disordering our columns,
by advancing with great speed he baffled the aim of their arrows; and
after he had given the formal signal for fighting, the Roman infantry,
in close order, beat back the front of the enemy with a vigorous effort.

18. The struggle was fierce, and the clashing of the shields, the din of
the men, and the doleful whistle of the javelins, which continued
without intermission, covered the plains with blood and corpses, the
Persians falling in every direction; and though they were often slack in
fighting, being accustomed chiefly to combat at a distance by means of
missiles, still now foot to foot they made a stout resistance; and when
they found any of their divisions giving way, they retreated like rain
before the wind, still with showers of arrows seeking to deter their
foes from pursuing them. So the Parthians were defeated by prodigious
efforts, till our soldiers, exhausted by the heat of the day, on the
signal for retreat being sounded, returned to their camp, encouraged
for the future to greater deeds of daring.

19. In this battle, as I have said, the loss of the Persians was very
great--ours was very slight. But the most important death in our ranks
was that of Vetranio, a gallant soldier who commanded the legion of
Zianni.[152]

II.

Sec. 1. After this there was an armistice for three days, while the men
attended to their own wounds or those of their friends, during which we
were destitute of supplies, and distressed by intolerable hunger; and
since, as all the corn and forage was burnt, both men and cattle were in
extreme danger of starvation, a portion of the food which the horses of
the tribunes and superior officers were carrying was distributed among
the lower classes of the soldiers, who were in extreme want.

2. And the emperor, who had no royal dainties prepared for himself, but
who was intending to sup under the props of a small tent on a scanty
portion of pulse, such as would often have been despised by a prosperous
common soldier, indifferent to his own comfort, distributed what was
prepared for him among the poorest of his comrades.

3. He gave a short time to anxious and troubled sleep; and when he
awoke, and, as was his custom, began to write something in his tent, in
imitation of Julius Caesar, while the night was still dark, being
occupied with the consideration of the writings of some philosophers, he
saw, as he told his friends, in mournful guise, the vision of th