CHAP.
XIX.

Julian to

the Euphrates,

A. D. 363. March 5.

The martial impatience of Julian urged him to take the field in the beginning of the spring; and March of he dismissed, with contempt and reproach, the senate of Antioch, who accompanied the emperor beyond the limits of their own territory, to which he was resolved never to return. After a laborious march of two days, he halted on the third, at Berea, or Aleppo, where he had the mortification of finding a senate almost entirely Christian; who received with cold and formal demonstrations of respect the eloquent sermon of the apostle of paganism. The emperor was received in a manner much more agreeable to his wishes at Batnæ, a small town pleasantly seated in a grove of cypresses, about twenty miles from the city of Hierapolis. The solemn rites of sacrifice were decently prepared by the inhabitants of Batnæ, who seemed attached to the worship of their tutelar deities, Apollo and Jupiter; but the serious piety of Julian was offended by the tumult of their applause; and he too clearly discerned, that the smoke which arose from their altars was the incense of flattery, rather than of devotion. The ancient and magnificent temple, which had sanctified, for so many ages, the city of Hierapolis, no longer subsisted; and the consecrated wealth, which afforded a liberal maintenance to more than three hundred priests, might hasten its downfal. Yet Julian enjoyed the satis faction of embracing a philosopher and a friend, whose religious firmness had withstood the pressing and repeated solicitations of Constantius and Gallus, as often as those princes lodged at his house, in their passage through Hierapolis. In the hurry of military preparation, and the careless confidence of a familiar correspondence, the zeal of Julian appears to have been lively and uniform. He had now undertaken an important and difficult war; and the anxiety of the event rendered him still more attentive to ob

at

XIX.

serve and register the most trifling presages, from CHAP.
which, according to the rules of divination, any
knowledge of futurity could be derived *. He in-
formed Libanius of his progress as far as Hierapolis,
by an elegant epistle †, which displays the facility
of his genius, and his tender friendship for the sophist
of Antioch.

of invading

Hierapolis, situate almost on the banks of the His design Euphrates +, had been appointed for the general ren- Persia. dezvous of the Roman troops, who immediately passed the great river on a bridge of boats, which was previously constructed §. If the inclinations of Julian had been similar to those of his predecessor, he might have wasted the active and important season of the year in the circus of Samosata, or in the churches of Edessa. But as the warlike emperor, instead of Constantius, had chosen Alexander for his model, he advanced without delay to Carrhæ |, a very ancient city of Mesopotamia, at the distance of fourscore miles from Hierapolis. The temple of the Moon attracted the devotion of Julian; but the halt of a few days was principally employed in completing the immense preparations of the Persian war. The secret of the expedition had hitherto remained in his own breast; but as Carrhæ is the point of separation of the two great roads, he could no longer conceal, whether it was his design to attack the dominions of Sapor on the side of the Tigris, or on that of the

* Julian (epist. xxviii.) kept a regular account of all the fortunate omens; but he suppresses the inauspicious signs, which Ammianus (xxiii. 2.) has carefully

recorded.

Julian, epist. xxvii. p. 399-402.

I take the earliest opportunity of acknowledging my obligations to M. d'Anville, for his recent geography of the Euphrates and Tigris (Paris, 1780, in 4to.) which particularly illustrates the expedition of Julian.

§ There are three passages within a few miles of each other; 1. Zeugma, celebrated by the ancients; 2. Bir, frequented by the moderns; and, 3. The bridge of Menbigz, or Hierapolis, at the distance of four parasangs from the city.

Haran, or Carrhæ, was the ancient residence of the Sabæans, and of Abraham. See the Index Geographicus of Schultens (ad calcem Vit. Saladin.), a work from which I have obtained much Oriental knowledge, concerning the ancient and modern geography of Syria and the adjacent countries.

XIX.

Disaffec

tion of the

king of
Armenia.

CHAP. Euphrates. The emperor detached an army of thirty
thousand men, under the command of his kinsman
Procopius, and of Sebastian, who had been duke of
Egypt. They were ordered to direct their march
towards Nisibis, and to secure the frontier from the
desultory incursions of the enemy, before they at-
tempted the passage of the Tigris. Their subse-
quent operations were left to the discretion of the
generals; but Julian expected, that after wasting
with fire and sword the fertile districts of Media and
Adiabene, they might arrive under the walls of
Ctesiphon about the same time, that he himself, ad-
vancing with equal steps along the banks of the Eu-
phrates, should besiege the capital of the Persian
monarchy. The success of this well-concerted plan
depended, in a great measure, on the powerful and
ready assistance of the king of Armenia, who, with-
out exposing the safety of his own dominions, might
detach an army of four thousand horse, and twenty
thousand foot, to the assistance of the Romans. But
the feeble Arsaces Tiranus, king of Armenia, had
degenerated still more shamefully than his father
Chosroes, from the manly virtues of the great Ti-
ridates; and as the pusillanimous monarch was averse
to any enterprise of danger and glory, he could dis-
guise his timid indolence by the more decent ex-
cuses 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 præfect Ablavius; and the alli-
ance 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 prin-
ciple of conscience and interest, from contributing
to the victory, which would consummate the ruin of

1

the church.

The alienated mind of Tiranus was

exasperated by the indiscretion of Julian, who treated
the king of Armenia as his slave, and as the enemy
of the gods. The haughty and threatening style of
the Imperial mandates awakened the secret indig-
nation of a prince, who, in the humiliating state of
dependence, was still conscious of his royal descent
from the Arsacides, the lords of the East, and the
rivals of the Roman power.

CHAP.

XIX.

prepara

The military dispositions of Julian were skilfully Military contrived to deceive the spies, and to divert the at- tions. tention 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 pre-eminence 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. The love of rapine and war allured to the Imperial standard several tribes of Saracens, or roving Arabs,

XIX.

CHAP. whose service Julian had commanded, while he
sternly refused the payment of the accustomed sub-
sidies. 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 flat-bottomed
boats, which might occasionally be connected into!
the form of temporary bridges. The rest of the
ships, partly constructed of timber, and partly co-
vered with raw hides, were laden with an almost in-
exhaustible 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; and as soon
as the trumpet gave the signal of march, the Ro-
mans passed the little stream which separated two
mighty and hostile empires. The custom of ancient
discipline required a military oration; and Julian
embraced every opportunity of displaying his elo-
quence. 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 re-
public. 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

Julian enters the

Persian territories, April 7th.