Book 18
5.7
For having been brought up in their midst, as a man well informed on all matters, finding eager hearers, desirous of having their ears tickled, who did not praise him but like Homer’s PhaeaciansCf. Odyssey, xiii. 1, and Index. admired him in silence, he would rehearse the history of the past forty years. He showed that after constant successes in war, especially at Hileia and Singara,In 348, see Gibbon, ch. xviii. where that furious contest at night took place and our troops were cut to pieces with great carnage, as if some fetial priest were interveningThe fetiales had to do with treaties and declaring war. Their persons were sacrosanct and they sometimes intervened to present terms of peace when the opposing armies were drawn up ready for battle. to stop the fight, the Persians did not yet reach Edessa nor the bridges of the Euphrates, in spite of being victorious; whereas trusting to their prowess and their splendid successes, they ought so to have extended their kingdom as to rule over all Asia, especially at a time when through the continual commotions of civil wars Rome’s stoutest soldiers were shedding their blood on two sides.
