[4] In 353, historian Ammianus Marcellinus was attached to the command of Ursicinus at his headquarters in Nisibis,[5] where he remained until recalled in 354 by Gallus, as the magister equitum, to preside at an investigation for treason in Antioch.
[6] According to Ammianus, the charges he was called upon to investigate were preposterous, being fabricated by Gallus' paranoia and bloodthirsty-ness, but Ursicinus nonetheless had to put many to death.
Once near the court it would be easy to have him implicated for treason[10] The threat of war from Persia led to his being immediately sent back to the frontier, but he was placed under the orders of Sabinianus, a pusillanimous and debauched old man, who spent the entire ensuing campaign in his luxurious mansion in Edessa.
[11] Ursicinus was able to maintain contact with the defenders of the city, and he did his utmost to relieve them but was foiled by the cowardice of Sabinianus, who forbade him in the name of the emperor from putting his soldiers at any risk.
In the picturesque language of Ammianus Marcellinus: "So that he seemed like a lion, terrible for his size and ferocity, but with claws cut and teeth drawn, so that he could not save from danger his cubs entangled in the nets of the hunters.