Page:Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus.djvu/248

 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 praetorium, who had once been betrothed to his own brother Constans.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.