his troops, commanding them to cross the
Euphrates.

3. As soon as the order reached them, they hastened to quit their winter
quarters; and having crossed the river, according to their orders, they
dispersed into their various stations, and awaited the arrival of the
emperor. But he, being about to quit Antioch, appointed a citizen of
Heliopolis, named Alexander, a man of turbulent and ferocious character,
to govern Syria, saying that he indeed had not deserved such a post, but
that the Antiochians, being covetous and insolent, required a judge of
that kind.

4. When he was about to set forth, escorted by a promiscuous multitude
who wished him a fortunate march and a glorious return, praying that he
would be merciful and kinder than he had been, he (for the anger which
their addresses and reproaches had excited in his breast was not yet
appeased) spoke with severity to them, and declared that he would never
see them again.

5. For he said that he had determined, after his campaign was over, to
return by a shorter road to Tarsus in Cilicia, to winter there: and that
he had written to Memorius, the governor of the city, to prepare
everything that he might require in that city. This happened not long
afterwards; for his body was brought back thither and buried in the
suburbs with a very plain funeral, as he himself had commanded.

6. As the weather was now getting warm he set out on the fifth of March,
and by the usual stages arrived at Hieropolis; and as he entered the
gates of that large city a portico on the left suddenly fell down, and
as fifty soldiers were passing under it at that moment it wounded many,
crushing them beneath the vast weight of the beams and tiles.

7. Having collected all his troops from thence, he marched with such
speed towards Mesopotamia, that before any intelligence of his march
could arrive (an object about which he was especially solicitous) he
came upon the Assyrians quite unexpectedly. Then having led his whole
army and the Scythian auxiliaries across the Euphrates by a bridge of
boats, he arrived at Batnae, a town of Osdroene, and there again a sad
omen met him.

8. For when a great crowd of grooms was standing near an enormously
high haystack, in order to receive their forage (for in this way those
supplies used to be stored in that country), the mass was shaken by the
numbers who sought to strip it, and falling down, overwhelmed fifty men.

III.

Sec. 1. Leaving this place w