The enemy advanced in two lines--the first composed of the mailed horsemen and the archers intermixed, the second of the elephants.

Julian prepared his army to receive the attack by disposing it in the form of a crescent, with the centre drawn back considerably; but as the Persians advanced into the hollow space, he suddenly led his troops forward at speed, allowing the archers scarcely time to discharge their arrows before he engaged them and the horse in close combat.

A long and bloody struggle followed; but the Persians were unaccustomed to hand-to-hand fighting and disliked it; they gradually gave ground, and at last broke up and fled, covering their retreat, however, with the clouds of arrows which they knew well how to discharge as they retired.
The weight of their arms, and the fiery heat of the summer sun, prevented the Romans from carrying the pursuit very far.

Julian recalled them quickly to the protection of the camp, and suspended his march for some days while the wounded had their hurts attended to.
The Persian troops, having suffered heavily in the battle, made no attempt to storm the Roman camp.

They were content to spread themselves on all sides, to destroy or carry off all the forage and provisions, and to make the country, through which the Roman army must retire, a desert.
Julian's forces were already suffering severely from scarcity of food, and the general want was but very slightly relieved by a distribution of the stores set apart for the officers and for the members of the imperial household.