de with fire, on the other
with the sword, weeping threw themselves headlong over the walls, and
being crippled in all their limbs, led for a few hours or days a life
more miserable than any death till they were finally killed.

26. But Nabdates, the captain of the garrison, was taken alive with
eighty of his guards; and when he was brought before the emperor, that
magnanimous and merciful prince ordered him to be kept in safety. The
booty was divided according to a fair estimate of the merits and labours
of the troops. The emperor, who was contented with very little, took for
his own share of the victory he had thus gained three pieces of gold and
a dumb child who was brought to him, and who by elegant signs and
gesticulations explained all he knew, and considered that an acceptable
and sufficient prize.

27. But of the virgins who were taken prisoners, and who, as was likely
in Persia, where female beauty is remarkable, were exceedingly
beautiful, he would neither touch nor even see one; imitating Alexander
and Scipio, who refused similar opportunities, in order, after having
proved themselves unconquered by toil, not to show themselves the
victims of desire.

28. While the battle was going on, an engineer on our side, whose name I
do not know, who happened to be standing just behind a scorpion, was
knocked down and killed by the recoil of a stone, which the worker of
the engine had fitted to the sling carelessly, his whole body being so
dislocated and battered that he could not even be recognized.

29. After the town was taken intelligence was brought to the emperor
that a troop was lying in ambuscade in some concealed pits around the
walls of the town just taken (of which pits there are many in those
districts), with the intention of surprising the rear of our army by a
sudden attack.

30. A body of picked infantry of tried courage was therefore sent to
take the troop prisoners. But as they could neither force their way
into the pits, nor induce those concealed in them to come forth to
fight, they collected some straw and faggots, and piled them up before
the mouths of the caves, and then set them on fire, from which the smoke
penetrated into the caverns through the narrow crevice, being the more
dense because of the small space through which it was forced, and so
suffocated some of them; others the fire compelled to come forth to
instant destruction; and in this manner they were destroyed by sword or
by fire,