from this tribe, who expected
still to find him in his winter quarters, offering him peace on
condition of his leaving them unattacked and unmolested, as if the
ground they had seized were rightfully their own. Julian comprehended
the whole affair, and having given the ambassadors an ambiguous reply,
and also some presents, sent them back again, leaving them to suppose he
would remain in the same place till they returned.

4. But the moment they had departed he followed them, sending Severus
along the bank of the river, and suddenly came upon the whole settlement
like a thunderbolt; and availing himself of his victory to make a
reasonable exhibition of clemency, as indeed they met him with
entreaties rather than with resistance, he received the submission of
them and their children.

5. He then attacked the Chamavi,[80] who had been guilty of similar
audacity, and through the same celerity of movement he slew one portion
of them, and another who made a vigorous resistance he took prisoners,
while others who fled precipitately he allowed to escape unhurt to their
own territories, to avoid exhausting his soldiers with a long campaign.
And when ambassadors were afterwards sent by them to implore his pardon,
and generally to do what they could for them, when they prostrated
themselves before him, he granted them peace on condition of retiring to
their own districts without doing any mischief.

IX.

Sec. 1. Everything thus succeeding according to his wish, Julian, always on
the watch to establish by every means in his power the security of the
provinces on a solid foundation, determined to put in as good repair as
the time permitted those fortresses erected in a line on the banks of
the Meuse, which some time before had been destroyed by an attack of
the barbarians. And accordingly he desisted for a while from all other
operations, and restored them.

2. And that he might by a prudent rapidity insure their safety, he took
a part of the seventeen days' provisions, which troops, when going on an
expedition, carry on their backs, and stored in those forts, hoping to
replace what he thus took from the soldiers by seizing the crops of the
Chamavi.

3. But he was greatly disappointed. For as the crops were not yet ripe,
the soldiers when they had consumed what they had with them were unable
to find food, and began to utter violent threats against Julian, mingled
with fierce cries and reproaches, calling him Asiatic, Gree