velut spatium insulare fingentes. Ammian. xxiii. 5.]

[Footnote 43: The enterprise and armament of Julian are described
by himself, (Epist. xxvii.,) Ammianus Marcellinus, (xxiii. 3, 4, 5,)
Libanius, (Orat. Parent. c. 108, 109, p. 332, 333,) Zosimus, (l. iii.
p. 160, 161, 162) Sozomen, (l. vi. c. l,) and John Malala, (tom. ii. p.
17.)]

From the moment that the Romans entered the enemy's country, [44] the
country of an active and artful enemy, the order of march was disposed
in three columns. [45] The strength of the infantry, and consequently of
the whole army was placed in the centre, under the peculiar command
of their master-general Victor. On the right, the brave Nevitta led a
column of several legions along the banks of the Euphrates, and almost
always in sight of the fleet. The left flank of the army was protected
by the column of cavalry. Hormisdas and Arinthaeus were appointed
generals of the horse; and the singular adventures of Hormisdas [46]
are not undeserving of our notice. He was a Persian prince, of the royal
race of the Sassanides, who, in the troubles of the minority of
Sapor, had escaped from prison to the hospitable court of the great
Constantine. Hormisdas at first excited the compassion, and at length
acquired the esteem, of his new masters; his valor and fidelity raised
him to the military honors of the Roman service; and though a Christian,
he might indulge the secret satisfaction of convincing his ungrateful
country, than at oppressed subject may prove the most dangerous enemy.
Such was the disposition of the three principal columns. The front and
flanks of the army were covered by Lucilianus with a flying detachment
of fifteen hundred light-armed soldiers, whose active vigilance observed
the most distant signs, and conveyed the earliest notice, of any hostile
approach. Dagalaiphus, and Secundinus duke of Osrhoene, conducted
the troops of the rear-guard; the baggage securely proceeded in the
intervals of the columns; and the ranks, from a motive either of use
or ostentation, were formed in such open order, that the whole line of
march extended almost ten miles. The ordinary post of Julian was at the
head of the centre column; but as he preferred the duties of a general
to the state of a monarch, he rapidly moved, with a small escort of
light cavalry, to the front, the rear, the flanks, wherever his presence
could animate or protect the march of the Roman army. The country which
they traversed f