ising
it with sudden slaughter; the traitors promising that, to prevent any
knowledge of what was going on, they would come forward to meet them.

8. Having ratified this agreement with an oath, they quitted the town,
and led the besiegers to acquiesce in inaction by representing that the
besieged had required two days to deliberate on what course they ought
to pursue. Then in the middle of the night, when they were all soundly
asleep in fancied security, the gates of the city were thrown open, and
a strong body of young men poured forth with great speed, creeping on
with noiseless steps and drawn swords, till they entered the camp of the
unsuspecting enemy, where they slew numbers of sleeping men, without
meeting with any resistance.

8. This unexpected treachery of his officers, and the loss thus
inflicted on the Persians, caused a terrible quarrel between us and
Sapor; and another cause for his anger was added, as the Emperor Valens
received Para, the son of Arsaces, who at his mother's instigation had
quitted the fortress with a small escort, and had desired him to stay at
Neo-Caesarea, a most celebrated city on the Black Sea, where he was
treated with great liberality and high respect. Cylaces and Artabannes,
being allured by this humanity of Valens, sent envoys to him to ask for
assistance, and to request that Para might be given them for their king.

10. However, for the moment assistance was refused them; but Para was
conducted by the general Terentius back to Armenia, where he was to rule
that nation without any of the insignia of royalty; which was a very
wise regulation, in order that we might not be accused of breaking our
treaty of peace.

11. When this arrangement became known, Sapor was enraged beyond all
bounds, and collecting a vast army, entered Armenia and ravaged it with
the most ferocious devastation. Para was terrified at his approach, as
were also Cylaces and Artabannes, and, as they saw no other resource,
fled into the recesses of the lofty mountains which separate our
frontiers from Lazica; where they hid in the depths of the woods and
among the defiles of the hills for five months, eluding the various
attempts of the king to discover them.

12. And Sapor, when he saw that he was losing his labour in the middle
of winter, burnt all the fruit trees, and all the fortified castles and
camps, of which he had become master by force or treachery, and also
burnt Artogerassa, which had long been bl