The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus: During the Reigns of the Emperors Constantius, Julian, Jovianus, Valentinian, and ValensAmmianus Marcellinus
History
The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus: During the Reigns of the Emperors Constantius, Julian, Jovianus, Valentinian, and Valens
Ammianus Marcellinus
Rome -- History -- Empire, 284-476
11. This example showed us that what men call indigenous people are not
sprung from the bowels of the earth, but merely appear unexpectedly by
reason of the speed of their movements: and because they were seen
unexpectedly in various places, they got the name of Sparti,[106] and
were believed to have sprung from the ground, antiquity exaggerating
their renown in a fabulous manner, as it does that of other things.
12. Roused by this sight, since our only hope of safety lay in our
speed, we drew off through the thickets and woods to the high mountains;
and from thence we went to Melitina, a town of the Lesser Armenia, where
we found our chief just on the point of setting off, in whose company we
went on to Antioch.
IX.
§ 1. In the mean time Sapor and the Persians began to think of returning
home, because they feared to penetrate more inland with their prisoners
and booty, now that the autumn was nearly over, and the unhealthy star
of the Kids had arisen.
2. But amid the massacres and plunder of the destroyed city, Ælian the
count, and the tribunes by whose vigour the walls of Amida had been
defended, and the losses of the Persians multiplied, were wickedly
crucified; and Jacobus and Cæsias, the treasurers of the commander of
the cavalry, and others of the band of protectores, were led as
prisoners, with their hands bound behind their backs; and the people of
the district beyond the Tigris, who were diligently sought for, were all
slain without distinction of rank or dignity.
3. But the wife of Craugasius, who, preserving her chastity inviolate,
was treated with the respect due to a high-born matron, was mourning as
if she were to be carried to another world without her husband,
although she had indications afforded her that she might hope for a
higher future.
4. Therefore, thinking of her own interests, and having a wise forecast
of the future, she was torn with a twofold anxiety, loathing both
widowhood and the marriage she saw before her. Accordingly, she secretly
sent off a friend of sure fidelity, and well acquainted with
Mesopotamia, to pass by Mount Izala, between the two forts called Maride
and Lorne, and so to effect his entrance into Nisibis, calling upon her
husband, with urgent entreaties and the revelation of many secrets of
her own private condition, after hearing what the messenger could tell
him, to come to Persia and live happily with her there.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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