XVI.

CHAP. who was secretly anxious for the conclusion of the
peace, entertained some hopes that the dignity of the
first of these ministers, the dexterity of the second,
and the rhetoric of the third, would persuade the
Persian monarch to abate the rigour of his demands.
But the progress of their negotiation was opposed and
defeated by the hostile arts of Antoninus, a Roman
subject of Syria, who had fled from oppression, and
was admitted into the councils of Sapor, and even to
the royal table, where, according to the custom of the
Persians, the most important business was frequently
discussed *. The dexterous fugitive promoted his
interest by the same conduct which gratified his re-
venge. He incessantly urged the ambition of his
new master, to embrace the favourable opportunity
when the bravest of the Palatine troops were em-
ployed with the emperor in a distant war on the Da-
nube. He pressed Sapor to invade the exhausted and
defenceless provinces of the East, with the numerous
armies of Persia, now fortified by the alliance and
accession of the fiercest Barbarians. The ambassadors
of Rome retired without success, and a second em-
bassy, of a still more honourable rank, was detained in
strict confinement, and threatened either with death
or exile.

Invasion of

Mesopotamia by

Sapor,

The military historian †, who was himself despatched to observe the army of the Persians, as they D359. were preparing to construct a bridge of boats over the Tigris, beheld from an eminence the plain of Assyria, as far as the edge of the horizon, covered with men, with horses, and with arms. Sapor appeared in the front, conspicuous by the splendour of his purple.

This circumstance, as it is noticed by Ammianus, serves to prove the veracity of Herodotus (1. i. c. 133.), and the permanency of the Persian manners. In every age the Persians have been addicted to intemperance, and the wines of Shiraz have triumphed over the law of Mahomet. Brisson de Regno Pers. 1. ii, p. 462-472. and Chardin, Voyages en Perse, tom. iii. p. 90.

+ Ammian. 1. xviii. 6, 7, 8. 10.

On his left hand, the place of honour among the Orientals, Grumbates, king of the Chionites, displayed the stern countenance of an aged and renowned warrior. The monarch had reserved a similar place on his right hand for the king of the Albanians, who led his independent tribes from the shores of the Caspian. The satraps and generals were distributed according to their several ranks, and the whole army, besides the numerous train of Oriental luxury, consisted of more than one hundred thousand effective men, inured to fatigue, and selected from the bravest nations of Asia. The Roman deserter, who in some measure guided the councils of Sapor, had prudently advised that instead of wasting the summer in tedious and difficult sieges, he should march directly to the Euphrates, and press forwards without delay to seize the feeble and wealthy metropolis of Syria. But the Persians were no sooner advanced into the plains of Mesopotamia, than they discovered that every precaution had been used which could retard their progress, or defeat their design. The inhabitants, with their cattle, were secured in places of strength, the green forage throughout the country was set on fire, the fords of the river were fortified by sharp stakes; military engines were planted on the opposite banks, and a seasonable swell of the waters of the Euphrates deterred the Barbarians from attempting the ordinary passage of the bridge of Thapsacus. Their skilful guide, changing his plan of operations, then conducted the army by a longer circuit, but through a fertile territory, towards the head of the Euphrates, where the infant river is reduced to a shallow and accessible stream. Sapor overlooked, with prudent disdain, the strength of Nisibis; but as he passed under the walls of Amida, he resolved to try whether the majesty of his presence would not awe the garrison

XVI.

XVI.

CHAP. ing banners of silk, embossed with gold, and shaped in the form of dragons, waved round the person of the emperor. Constantius sat alone in a lofty car resplendent with gold and precious gems; and, except when he bowed his head to pass under the gates of the cities, he affected a stately demeanour of inflexible, and, as it might seem, of insensible gravity. The severe discipline of the Persian youth had been introduced by the eunuchs into the Imperial palace; and such were the habits of patience which they had inculcated, that during a slow and sultry march, he was never seen to move his hand towards his face, or to turn his eyes either to the right or to the left. He was received by the magistrates and senate of Rome; and the emperor surveyed, with attention, the civil honours of the republic, and the consular images of the noble families. The streets were lined with an innumerable multitude. Their repeated acclamations expressed their joy at beholding, after an absence of thirty-two years, the sacred person of their sovereign; and Constantius himself expressed, with some pleasantry, his affected surprise that the human race should thus suddenly be collected on the same spot. The son of Constantine was lodged in the ancient palace of Augustus: he presided in the senate, harangued the people from the tribunal which Cicero had so often ascended, assisted with unusual courtesy at the games of the Circus, and accepted the crowns of gold, as well as the panegyrics which had been prepared for the ceremony by the deputies of the principal cities. His short visit of thirty days was employed in viewing the monuments of art and power, which were scattered over the seven hills and the interjacent valleys. He admired the awful majesty of the capitol, the vast extent of the baths of Caracalla and Diocletian, the severe simplicity of the pantheon, the massy greatness of the amphi

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XVI.

theatre of Titus, the elegant architecture of the CHAP.
theatre of Pompey and the Temple of Peace, and,
above all, the stately structure of the Forum and
column of Trajan; acknowledging, that the voice
of fame, so prone to invent and to magnify, had
made an inadequate report of the metropolis of the
world. The traveller, who has contemplated the
ruins of ancient Rome, may conceive some imperfect
idea of the sentiments which they must have in-
spired when they reared their heads in the splendour
of unsullied beauty.

obelisk.

The satisfaction which Constantius had received A new
from this journey excited him to the generous emu-
lation of bestowing on the Romans some memorial
of his own gratitude and munificence. His first idea
was to imitate the equestrian and colossal statue
which he had seen in the Forum of Trajan; but
when he had maturely weighed the difficulties of the
execution, he chose rather to embellish the capital
by the gift of an Egyptian obelisk. In a remote but
polished age, which seems to have preceded the in-
vention of alphabetical writing, a great number of
these obelisks had been erected, in the cities of
Thebes and Heliopolis, by the ancient sovereigns of
Egypt, in a just confidence that the simplicity of
their form, and the hardness of their substance, would
resist the injuries of time and violence. Several of
these extraordinary columns had been transported to
Rome by Augustus and his successors, as the most
durable monuments of their power and victory;
but there remained one obellak, which, from ita eize
or sanctity, escaped for a long time the rapacious
vanity of the conperon. It was designed by Con-
stantine to aim Ha new city*; and, after being

Ammian. Mazzlin. 2rek Bagra va a Csak vemyuzika dre
hieroglyphics and is summeraar Lindonvoqva unda & laka maongruong
which, in twenty w if the up of Congrahtava, “Antan a thogs history it he
obelisk.

1

XVI.

CHAP. removed by his order from the pedestal where it stood before the Temple of the Sun at Heliopolis, was floated down the Nile to Alexandria. The death of Constantine suspended the execution of his purpose, and this obelisk was destined by his son to the ancient capital of the empire. A vessel of uncommon strength and capaciousness was provided to convey this enormous weight of granite, at least a hundred and fifteen feet in length, from the banks of the Nile to those of the Tyber. The obelisk of Constantius was landed about three miles from the city, and elevated, by the efforts of art and labour, in the great Circus of Rome *.

The Quadian and

Sarmatian

war,

A. D. 357,

358, 359.

The departure of Constantius from Rome was hastened by the alarming intelligence of the distress and danger of the Illyrian provinces. The distrac tions of civil war, and the irreparable loss which the Roman legions had sustained in the battle of Mursa, exposed those countries, almost without defence, to the light cavalry of the Barbarians; and particularly to the inroads of the Quadi, a fierce and powerful nation, who seem to have exchanged the institutions of Germany for the arms and military arts of their Sarmatian allies †. The garrisons of the frontier were insufficient to check their progress; and the indolent monarch was at length compelled to assemble, from the extremities of his dominions, the flower of the Palatine troops, to take the field in person, and to employ a whole campaign, with the preceding autumn and the ensuing spring, in the serious prosecution of the war. The emperor passed the Danube on a bridge of boats, cut in pieces all

* See Donat. Roma Antiqua. 1. iii. c. 14. 1. iv. c. 12. and the learned, though confused, Dissertation of Bargæus on Obelisks, inserted in the fourth volume of Grævius's Roman Antiquities, p. 1897-1936. This Dissertation is dedicated

to Pope Sixtus V. who erected the obelisk of Constantius in the square before the patriarchal church of St. John Lateran.

The events of this Quadian and Sarmatian war are related by Ammianus, xvi. 10. xvii. 12, 13. xix. 11.