CHAP. ed on the Armenian frontier. The first condition XIII. ... and articles of the reaty. proposed by the ambassador, is not at present of a very intelligible nature; that the city of Nisibis might be established for the place of mutual exchange, or, as we should formerly have termed it, for the staple of trade between the two empires. There is no difficulty in conceiving the intention of the Roman princes to improve their revenue by some restraints upon commerce; but as Nisibis was situated within their own doininious, and as they were masters both of the imports and exports, it should seem that such restraints were the objects of an internal law, rather than of a foreign treaty. To render thein more effectual, some stipulations were probably required on the side of the king of Persia, which appeared so very repugnant either to his interest or to his dignity, that Narses could not be persuaded to subscribe them. As this was the only article to which he refused his consent, it was no longer insisted on; and the emperors either suffered the trade to flow in its natural channels, or contented themselves with such restrictions, as it depended on their own authority to establish. As soon as this difficulty was removed, a solemn peace was concluded and ratified between the two nations. The conditions of a treaty, so glorious to the empire, and so necessary to Persia, He had been governor of Sumium (Pet. Patricius in Excerpt. Legat. p. 30). This province seems to be mentioned by Moses of Chorene (Geograph. p. 360), and lay to the east of mount Ararat. XIII. ras fixed mits be may deserve a more peculiar attention, as the CHAP. history of Rome presents very few transactions of a similar nature; most of her wars having either been terminated by absolute conquest, or waged against barbarians ignorant of the use of letters. 1. The Aboras, or, as it is called by Xenophon, The Abothe Araxes, was fixed as the boundary between as the li the two monarchies. The river, which rose tween the near the Tigris, was increased, a few iniles be-empires. low Nisibis, by the little stream of the Mygdonius, passed under the walls of Singara, and fell into the Euphrates at Circesium, a frontier town, which, by the care of Diocletian, was very strongly fortified.' Mesopotamia, the object of so many wars, was ceded to the empire; and the Persians, by this treaty, renounced all pretensions to that great province. 11. They relin- Cession of quished to the Romans five provinces beyond the vinces be Tigris. Their situation formed a very useful Tigris. barrier, and their natural strength was soon im By an error of the geographer Ptolemy, the position of Singara is removed from the Aboras to the Tigris, which may have produced the mistake of Peter, in assigning the latter river for the boundary, instead of the former. The line of the Roman frontier traversed, but never followed, the course of the Tigris. i Procopius de Edificiis, l. ii, c. 6. * Three of the provinces, Zabdicene, Arzanene, and Carduene, are allowed on all sides. But instead of the other two, Peter (in Excerpt. Leg p. 30) inserts Rehimene and Sophene. I have preferred Ammianns (1. xxv, 7), because it might be proved, that Sophene was never in the hands of the Persians, either before the reign of Diocletian, or after that of Jovian. For want of correct maps, like those of M. d'Anville, almost all the moderns, with Tillemont and Valesius at their head, have imagined, that it was in respect to Persia, and not to Rome, that the five provinces were situate beyond the Tigris, five pro yond the XIII. Armenia. CHAP. proved by art and military skill. Four of these, to the north of the river, were districts of obscure fame and inconsiderable extent; Intiline, Zabdicene, Arzanene, and Moxoene: but on the east of the Tigris, the empire acquired the large and mountainous territory of Carduene, the ancient seat of the Carduchians, who preserved for many ages their manly freedom in the heart of the despotic monarchies of Asia. The ten thousand Greeks traversed their country, after a painful march, or rather engagement, of seven days; and it is confessed by their leader, in his incomparable relation of the retreat, that they suffered more from the arrows of the Carduchians, than from the power of the great king. Their pos terity, the Curds, with very little alteration either of name or manners, acknowledged the no minal sovereignty of the Turkish sultan. 111. It is almost needless to observe, that Tiridates, the faithful ally of Rome, was restored to the throne of his fathers, and that the rights of the imperial supremacy were fully asserted and secured. The limits of Armenia were extended as far as the fortress of Sintha in Media, and this increase of dominion was not so much an act of liberality as of justice. Of the provinces already mentioned beyond the Tigris, the four first had been dismembered by the Parthians from the Xenophon's Anabasis, 1. iv. Their bows were three cubits in length, their arrows two; they rolled down stones that were each a waggon load. The Greeks found a great many villages in that rude country. CHAP. XIII. crown of Armenia; and when the Romans acquired the possession of them, they stipulated, at the expence of the usurpers, an ample compensation, which invested their ally with the extensive and fertile country of Atropatene. Its principal city, in the same situation perhaps as the modern Tauris, was frequently honoured with the residence of Tiridates; and as it sometimes bore the name of Ecbatana, he imitated, in the buildings and fortifications, the splendid capital of the Medes." IV. The country of Iberia was Iberia. barren, its inhabitants rude and savage. But they were accustomed to the use of arms, and they separated from the empire barbarians much fiercer and more formidable than themselves. The narrow defiles of mount Caucasus were in their hands, and it was in their choice, either to admit or to exclude the wandering tribes of Sarmatia, whenever a rapacious spirit urged them to penetrate into the richer climes of the south." The nomination of the kings of Iberia, which was resigned by the Persian monarch to the emperors, contributed to the strength and security of the Roman power in Asia." The East en According to Eutropius (vi, 9, as the text is represented by the best Mss.), the city of Tigranocerta was in Arzanene. The names and situation of the other three may be faintly traced. * Compare Herodotus, 1. i, c. 97, with Moses Choronens. Hist. Armen. 1 ii, c. 84, and the map of Armenia given by his editors. • Hiberi, locorum potentes, Caspia viâ Sarmatan in Armenios rap. tim effundant. Tacit. Annal. vi, 35. See Stabon. Geograph. 1. xi. p. 764. Peter Patricius (in Excerpt. Leg. p. 30) is the only writer who mentions the Iberian article of the treaty. 3 XIII. Triumph tian and an, Nov. 20. CHAP. joyed a profound tranquillity during forty yearɛ; and the treaty between the rival monarchies was strictly observed till the death of Tiridates; when a new generation, animated with different views and different passions, succeeded to the government of the world; and the grandson of Narses undertook a long and memorable war against the princes of the house of Constantine. The arduous work of rescuing the distressed of Diocle- empire from tyrants and barbarians had now Maximi- been completely achieved by a succession of IlAD. 303, lyrian peasants. As soon as Diocletian entered into the twentieth year of his reign, he celebrated that memorable era, as well as the success of his arms, by the pomp of a Roman triumph. Maximian, the equal partner of his power, was his only companion in the glory of that day. The two Cæsars had fought and conquered, but the merit of their exploits was ascribed, according to the rigour of ancient maxims, to the auspicious influence of their fathers and emperors.' The triumph of Diocletian and Maximian was less magnificent, perhaps, than those of Aurelian and Probus, but it was dignified by several circumstances of superior fame and good fortune. Africa and Britain, the Rhine, the Danube and the Nile, furnished their respective trophies; but the most distinguished ornament was of a more Euseb. in Chron. Pagi ad annum. Till the discovery of the treatise De Mortibus Persecutorum, it was not certain that the triumph and the Vincenalia were celebrated at the same time. At the time of the Vincenalia, Galerius seems to have kept his statlon on the Danube. See Lactant. de M. P. c. 35. |