e of Persians, five
ranks deep, surrounded the entire city, and supported the auxiliary
detachments. The entire besieging army was estimated at a hundred
thousand men; the besieged, including the unarmed multitude, were under
30,000. After the pause of an entire day, the first general attack was
made. Grumbates gave the signal for the assault by hurling a bloody
spear into the space before the walls, after the fashion of a Roman
fetialis. A cloud of darts and arrows from every side followed the
flight of this weapon, and did severe damage to the besieged, who were
at the same time galled with discharges from Roman military engines,
taken by the Persians in some capture of Singara, and now employed
against their former owners. Still a vigorous resistance continued to be
made, and the besiegers, in their exposed positions, suffered even more
than the garrison; so that after two days the attempt to carry the city
by general assault was abandoned, and the slow process of a regular
siege was adopted. Trenches were opened at the usual distance from
the walls, along which the troops advanced under the cover of hurdles
towards the ditch, which they proceeded to fill up in places. Mounds
were then thrown up against the walls; and movable towers were
constructed and brought into play, guarded externally with iron, and
each mounting a balista. It was impossible long to withstand these
various weapons of attack. The hopes of the besieged lay, primarily, in
their receiving relief from without by the advance of an army capable
of engaging their assailants and harassing them or driving them off;
secondarily, in successful sallies, by means of which they might destroy
the enemy's works and induce him to retire from before the place.

There existed, in the neighborhood of Amida, the elements of a relieving
army, under the command of the new prefect of the East, Sabinianus.
Had this officer possessed an energetic and enterprising character,
he might, without much difficulty, have collected a force of light and
active soldiers, which might have hung upon the rear of the Persians,
intercepted their convoys, cut off their stragglers, and have even made
an occasional dash upon their lines. Such was the course of conduct
recommended by Ursicinus, the second in command, whom Sabinianus had
recently superseded; but the latter was jealous of his subordinate,
and had orders from the Byzantine court to keep him unemployed. He
was himself old and r