Chap. XLVII.

So the two armies drew nigh; the trumpets gave the signal; the military ensigns advanced; the troops of Licinius charged. But the enemies, panic-struck, could neither draw their swords nor yet throw their javelins. Daia went about, and, alternately by entreaties and promises, attempted to seduce the soldiers of Licinius. But he was not hearkened to in any quarter, and they drove him back. Then were the troops of Daia slaughtered, none making resistance; and such numerous legions, and forces so mighty, were mowed down by an inferior enemy. No one called to mind his reputation, or former valour, or the honourable rewards which had been conferred on him. The Supreme God did so place their necks under the sword of their foes, that they seemed to have entered the field, not as combatants, but as men devoted to death. After great numbers had fallen, Daia perceived that everything went contrary to his hopes; and therefore he threw aside the purple, and having put on the habit of a slave, hasted across the Thracian Bosphorus. One half of his army perished in battle, and the rest either surrendered to the victor or fled; for now that the emperor himself had deserted, there seemed to be no shame in desertion. Before the expiration of the kalends of May, Daia arrived at Nicomedia, although distant one hundred and sixty miles from the field of battle. So in the space of one day and two nights he performed that journey. Having hurried away with his children and wife, and a few officers of his court, he went towards Syria; but having been joined by some troops from those quarters, and having collected together a part of his fugitive forces, he halted in Cappadocia, and then he resumed the imperial garb.  

XLVII. 0266A Ergo propius acceditur, tubae canunt, signa procedunt. Liciniani, impetu facto, adversarios invadunt. Illi vero perterriti, nec gladios expedire, nec tela jacere quiverunt. Maximinus aciem circumire, ac milites Licinianos nunc precibus sollicitare, nunc donis. Nullo loco auditur. Fit impetus in eum, et ad suos refugit. Caedebatur acies ejus impune, et tantus numerus legionum, tanta vis militum a paucis metebatur. Nemo nominis, nemo virtutis, nemo veterum praemiorum memor; quasi ad devotam mortem, non ad praelium venissent, sic eos Deus summus jugulandos subjecit inimicis. Jam strata erat ingens multitudo. Videt Maximinus aliter rem geri quam putabat. Projecit purpuram, et sumpta veste servili 0266B fugit, ac fretum trajecit: at in exercitu pars dimidia prostrata est, pars autem vel dedita, vel in fugam versa est. Ademerat enim pudorem deserendi desertor imperator. At ille kalendis maiis, id est, una nocte atque una die, Nicomediam alia nocte pervenit, 0267A cum locus praelii abesset millia centum sexaginta; raptisque filiis et uxore, et paucis ex palatio comitibus, petivit Orientem. Sed in Cappadocia, collectis ex fuga et ab Oriente militibus, substitit. Ita vestem resumpsit.