making no effort.  He had positive orders, he said, from the court to keep on the defensive and not endanger his troops by engaging them in hazardous adventures.  Amida must protect itself, or at any rate not look to him for succor.  Ursicinus chafed terribly, it is said, against this decision, but was forced to submit to it.  His messengers conveyed the dispiriting intelligence to the devoted city, which learned thereby that it must rely wholly upon its own exertions.

Nothing now remained but to organize sallies on a large scale and attack the besieger’s works.  Such attempts were made from time to time with some success; and on one occasion two Gaulish legions, banished to the East for their adherence to the cause of Magnentius, penetrated, by night, into the heart of the besieging camp, and brought the person of the monarch into danger.  This peril was, however, escaped; the legions were repulsed with the loss of a sixth of their number; and nothing was gained by the audacious enterprise beyond a truce of three days, during which each side mourned its dead, and sought to repair its losses.

The fate of the doomed city drew on.  Pestilence was added to the calamities which the besieged had to endure.  Desertion and treachery were arrayed against them.  One of the natives of Amida, going over to the Persians, informed them that on the southern side of the city a neglected staircase led up from the margin of the Tigris through underground corridors to one of the principal bastions; and under his guidance seventy archers of the Persian guard, picked men, ascended the dark passage at dead of night, occupied the tower, and when morning broke displayed from it a scarlet flag, as a sign to their countrymen that a portion of the wall was taken.  The Persians were upon the alert, and an instant assault was made.  But the garrison, by extraordinary efforts, succeeded in recapturing the tower before any support reached its occupants; and then, directing their artillery and missiles against the assailing columns, inflicted on them tremendous losses, and soon compelled them to return hastily to the shelter of their camp.  The Verte, who maintained the siege on the south side of the city, were the chief sufferers in this abortive attempt.

Sapor had now spent seventy days before the place, and had made no perceptible impression.  Autumn was already far advanced, and the season for military operations would, soon be over.  It was necessary, therefore, either to take the city speedily or to give up the siege and retire.  Under these circumstances Sapor resolved on a last effort.  He had constructed towers of such a height that they overtopped the wall, and poured their discharges on the defenders from a superior elevation.  He had brought his mounds in places to a level with the ramparts, and had compelled the garrison to raise countermounds within the walls for their protection.  He now determined on pressing the assault day after day, until he either carried