In the year 663, the same tragedy is described
by Paul the Deacon, (de Gestis Langobard. l. v. c. 7, 8, p.
870, 871, edit. Grot.,) under the walls of the same city of
Beneventum. But the actors are different, and the guilt is
imputed to the Greeks themselves, which in the Byzantine
edition is applied to the Saracens. In the late war in
Germany, M. D'Assas, a French officer of the regiment of
Auvergne, is said to have devoted himself in a similar
manner. His behavior is the more heroic, as mere silence
was required by the enemy who had made him prisoner,
(Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XV. c. 33, tom. ix. p. 172.)