Dum haec celerantur, Hortarius rex nobis antea foederatus, non novaturus quaedam, sed amicus finitimis quoque suis, reges omnes et regales et regulos ad convivium corrogatos retinuit, epulis ad usque vigiliam tertiam gentili more extentis; quos discedentes inde casu nostri ex improviso adorti, nec interficere nec corripere ullo genere potuerunt, tenebrarum equorumque adiumento, quo dubius impetus trusit, abreptos; lixas vero vel servos, qui eos pedibus sequebantur, (nisi quos exemit discrimine temporis obscuritas) occiderunt.
Translation :
While this was being done with all haste, Hortarius, a king previously allied with us, not intending any disloyalty but being a friend also to his neighbours, invited all the kings, princes, and kinglets to a banquet and detained them until the third watch, prolonging the feasting after the native fashion. And as they were leaving the feast, it chanced that our men unexpectedly attacked them, but were in no way able to kill or take any of them, aided as they were by the darkness and their horses, which carried them off wherever panic haste drove them; they did, however, slay the lackeys or slaves, who followed their masters on foot, except such as the darkness of the hour saved from danger.
Edition :
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.
