and death was scattered almost equally.

15. At last the barbarians were beaten down by the ardour of the Romans,
and being disordered and broken, were thrown into complete confusion;
and as they began to retreat they were assailed with great effect by the
spears and javelins of their enemies. Soon the retreat became a flight,
and panting and exhausted, they exposed their backs and the back sinews
of their legs and thighs to their pursuers. After many had been slain,
those who fled fell into the ambuscade laid for them by Sebastian, who
was posted with his reserve at the back of the mountain, and who now
fell unexpectedly on their flank, and slew numbers of them, while the
rest who escaped concealed themselves in the recesses of the woods.

16. In this battle we also suffered no inconsiderable loss. Among those
who fell was Valerian, the first officer of the domestic guards, and one
of the Scutarii, named Natuspardo, a warrior of such pre-eminent courage
that he might be compared to the ancient Sicinius or Sergius.

17. After these transactions, accompanied with this diversity of
fortune, the army went into winter quarters, and the emperor returned to
Treves.

XI.

Sec. 1. About this time, Vulcatius Rufinus died, while filling the office
of prefect of the praetorium, and Probus was summoned from Rome to
succeed him, a man well known to the whole Roman world for the eminence
of his family, and his influence, as well as for his vast riches, for he
possessed a patrimonial inheritance which was scattered over the whole
empire; whether acquired justly or unjustly it is not for us to decide.

2. A certain good fortune, as the poets would represent it, attended him
from his birth, and bore him on her rapid wings, exhibiting him
sometimes as a man of beneficent character, promoting the interests of
his friends, though often also a formidable intriguer, and cruel and
mischievous in the gratification of his enmities. As long as he lived he
had great power, owing to the magnificence of his gifts and to his
frequent possession of office, and yet he was at times timid towards the
bold, though domineering over the timid; so that when full of
self-confidence he appeared to be spouting in the tragic buskin, and
when he was afraid he seemed more abased than the most abject character
in comedy.

3. And as fishes, when removed from their natural element, cannot live
long on the land, so he began to pine when not in some post of a