Educatus enim in medio, ut rerum omnium gnarus, auditorum nanctus vegetos sensus, et aurium delenimenta captantes, nec laudantium, sed secundum Homericos Phaeacas cum silentio admirantium, iam inde quadragesimi anni memoriam replicabat, post bellorum assiduos casus, et maxime apud Hileiam et Singaram, ubi acerrima illa nocturna concertatione pugnatum est, nostrorum copiis ingenti strage confossis, quasi dirimente quodam medio fetiali, Persas nondum Edessam nec pontes Euphratis tetigisse victores quos armipotentia fretos, successibusque magnificis, ita dilatasse decuerat regna, ut toti Asia imperarent, eo maxime tempore quo diuturnis bellorum civilium motibus, sanguis utrimque Romani roboris fundebatur.
For having been brought up in their midst, as a man well informed on all matters, finding eager hearers, desirous of having their ears tickled, who did not praise him but like Homers Phaeacians admired him in silence, he would rehearse the history of the past forty years. He showed that after constant successes in war, especially at Hileia and Singara, where that furious contest at night took place and our troops were cut to pieces with great carnage, as if some fetial priest were intervening to stop the fight, the Persians did not yet reach Edessa nor the bridges of the Euphrates, in spite of being victorious; whereas trusting to their prowess and their splendid successes, they ought so to have extended their kingdom as to rule over all Asia, especially at a time when through the continual commotions of civil wars Romes stoutest soldiers were shedding their blood on two sides.
final_alignments\Ammianus_Marcellinus_Book18.json