Per has tenebras ob derupta neglectas, oppidano transfuga quodam ductante, qui ad diversam partem desciverat, septuaginta sagittarii Persae ex agmine regio arte fiduciaque praestantes, silentio summoti loci defensi, subito singuli noctis medio ad contignationem turris tertiam ascenderunt, ibique occultati, mane sago punici coloris elato, quod erat subeundae indicium pugnae, cum ex omni parte circumveniri urbem suis copiis inundantibus advertissent, exinanitis proiectisque ante pedes pharetris, clamoris ululabilis incendio tela summa peritia dispergebant. Moxque acies omnes densae petebant multo infestius quam antea civitatem. Inter incertos nos et ancipites, quibus occurri deberet, instantibus supra, an multitudini transcensu scalarum iam propugnacula ipsa prensanti,
Translation :
Through these dark passages, left unguarded because of their steepness, led by a deserter in the city who had gone over to the opposite side, seventy Persian bowmen from the king's bodyguard who excelled in skill and bravery, protected by the silence of the remote spot, suddenly one by one in the middle of the night mounted to the third story of the tower and there concealed themselves; in the morning they displayed a cloak of red hue, which was the signal for beginning battle, and when they saw the city surrounded on all sides with the floods of their forces, emptying their quivers, and throwing them at their feet, with a conflagration of shouts and yells they sent their shafts in all directions with the utmost skill. And presently all the Persian forces in dense array attacked the city with far greater fury than before. We were perplexed and uncertain where first to offer resistance, whether to those who stood above us or to the throng mounting on scaling-ladders and already laying hold of the very battlements;
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.
