XIX.

CHAP. Tigris. Five Roman legions, of the diminutive fize, to which they had been reduced in the age of Conftantine, were made prisoners, and fent into remote captivity on the extreme confines of Perfia. After dismantling the walls of Singara, the conqueror abandoned that folitary and fequestered place; but he carefully restored the fortifications of Bezabde, and fixed in that important poft a garrifon or colony of veterans; amply fupplied with every means of defence, and animated by high fentiments of honour and fidelity. Towards the close of the campaign, the arms of Sapor incurred fome difgrace by an unfuccefful enterprize against Virtha, or Tecrit, a ftrong, or, as it was univerfally efteemed till the age of Tamerlane, an impregnable fortrefs of the independent Arabs ".

Conduct

Romans,

62

The defence of the Eaft against the arms of of the Sapor, required and would have exercised the abilities of the most confummate general; and it feemed fortunate for the ftate, that it was the actual province of the brave Urficinus, who alone deferved the confidence of the foldiers and people. In the hour of danger, Urficinus " was removed from his station by the intrigues of the eunuchs; and the military command of the Eaft was beftowed, by the fame influence, on Sabinian, a wealthy and fubtle veteran, who had attained the infirmities, without acquiring the experience, of age. By a fecond order, which iffued from the fame jealous and inconftant counfels, Urficinus was again difpatched to the frontier of Mefopotamia,

XIX.

and condemned to fuftain the labours of a war, the CHA P. honours of which had been transferred to his unworthy rival. Sabinian fixed his indolent ftation under the walls of Edeffa; and while he amused himself with the idle parade of military exercise, and moved to the found of flutes in the Pyrrhic dance, the public defence was abandoned to the boldness and diligence of the former general of the Eaft. But whenever Urficinus recommended any vigorous plan of operations; when he propofed, at the head of a light and active army, to wheel round the foot of the mountains, to intercept the convoys of the enemy, to harafs the wide extent of the Perfian lines, and to relieve the diftress of Amida; the timid and envious commander alleged, that he was restrained by his positive orders from endangering the fafety of the troops. Amida was at length taken; its braveft defenders, who had escaped the fword of the Barbarians, died in the Roman camp by the hand of the executioner; and Urficinus himself, after fupporting the difgrace of a partial enquiry, was punished for the misconduct of Sabinian by the lofs of his military rank. But Conftantius foon experienced the truth of the prediction which honeft indignation had extorted from his injured lieutenant, that as long as fuch maxims of government were fuffered to prevail, the emperor himfelf would find it no eafy task to defend his eaftern dominions from the invafion of a foreign enemy. When he had subdued or pacified the Barbarians of the Danube, Conftantius proceeded by slow marches into the Eaft; and after

CHAP. XIX.

Invafion of Gaul by the

he had wept over the fmoking ruins of Amida, he formed, with a powerful army, the fiege of Bezabde. The walls were shaken by the reiterated efforts of the most enormous of the battering-rams; the town was reduced to the last extremity; but it was ftill defended by the patient and intrepid valour of the garrifon, till the approach of the rainy season obliged the emperor to raise the siege, and ingloriously to retreat into his winter-quarters at Antioch". The pride of Conftantius, and the ingenuity of his courtiers, were at a lofs to dif cover any materials for panegyric in the events of the Perfian war; while the glory of his coufin Julian, to whofe military command he had entrufted the provinces of Gaul, was proclaimed to the world in the fimple and concife narrative of his exploits.

In the blind fury of civil difcord, Conftantius had abandoned to the Barbarians of Germany the Germans. countries of Gaul, which still acknowledged the

authority of his rival. A numerous swarm of Franks and Alemanni were invited to cross the Rhine by prefents and promifes, by the hopes of spoil, and by a perpetual grant of all the territories which they should be able to fubdue ". But the emperor, who for a temporary service had thus imprudently provoked the rapacious spirit of the Barbarians, foon difcovered and lamented the difficulty of difmiffing thefe formidable allies after they had tafted the richness of the Roman foil. Regardless of the nice diftinction of loyalty and rebellion, thefe undifciplined robbers treated

XIX.

as their natural enemies all the fubjects of the em- CHAP. pire, who poffeffed any property which they were defirous of acquiring. Forty-five flourishing cities, Tongres, Cologne, Treves, Worms, Spires Strasburgh, etc. befides a far greater number of towns and villages, were pillaged, and for the moft part reduced to ashes. The Barbarians of Germany, ftill faithful to the maxims of their ancestors, abhorred the confinement of walls, to which they applied the odious names of prifons and fepulchres; and fixing their independent habitations on the banks of rivers, the Rhine, the Mofelle, and the Meuse, they secured themselves against the danger of a surprise, by a rude and hafty fortification of large trees, which were felled and thrown across the roads. The Alemanni were established in the modern countries of Alface and Lorraine; the Franks occupied the island of the Batavians, together with an extenfive dif. trict of Brabant, which was then known by the appellation of Toxandria ", and may deserve to be confidered as the original feat of their Gallic monarchy". From the fources, to the mouth, of the Rhine, the conquefts of the Germans extended above forty miles to the weft of that river, over a country peopled by colonies of their own name and nation; and the fcene of their devaftations was three times more extenfive than that of their conquefts. At a ftill greater diftance the open towns of Gaul were deferted, and the inhabitants of the fortified cities, who trufted to their strength and vigilance, were obliged to con

CHAP..

XIX.

Conduct of

Julian.

tent themselves with fuch fupplies of corn as they could raise on the vacant land within the inclosure of their walls. The diminished legions, deftitute of pay and provifions, of arms and difcipline, trembled at the approach, and even at the name, of the Barbarians.

دو

Under these melancholy circumstances, an unexperienced youth was appointed to fave and to govern the provinces of Gaul, or rather, as he expreffes it himself, to exhibit the vain image of Imperial greatnefs. The retired fcholaftic education of Julian, in which he had been more converfant with books than with arms, with the dead than with the living, left him in profound ignorance of the practical arts of war and government; and when he awkwardly repeated fome military exercise which it was neceffary for him to learn, he exclaimed with a figh, "O Plato, » Plato, what a task for a philofopher!" Yet even this speculative philofophy, which men of bufinefs are too apt to defpife, had filled the mind of Julian with the nobleft precepts, and the most shining examples; had animated him with the love of virtue, the defire of fame, and the contempt of death. The habits of temperance recommended in the fchools, are ftill more effential in the fevere difcipline of a camp. The fimple wants of nature regulated the measure of his food and sleep. Rejecting with difdain the delicacies provided for his table, he fatisfied his appetite with the coarfe and common fare which was allotted to the meaneft foldiers. During the