Book 23
3.6
After these arrangements had thus been made, he himself feigned a march across the Tigris, an expedition for which he had also ordered supplies to be carefully prepared, but then turned to the right and, after passing a quiet night, called next morning for the mount which he usually rode. And when the horse, called Babylonius, was brought to him, it was laid low by a missile from the artillery, and as it rolled on the ground in unbearable pain, it scattered about its ornaments, which were adorned with gold and precious stones. Delighted by this omen, Julian cried out amid expressions of joy from the bystanders, that Babylon had fallen to the ground, stripped of all its adornments.
3.7
Then delaying for a time, in order to confirm the omen by favourable signs from victims, he came to the fortified camp of Davana at the source of the river Belias, a tributary of the Euphrates. Here we rested and took food, and on the following day arrived at Callinicum, a strong fortress, and most welcome because of its rich trade. There, on the twenty-seventh of March, the day on which at Rome the annual procession in honour of the Mother of the Gods takes place, and the carriage in which her image is carried is washed, as it is said, in the waters of the Almo, he celebrated the usual rites in the ancient fashion and spent the night in peaceful sleep, happy and full of confidence.
