XIII.

§ 1. During this period the Isaurians, who had been tranquil for some time after the transactions already mentioned, and the attempt to take the city of Seleucia, gradually reviving, as serpents come out of their holes in the warmth of spring, descended from their rocky and pathless jungles, and forming into large troops, harassed their neighbours with predatory incursions; escaping, from their activity as mountaineers, all attempts of the soldiers to take them, and from long use moving easily over rocks and through thickets.

2. So Lauricius was sent among them as governor, with the additional title of count, to reduce them to order by fair means or foul. He was a man of sound civil wisdom, correcting things in general by threats rather than by severity, so that while he governed the province, which he did for some time, nothing happened deserving of particular notice.

[102] Patroclus, the companion of Achilles.

[103] The Trojan war. See the account of the pestilence, Homer Il. i. 50.

[104] _i.e._, +loimôdês+, from +loimos+, pestilence. Pandemic means "attacking the whole people." Epidemic, "spreading from individual to individual."

[105] Ammian alludes to the expedition of Ulysses and Diomede related by Homer, Il. viii.

[106] Ammianus is wrong here; it was only the Thebans who were called +Spartoi+, from +speiro+, to sow, because of the fable of the dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus; the Athenians, who claimed to be earthborn, not called +Spartoi+, but +autochthones+.

[107] A quotation from the description of the foot-race in Virgil, Æn. v. 320.

[108] Salankemen, in Hungary.

## BOOK XX.

ARGUMENT.

I. Lupicinus is sent as commander-in-chief into Britain with an army to check the incursions of the Picts and Scots.--II. Ursicinus, commander of the infantry, is attacked by calumnies, and dismissed.--III. An eclipse of the sun--A discussion on the two suns, and on the causes of solar and lunar eclipses, and the various changes and shapes of the moon.--IV. The Cæsar Julian, against his will, is saluted as emperor at Paris, where he was wintering, by his Gallican soldiers, whom Constantius had ordered to be taken from him, and sent to the East to act against the Persians.--V. He harangues his soldiers.--VI. Singara is besieged and taken by Sapor: the citizens, with the auxiliary cavalry and two legions in garrison, are carried off to Persia--The town is razed to the ground.--VII. Sapor storms the town of Bezabde, which is defended by three legions; repairs it, and places in it a garrison and magazines; he also attacks the fortress of Victa, without success.--VIII. Julian writes to Constantius to inform him of what had taken place at Paris.--IX. Constantius desires Julian to be content with the title of Cæsar; but the Gallican legions unanimously refuse to allow him to be so.--X. The Emperor Julian unexpectedly attacks a Frank tribe, known as the Attuarii, on the other side of the Rhine; slays some, takes others prisoners, and grants peace to the rest, on their petition.--XI. Constantius attacks Bezabde with his whole force, but fails--A discussion on the rainbow.