Ursicinus chafed terribly, it is said, against this decision, but was forced to submit to it.

His messengers conveyed the dispiriting intelligence to the devoted city, which learned thereby that it must rely wholly upon its own exertions.
Nothing now remained but to organize sallies on a large scale and attack the besieger's works.

Such attempts were made from time to time with some success; and on one occasion two Gaulish legions, banished to the East for their adherence to the cause of Magnentius, penetrated, by night, into the heart of the besieging camp, and brought the person of the monarch into danger.

This peril was, however, escaped; the legions were repulsed with the loss of a sixth of their number; and nothing was gained by the audacious enterprise beyond a truce of three days, during which each side mourned its dead, and sought to repair its losses.
The fate of the doomed city drew on.

Pestilence was added to the calamities which the besieged had to endure.