handled by stronger
men, they easily slay much greater numbers of those they hit than do the
Persians, for no armour proves an obstacle to the force of their arrows.
Now already two-thirds of the day had passed, and the battle was still
even. Then by mutual agreement all the best of the Persian army advanced
to attack the Roman right wing, where Arethas and the Saracens had been
stationed. But they broke their formation and moved apart, so that they
got the reputation of having betrayed the Romans to the Persians. For
without awaiting the oncoming enemy they all straightway beat a hasty
retreat. So the Persians in this way broke through the enemy's line and
immediately got in the rear of the Roman cavalry. Thus the Romans, who
were already exhausted both by the march and the labour of the
battle,--and besides this they were all fasting so far on in the
day,--now that they were assailed by the enemy on both sides, held out
no longer, but the most of them in full flight made their way to the
islands in the river which were close by, while some also remained there
and performed deeds both amazing and remarkable against the enemy. Among
these was Ascan who, after killing many of the notables among the
Persians, was gradually hacked to pieces and finally fell, leaving to
the enemy abundant reason to remember him. And with him eight hundred
others perished after shewing themselves brave men in this struggle, and
almost all the Isaurians fell with their leaders, without even daring to
lift their weapons against the enemy. For they were thoroughly
inexperienced in this business, since they had recently left off farming
and entered into the perils of warfare, which before that time were
unknown to them. And yet just before these very men had been most
furious of all for battle because of their ignorance of warfare, and
were then reproaching Belisarius with cowardice. They were not in fact
all Isaurians but the majority of them were Lycaones.

Belisarius with some few men remained there, and as long as he saw Ascan
and his men holding out, he also in company with those who were with him
held back the enemy; but when some of Ascan's troops had fallen, and the
others had turned to flee wherever they could,