XIX.

had not time to escape through the opposite gate, CHA P.
were involved by the conquerors in a promiscuous
maffacre.

But the ruin of Amida was the fafety of the
Roman provinces.
As foon as the first transports
of victory had fubfided, Sapor was at leisure to
reflect, that to chastise a disobedient city, he had
loft the flower of his troops, and the most favour-
able feafon for conqueft 59. Thirty thousand of
his veterans had fallen under the walls of Amida,
during the continuance of a fiege which lasted
feventy-three days; and the disappointed mo
narch returned to his capital with affected triumph
and fecret mortification. It was more than pro-
bable, that the inconftancy of his Barbarian allies
was tempted to relinquish a war in which they
had encountered fuch unexpected difficulties; and
that the aged King of the Chionites, fatiated with
revenge, turned away with horror from a scene
of action where he had been deprived of the hope
of his family and nation. The strength as well as

59 Ammianus has marked the chronology of this year by three

figns, which do not perfectly coincide with each other, or with the

series of the history. 1. The corn was ripe when Sapor invaded
Mefopotamia; "Cum jam ftipulâ flavente turgerent;" a circum、
stance, which, in the latitude of Aleppo, would naturally refer us
to the month of April or May. See Harmer's Obfervations on
Scripture, vol. i. p. 41. Shaw's Travels, p. 335. edit. 4to.
2. The
progrefs of Sapor was checked by the overflowing of the Euphrates,
which generally happens in July and Auguft. Plin. Hift. Nat. v.
21. Viaggi di Pietro della Valle, tom.i. p. 696. 3. When Sapor
had taken Amida, after a siege of leventy-three days, the autumn
was far advanced. "Autumno precipiti hædorumque improbo
"fidere extoto." To reconcile these apparent contradictions, we
must allow for fome delay in the Perfian king, fome inaccuracy in
the hiftorian, and some disorder in the seasons.

VOL. III.

P

fpirit

of SinA.D. 360.

gara,

&c.

CHAP. fpirit of the army with which Sapor took the field XIX. in the ensuing spring, was no longer equal to the unbounded views of his ambition.

Instead of

afpiring to the conqueft of the Eaft, he was obliged to content himself with the reduction of two fortified cities of Mefopotamia, Singara and Bezabde; the one fituate in the midst of a fandy defert, the other in a small peninfula, furrounded almost on every fide by the deep and rapid ftream of the Tigris. Five Roman legions, of the diminutive fize, to which they had been reduced in the age of Conftantine, were made prifoners, and fent into remote captivity on the extreme confines of Perfia. After dismantling the walls of Singara, the conqueror abandoned that folitary and fequeftered place; but he carefully reftored the fortifications of Bezabde, and fixed in that important poft a garrifon or colony of veterans; amply supplied with every means of defence, and animated by high sentiments of honour and fidelity. Towards the close of the campaign, the arms of Sapor incurred some disgrace by an unfuccefsful enterprise against Virtha, or Tecrit, a ftrong, or as it was universally esteemed till the age of Tamerlane, an impregnable fortress of the independent Arabs "*.

61

• The account of thefe fieges is given by Ammianus, xx. 6, 7. 61 For the indentity of Virtha and Tecrit, fee d'Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. ii. P. 201. For the fiege of that caftle by Timur Bec, or Tamerlane, fee Cherefeddin, 1. iii. c. 33. The Perfian biographer exaggerates the merit and difficulty of this exploit, which delivered the caravans of Bagdad from a formidable gang of robbers.

The

Romans.

The defence of the East against the arms of c HAP. Sapor, required, and would have exercised, the XIX. abilities of the most confummate general; and it Conduct feemed fortunate for the ftate, that it was the of the actual province of the brave Urficinus, who alone deferved the confidence of the foldiers and people. In the hour of danger, Urficinus 62 was removed from his ftation by the intrigues of the eunuchs; and the military command of the East 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 dispatched to the frontier of Mefopotamia, and condemned to sustain the labours of a war, the honours of which had been transferred to his unworthy rival. Sabinian fixed his indolent station 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 East. 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 harass the wide extent of the Perfian lines, and to re

62 Ammianus (xviii. 5, 6. xix. 3. xx. 2.) reprefents the merit and difgrace of Urficinus with that faithful attention which a foldier owed to his general. Some partiality may be fufpected, yet the whole account is confiftent and probable. P 2

lieve

XIX.

CHA P. lieve the diftrefs of Amida; the timid and envious commander alleged, that he was reftrained by his pofitive orders from endangering the safety of the troops. Amida was at length taken; its bravest defenders, who had efcaped 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 mifconduct of Sabinian by the lofs of his military rank. But Conftantius foon experienced the truth of the prediction which honest indignation had extorted from his injured lieutenant, that as long as fuch maxims of government were fuffered to prevail, the emperor himself would find it no eafy tafk to defend his eaftern dominions from the invafion of a foreign enemy. When he had fubdued or pacified the Barbarians of the Danube, Conftantius proceeded by flow marches into the Eaft; and after he had wept over the fmoking ruins of Amida, he formed, with a powerful army, the fiege of Bezabde. The walls were fhaken 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 feafon obliged the emperor to raise the fiege, and inglorioufly to retreat into his winter-quarters at Antioch 3. The pride of Conftantius, and the in

63

genuity

63 Ammian. xx. 11. Omiffo vano incepto, hiematurus Antiochiæ redit in Syriam ærumnofam, perpeffus et ulcerum fed et atrocia, diuque defenda. It is thus that James Gronovius has restored an obfcure paffage; and he thinks that this correction alone would have

deferved

XIX.

genuity of his courtiers, were at a lofs to dif- CHAP. 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 concise narrative of his exploits.

of Gaul

by the

In the blind fury of civil difcord, Conftantius Invafion had abandoned to the Barbarians of Germany the countries of Gaul, which still acknowledged the Germans. authority of his rival. A numerous fwarm of Franks and Alemanni were invited to cross the Rhine by prefents and promises, by the hopes of fpoil, and by a perpetual grant of all the territories which they should be able to fubdue 64. But the emperor, who for a temporary fervice had thus imprudently provoked the rapacious spirit of the Barbarians, foon discovered and lamented the difficulty of difmiffing thefe formidable allies, after they had tafted the richness of the Roman foil. Regardless of the nice distinction of loyalty and rebellion, thefe undifciplined robbers treated as their natural enemies all the fubjects of the empire, who poffeffed any property which they were defirous of acquiring. Forty-five flourishing cities, Tongres, Cologne, Treves, Worms, Spires, Strafburgh, &c. befides a far greater number of deferved a new edition of his author; whofe fenfe may now be darkly perceived. I expected fome aditional light from the recent labours of the learned Erneftus (Lipfiæ, 1773.).

be

64 The ravages of the Germans, and the distress of Gaul, may collected from Julian himself. Orat. ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 277. Libanius, Orat. x. Zofimus, l. iii. p. 140. So.

Ammian. xv. 11.

zomen, l. iii. c. 1.