by any decision lower than that
of the emperor. Nevertheless, let him know what I venture to prophesy,
that while he is concerning himself about this disaster at Amida, of
which he has received a faithful account; and while he gives himself up
to the influence of the eunuchs, he will not in the ensuing spring,[109]
even if he himself should come with the entire strength of his army, be
able to prevent the dismemberment of Mesopotamia." This speech having
been related to the emperor with many additions, and a malignant
interpretation, Constantius became enraged beyond measure; and without
allowing the affair to be discussed, or those things to be explained to
him of which he was ignorant, he believed all the calumnies against
Ursicinus, and deposing him from his office, ordered him into
retirement; promoting Agilo, by a vast leap, to take his place, he
having been before only a tribune of a native troop of Scutarii.

III.

Sec. 1. At the same time one day the sky in the east was perceived to be
covered with a thick darkness, and from daybreak to noon the stars were
visible throughout; and, as an addition to these terrors, while the
light of heaven was thus withdrawn, and the world almost buried in
clouds, men, from the length of the eclipse, began to believe that the
sun had wholly disappeared. Presently, however, it was seen again like a
new moon, then like a half-moon, and at last it was restored entire.

2. A thing which on other occasions did not happen so visibly except
when after several unequal revolutions, the moon returns to exactly the
same point at fixed intervals; that is to say, when the moon is found in
the same sign of the zodiac, exactly opposite to the rays of the sun,
and stops there a few minutes, which in geometry are called parts of
parts.

3. And although the changes and motions of both sun and moon, as the
inquiries into intelligible causes have remarked, perpetually return to
the same conjunction at the end of each lunar month, still the sun is
not always eclipsed on these occasions, but only when the moon, as by a
kind of balance, is in the exact centre between the sun and our sight.

4. In short, the sun is eclipsed, and his brilliancy removed from our
sight, when he and the moon, which of all the constellations of heaven
is the lowest, proceeding with equal pace in their orbits, are placed in
conjunction in spite of the height which separates them (as Ptolemy
learnedly explains it), and