ll the standing crops, that the enemy might
get no supplies from the land.

4. And when these orders had been executed, as they were without delay,
and when the fire was kindled, the violence of the raging element so
completely destroyed all the corn,[97] which was just beginning to swell
and turn yellow, and all the young herbage, that from the Euphrates to
the Tigris nothing green was to be seen. And many wild beasts were
burnt, and especially lions, who infest these districts terribly, but
who are often destroyed or blinded in this manner.

5. They wander in countless droves among the beds of rushes on the banks
of the rivers of Mesopotamia, and in the jungles; and lie quiet all the
winter, which is very mild in that country. But when the warm weather
returns, as these regions are exposed to great heat, they are forced out
by the vapours, and by the size of the gnats, with swarms of which every
part of that country is filled. And these winged insects attack the
eyes, as being both moist and sparkling, sitting on and biting the
eyelids; the lions, unable to bear the torture, are either drowned in
the rivers, to which they flee for refuge, or else by frequent
scratchings tear their eyes out themselves with their claws, and then
become mad. And if this did not happen the whole of the East would be
overrun with beasts of this kind.

6. While the plains were thus being laid waste by fire, as I have
described, the tribunes, who were sent with a body of protectores,
fortified all the western bank of the Euphrates with castles and sharp
palisades and every kind of defence, fixing also large engines for
hurling missiles on those spots where the more tranquil condition of the
river made it likely that the enemy might attempt to cross.

7. While these things were being expeditiously done, Sabinianus, chosen
in the hurried moment of general danger as the fittest conductor of an
internecine war, was living luxuriously, according to his custom, at the
tombs of Edessa,[98] as if he had established peace with the dead, and
had nothing to fear: and he took especial pleasure in breaking the
silence of the place with the sounding measures of the martial
pyathicari, instead of the usual theatrical exhibitions; a fancy,
considering the place, pregnant with omens. Since these and similar
gloomy scenes foreshow future commotions, as we learn in the progress of
time, all good men ought to avoid them.

8. In the mean time, passing by Ni