n the
hope of cutting off Valens, who had not yet quitted the suburb of
Chalcedon. And they would have succeeded in their attempt if he had not
learnt the imminence of his danger from some rumour, and eluded the
enemy who were pressing on his track, by departing with all speed by a
road lying between the lake Sunon and the winding course of the river
Gallus. And through this circumstance Bithynia also fell into the hands
of Procopius.

4. When Valens had returned by forced marches from this city to Ancyra,
and had learnt that Lupicinus was approaching with no inconsiderable
force from the East, he began to entertain better hopes, and sent
Arinthaeus as his most approved general to encounter the enemy.

5. And when Arinthaeus reached Dadastana, where we have mentioned that
Jovian died, he suddenly saw in his front, Hyperechius, who had
previously been only a subaltern, but who now, as a trusty friend, had
received from Procopius the command of the auxiliary forces. And
thinking it no credit to defeat in battle a man of no renown, relying on
his authority and on his lofty personal stature, he shouted out a
command to the enemy themselves to take and bind their commander; they
obeyed, and so this mere shadow of a general was arrested by the hands
of his own men.

6. In the interim, a man of the name of Venustus, who had been an
officer of the treasury under Valens, and who had some time before been
sent to Nicomedia, to distribute pay to the soldiers who were scattered
over the East, when he heard of this disaster, perceived that the time
was unfavourable for the execution of his commission, and repaired in
haste to Cyzicus with the money which he had with him.

7. There, as it happened, he met Serenianus, who was at that time the
count of the guards, and who had been sent to protect the treasury, and
who now, with a garrison collected in a hurry, had undertaken the
defence of the city, which was impregnable in its walls, and celebrated
also for many ancient monuments, though Procopius, in order, now that he
had got possession of Bithynia, to make himself master of the
Hellespont, had sent a strong force to besiege it.

8. The siege went on slowly; often numbers of the besiegers were wounded
by arrows and bullets, and other missiles; and by the skill of the
garrison a barrier of the strongest iron chain was thrown across the
mouth of the harbour, fastened strongly to the land on each side, to
prevent the ships of the