d on their audacious sallies and unwonted
enterprises.

8. Both the emperor and the troops were greatly vexed at this, because
they had no means of constructing a bridge, since the ships had been
inconsiderately destroyed, nor could any check be offered to the
movements of the strange enemy, whom the glistening brilliancy of their
arms showed to be close at hand; this armour of theirs being singularly
adapted to all the inflections of their body. There was another evil of
no small weight, that the reinforcements which we were expecting to
arrive under the command of Arsaces and some of our own generals, did
not make their appearance, being detained by the causes already
mentioned.

VIII.

Sec. 1. The emperor, to comfort his soldiers who were made anxious by these
events, ordered the prisoners who were of slender make, as the Persians
usually are, and who were now more than usually emaciated, to be brought
before the army; and looking at our men he said, "Behold what those
warlike spirits consider men, little ugly dirty goats; and creatures
who, as many events have shown, throw away their arms and take to flight
before they can come to blows."

2. And when he had said this, and had ordered the prisoners to be
removed, he held a consultation on what was to be done; and after many
opinions of different kinds had been delivered, the common soldiers
inconsiderately crying out that it was best to return by the same way
they had advanced, the emperor steadily opposed this idea, and was
joined by several officers who contended that this could not be done,
since all the forage and crops had been destroyed throughout the plain,
and the remains of the villages which had been burnt were all in
complete destitution, and could afford no supplies; because also the
whole soil was soaked everywhere from the snows of winter, and the
rivers had overflowed their banks and were now formidable torrents.

3. There was this further difficulty, that in those districts where the
heat and evaporation are great, every place is infested with swarms of
flies and gnats, and in such numbers that the light of the sun and of
the stars is completely hidden by them.

4. And as human sagacity was of no avail in such a state of affairs, we
were long in doubt and perplexity; and raising altars and sacrificing
victims we consulted the will of the gods; inquiring whether it was
their will that we should return through Assyria, or advancing slowly
alo