age as he could snatch from the
flames and carry.

11. And having left this spot, when the army had arrived at the district
called Maranx, near daybreak an immense multitude of Persians appeared,
with Merenes, the captain of their cavalry, and two sons of the king,
and many nobles.

12. All the troops were clothed in steel, in such a way that their
bodies were covered with strong plates, so that the hard joints of the
armour fitted every limb of their bodies; and on their heads were
effigies of human faces so accurately fitted, that their whole persons
being covered with metal, the only place where any missiles which fell
upon them could stick, was either where there were minute openings to
allow of the sight of the eyes penetrating, or where holes for breathing
were left at the extremities of the nostrils.

13. Part of them who were prepared to fight with pikes stood immovable,
so that you might have fancied they were held in their places by
fastenings of brass; and next to them the archers (in which art that
nation has always been most skilful from the cradle) bent their supple
bows with widely extended arms, so that the strings touched their right
breasts, while the arrows lay just upon their left hands; and the
whistling arrows flew, let loose with great skill of finger, bearing
deadly wounds.

14. Behind them stood the glittering elephants in formidable array,
whose grim looks our terrified men could hardly endure; while the horses
were still more alarmed at their growl, odour, and unwonted aspect.

15. Their drivers rode on them, and bore knives with handles fastened to
their right hands, remembering the disaster which they had experienced
at Nisibis; and if the ferocious animal overpowered his overseer, they
pierced the spine where the head is joined to the neck with a vigorous
blow, that the beast might not recoil upon their own ranks, as had
happened on that occasion, and trample down their own people; for it was
found out by Hasdrubal, the brother of Hannibal, that in this way these
animals might be very easily deprived of life.

16. The sight of these beasts caused great alarm; and so this most
intrepid emperor, attended with a strong body of his armed cohorts and
many of his chief officers, as the crisis and the superior numbers of
the enemy required, marshalled his troops in the form of a crescent with
the wings bending inwards to encounter the enemy.

17. And to hinder the onset of the archers from