The Roman History · Amm. 16.11.4

But while these well-devised plans were being pressed forward, the barbarians, in joy at some success which they had obtained, and skilful in seizing every opportunity for plunder, passed secretly between the camps of the armies, and attacked Lyons unexpectedly. And having plundered the district around, they would have stormed and burnt the city itself, if they had not found the gates so strongly defended that they were repulsed; so that they only destroyed all they could find outside the city.

Ammianus Marcellinus · translated by C. D. Yonge · 1911 reprint
C. D. Yonge translation (preface dated February 1862); G. Bell and Sons, 1911; Project Gutenberg #28587
Passage preview. Read in context for the complete text, notes and references.