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[9] The greater part of the night had passed. The moon, brightly shining from its evening rise until dawn, increased the fear of Procopius; and since on all sides the opportunity for escape was cut off and he was completely at a loss, he began, as is usual in extreme necessity, to rail at Fortune as cruel and oppressive; and so, overwhelmed as he was by many anxieties, he was suddenly tightly bound by his companions and at daybreak was taken to the camp and handed over to the emperor, silent and terror- stricken. He was at once beheaded, and so put an [p. 639] end to the rising storm of civil strife and war. His fate was like that of Perpenna 1 of old, who after killing Sertorius at table, for a short time was in possession of the rule, but was dragged from the thickets where he had hidden himself, brought before Pompey, and by his order put to death.

1 Perperna is the better form; cf. Liv., Epit. 96; Vell. ii. 30, 1; Plutarch, Sert. 26, has Perpenna.

Ammianus Marcellinus. With An English Translation. John C. Rolfe, Ph.D., Litt.D. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1935-1940.

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