hom they had lost; others being mortally wounded; and
many calling on their different relations whom the crowd prevented them
from discovering.

IX.

Sec. 1. This city had formerly been a very small one, till Constantius
while Caesar, at the same time that he built another town called
Antinopolis, surrounded Amida also with strong towers and stout walls,
that the people in the neighbourhood might have a safe place of refuge.
And he placed there a store of mural engines, making it formidable to
the enemy, as he wished it to be called by his own name.

2. On the southern side it is watered by the Tigris, which passes close
to it, making a kind of elbow: on the east it looks towards the plains
of Mesopotamia, on the north it is close to the river Nymphaeus, and is
overshadowed by the chain of Mount Taurus, which separates the nations
on the other side of the Tigris from Armenia. On the west it borders on
the province of Gumathena, a fertile and well-cultivated district, in
which is a village known as Abarne, celebrated for the healing
properties of its hot springs. But in the very centre of Amida, under
the citadel, there rises a rich spring of water, drinkable indeed, but
often tainted with hot vapours.

3. In the garrison of this town, the fifth or Parthian legion was always
located with a considerable squadron of native cavalry. But at that time
six legions, by forced marches, had outstripped the Persian host in its
advance, and greatly strengthened the garrison: they were the Magnentian
and Decentian legions whom, after the end of the civil war, the emperor
had sent as mutinous and discontented to the East, since there the only
danger was from foreign wars: the tenth, and the thirteenth legion
called the Fretensian:[99] and two legions of light infantry called
praeventores and superventores,[100] with AElian, who was now a count. Of
these latter, when only new recruits, we have already[101] spoken, as
sallying out from Singara at the instigation of this same AElian, then
only one of the guard, and slaying a great number of Persians whom they
had surprised in their sleep.

4. There was also the greater part of the force called companion
archers, being squadrons of cavalry so named, in which all the free-born
barbarians serve, and who are conspicuous among all others for the
splendour of their arms and for their prowess.

X.

Sec. 1. While the first onset of the Persians was by its unexpected
vehemence throw