Terentius sent two generals with "scutarii" (shielded cavalry) familiar with the local terrain after Pap, an Armenian named Danielus and an Iberian named Barzimeres who failed to capture and execute Pap. Both generals gave an excuse that Pap had used magical powers to avoid capture and used a dark cloud to mask his party. Faustus in his "Epic Histories" also claimed that Pap was possessed by "devs" (demons). This could have simply been an attack against Pap's sympathies towards Arians and pagans. Valens then assigned Traianus to gain Pap's confidence and murder him. Traianus murdered Pap in 374 during a banquet which he had organized for the young king. Marcellinus Ammianus drew parallels between the treacherous murder of the Quadi King Gabinius by Valentinian I and the murder of Pap by Valens, who also wrote that the murder of Pap haunted Valens prior to the Battle of Adrianople.