f shame, as if it were
a usual occurrence, and no more important than the burning of the
plundered city which followed.

From Hit the army pursued its march, through Sitha and Megia, to
Zaragardia or Ozogardana, where the memory of Trajan's expedition still
lingered, a certain pedestal or pulpit of stone being known to the
natives as "Trajan's tribunal." Up to this time nothing had been seen or
heard of any Persian opposing army; one man only on the Roman side, so
far as we hear, had been killed. No systematic method of checking the
advance had been adopted; the corn was everywhere found standing;
forage was plentiful; and there were magazines of grain in the towns. No
difficulties had delayed the invaders but such as Nature had interposed
to thwart them, as when a violent storm on one occasion shattered the
tents, and on another a sudden swell of the Euphrates wrecked some of
the corn transports, and interrupted the right wing's line of march.
But this pleasant condition of things was not to continue. At Hit the
rolling Assyrian plain had come to an end, and the invading army had
entered upon the low alluvium of Babylonia, a region of great fertility,
intersected by numerous canals, which in some places were carried the
entire distance from the one river to the other. The change in the
character of the country encouraged the Persians to make a change in
their tactics. Hitherto they had been absolutely passive; now at last
they showed themselves, and commenced the active system of perpetual
harassing warfare in which they were adepts. A surena, or general of
the first rank, appeared in the field, at the head of a strong body of
Persian horse, and accompanied by a sheikh of the Saracenic Arabs,
known as Malik (or "King") Rodoseces. Retreating as Julian advanced, but
continually delaying his progress, hanging on the skirts of his
army, cutting off his stragglers, and threatening every unsupported
detachment, this active force changed all the conditions of the march,
rendering it slow and painful, and sometimes stopping it altogether. We
are told that on one occasion Prince Hormisdas narrowly escaped falling
into the surena's hands. On another, the Persian force, having allowed
the Roman vanguard to proceed unmolested, suddenly showed itself on the
southern bank of one of the great canals connecting the Euphrates
with the Tigris, and forbade the passage of Julian's main army. It was
only after a day and a night's delay tha