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[4] After this the emperor's cares grew heavier. 1 Now he was in condition rather to make a choice of plans than to discover any; and so, thinking it to be to the advantage of the State, he ordered Victor, commander of the cavalry, and Urbicius, general in Mesopotamia, to go quickly to the Persians, bearing an ultimatum in plain language: that it was criminal of a king who was just and contented with his own (as he boasted) wrongfully to covet Armenia, whose people had been granted permission to live independently; [p. 311] and that, unless the guard of soldiers given to Sauromaces 2 should return without hindrance at the beginning of the following year (as had been agreed), Sapor would be forced to do against his will what he had refrained from doing of his own accord.

1 377 A.D.

2 Cf. xxvii. 12, 16.

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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