ght of their fort made it
impregnable; but they refused all terms as yet, though they answered
that when the Romans had advanced further so as to occupy the interior
of the country, they also as an appendage would come over to the
conqueror.

2. Having made this reply they quietly looked down upon our boats as
they passed under the very walls without attempting to molest them. When
that fort was passed we came to another called Achaiacala, also defended
by the river flowing round it, and difficult to scale, where we received
a similar answer, and so passed on. The next day we came to another fort
which had been deserted because its walls were weak; and we burnt it and
proceeded.

3. In the two next days we marched two hundred furlongs, and arrived at
a place called Paraxmalcha. We then crossed the river, and seven miles
further on we entered the city of Diacira, which we found empty of
inhabitants but full of corn and excellent salt, and here we saw a
temple placed on the summit of a lofty height. We burnt the city and put
a few women to death whom we found there, and having passed a bituminous
spring; we entered the town of Ozogardana, which its inhabitants had
deserted for fear of our approaching army; in that town is shown a
tribunal of the emperor Trajan.

4. This town also we burnt after we had rested there two days to refresh
our bodies. On the second day just at nightfall, the Surena (who is the
officer next in rank to the king among the Persians), and a man named
Malechus Podosaces, the chief of the Assanite Saracens, who had long
ravaged our frontiers with great ferocity, laid a snare for Hormisdas,
whom by some means or other they had learnt was about to go forth on a
reconnoitring expedition, and only failed because the river being very
narrow at that point, was so deep as to be unfordable.

5. And so at daybreak, when the enemy were now in sight, the moment that
they were discovered by their glittering helmets and bristling armour,
our men sprang up vigorously to the conflict, and dashed at them with
great courage; and although the enemy wielded their huge bows with great
strength, and the glistening of their weapons increased the alarm of our
soldiers, yet their rage, and the compactness of their ranks, kept alive
and added fuel to their courage.

6. Animated by their first success, our army advanced to the village of
Macepracta, where were seen vestiges of walls half destroyed, which had
once been of