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[8] When Julian had there, in accordance with his native piety, made offerings to the deified emperor, and was on his way to Dura (a deserted town), he saw a troop of soldiers in the distance and halted. And while he was in doubt what they were bringing, they presented him with a lion of huge size, which [p. 339] had attacked their line and had been slain by a shower of arrows. Elated by this omen, as if he now had surer hope of a successful outcome, the emperor pushed on with proud confidence, but since the breeze of fortune is uncertain, the result turned out otherwise; for the death of a king was foretold, but of which king was uncertain.

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.

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