HKB
XI.
§ 1. These were the events which took place in Gaul, and while they were thus conducted with prudence and good fortune, Constantius, having summoned Arsaces, king of Armenia, and having received him with great courtesy, advised and exhorted him to continue friendly and faithful to us.
For he had heard that the king of Persia had often tried by deceits and threats, and all kinds of stratagems, to induce him to forsake the Roman alliance and join his party.
But he, vowing with many oaths that he would rather lose his life than change his opinion, received ample rewards, and returned to his kingdom with the retinue which he brought with him; and never ventured at any subsequent time to break any of his promises, being bound by many ties of gratitude to Constantius. The strongest tie of all being that the emperor had given him for a wife, Olympias, the daughter of Abladius, formerly prefect of the prætorium, who had once been betrothed to his own brother Constans.
And when Arsaces had been dismissed, Constantius left Cappadocia, and going by Melitina, a town of the lesser Armenia, and Lacotene, and Samosata, he crossed the Euphrates and arrived at Edessa. Stopping some time in each town, while waiting for divisions of soldiers who were flocking in from all quarters, and for sufficient supplies of provisions. And after the autumnal equinox, he proceeded onwards on his way to Amida.
When he approached the walls of that town, and saw everything buried in ashes, he groaned and wept, recollecting what sufferings the wretched city had suffered. And Ursulus, the treasurer, who happened to be present, was moved with indignation, and exclaimed, "Behold the courage with which cities are defended by our soldiers; men for whose pay the whole wealth of the empire is exhausted." This bitter speech the crowd of soldiers afterwards recollected at Chalcedon, when they rose up and destroyed him.
Then proceeding onward in close column, he reached Bezabde, and having fixed his camp there, and fortified it with a rampart and a deep fosse, as he took a long ride round the camp, he satisfied himself, by the account which he received from several persons, that those places in the walls which the carelessness of ancient times had allowed to become decayed, had been repaired so as to be stronger than ever.
And, not to omit anything which was necessary to do before the heat of the contest was renewed, he sent prudent men to the garrison to offer them two conditions; either to withdraw to their own country, giving up what did not belong to them, without causing bloodshed by resistance, or else to become subjects of the Romans, in which case they should receive rank and rewards. But when they, with native obstinacy, resisted the demands as became men of noble birth, who had been hardened by dangers and labours, everything was prepared for the siege.
Therefore the soldiers with alacrity, in dense order, and cheered by the sound of trumpets, attacked every side of the town; and the legions, being protected by various kinds of defences, advanced in safety, endeavouring by slow degrees to overthrow the walls; and because all kinds of missiles were poured down upon them, which disjoined the union of their shields, they fell back, the signal for a retreat being given.
Then a truce was agreed upon for one day; but the day after, having protected themselves more skilfully, they again raised their war-cry, and tried on every side to scale the walls. And although the garrison, having stretched cloths before them not to be distinguished, lay concealed within the walls; still, as often as necessity required, they boldly put out their arms and hurled down stones and javelins on their assailants below.