assist him as he might require.

6. Having taken these measures, Julian himself, pretending to march by
the line of the Tigris, on which road he had purposely commanded
magazines of provisions to be prepared, turned towards the right, and
after a quiet night, asked in the morning for the horse which he was
accustomed to ride: his name was Babylonius. And when he was brought,
being suddenly griped and starting at the pain, he fell down, and
rolling about scattered the gold and jewels with which his trappings
were decked. Julian, in joy at this omen, cried out, amid the applause
of those around, that "Babylon had fallen, and was stripped of all her
ornaments."

7. Having delayed a little that he might confirm the omen by the
sacrifice of some victims, he advanced to Davana, where he had a
garrison-fortress, and where the river Belias rises which falls into the
Euphrates. Here he refreshed his men with food and sleep, and the next
day reached Callinicus, a strong fortress, and also a great commercial
mart, where, on the 27th of March (the day on which at Rome the annual
festival in honour of Cybele is celebrated, and the car in which her
image is borne is, as it is said, washed in the waters of the Almo), he
kept the same feast according to the manner of the ancients, and then,
retiring to rest, passed a triumphant, and joyful night.

8. The next day he proceeded along the bank of the river, which other
streams began to augment, marching with an armed escort; and at night he
rested in a tent where some princes of the Saracenic tribes came as
suppliants, bringing him a golden crown, and adoring him as the master
of the world and of their own nations: he received them graciously, as
people well adapted for surprises in war.

9. And while addressing them a fleet arrived equal to that of the mighty
sovereign Xerxes, under the command of the tribune Constantianus, and
Count Lucillianus; they threw a bridge over the broadest part of the
Euphrates: the fleet consisted of one thousand transports, of various
sorts and sizes, bringing large supplies of provisions, and arms, and
engines for sieges, and fifty ships of war, and as many more suitable
for the construction of bridges.

IV.

Sec. 1. I am reminded by the circumstances to explain instruments of this
kind briefly, as far as my moderate talent may enable me to do, and
first I will set forth the figure of the balista.

2. Between two axletrees a strong large iron bar