XIN. CHAP. bourhood of Sogdiana." Having incurred the displeasure of his master, Mamgo, with his fol lowers, retired to the banks of the Oxus, and implored the protection of Sapor. The emperor of China claimed the fugitive, and alledged the rights of sovereignty. The Persian monarch pleaded the laws of hospitality, and with some difficulty avoided a war, by the promise that he would banish Mamgo to the uttermost parts of the west; a punishment, as he described it, not less dreadful than death itself. Armenia was chosen for the place of exile, and a large district was assigned to the Scythian horde, on which they might feed their flocks and herds, and remove their encampment from one place to another, according to the different seasons of the year. They were employed to repel the invasion of Tiridates; but their leader, after weighing the obligations and injuries which he had received from the Persian monarch, resolved to abandon his party. The Armenian prince, who was well acquainted with the merit as well as power of Mamgo, treated him with distinguished respect; and by admitting him into his confidence, ac "Vou-ti, the first emperor of the seventh dynasty, who then reign. ed in China, had political transactions with Fergana, a province of Sogdiana, and is said to have received a Roman embassy (Histoire des Huns, tom. i, p. 38). In those ages the Chinese kept a garrison at Kashgar, and one of their generals, about the time of Trajan, marched as far as the Caspian sea. With regard to the intercourse between China and the western countries, a curious memoir of M. de Guignes may be consulted, in the Academie des intcriptions, tom. xxxii, p. 355. quired a brave and faithful servant, who contri- CHAP. buted very effectually to his restoration." XIII. sians recover Arme For a while fortune appeared to favour the The Perenterprising valour of Tiridates. He not only expelled the enemies of his family and country from the whole extent of Armenia, but in the prosecution of his revenge he carried his arms, or at least his incursions, into the heart of Assyria. The historian, who has preserved the name of Tiridates from oblivion, celebrates with a degree of national enthusiasm, his personal prowess; and, in the true spirit of eastern romance, describes the giants and the elephants that fell beneath his invincible arm. It is from other information that we discover the distracted state of the Persian monarchy, to which the king of Armenia was indebted for some part of his advantages. The throne was disputed by the ambition of contending brothers; and Hormuz, after exerting without success the strength of his own party, had recourse to the dangerous assistance of the barbarians who inhabited the banks of the Caspian sea. The civil war was, however, soon terminated, either by a victory, or by a reconciliation; and Narses, who was universally acknowledged as king of Persia, directed his whole • See Hist. Armen, l. ii, c. 81. Ipsos Persas ipsumque regem ascitis Saccis, et Russis, et Gellis, petit frater Ormies. Panegyric. Vet. iii, I. The Sacca were a nation of wandering Scythians, who encamped towards the sources of the Oxus and the Jaxartes. The Gelli were the inhabitants of Ghilan along the Caspian sea, and who so long, under the name of Dilemities infested the Persian monarchy. See d'Herbelot, Bibliothéque Orien tale. 1 XIII. CHAP, force against the foreign enemy. The contest then became too unequa; nor was the valour of the hero able to withstand the power of the monarch. Tiridates, a second time expelled from the throne of Armenia, once more took refuge in the court of the emperors. Narses soon reestablished his authority over the revolted province; and loudly complaining of the protection afforded by the Romans to rebels and fugitives, aspired to the conquest of the East." War between the Persians and the Neither prudence nor honour could permit the emperors to forsake the cause of the Armenian Romans, king, and it was resolved to exert the force of A. D. 296 the empire in the Persian war. Diocletian, with the calm dignity which he constantly assumed, fixed his own station in the city of Autioch, from whence he prepared and directed the military operations. The conduct of the legions was intrusted to the intrepid valour of Galerius, who, for that important purpose, was removed from the Defeat of banks of the Danube to those of the Euphrates. Galerius. The armies soon encountered each other in the plains of Mesopotamia, and two battles were fought with various and doubtful success: but the third engagement was of a more decisive 4 Moses of Chorene takes no notice of this second revolution, which I have been obliged to collect from a passage of Ammianus Marcellinns (1. xxiii, 5). Lactantius speaks of the ambition of Narses, “Con"citatus domesticis exemplis avi sui Saporis ad occupandum orien"tem magnis copiis inhiabat." De Mort. Persecut. c. 9. We may readily believe, that Lactantius ascribes to cowardice the conduct of Diocletian. Julian in his oration, says, that he remained with all the forces of the empire; a very hyperbolical expression. XIII. nature; and the Roman army received a total CHAP. overthrow, which is attributed to the rashness of.... Galerius, who with an inconsiderable body of troops attacked the innumerable host of the Persians. But the consideration of the country that was the scene of action may suggest another reason for his defeat. The same ground on which Galerius was vanquished, had been rendered memorable by the death of Crassus, and the slaughter of ten legions. It was a plain of more than sixty miles, which extended from the hills of Carrhæ to the Euphrates; a smooth and barren surface of sandy desert, without a hillock, without a tree, and without a spring of fresh water. The steady infantry of the Romans, fainting with heat and thirst, could neither hope for victory if they preserved their ranks, nor break their ranks without exposing themselves to the most iminent danger. In this situation they were gradually encompassed by the superior numbers, harrassed by the rapid evolutions, and destroyed by the arrows of the barbarian cavalry. The king of Armenia had signalized his valour in the battle, and acquired personal glory by the public misfortune. He was pursued as far as the Euphrates; his horse was wounded, and it appeared impossible-for him to escape the victorious * Our five abbreviators, Eutropius, Festus, the two Victors, and Orosius, all relate the last aud great battle; but Orosius is the only one who speaks of the two former. The nature of the country is finely described by Plutarch, in the life of Carassus; and by Xenophon, in the first book of the Anabasia. VOL. II. L XIII. CHAP. enemy. In this extremity Tiridates embraced the only refuge which he saw before him: dismounted and plunged into the stream. His armour was heavy, the river very deep, and at those parts at least half a mile in breadth;" yet such was his strength and dexterity, that he reached in safety the opposite bank. With regard to the Roman general, we are ignorant of the circumstances of his escape; but when he returned to Antioch, Diocletian received him, not with the tenderness of a friend and colleague, but with the indignation of an offended sovereign. The haughtiest of men, clothed in his purple, and humbled by the sense of his fault and misfortune, was obliged to follow the emperor's chariot above a mile on foot, and to exhibit before the whole court the spectacle of his disgrace.' His recepcion by Diocle.ian. Second campaign As soon as Diocletian had indulged his private of Cale- resentment, and asserted the majesty of supreme .B. 297. power, he yielded to the submissive entreaties of ins, the Cæsar, and permitted him to retrieve his own honour, as well as that of the Roman arms. In the room of the unwarlike troops of Asia, which had most probably served in the first expedition, a second army was drawn from the veterans and new levies of the Illyrian frontier, and a consi "See Foster's Disertation in the second volume of the translation of the Anabasis by Spelman: which I will venture to recommend as one of the best versions extant. * Hist. Armen. 1. ii, c. 76. 1 have transferred this exploit of Tiridates from an imaginary defeat to the real one of Galerius. ▾ Ammian. Marcellin. I. xiv. The mile in the hands of Eutropius (ix. 25), of Festus (c. 25), and of Orosius (vii, 25) ca ily increased to seteral miles. |