BOOK XX.
ARGUMENT.
I. Lupicinus is sent as commander-in-chief into Britain with an army to check the incursions of the Picts and Scots.—II. Ursicinus, commander of the infantry, is attacked by calumnies, and dismissed.—III. An eclipse of the sun—A discussion on the two suns, and on the causes of solar and lunar eclipses, and the various changes and shapes of the moon.—IV. The Cæsar Julian, against his will, is saluted as emperor at Paris, where he was wintering, by his Gallican soldiers, whom Constantius had ordered to be taken from him, and sent to the East to act against the Persians.—V. He harangues his soldiers.—VI. Singara is besieged and taken by Sapor: the citizens, with the auxiliary cavalry and two legions in garrison, are carried off to Persia—The town is razed to the ground.—VII. Sapor storms the town of Bezabde, which is defended by three legions; repairs it, and places in it a garrison and magazines; he also attacks the fortress of Victa, without success.—VIII. Julian writes to Constantius to inform him of what had taken place at Paris.—IX. Constantius desires Julian to be content with the title of Cæsar; but the Gallican legions unanimously refuse to allow him to be so.—X. The Emperor Julian unexpectedly attacks a Frank tribe, known as the Attuarii, on the other side of the Rhine; slays some, takes others prisoners, and grants peace to the rest, on their petition.—XI. Constantius attacks Bezabde with his whole force, but fails—A discussion on the rainbow.
I.
A.D. 360.
§ 1. These were the events which took place in Illyricum and in the East. But the next year, that of Constantius's tenth and Julian's third consulship, the affairs of Britain became troubled, in consequence of the incursions of the savage nations of Picts and Scots, who breaking the peace to which they had agreed, were plundering the districts on their borders, and keeping in constant alarm the provinces exhausted by former disasters, Cæsar, who was wintering at Paris, having his mind divided by various cares, feared to go to the aid of his subjects across the channel (as we have related Constans to have done), lest he should leave the Gauls without a governor, while the Allemanni were still full of fierce and warlike inclinations.
2. Therefore, to tranquillize these districts by reason or by force, it was decided to send Lupicinus, who was at that time commander of the forces; a man of talent in war, and especially skilful in all that related to camps, but very haughty, and smelling, as one may say, of the tragic buskin, while parts of his conduct made it a question which predominated—his avarice or his cruelty.
3. Accordingly, an auxiliary force of light-armed troops, Heruli and Batavi, with two legions from Mœsia, were in the very depth of winter put under the command of this general, with which he marched to Boulogne, and having procured some vessels and embarked his soldiers on them, he sailed with a fair wind, and reached Richborough on the opposite coast, from which place he proceeded to London, that he might there deliberate on the aspect of affairs, and take immediate measures for his campaign.