Kitap 20
7.1
After the destruction of the city the king prudently turned aside from Nisibis, doubtless remembering what he had often suffered there,Nisibis was besieged three times by the Persians. It was finally ceded to them by Jovian; see xxv. 7, 9-11. and marched to the right by side roads to Bezabde, which its early founders also called Phaenicha, hoping to gain entrance into the place by force or by winning the defenders with flattering promises. Bezabde was a very strong fortress, placed upon a hill of moderate height which sloped towards the banks of the Tigris, and where it was low and therefore exposed to danger it was fortified with a double wall. For the defence of the place three legions were assigned, the Second Flavian, the Second Armenian, and also the Second Parthian with a great number of bowmen of the Zabdiceni, on whose soil, at that time subject to us, this town was situated.
7.2
On his first attack the king himself, with a troop of horsemen gleaming in full armour and himself towering above the rest, rode about the circuit of the camp, and with over-boldness advanced to the very edge of the trenches. But becoming the target of repeated missiles from the ballistae and of arrows, he was protected by a close array of shields placed side by side as in a tortoise-mantlet, and got away unhurt.
