,

he gave up to the barbarians. For he was captured and became ready prey for the enemy who ran forward; for 2.12. the wretch did not have his back guarded. A little later the Khagan poured the remaining portion of his host into Thrace and had made the invasion through very many places, while the forces of Comentiolus were encamped on the left. For this very reason the Romans hide themselves in the forests of Haemus, and the enemy was passing by to be scattered into very many divisions throughout Thrace. 2.12.10 On the third day Comentiolus assembled the captains and chiliarchs and the most distinguished of the regiment at his own tent and deliberated 2.12.11 what they should do. On the following day, having gathered the cavalry and the infantry and having convened an assembly, he exhorted the gathering not to offer their backs to the barbarians and to consider all things secondary to valor. 2.13.1 But one of the chiliarchs, muttering, stood in the midst and openly disparaged the general’s suggestions, and said that to retreat would be advantageous both for the army itself and for the general, using the following words. 2.13.2 "Men, skilled in war, daring in soul, but when the occasion is an ally and some fortune is favorable to our cause. Men, for whom danger is common, and the 2.13.3 safety of all is undivided. Insofar as cowardice is censured, to that extent does its opposite, rashness, incur blame. But hesitation is the highest limit of prudence, whenever it makes good counsel not a shame, 2.13.4 but moderation a seemliness. But before you deliver with your ears any of my words that have peeked forth from their mother, the heart, dismiss for a little the general’s credibility, lest you somehow block the hearing of your counselors, and he who speaks is forestalled by the interruption as if by a closed door, and 2.13.5 you cast out our words before you have taken them in. For credibility is something powerful in itself, and it has not an acquired strength, but like a rudder it possesses the will, wherever 2.13.6 it wishes steering the hearers. The general exhorts us, men, to resist the enemy, and urges the few to sail head-on against the many, and this even after Castus 2.13.7 has perished. And you are my witnesses that not all are good at drawing up for battle, if I do not cause you some little pain by laying the truth bare for you. For in my view, feigned praise is less honorable than true blame, since events are not slaves to encomia. 2.13.8 Or did not the general just now order the non-combatants to guard the palisade? And these are four thousand men, so that what is lacking is nearly equal to those engaged in fighting, and the non-combatants to the combatants, and the sound 2.13. is a rival to the limping. And I will be silent about how much strength of soul the recent misfortunes destroyed, and how the enemy has shorn away most of the aiding momentum. And if I am not mistaken, greater than the glory that happened a little before 2.13.10 are the failures of the recent disaster. Castus slew many of the barbarians and was recovering the booty for himself; but the barbarian took it back on the following day. And now I will add a most ill-omened sequel: he also seized him and took the soldiers captive and celebrated a glorious triumph. And 2.13.11 it was not possible for Castus, hiding in a grove, to escape notice. And yet an island in a lake concealed the Khagan, and did not betray to Martinus the one lurking there, but like some ineffable 2.13.12 mystery it hid him from the uninitiated. And already those small deeds of valor somehow encourage the emperor, and he would not provide us additional allied assistance, not yet having heard of the more recent 2.13.13 misfortunes. And I know that the disturbances that have recently confounded them will make the enemy more cautious, and that from now on they will practice much precautionary 2.13.14 security because of that small misfortune. I have spoken sufficiently, men, about what is expedient. But for me, fortune

τοῖς βαρβάροις ἀπέδοτο. ἥλω γὰρ καὶ πρόχειρον θήραμα τοῖς προθέουσι τῶν πολεμίων ἐγίνετο· οὐ 2.12. γὰρ τὰ νῶτα διὰ φυλακῆς εἶχεν ὁ δείλαιος. μετ' ὀλίγον δ' ὁ Χαγάνος καὶ τὴν λοιπὴν τοῦ πλήθους ἀπόμοιραν τῇ Θρᾴκῃ προσέχεε διὰ πλείστων τε τόπων τὴν εἴσβασιν ἐπεποίητο, σκαιόθεν δ' οἱ ἀμφὶ τὸν Κομεντίολον ἐστρατοπεδεύοντο. διά τοι τοῦτο ἀποκρύπτονται οἱ ῾Ρωμαῖοι πρὸς ταῖς ὕλαις τοῦ Αἵμου, τό τε πολέμιον παρῄει εἰς πλείστας ἀνὰ τὴν Θρᾴκην 2.12.10 διασπείρεσθαι μοίρας. τρίτῃ δ' ἡμέρᾳ ὁ Κομεντίολος τοὺς λοχαγοὺς καὶ χιλιάρχους τούς τε ἐπιεικεστάτους τοῦ συντάγματος ἐπὶ τὸ ἑαυτοῦ συνήλιζε σκηνοπήγιον καὶ συνεκοινοῦτο 2.12.11 ὅ τι καὶ μέλλοι ἂν δράσειν. τῇ δ' ὑστεραίᾳ τούς τε ἱππεῖς καὶ τὸ πεζικὸν συναθροίσας ἐκκλησίαν τε ἀγείρας παρενεγύα τῷ συλλόγῳ μὴ τὰ νῶτα τοῖς βαρβάροις παρέχεσθαι δεύτερά τε πάντα τῆς ἀρετῆς διατίθεσθαι. 2.13.1 τονθορύζων δέ τις τῶν χιλιάρχων ἐς μέσον ἔστη ἀπερικαλύπτως τε τοῦ στρατηγοῦ τὰς ὑποθήκας διέχεεν, εἰς τοὐπίσω δ' ἀναρρεῖν ἔφασκε συνοίσειν αὐτῇ τε τῇ στρατιᾷ καὶ τῷ στρατηγῷ, τοῖσδε τοῖς λόγοις χρησάμενος. 2.13.2 "῎Ανδρες τεχνῖται τὸν πόλεμον, τολμηταὶ τὰς ψυχάς, ἀλλ' ὅτε καιρὸς συμμαχεῖ καὶ τύχη τίς ἐστι τοῖς ἡμετέροις ἐπίρροπος. ἄνδρες, παρ' οἷς κοινὸς μὲν ὁ κίνδυνος, ἡ δὲ 2.13.3 σωτηρία ἁπάντων ἀμέριστος. ὁπόσον ἡ δειλία κακίζεται, ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον ἔχει ψόγον τὸ θράσος ἀντίθετον. ὄκνος δὲ φρονήσεως ὅρος ἀκρότατος, ὅταν οὐκ αἰσχύνην τὴν εὐβουλίαν, 2.13.4 ἀλλ' εὐσχημοσύνην τὴν σωφροσύνην ποιήσηται. ἀλλὰ πρίν τι τῶν ἐμῶν ῥημάτων ἐκ τῆς ἑαυτῶν μητρὸς τῆς καρδίας προκύψαν καὶ τοῖς ὠσὶ τοῖς ὑμετέροις μαιεύσησθε, τοῦ στρατηγοῦ τὴν ἀξιοπιστίαν μικρὸν ἀποπέμψασθε, μή πως τῶν βουλευτῶν τὴν ἀκοὴν διαβύσητε, καὶ προφθάσῃ ὥσπερ θύρᾳ τινὶ κεκλεισμένῃ τῇ ἐγκοπῇ τὸν φθεγγόμενον, καὶ 2.13.5 τοὺς ἡμετέρους πρὶν εἰσοικίσησθε ἀποβάλησθε λόγους. ἀξιοπιστία γὰρ αὐτοδυνατόν τι χρῆμα, καὶ τὴν ἰσχὺν οὐκ ἐπίκτητον ἔχει, ἀλλ' οἷα πηδάλιον τὸ βούλημα κέκτηται, ὅποι 2.13.6 καὶ θέλει τοὺς ἀκούοντας οἰακίζουσα. ἀντιτείνειν, ἄνδρες, ὁ στρατηγὸς τῷ πολεμίῳ παρεγγυᾷ, καὶ ἀντιπρώρους πλεῖν τοὺς ὀλίγους τοῖς πλείοσιν ἐγκελεύεται, καὶ ταῦτα καὶ Κάστου 2.13.7 διολωλότος. ὑμεῖς δέ μοι καὶ μάρτυρες, ὡς μὴ πάντες ἀγαθοὶ παρατάττεσθαι, εἰ μή γε λυπῶ μικρόν τι διαγυμνώσας ὑμῖν τὴν ἀλήθειαν. παρ' ἐμοὶ γὰρ ἐπίπλαστος ἔπαινος ἀληθοῦς ἀτιμότερος ψόγου, ἐπεὶ μηδὲ δουλεύει τοῖς ἐγκωμίοις τὰ 2.13.8 πράγματα. ἢ οὐχὶ τὸν χάρακα ὁ στρατηγὸς ἔναγχος τοῖς ἀπομάχοις περιφρουρεῖν διετάξατο; ἄνδρες δ' οὗτοι τετρακισχίλιοι, ὡς μικροῦ δεῖν τὸ λεῖπον τοῖς συμπλεκομένοις ἰσάζεσθαι καὶ τοῖς ἀγωνισταῖς τὸ ἀπόμαχον, τό τε ὑγιὲς 2.13. ἐφάμιλλον εἶναι τῷ σκάζοντι. σιωπήσομαι δὲ καὶ ὅσην τῆς ψυχῆς εὐρωστίαν διώλεσε τὰ πρὸ μικροῦ δυστυχήματα, ὅπως τε πλείστην ἐπίκουρον ῥοπὴν ἀπέκειρε τὸ πολέμιον. καὶ εἰ μὴ σφάλλομαι, μείζονα τῆς πρὸ μικροῦ συμβάσης εὐκλείας 2.13.10 τὰ τῆς ὑπογύου συμφορᾶς ἀποτεύγματα. ἀνεῖλε Κάστος τῶν βαρβάρων πολλοὺς καὶ τὴν λείαν ὡς αὑτὸν ἀνελάμβανεν· ἀλλ' ἀνθεῖλε ταύτην τῇ ὑστεραίᾳ ὁ βάρβαρος. νῦν δὲ καὶ δυσφημότατον ἐπιμύθιον λέξω· κἀκεῖνον συνέλαβε τούς τε στρατιώτας ἐζώγρησε καὶ θρίαμβον ἔνδοξον ἀνεδήσατο. καὶ 2.13.11 λαθεῖν ἐν ἄλσει κρυπτόμενον τὸν Κάστον οὐκ ἦν. καίτοι τὸν Χαγάνον λιμναζομένη νῆσος ἐκάλυπτεν, καὶ οὐκ ἐξεῖπε Μαρτίνῳ τὸν ἐμφωλεύοντα, ἀλλ' οἷα μυστήριόν τι ἀπόρ2.13.12 ρητον τοὺς ἀμυήτους ἀπέκρυπτεν. ἤδη δὲ καὶ βασιλέα τὰ μικρά πως ἐκεῖνα ψυχαγωγοῦσιν ἀνδραγαθήματα, κοὐκ ἂν ἐπίθετον ἡμῖν σύμμαχον προσχέῃ βοήθειαν μήπω τῶν νεωτέρων 2.13.13 ἀτυχημάτων αἰσθόμενος. οἶδα δ' ὅτι καὶ τὸ πολέμιον προμηθέστερον ἀπεργάσονται οἱ ἔναγχος αὐτὸ περιστροβήσαντες θόρυβοι, καὶ πολλὴν λοιπὸν τὴν προφυλακτικὴν 2.13.14 ἀσυλίαν ἀσκήσειε διὰ τὸ μικρὸν ἐκεῖνο δυστύχημα. ἀποχρώντως ὑπὲρ τοῦ συνοίσοντος, ἄνδρες, διείλεγμαι. ἐμοὶ δὲ τύχη