The soldiers, filled with confidence and with abundance of provisions at hand, fell to feasting and drinking and lapsed into the state of negligence consequent on such excess.
But Molon, after proceeding for a considerable distance and giving his men their supper, returned and reappeared at the spot, where, finding all the enemy scattered about and drowned in wine, he fell upon the camp in the early dawn.
Dismayed by the unexpected attack and unable to awake the soldiers owing to their drunken condition, Xenoetas dashed madly into the ranks of the foe and perished.
Most of the sleeping soldiers were killed in their beds, while the rest threw themselves into the river and attempted to cross to the camp on the opposite bank, most of these, however, also losing their lives.
The scene in the camp was altogether one of the most varied confusion and tumult. The men were all in the utmost dismay and terror,
and the camp across the river being in sight at quite a short distance, in their longing to escape they forgot the dangerous force of the stream,
and losing their wits and making a blind rush for safety threw themselves into the river and forced the baggage animals with their packs to take to the water also,
as if the river would providentially hope them and carry them across to the camp opposite.
So that the picture presented by the stream was indeed tragical and extraordinary, horses, mules, arms and corpses, and every kind of baggage being swept down by the current together with the swimmers.
Molon took possession of Xenoetas' camp and afterwards crossing the river in safety, as he met with no opposition, Zeuxis having fled before his attack, took the camp of the latter also.
After these successes he advanced with his army on <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Seleucia&groupId=233&placeId=484">Seleucia</a>.
He took it at the first assault, as Zeuxis and Diomedon, the governor of the city, had abandoned it, and advancing now at his ease, reduced the upper Satrapies.
After making himself master of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Babylonia&groupId=388&placeId=728">Babylonia</a> and the coasts of the Persian gulf he reached <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Susa&groupId=991&placeId=1749">Susa</a>.
This city he also took at the first assault, but the assaults he made on the citadel were unsuccessful, as the general Diogenes had thrown himself into it before his arrival.
Abandoning this attempt, he left a force to invest it and hurried back with the rest of his army to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Seleucia on the Tigris&groupId=963&placeId=1710">Seleucia on the Tigris</a>.
Here he carefully refreshed his troops and after addressing them started again of pursue his further projects, and occupied <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Parapotamia&groupId=843&placeId=1522">Parapotamia</a> as far as the town of Europus and <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Mesopotamia&groupId=757&placeId=1377">Mesopotamia</a> as far as <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Dura&groupId=547&placeId=1026">Dura</a>.
Antiochus, on intelligence reaching him of these events, abandoned, as I stated above, his designs on <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Coele-Syria&groupId=484&placeId=908">Coele-Syria</a> and turned his whole attention to the field of action.
Walbank Commentary