XXIV. CHAP nus, king of Armenia, had degenerated still ... more shamefully than his father Chosroes, from the manly virtues of the great Tiridates; and as the pusillanimous monarch was averse to any enterprise of danger and glory, he could disguise his timid indolence by the more indecent excuses of religion and gratitude. He expressed a pious attachment to the memory of Constantius, from whose hands he had received in marriage Olympias, the daughter of the prefect Ablavius; and the alliance of a female, who had been educated as the destined wife of the emperor Constans, exalted the dignity of a barbarian king. Tiranus professed the Christian religion; he reigned over a nation of christians and he was restrained by every principle of conscience and interest, from contributing to the victory, which would consummate the ruin of the church. The alienated mind of Tiranus was exasperated by the indiscretion of Julian, who treated the king of Arinenia as his slave, and as the enemy of the gods. The haughty and threatening style of the imperial mandates" awakened the secret indignation of a prince, q P Moses of Chorene (Hist. Armeniac, l. iii, c. 11, p. 242) fixes his accession(A. D. 354) to the 17th year of Constantius. 9 Ammian. xx, 11. Athanasius (tom. i, p. 856) says, in general terms, that Constantius gave his brother's widow Tos Baggapais, an ex pression more suitable to a Roman than a Christian. Ammianus (xxiii, 2) uses a word much too soft for the occasion, monuerat. Muratori (Fabricius, Bibliothec. Græc. tom. vii, p. 86) has published an epistle from Julian to the satrap Arsaces, fierce, vulgar, and (though it might deceive Sozomen, l. vi, c. 5) most probably spurious. La Bleterie (Hist. de Jovien, tom. ii, p. 339) translates and rejects it. XXIV. who, in the humiliating state of dependence, CHAP. was still conscious of his royal descent from the Arsacides, the lords of the East, and the rivals of the Roman power. prepara The military dispositions of Julian were skil- Military fully contrived to deceive the spies, and to di- tions. vert the attention of Sapor. The legions appeared to direct their march towards Nisibis and the Tigris. On a sudden they wheeled to the right; traversed the level and naked plain of Carrhæ ; and reached, on the third day, the banks of the Euphrates, where the strong town of Nicephorium, or Callinicum, had been founded by the Macedonian kings. From thence the emperor pursued his march, above ninety miles, along the winding stream of the Euphrates, till, at length, about one month after his departure from Antioch, he discovered the towers of Circesium, the extreme limit of the Roman dominions. The army of Julian, the most numerous that any of the Cæsars had ever led against Persia, consisted of sixty-five thousand effective and well disciplined soldiers. The veteran bands of cavalry and infantry, of Romans and barbarians, had been selected from the different provinces; and a just preeminence of loyalty and valour was claimed by the hardy Gauls, who guarded the throne and person of their beloved prince. A formidable body of Scythian auxiliaries had been transported from another climate, and almost from another world, to invade a distant country, of whose name and situation they were ignorant. XXIV. CHAP. The love of rapine and war allured to the imperial standard several tribes of Saracens, or roving Arabs, whose service Julian had commanded, while he sternly refused the payment of the accustomed subsidies. The broad channel of the Euphrates was crowded by a fleet of eleven hundred ships, destined to attend the motions, and to satisfy the wants, of the Roman army. The military strength of the fleet was composed of fifty armed galleys; and these were accompanied by an equal number of flatbottomed boats, which might occasionally be connected into the form of temporary bridges. The rest of the ships, partly constructed of timber, and partly covered with raw hides, were laden with an almost inexhaustible supply of arms and engines, of utensils and provisions. The vigilant humanity of Julian had embarked a very large magazine of vinegar and biscuit for the use of the soldiers, but he prohibited the indulgence of wine, and rigorously stopped a long string of superfluous camels that attempted to follow the rear of the army. The river Chaboras falls into the Euphrates at Circesium ;* t Latissimum flumen Euphraten artabat. Ammian. xxiii, 3. Somewhat higher, at the fords of Thapsacus, the river is four stadia, or 800 yards, almost half an English mile, broad (Xenophon Anabasis, 1. i, p. 41, edit. Hutchinson, with Foster's Observations, p. 29, &c. in the 2d volume of Spelman's translation). If the breadth of the Euphrates at Bir and Zeugma is no more than 130 yards, (Voyages de Niebuhr, tom. ii, p. 335), the enormous difference must chiefly arise from the depth of the channel. * Monumentum tutissimum et fabre politum, cujus mœnia Abora (the Orientals aspire Chaboras or Chabour) et Euphrates ambiunt flumina, velut spatium insulare fingentes. Ammian, xxiii, 5. XXIV. ters the and as soon as the trumpet gave the signal of CHAP. march, the Romans passed the little stream which separated two mighty and hostile em- Julian enpires. The custom of ancient discipline requir- Persian ed a military oration; and Julian embraced territories, April 7. every opportunity of displaying his eloquence. He animated the impatient and attentive legions by the example of the inflexible courage and glorious triumphs of their ancestors. He excited their resentment by a lively picture of the insolence of the Persians; and he exhorted them to imitate his firm resolution, either to extirpate that perfidious nation, or to devote his life in the cause of the republic. The eloquence of Julian was enforced by a donative of one hundred and thirty pieces of silver to every soldier; and the bridge of the Chaboras was instantly cut away, to convince the troops that they must place their hopes of safety in the success of their Yet the prudence of the emperor induced him to secure a remote frontier, perpetually, exposed to the inroads of the hostile Arabs. A detachment of four thousand men was left at Circesium, which completed, to the number of ten thousand, the regular garrison of that important fortress." arins. From the moment that the Romans entered His march the enemy's country, the country of an active desert of X The enterprise and armament of Julian are described by himself, (Epist. xxvii); Ammianus Marcellinus, (xxiii, 3, 4, 5); Libanius, (Orat. Parent. c. 108, 109, p 332, 333); Zosimus, (1. iii, p. 160 161, 162); Sozomen, (1. vi, c. 1), and John Malela; (tom. ii, p. 17). * Before he enters Persia, Ammianus copiously describes (xxi, 6, p. 396-419, edit. Gronov. in 4to) the eighteen great satrapies, VOL. IV. M over the Mesopo tamia XXIV. CHAP. and artful enemy, the order of march was disposed in three columns. The strength of the infantry, and consequently of the whole army, was placed in the centre, under the peculiar command of their master-general Victor. On the right, the brave Nevitta led a column of several legions along the banks of the Euphrates, and almost always in sight of the fleet. The left flank of the army was protected by the column of cavalry. Hormisdas and Arinthæus were appointed generals of the horse; and the singular adventures of Hormisdas' are not undeserving of our notice. He was a Persian prince, of the royal race of the Sassanides, who, in the troubles of the minority of Sapor, had es caped from prison to the hospitable court of the great Constantine. Hormisdas at first excited the compassion, and at length acquired the esteem, of his new masters; his valour and fidelity raised him to the military honours of the Roman service; and, though a Christian, he might indulge the secret satisfaction of convincing his ungrateful country, that an oppressed subject may prove the most dangerous enemy. Such was the disposition of the three principal columns. The front and flanks of the army or provinces, (as far as the Seric, or Chinese frontiers), which were subject to the Sassanides. ▾ Ammianus (xxiv, 1) and Zosimus (l. iii, p. 162, 163) have accurately expressed the order of march. The adventures of Hormisdas are related with some mixture of fable, (Zosimus, 1. ii, p. 100-102; Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv, p. 198). It is almost impossible that he should be the brother (frater germanus) of an eldest and posthumous child: nor do I recollect that Amnianus ever gives him that title. |