before), and having given him his hand and embraced him, he said, while
both armies were equally astonished.

16. "And is this the end of the ancient fidelity of the Roman armies,
and of the oaths taken under the strictest obligations of religion! Have
you decided, O gallant men, to use your swords in defence of strangers,
and that a degenerate Pannonian should undermine and upset everything,
and so enjoy a sovereign power which he never even ventured to picture
to himself in his prayers, while we lament over your ill-fortune and our
own. Follow rather the race of your own noble princes which is now in
arms, not with the view of seizing what does not belong to it, but with
the hope of recovering its ancestral possessions and hereditary
dignities."

17. All were propitiated by this conciliatory speech, and those who had
come with the intention of fighting now readily lowered their standards
and eagles, and of their own accord came over to him; instead of
uttering their fearful yells, they unanimously saluted Procopius
emperor, and escorted him to his camp, calling Jupiter to witness, after
their military fashion, that Procopius should prove invincible.

VIII.

Sec. 1. Another fortunate circumstance occurred to swell the prosperity of
the rebels. A tribune named Rumitalca, who had joined the partisans of
Procopius, having been intrusted with the guard of the palace, digested
a plan, and after mingling with the soldiers, passed over by sea to the
town formerly known as Drepanum, but now as Helenopolis, and thence
marched upon Nicaea, and made himself master of it before any one dreamt
of such a step.

2. Valens sent Vadomarius, who had formerly been duke and king of the
Allemanni, with a body of troops experienced in that kind of work, to
besiege Nicaea, and proceeded himself to Nicomedia; and passing on from
that city, he pressed the siege of Chalcedon with all his might; but the
citizens poured reproaches on him from the walls, calling him
Sabaiarius, or beer-drinker. Now Sabai is a drink made of barley or
other grain, and is used only by poor people in Illyricum.

3. At last, being worn out by the scarcity of supplies and the exceeding
obstinacy of the garrison, he was preparing to raise the siege, when the
garrison who were shut up in Nicaea suddenly opened the gates and issued
forth, destroying a great portion of the works of the besiegers, and
under the command of the faithful Rumitalca hastened on eagerly i