h out of the tent and passed at a quick pace through
the army as it was preparing to march.

6. And as the line extended four miles, those in the van hearing some
persons salute Jovian as Augustus, raised the same cry still more
loudly, for they were caught by the relationship, so to say, of the
name, which differed only by one letter from that of Julian, and so they
thought that Julian was recovered and was being led forth with great
acclamations as had often been the case. But when the new emperor, who
was both taller and less upright, was seen, they suspected what had
happened, and gave vent to tears and lamentations.

7. And if any lover of justice should find fault with what was done at
this extreme crisis as imprudent, he might still more justly blame
sailors who, having lost a skilful pilot when both winds and waves are
agitated by a storm, commit the helm of their vessel to some one of
their comrades.

8. This affair having been thus settled by a blind sort of decision of
Fortune, the standard-bearer of the Jovian legion, which Varronianus had
formerly commanded, having had a quarrel with the new emperor while he
was a private individual, because he had been a violent disparager of
his father, now fearing danger at his hand, since he had risen to a
height exceeding any ordinary fortune, fled to the Persians. And having
been allowed to tell what he knew, he informed Sapor, who was at hand,
that the prince whom he dreaded was dead, and that Jovian, who had
hitherto been only an officer of the guards, a man of neither energy nor
courage, had been raised by a mob of camp drudges to a kind of shadow of
the imperial authority.

9. Sapor hearing this news, which he had always anxiously prayed for,
and being elated by this unexpected good fortune, having reinforced the
troops who had fought against us with a strong body of the royal
cavalry, sent them forward with speed to attack the rear of our army.

VI.

Sec. 1. And while these arrangements were being made, the victims and
entrails were inspected on behalf of Jovian, and it was pronounced that
he would ruin everything if he remained in the camp, as he proposed,
but that if he quitted it he would have the advantage.

2. And just as we were beginning our march, the Persians attacked us,
preceded by their elephants. Both our horses and men were at first
disordered by their roaring and formidable onset; but the Jovian and
Herculean legions slew a few of the mon