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, recognized him
and declared to all the others that it was Sittas. For it happened that
he had no helmet on his head. Thus it did not escape the enemy that he
had come there with only a few men. Sittas, then, upon hearing the
Armenian say this, since his spear, as has been said, lay broken in two
on the ground, drew his sword and attempted immediately to recross the
ravine. But the enemy advanced upon him with great eagerness, and a
soldier overtaking him in the ravine struck him a glancing blow with his
sword on the top of his head; and he took off the whole scalp, but the
steel did not injure the bone at all. And Sittas continued to press
forward still more than before, but Artabanes, son of John of the
Arsacidae, fell upon him from behind and with a thrust of his spear
killed him. Thus Sittas was removed from the world after no notable
fashion, in a manner unworthy of his valour and his continual
achievements against the enemy, a man who was extremely handsome in
appearance and a capable warrior, and a general second to none of his
contemporaries. But some say that Sittas did not die at the hand of
Artabanes, but that Solomon, a very insignificant man among the
Armenians, destroyed him.

After the death of Sittas the emperor commanded Bouzes to go against the
Armenians; and he, upon drawing near, sent to them promising to effect a
reconciliation between the emperor and all the Armenians, and asking
that some of their notables should come to confer with him on these
matters. Now the Armenians as a whole were unable to trust Bouzes nor