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suddenly fell upon the camp. 1.15.8 And the barbarians, dismayed by the unexpectedness of it, no longer looked to their defence, but fled as each one could. Thereupon the Romans, having killed many and plundered the camp, immediately rode back. 1.15.9 And Mermeroes, having gathered the whole army, not long afterwards invaded the land of the Romans, and they find the enemy near the city of Satala. There, having made camp in a place called Octaba, they remained quiet, which is fifty-six stades 1.15.10 distant from the city. Sittas, therefore, leading a thousand men with him, was hiding behind some of the hills, many of which surround the city of Satala, 1.15.11 which lies in a plain. And he ordered Dorotheus with the rest of the army to remain inside the circuit-wall, since on level ground they thought they were by no means able to withstand the enemy, who were not less than thirty thousand, 1.15.12 while they themselves barely reached half that number. But on the following day the barbarians, having come very near the circuit-wall, were eager to make a certain encirclement of it. But suddenly catching sight of the men with Sittas already coming down from a height against them, and being quite unable to gauge their number, since a great cloud of dust was stirred up in the summer season, they thought they were many more and, having quickly given up the encirclement, into some small 1.15.13 space they hastened to gather themselves. But the Romans, getting there first and dividing themselves into two divisions, attacked those withdrawing from the circuit-wall; and when the whole Roman army saw this, they took courage and, streaming out from the circuit-wall at a great run, advanced against the 1.15.14 enemy. and having placed them in the middle, they put them to flight. In number, however, as has been said, the barbarians, being superior to the enemy, still held out, and the battle had become fierce and was hand-to-hand; 1.15.15 and both sides were making short-wheeling pursuits against each other, since they were all cavalry. At this point Florentius the Thracian, a commander of a cavalry detachment, having charged into the midst of the enemy and seized their general's standard, and having bent it down as much as possible, 1.15.16 rode back. And he, having been caught and cut to pieces, fell there, but he became the chief cause of the victory for the Romans. For when the barbarians no longer saw the standard, having fallen into great disorder and terror, they withdrew and, having reached their camp, remained quiet, having lost many in the battle. 1.15.17 And on the next day they all withdrew homewards with no one pursuing them, since it seemed a great and very noteworthy thing to the Roman army that so numerous a host of barbarians, after having suffered in their own land those things which have been related by me a little before, and after having invaded the enemy's land, had departed both without success and thus defeated by a smaller force. 1.15.18 At that time the Romans also took Persian districts in Persarmenia, both the fortress of Bolum and that called Pharangium, from which the Persians mine gold and bring it to their king. 1.15.19 And a little before they had also subdued the Tzanic nation, who had been settled as an independent people in Roman territory from of old; which things, in what manner they were accomplished, will immediately 1.15.20 be told. For one going from the districts of Armenia into Persarmenia, on the right is the Taurus, extending both to Iberia and the nations there, as has been related by me a little before, and on the left the road becomes a continuous and very long descent as one proceeds, and exceedingly precipitous mountains hang overhead, covered with clouds and snow for all time, 1.15.21 from which the Phasis River comes forth and flows to the land of Colchis. Here from the beginning dwelt barbarians, the Tzanic nation, subject to no one, called Sani in earlier times, practicing robbery against the neighboring Romans, having an exceedingly hard way of life and always living off their plunder. 1.15.22 For the land bore them nothing good for food; for which reason indeed the Roman emperor used to send them a fixed amount of gold every year, on the condition that they would never plunder the 1.15.23 districts there. And they, swearing their ancestral oaths concerning these things and the things sworn in

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στρατοπέδῳ ἐκ 1.15.8 τοῦ αἰφνιδίου ἐπέστησαν. οἵ τε βάρβαροι τῷ ἀπροσδοκήτῳ καταπλαγέντες οὐκέτι ἐς ἀλκὴν ἔβλεπον, ἀλλ' ἔφευγον ὡς ἕκαστός πη ἐδύνατο. ἐνταῦθα Ῥωμαῖοι κτείναντές τε συχνοὺς καὶ τὸ στρατόπεδον ληισάμενοι αὐτίκα δὴ ὀπίσω ἀπήλαυνον. 1.15.9 Μερμερόης τε ξύμπασαν ἀγείρας τὴν στρατιὰν οὐ πολλῷ ὕστερον ἐς γῆν τὴν Ῥωμαίων ἐσέβαλλε, καὶ καταλαμβάνουσι τοὺς πολεμίους ἀμφὶ Σάταλαν πόλιν. οὗ δὴ ἐνστρατοπεδευσάμενοι ἐν χωρίῳ Ὀκτάβῃ ἡσύχαζον, ὅπερ τῆς πόλεως ἕξ τε καὶ πεντήκοντα σταδίους 1.15.10 ἀπέχει. Σίττας μὲν οὖν χιλίους ἐπαγαγόμενος ὄπισθεν τῶν τινος λόφων ἐκρύπτετο, οἷοι πολλοὶ Σάταλαν τὴν 1.15.11 πόλιν ἐν πεδίῳ κειμένην κυκλοῦσι. ∆ωρόθεον δὲ ξὺν τῷ ἄλλῳ στρατῷ ἐντὸς τοῦ περιβόλου ἐκέλευε μένειν, ἐπεὶ ἐν τῷ ὁμαλῷ τοὺς πολεμίους ὑφίστασθαι οἷοί τε εἶναι οὐδαμῆ ᾤοντο, οὐχ ἧσσον ἢ τρισμυρίους ὄντας, 1.15.12 αὐτοὶ μόλις ἐς τὸ ἥμισυ ἐξικνούμενοι. τῇ δὲ ἐπιούσῃ ἡμέρᾳ οἱ βάρβαροι ἄγχιστα τοῦ περιβόλου γενόμενοι κύκλωσιν αὐτοῦ ποιεῖσθαί τινα ἐν σπουδῇ εἶχον. ἄφνω δὲ κατιδόντες τοὺς ἀμφὶ Σίτταν ἐξ ὑψηλοῦ ἤδη ἐπ' αὐτοὺς καταβαίνοντας, καὶ αὐτῶν ξυμμετρεῖσθαι τὸ πλῆθος ἥκιστα ἔχοντες, ἅτε κονιορτοῦ ὥρᾳ θέρους πολλοῦ ἐγκειμένου, πολλῷ τε πλείους ᾤοντο εἶναι καὶ τῆς κυκλώσεως κατὰ τάχος ἀφέμενοι ἐς ὀλίγον τινὰ 1.15.13 χῶρον αὑτοὺς ξυναγαγεῖν ἠπείγοντο. φθάσαντες δὲ Ῥωμαῖοι καὶ διελόντες σφᾶς αὐτοὺς ἐς ξυμμορίας δύο ἀναχωροῦσιν ἐκ τοῦ περιβόλου ἐπέθεντο, ὅπερ ἐπειδὴ ἅπας εἶδεν ὁ Ῥωμαίων στρατὸς, ἐθάρσησάν τε καὶ δρόμῳ πολλῷ ἐκ τοῦ περιβόλου ξυρρέοντες ἐπὶ τοὺς 1.15.14 ἐναντίους ἐχώρησαν. μέσους δὲ αὐτοὺς καταστησάμενοι εἰς φυγὴν ἔτρεψαν. πλήθει μέντοι, ὥσπερ ἐρρήθη, τῶν πολεμίων οἱ βάρβαροι ὑπεραίροντες ἔτι ἀντεῖχον, ἥ τε μάχη καρτερὰ ἐγεγόνει καὶ ἐκ χειρὸς 1.15.15 ἦν· ἀγχιστρόφους δὲ τὰς διώξεις ἐποιοῦντο ἐς ἀλλήλους ἑκάτεροι, ἐπεὶ ἱππεῖς ἅπαντες ἦσαν. ἐνταῦθα Φλωρέντιος Θρᾷξ, καταλόγου ἱππικοῦ ἄρχων, εἰς μέσους ὁρμήσας τοὺς πολεμίους καὶ αὐτῶν τὸ στρατηγικὸν σημεῖον ἁρπάσας, ἐπικλίνας τε αὐτὸ ὡς μάλιστα, 1.15.16 ὀπίσω ἀπήλαυνε. καὶ αὐτὸς μὲν καταληφθείς τε καὶ κρεουργηθεὶς αὐτοῦ ἔπεσε, τῆς δὲ νίκης Ῥωμαίοις αἰτιώτατος γέγονεν. ἐπεὶ γὰρ τὸ σημεῖον οἱ βάρβαροι οὐκέτι ἑώρων, ἐς ἀκοσμίαν τε πολλὴν καὶ ὀρρωδίαν ἐμπεπτωκότες ὑπεχώρησάν τε καὶ γενόμενοι ἐν τῷ στρατοπέδῳ ἡσύχαζον, πολλοὺς ἐν τῇ μάχῃ ἀποβαλόν1.15.17 τες. τῇ τε ὑστεραίᾳ ἐπ' οἴκου ἅπαντες ἀνεχώρησαν οὐδενὸς σφίσιν ἐπισπομένου, ἐπεὶ μέγα τε καὶ λόγου πολλοῦ ἄξιον ἐφαίνετο εἶναι τῷ Ῥωμαίων στρατῷ βαρβάρους τοσούτους τὸ πλῆθος ἔν τε τῇ σφετέρᾳ χώρᾳ ἐκεῖνα πεπονθέναι ἅπερ μοι ὀλίγῳ ἔμπροσθεν εἴρηται, καὶ ἐς τὴν πολεμίαν ἐμβεβληκότας ἀπράκτους τε καὶ οὕτω πρὸς τῶν ἐλασσόνων ἡσσημένους ἀπαλλαγῆναι. 1.15.18 Τότε καὶ Περσῶν χωρία ἐν Περσαρμενίοις Ῥωμαῖοι ἔσχον φρούριόν τε τὸ Βῶλον καὶ τὸ Φαράγγιον καλούμενον, ὅθεν δὴ τὸν χρυσὸν Πέρσαι ὀρύσσοντες 1.15.19 βασιλεῖ φέρουσιν. ἐτύγχανον δὲ καὶ ὀλίγῳ πρότερον καταστρεψάμενοι τὸ Τζανικὸν ἔθνος, οἳ ἐν γῇ τῇ Ῥωμαίων αὐτόνομοι ἐκ παλαιοῦ ἵδρυντο· ἅπερ αὐτίκα 1.15.20 ὅντινα ἐπράχθη τρόπον λελέξεται. ἐκ τῶν Ἀρμενίας χωρίων ἐς Περσαρμενίαν ἰόντι ἐν δεξιᾷ μὲν ὁ Ταῦρός ἐστιν, ἔς τε Ἰβηρίαν καὶ τὰ ἐκείνῃ ἔθνη διήκων, ὥσπερ μοι ὀλίγῳ ἔμπροσθεν εἴρηται, ἐν ἀριστερᾷ δὲ κατάντης μὲν ἐπὶ πλεῖστον ἀεὶ προϊοῦσα ἡ ὁδὸς γίνεται, καὶ ὄρη ἀποκρέμαται λίαν ἀπότομα νεφέλαις τε 1.15.21 καὶ χιόσι κεκαλυμμένα τὸν πάντα αἰῶνα, ἔνθεν ἐξιὼν ποταμὸς Φᾶσις φέρεται ἐς γῆν τὴν Κολχίδα. ταύτῃ τὸ ἐξ ἀρχῆς βάρβαροι, τὸ Τζανικὸν ἔθνος, οὐδενὸς κατήκοοι ᾤκηντο, Σάνοι ἐν τοῖς ἄνω χρόνοις καλούμενοι, λῃστείαις μὲν χρώμενοι ἐς τοὺς περιοίκους Ῥωμαίους, δίαιταν δὲ σκληρὰν ὑπερφυῶς ἔχοντες καὶ τοῖς φωρίοις ἀεὶ ἀποζῶν1.15.22 τες. οὐ γάρ τι ἐς βρῶσιν αὐτοῖς ἀγαθὸν ἡ γῆ ἔφερε· διὸ δὴ αὐτοῖς χρυσίον τακτὸν ἀνὰ πᾶν ἔτος ὁ Ῥωμαίων βασιλεὺς ἔπεμπεν, ἐφ' ᾧ δὴ μήποτε ληίσονται τὰ 1.15.23 ἐκείνῃ χωρία. οἱ δὲ καὶ ὅρκους τοὺς σφίσι πατρίους ὑπὲρ τούτων ὀμνύντες καὶ τὰ ὀμωμοσμένα ἐν