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Often appears with: treaties, truces, and peacemaking · siege and fortification · vulcatius rufinus death · supply, logistics, and encampment · siege of nisibis · siege of amida · roman defense by garrison and bishop · probus prefect · parley and attempted surrender · mygdonius floodworks · missile attack on royal entourage · empire and the rule of provinces
Usually: narrative (3) · detachment (1) · indignation (1) · wonder (1)
“Valentinian, like a deliberate and prudent general, took off his helmet, and reviewed his centuries and maniples, and not having informed any of the nobles of his secret intentions” Ammianus Marcellinus, The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus · observation
“At the stated season of the melting of the snows in Armenia, the River Mygdonius, which divides the plain and the city of Nisibis, forms, like the Nile, an inundation over the adjacent country.” Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire · vivid
King Sapor marches toward Amida with a large army and glittering armor, hoping to frighten the garrison into surrender, but his conspicuous appearance draws arrows and javelins.
ARGUMENT. I. Sapor, while exhorting the citizens of Amida to surrender, is assailed with arrows and javelins by the garrison--And when king Grumbates makes a similar attempt, his son is slain.--II. Amida is blockaded, and within two days is twice assaulted by the Persians.--III. Ursicinus makes a vain proposal to sally out by night, and surprise the besiegers, being resisted by Sabinianus, …
The passage shifts to administrative-personal history: Vulcatius Rufinus dies and Probus is brought from Rome, portrayed as influential, rich, scheming, and morally obstructive; it then pivots to Sapor of Persia seizing Armenia through treachery and sieges tied to Arsaces’ family.
and all the crops which were standing, with the exception of such supplies for their own magazines as the doubtful events of war compelled them to collect and store up. 8. After this the emperor advanced further, with no great speed, till he arrived at a place called Solicinium, where he halted, as if he had suddenly come upon some barrier, being informed by the accurate report of his advanced guard that the barbari…
Sapor of Persia fails to capture Nisibis after three Roman sieges; a flood engineered from the Mygdonius defeats Persian attacks, forcing Sapor to abandon the siege and later seek a truce with Constantius amid civil unrest in the West.
62 (return) [ Libanius, Orat. iii. p. 133, with Julian. Orat. i. p. 24, and Spanneism’s Commentary, p. 179.] Whatever advantages might attend the arms of Sapor in the field, though nine repeated victories diffused among the nations the fame of his valor and conduct, he could not hope to succeed in the execution of his designs, while the fortified towns of Mesopotamia, and, above all, the stro…