Page:Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus.djvu/548

 their vast and unexpected numbers. These were also supported by a great number of auxiliaries of the Jesalenian tribes, whom we have mentioned as having promised reinforcements and supplies to ourselves.

48. On the other side, the Roman army, though scanty in numbers, nevertheless being full of natural courage, and elated by their past victories, formed into dense columns, and joining their shields firmly together, in the fashion of a testudo, planted their feet firmly in steady resistance; and from sunrise to the close of day the battle was protracted. A little before evening Firmus was seen mounted on a tall horse, expanding his scarlet cloak in order to attract the notice of his soldiers, whom he was exciting with a loud voice at once to deliver up Theodosius, calling him a ferocious and cruel man—an inventor of merciless punishments—as the only means of delivering themselves from the miseries which he was causing them.

49. This unexpected address only provoked some of our men to fight with more vigour than ever, but there were others whom it seduced to desert our ranks. Therefore when the stillness of night arrived, and the country became enveloped in thick darkness, Theodosius returned to the fortress of Duodiense, and, recognizing those soldiers who had been persuaded by fear and Firmus's speech to quit the fight, he put them all to death by different modes of execution; of some he cut off the right hands, other's he burnt alive.

50. And conducting himself with ceaseless care and vigilance, he routed a division of the barbarians who, though afraid to show themselves by day, ventured, after the moon had set, to make an attempt upon his camp: some of those who advanced further than their comrades he took prisoners. Departing from this place, he made a forced march through by-roads to attack the Jesalensians, who had shown themselves disloyal and unfaithful. He could not obtain any supplies from their country, but he ravaged it, and reduced it to complete desolation. Then he passed through the towns of Mauritania, and Caesarensis, and returned to Sitifis, where he put to the torture Castor and Martinianus, who had been the accomplices of Romanus in his rapine and other crimes, and afterwards burnt them.

51. After this the war with the Isaflenses was renewed; and