The Bearer Who Fled and the Bearer Who Stood

He said that once, in the very heat of a battle, a sudden uproar and panic fell on his army. It threw the soldier who was then carrying the standard into an agony of fear, so that he handed it over to another man in order to make his own escape from the battle. But as soon as his comrade had taken it, and he had gone off and given up all charge of the standard, he was struck in the belly by a javelin, which took his life. So he paid the penalty for his cowardice and faithlessness, and lay dead on the spot. But the other man, who had taken his place as bearer of the saving standard, found it to be the safeguard of his life. For though a constant shower of javelins was aimed at him, the bearer remained unhurt, because the shaft of the standard caught every weapon. It was truly a marvelous thing that the enemy’s javelins all struck and stuck in the slender shaft of this spear, and so saved the standard-bearer from death. None of the men engaged in this duty ever received a wound.

This story is not mine. For this one too I am indebted to the emperor’s own word; he told it in my hearing along with other things. And now, having won these first victories through the power of God, he set his forces in motion and continued his advance. [a]