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having recalled him and reinforcing him with a Roman force, he orders him to help Singidunum. 7.11.7 But Guduin sails towards Singidunum; for Singidunum is embraced by two rivers, both the Saos and the Draos. But when the barbarians around Singidunum saw that Roman forces had built ships, they drew up their wagons before the 7.11.8 town and blockaded the city. Therefore the barbarians, not withstanding the attack of the Romans and at the same time fearing the people of the city, turned to flight. Thus, then, Priscus saved a people in distress. On the second day the Romans surrounded the city 7.11. with walls. But the Chagan was embittered at these things, and with his heart mortified he sent messengers to Priscus, openly breaking the truce. On the tenth day, the barbarian, having gathered the forces around him, gave the trumpet signal for a campaign against the Ionian gulf. 7.12.1 Around these places the land of Dalmatia is situated. Therefore the barbarian, after making sufficient entrenchments, proceeded to the so-called Bonkeis, and having reduced the city with siege 7.12.2 engines he sacked forty forts. But the general, having heard of these terrible things, armed Guduin with two thousand fighting men and sent him out to spy on what was being done. Guduin therefore, taking the elite of the heavy-armed troops, 7.12.3 began the journey. Guduin therefore avoided the main roads and made his march through difficult country and unknown paths, so that if some enemy force appeared and hordes of barbarians swept down on him, he would not come to the ultimate disaster. And so, having come near the barbarians, he sees from a certain vantage point multitudes of people 7.12.4 passing by. Therefore, sending out thirty foot soldiers, he orders them to track the enemy. And so the Romans made their march by some roundabout ways. Therefore, during the second watch of the night, they lay in ambush as if 7.12.5 in some secret place, tracking the barbarian force. Hiding therefore in the woods, and as the night was passing its midpoint, the Romans with courage of soul came upon the sleeping 7.12.6 barbarians. At two points, having chanced upon three men suffering from a hangover and being very drunk, they captured them alive and, having interrogated them as was possible, they learned all the enemy's plans. The Romans therefore, having put them in bonds, sent them alive to Guduin. 7.12.7 Guduin the commander, having learned from them that the Chagan had reinforced the guard of the booty with two thousand armed men, was pleased at the news; and so he hides himself in 7.12.8 a certain ravine. The barbarians therefore were escorting the booty in broad daylight, but Guduin, getting behind them and suddenly attacking with the spear, destroyed them all, and having recovered the booty, he brought it to Priscus with a magnanimous 7.12. spirit. But the Chagan, having learned of this failure, was cast down with great despondency. For eighteen months therefore and more, by the Romans and the barbarians encamped along the Ister, nothing worthy of record was accomplished. 7.12.10 But when the nineteenth year of the emperor arrived, a foretelling of future events occurred, and the common sufferings of the world are confessed; for a certain man who had departed from this world, and in ascetic practice had partaken of the vision of secret things, and had been inclined to the solitary life, drawing a broadsword, ran armed with the sword from the so-called Forum (and this is one of the famous places of the city) as far as the forecourts of the palace, at the same time proclaiming that the emperor would die with his 7.12.11 children by the slaughter of the sword. It was the summer season, and the story goes that Herodian openly announced the failures to the emperor Maurice; but the man <οὐκ> insisted that the things of the prophecy had been revealed to him outside of a divine utterance. 7.13.1 And so in

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μετάκλητον ποιησάμενος καὶ ῾Ρωμαϊκῇ τοῦτον περιφράξας δυνάμει τῇ Σιγγηδόνι βοηθεῖν 7.11.7 ἐγκελεύεται. ἀτὰρ ὁ Γούδουϊς ἐπὶ τὴν Σιγγηδόνα ναυτίλλεται· τὴν γὰρ Σιγγηδόνα δύο ποταμοὶ ἀγκαλίζονται, ὅ τε Σάος καὶ ∆ράος. ἐπεὶ δὲ οἱ περὶ τὴν Σιγγηδόνα βάρβαροι ῾Ρωμαϊκὰς δυνάμεις ναυπηγησαμένας κατεῖδον, τὰς ἁμάξας πρὸ 7.11.8 τοῦ ἄστεος συστησάμενοι χαρακοῦσι τὴν πόλιν. τὴν τοίνυν τῶν ῾Ρωμαίων ὁρμὴν μὴ ὑπομεμενηκότες οἱ βάρβαροι, ἅμα δὲ καὶ τὸν λαὸν τῆς πόλεως ὀρρωδήσαντες, εἰς φυγὴν ἀποκλίνουσιν. οὕτω μὲν οὖν ὁ Πρίσκος ἀτυχοῦντα λαὸν διεσώσατο. δευτέρᾳ δὲ ἡμέρᾳ περιβάλλουσι τείχη ῾Ρωμαῖοι τῇ 7.11. πόλει. ὁ δὲ Χαγάνος ἐπὶ τούτοις παρεδριμύττετο, τήν τε καρδίαν σφακελιζόμενος ἀγγέλους πρὸς τὸν Πρίσκον ἐξέπεμπεν, ἐς τὸ φανερὸν τὰς σπονδὰς διαλύων. δεκάτη δὲ ἡμέρα, καὶ τὰς περὶ αὐτὸν δυνάμεις συναθροίσας ὁ βάρβαρος ἐπὶ τὸν ᾿Ιόνιον κόλπον στρατεύει τὴν σάλπιγγα. 7.12.1 περὶ τούτους τοὺς τόπους ἡ ∆ελματία χώρα καθέστηκεν. τοίνυν ἱκανοὺς χάρακας ὁ βάρβαρος ποιησάμενος εἰς τὰς λεγομένας Βόγκεις ἐχώρησεν, καὶ δὴ παραστησάμενος τὴν πόλιν τοῖς μηχανή7.12.2 μασι τεσσαράκοντα ἐξεπόρθησε φρούρια. ὁ δὲ στρατηγὸς τούτων διακηκοὼς τῶν δεινῶν δισχιλίοις μαχίμοις ὁπλίζει τὸν Γούδουϊν ἐπὶ κατασκοπῇ τε τῶν πραττομένων τοῦτον ἐξέπεμπεν. ὁ μὲν οὖν Γούδουϊς ἀναλαβὼν τοῦ ὁπλιτικοῦ 7.12.3 τοὺς λογάδας τῆς ὁδοιπορίας ἀπήρχετο. ἐκκλίνει τοιγαροῦν τὰς λεωφόρους ὁ Γούδουϊς καὶ διὰ δυσχωρίας ἀγνώστων τε ἀτραπῶν τὴν βάδισιν ἐπεποίητο, ἵνα μή που πολεμίας ὄψεως ἐπιφανείσης αὐτῷ ἐπισυρομένης πλήθη βαρβάρων εἰς τοὔσχατον κακὸν παραγένηται. καὶ οὖν γενόμενος τῶν βαρβάρων πλησίον ὁρᾷ ἐξ ἀπόπτου τινὸς περισκοπῆς πλήθη λαῶν 7.12.4 παροδεύοντα. ἀποστείλας τοίνυν πεζοὺς ἄνδρας τριάκοντα παρακελεύεται ἰχνηλατεῖν τὸ πολέμιον. καὶ γοῦν οἱ ῾Ρωμαῖοι διά τινων παρεκτετραμμένων ὁδῶν ἐποιοῦντο τὴν βάδισιν. ὑπὸ δευτέραν τοιγαροῦν φυλακὴν τῆς νυκτὸς ἐλλοχῶσιν ὡς 7.12.5 ἐν παραβύστῳ τινὶ τὸ βάρβαρον ἀνιχνεύοντες. ἐν ταῖς ὕλαις τοιγαροῦν ἀποκρυπτόμενοι, καὶ τῆς νυκτὸς ἐπὶ τὰ μέσα παροδευούσης σημεῖα, ψυχῆς ἀρετῇ ἐφίστανται τοῖς βαρβάροις 7.12.6 οἱ ῾Ρωμαῖοι καθεύδουσιν. ἀπὸ σημείων δὲ δύο περιτυχόντες ἀνδράσι τρισὶ κραιπαλῶσι καὶ λίαν πεφυκόσιν ἐξοίνοις, τούτους ζωγρήσαντες, ὡς οἷόν τε ἦν ἀνετάσαντες τὰς τῶν πολεμίων ἐπιβολὰς ἁπάσας διέγνωσαν. οἱ μὲν οὖν ῾Ρωμαῖοι δεσμοῖς περιβαλόντες αὐτοὺς τῷ Γούδουϊ ζῶντας ἐξέπεμψαν. 7.12.7 Γούδουϊς δὲ ὁ ταξίαρχος μεμαθηκὼς ὑπ' αὐτῶν δισχιλίοις ἀνδράσιν ὁπλίταις ἐπὶ φρουρᾷ τῆς λείας τὸν Χαγάνον συμφράξασθαι, ἥσθη ἐπὶ τῇ ἀγγελίᾳ· καὶ οὖν ἀποκρύπτεται ἔν 7.12.8 τινι φάραγγι. οἱ μὲν οὖν βάρβαροι λαμπούσης ἡμέρας τὴν προνομὴν διεσώζοντο, ὁ δὲ Γούδουϊς ἐπὶ τὰ νῶτα τούτων γενόμενος ἀθρόως τε ἐπιθέμενος τῷ δόρατι πάντας διέφθορεν, ἀνασωσάμενός τε τὴν λείαν πρὸς τὸν Πρίσκον μεγαλοψύχῳ 7.12. φρονήματι διεκόμισεν. ὁ δὲ Χαγάνος ταῦτα δὴ τὰ τῆς ἀποτεύξεως μεμαθηκὼς ἀθυμίᾳ πολλῇ κατεβέβλητο. ἐπὶ μῆνας τοιγαροῦν ὀκτωκαίδεκα καὶ περαιτέρω ῾Ρωμαίοις τε καὶ βαρβάροις τοῖς ἀνὰ τὸν ῎Ιστρον αὐλιζομένοις οὐδὲν ἄξιον συγγραφῆς διαπέπρακται. 7.12.10 ῎Ετους δὲ ἐννεακαιδεκάτου ἐπιστάντος τῷ αὐτοκράτορι, ἡ τῶν μελλόντων προαναγόρευσις γίνεται, τά τε κοινὰ τοῦ κόσμου ἐξομολογοῦνται παθήματα· ἀνὴρ γάρ τις πρὸς τὸν τῇδε κόσμον διαλυσάμενος καὶ ἐν ἀσκήσει θεωρίας τῶν ἀπορρήτων μετειληφὼς ἐπί τε τὸν μονήρη βίον κατακλιθείς, σπάθην γυμνώσας ἀπὸ τοῦ λεγομένου Φόρου (τῶν ἐπισήμων δὲ οὗτος τόπος τῆς πόλεως) μέχρι τῶν προαυλίων τῶν ἀνακτόρων ξιφήρης διαδραμών, ἅμα τὸν αὐτοκράτορα τοῖς 7.12.11 παισὶν ἐν φόνῳ μαχαίρας τεθνήξεσθαι προηγόρευεν. ὥρα δὲ θέρους, καὶ λόγος ῾Ηρωδιανὸν Μαυρικίῳ τῷ αὐτοκράτορι ἐς τὸ φανερὸν προαναγγεῖλαι τὰ ἀποτεύγματα· ὁ δὲ ἀνὴρ <οὐκ> ἐκτὸς θείας ὀμφῆς κατισχυρίζετο τὰ τῆς προρρήσεως ἐπιφανῆναι αὐτῷ. 7.13.1 Καὶ γοῦν ἐν