which defended the town, and then
somewhat hastily resolved that he would attack the place, which he did
not imagine capable of making much resistance.

Amida, now Diarbekr, was situated on the right bank of the Upper Tigris,
in a fertile plain, and was washed along the whole of its western
side by a semi-circular bend of the river. It had been a place of
considerable importance from a very ancient date, and had recently
been much strengthened by Constantius, who had made it an arsenal
for military engines, and had repaired its towers and walls. The town
contained within it a copious fountain of water, which was liable,
however, to acquire a disagreeable odor in the summer time. Seven
legions, of the moderate strength to which legions had been reduced
by Constantine, defended it; and the garrison included also a body of
horse-archers, composed chiefly or entirely of noble foreigners. Sapor
hoped in the first instance to terrify it into submission by his mere
appearance, and boldly rode up to the gates with a small body of his
followers, expecting that they would be opened to him. But the defenders
were more courageous than he had imagined. They received him with a
shower of darts and arrows that were directed specially against his
person, which was conspicuous from its ornaments; and they aimed their
weapons so well that one of them passed through a portion of his dress
and was nearly wounding him. Persuaded by his followers, Sapor upon
this withdrew, and committed the further prosecution of the attack to
Grumbates, the king of the Chionites, who assaulted the walls on the
next day with a body of picked troops, but was repulsed with great loss,
his only son, a youth of great promise, being killed at his side by a
dart from a balista. The death of this prince spread dismay through the
camp, and was followed by a general mourning; but it now became a point
of honor to take the town which had so injured one of the great king's
royal allies; and Grumbates was promised that Amida should become the
funeral pile of his lost darling.

The town was now regularly invested. Each nation was assigned its place.
The Chionites, burning with the desire to avenge their late defeat, were
on the east; the Vertse on the south; the Albanians, warriors from
the Caspian region, on the north; the Segestans, who were reckoned the
bravest soldiers of all, and who brought into the field a large body
of elephants, held the west. A continuous lin