Therefore the emperor sent Sittas against them from Byzantium.  For Sittas had been delaying there since the time when the treaty was made with the Persians.  So he came to Armenia, but at first he entered upon the war reluctantly and exerted himself to calm the people and to restore the population to their former habitations, promising to persuade the emperor to remit to them the payment of the new tax.  But since the emperor kept assailing him with frequent reproaches for his hesitation, led on by the slanders of Adolius, the son of Acacius, Sittas at last made his preparations for the conflict.  First of all he attempted by means of promises of many good things to win over some of the Armenians by persuasion and to attach them to his cause, in order that the task of overpowering the others might be attended with less difficulty and toil.  And the tribe called the Aspetiani, great in power and in numbers, was willing to join him.  And they went to Sittas and begged him to give them pledges in writing that, if they abandoned their kinsmen in the battle and came to the Roman army, they should remain entirely free from harm, retaining their own possessions.  Now Sittas was delighted and wrote to them in tablets, giving them pledges just as they desired of him; he then sealed the writing and sent it to them.  Then, confident that by their help he would be victorious in the war without fighting, he went with his whole army to a place called Oenochalakon, where the Armenians had their camp.  But by some chance those who carried the tablets went by another road and did not succeed at all in meeting the Aspetiani.  Moreover a portion of the Roman army happened upon some few of them, and not knowing the agreement which had been made, treated them as enemies.  And Sittas himself caught some of their women and children in a cave and slew them, either because he did not understand what had happened or because he was angry with the Aspetiani for not joining him as had been agreed.

But they, being now possessed with anger, arrayed themselves for battle with all the rest.  But since both armies were on exceedingly difficult ground where precipices abounded, they did not fight in one place, but scattered about among the ridges and ravines.  So it happened that some few of the Armenians and Sittas with not many of his followers came close upon each other, with only a ravine lying between them.  Both parties were horsemen.  Then Sittas with a few men following him crossed the ravine and advanced against the enemy; the Armenians, after withdrawing to the rear, stopped, and Sittas pursued no further but remained where he was.  Suddenly someone from the Roman army, an Erulian by birth, who had been pursuing the enemy, returning impetuously from them came up to Sittas and his men.  Now as it happened Sittas had planted his spear in the ground; and the Erulian’s horse fell upon this with a great rush and shattered it.  And the general was exceedingly annoyed by this, and one of the Armenians, seeing him,