4. And he also extended his protection to other virgins who, according to Christian rites, had been formally consecrated to the service of God, ordering that they should be kept uninjured, and be allowed to perform the offices of religion as they had been accustomed. Affecting clemency for a time, in order that those who were alarmed at his former ferocity and cruelty might now discard their fears, and come to him of their own accord, learning from these recent examples that he tempered the greatness of his success with humanity and courtesy. [89] It is not known what towns are meant by Castra Herculis and Quadriburgium. [90] Vespasian and Titus. [91] Ammianus was still in attendance on Ursicinus. [92] Homer, Od. xiii. I; translated by Pope-- "He ceased, but left, so pleasing on their ear, His voice, that listening still they seemed to hear." And imitated by Milton, Paradise Lost, ix. 1-- "The angel ended, and in Adam's ear So pleasing left his voice that he awhile Thought him still speaking, still stood fixed to hear." [93] The battle of Hileia took place A.D. 348; that of Singara three years earlier. [94] The Maritza, rising in Mount Hæmus, now the Balkan. [95] Antoninus is meant, as Hadrian was succeeded by Antoninus Pius. [96] Doriscus was the town where Xerxes reviewed and counted his army, as is related by Herodotus, vii. 60. [97] "Ammianus has marked the chronology of this year by three signs which do not perfectly coincide with each other, or with the series of the history:--1. The corn was ripe when Sapor invaded Mesopotamia, 'cum jura stipulâ flavente turgerent'--a circumstance which, in the latitude of Aleppo, would naturally refer us to the month of April or May. 2. The progress of Sapor was checked by the overflowing of the Euphrates, which generally happens in July and August. 3. When Sapor had taken Amida, after a siege of seventy-three days, the autumn was far advanced. 'Autumno præcipiti hædorumque improbo sidere exorto.' To reconcile these apparent contradictions, we must allow for some delay in the Persian king, some inaccuracy in the historian, and some disorder in the seasons."--Gibbon, cap. xix.; ed. Bohn, vol. ii. 320. "Clinton, F.R., i. 442, sees no such difficulty as Gibbon has here supposed; he makes Sapor to have passed the Tigris in May, reached the Euphrates July 8th, arrived before Amida July 27th, and stormed the place October 7th."--Editor of Bohn's ed. [98] That is, in the suburbs of Edessa, as cemeteries in ancient times were usually outside the walls of cities. [99] It is not known what this name is derived from: some read Fortensis, instead of Fretensis, and those who prefer this reading derive it either from Fortis, brave; or from Fortia, a small town of Asiatic Sarmatia. [100] Præventores, or "going before;" superventores, "coming after," as a reserve. [101] In one of the earlier books which has been lost. BOOK XIX. ARGUMENT.