He was murdered by his first minister Allectus, propitious to a rebellion supported with courage and ability. The British emperor defended the frontiers of his dominions against the Caledonians of the North, invited, from the continent, a great number of skilful artists, and displayed, on a variety of coins that are still extant, his taste and opulence. Born on the confines of the Franks, he courted the friendship of that formidable people, by the flattering imitation of their dress and manners. The bravest of their youth he enlisted among his land or sea forces; and, in return for their useful alliance, he communicated to the barbarians the dangerous knowledge of military and naval arts. Carausius still preserved the possession of Boulogne and the adjacent country. His fleets rode triumphant in the Channel, commanded the mouths oflebrated the daring courage of the Romans, who the Seine and of the Rhine, ravaged the coasts of the ocean, and diffused beyond the columns of Hercules the terror of his name. Under his command, Britain, destined in a future age to obtain the empire of the sea, already assumed its natural and respectable station of a maritime power. 28 A. D. 289. acknowledged by the other emperors. This By seizing the fleet of Boulogne, Carausius had deprived his master of the means of pursuit and revenge. And when, after a vast expense of time and labour, a new armament was launched into the water, the Imperial troops, unaccustomed to that element, were easily baffled and defeated by the veteran sailors of the usurper. disappointed effort was soon productive of a treaty of peace. Diocletian and his colleague, who justly dreaded the enterprising spirit of Carausius, resigned to him the sovereignty of Britain, and reluctantly admitted their perfidious servant to a participation of the Imperial honours. 30 But the adoption of the two Cæsars restored new vigour to the Roman arms; and while the Rhine was guarded by the presence of Maximian, his brave associate Constantius assumed the conduct of the British war. first enterprise was against the important place of Boulogne. A stupendous mole, raised across the entrance of the harbour, intercepted all hopes of relief. The town surren A. D. 292. His dered after an obstinate defence; and a considerable part of the naval strength of Carausius fell into the hands of the besiegers. During the three years which Constantius employed in preparing a fleet adequate to the conquest of Britain, he secured the coast of Gaul, invaded the country of the Franks, and deprived the usurper of the assistance of those powerful allies. ventured to set sail with a side-wind, and on He per frontiers. Britain had none but domestic Defence of the enemies to dread; and as long as the governors preserved their fidelity, and the troops their discipline, the incursions of the naked savages of Scotland or Ireland could never materially affect the safety of the province. The peace of the continent, and the defence of the principal rivers which bounded the empire, were objects of far greater difficulty and importance. The policy of Diocletian, which inspired the councils of his associates, provided for the public tranquillity, by encouraging a spirit of dissension an assured victory. His silence in the second panegyric might alone inform us that the expedition had not succeeded. 50 Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, and the medals (Pax Augg.) inferm us of this temporary reconciliation; though I will not presume (a, Dr. Stukely has done, Medallic History of Carausius, p. S6, &c.) to insert the identical articles of the treaty. 31 With regard to the recovery of Britain, we obtain a few hints from Aurelius Victor and Eutropius. Fortifications. The brave and active Constantius delivered Gaul from a very furious inroad of the Alemanni; and his victories of Langres and Vindonissa appear to have been actions of considerable danger and merit. As he traversed the open country with a feeble guard, he was encompassed on a sudden by the superior multitude of the enemy. He retreated with difficulty towards Langres; but, in the general consternation, the citizens refused to open their gates, and the wounded prince was drawn up the wall by the means of a rope. But, on the news of his distress, the Roman troops hastened from all sides to his relief, and before the evening he had satisfied his honour and revenge by the slaughter of six thousand Alemanni, 36 From the monuments of those times, the obscure traces of several other victories over the barbarians of Sarmatia and Germany might possibly be collected; but the tedious search would not be rewarded either with amusement or with instruction. among the barbarians, and by strengthening the fortifications of the Roman limit. In the East he fixed a line of camps from Egypt to the Persian dominions, and, for every camp, he instituted an adequate number of stationary troops, commanded by their respective officers, and supplied with every kind of arms, from the new arsenals which he had formed at Antioch, Emesa, and Damascus. 32 Nor was the precaution of the emperor less watchful against the well-known valour of the barbarians of Europe. From the mouth of the Rhine to that of the Danube, the ancient camps, towns, and citadels, were diligently re-established, and, in the most exposed places, new ones were skilfully constructed; the strictest vigilance was introduced among the garrisons of the frontier, and every expedient was practised that could render the long chain of fortifications firm and impenetrable. 33 A barrier so respectable was seldom violated, and the barbarians often turned against each other their disappointed rage. The Dissensions of Goths, the Vandals, the Gepida, the barbarians the Burgundians, the Alemanni, wasted each other's strength by destructive hostilities, and whosoever vanquished, they vanquished the enemies of Rome. The subjects of Diocletian enjoyed the bloody spectacle, and congratulated each other, that the mischiefs of civil war were now experienced only by the barbarians, 34 Conduct of the Notwithstanding the policy of emperors. Diocletian, it was impossible to maintain an equal and undisturbed tranquillity during a reign of twenty years, and along a frontier of many hundred miles. Sometimes the barbarians suspended their domestic animosities, and the relaxed vigilance of the garrisons sometimes gave a passage to their strength or dexterity. Whenever the provinces were in vaded, Diocletian conducted himself with that calm dignity which he always affected or possessed; reserved his presence for such occasions as were worthy of his interposition, never exposed his person or reputation to any unneces sary danger, ensured his success by every means that prudence could suggest, and displayed, with ostentation, the consequences of his victory. In wars of a more difficult nature, and more doubtful event, he employed the rough valour of Maximian; and that faithful soldier was content to ascribe his own victories to the wise counsels and auspicious influence of his benefactor. But Valour of the after the adoption of the two Cæsars, the emperors themselves retiring to a less laborious scene of action, devolved on their adopted sons the defence of the Danube and of the Rhine. The vigilant Galerius was never reduced to the necessity of vanquishing an army of barbarians on the Roman territory.35 Carsars. 32 Jahn Malela, in Chron. Antiochen. tom. i. p. 409, 400. 3Z-a m. 1. 1. p. 5. That partial historian se is to celebrate the * Conroe of Dioctian, with a design of exposing the negligence of Gaurae; we may, however, li t `n to an orator," Nam quid ego * et coortium castra percenseain, toto Rheni et Istri et "Euharis I'mite restituti." Fà egyr. Vet. iv. 18. 34 Fruit manes in sanguinem suum populi, quibus non contigit en Romania, obstinata-que feritatis pornas nune sponte persolvunt. Ing. Vet. in. 16. Mamertinus illustrates the fact, by the exammost all the nations of the world. 2. He complained, though not with the strictest truth; "Jam Jaise arunas gsindecim in quibus, in Illyrico, ad ripam Danubui re*p4u cun gentibus barbarís luctaret." Lactant. de M. P. c. 1W The conduct which the emperor Treatment of Probus had adopted in the disposal the barbarians. of the vanquished, was imitated by Diocletian and his associates. The captive barbarians, exchanging death for slavery, were distributed among the provincials, and assigned to those districts (in Gaul, the territories of Amiens, Beauvais, Cambray, Treves, Langres, and Troyes, are particularly specified 37) which had been depopulated by the calamities of war. They were usefully employed as shepherds and husbandmen, but were denied the exercise of arms, except when it was found expedient to enrol them in the military service. Nor did the emperors refuse the property of lands, with a less servile tenure, to such of the barbarians as solicited the protection of Rome. They granted a settlement to several colonies of the Carpi, the Bastarnæ, and the Sarmatians; and, by a dangerous indulgence, permitted them in some measure to retain their national manners and independence. 38 Among the provincials, it was a subject of flattering exultation, that the barbarian, so lately an object of terror, now cultivated their lands, drove their cattle to the neighbouring fair, and contributed by his labour to the public plenty. They congratulated their masters on the powerful accession of subjects and soldiers; but they forgot to observe, that multitudes of secret enemies, insolent from favour, or desperate from oppression, were introduced into the heart of the empire. 39 While the Cæsars exercised their War of Africa and Egypt. valour on the banks of the Rhine and Danube, the presence of the emperors was required on the southern confines of the Roma world. From the Nile to Mount Atlas, Afric was in arms. A confederacy of five Moorish nations issued from their deserts to invade the 36 In the Greek text of Eusebius, we read six thousand, a number which I have preferred to the sixty thousand of Jerome, Orosius, Etropius, and his Greek translator Paanius. 37 Panegyr. Vet. vii. 21. 38 There was a settlement of the Sarmatians in the neighbourhood of Treves, which seems to have been deserted by those lazy barbarians: Ausonius speaks of them in his Moselle; Unde iter ingrediens nemoro a per avia solum, Et nulla humani spectans vestigia cultus Arvaque Sauromatum nuper metata colonis. There was a town of the Carpi in the Lower Masia. 30 See the rhetorical exultation of Eumenius. Fanegyr. vii. 3 peaceful provinces. 40 Julian had assumed the purple at Carthage.+1 Achilleus at Alexandria, and even the Blemmyes, renewed, or rather continued, their incursions into the Upper Egypt. Scarcely any circumstances have been preserved of the exploits of Maximian in the western parts of Africa; but it appears by the event, that the progress of his arms was rapid and decisive, that he vanquished the fiercest barbarians of Mauritania, and that he removed them from the mountains, whose inaccessible strength had inspired their inhabitants with a lawless confidence, and habituated them to a life of rapine and vio A. D. 296. Conduct of to them an extensive but unprofitable territory above Syene and the cataracts of the Nile, with the stipulation, that they should ever respect and guard the frontier of the empire. The treaty long subsisted; and till the establishment of Christianity introduced stricter notions of religious worship, it was annually ratified by a solemn sacrifice in the isle of Elephantine, in which the Romans, as well as the barbarians, adored the same visible or invisible powers of the universe. 48 At the same time that Diocletian chastised the past crimes of the Egyptians, he provided for their future safety and happiness by many wise regulations, which were confirmed and enforced under the succeeding reigns.49 One very remarkable edict, which he published, instead of being condemned as the effect of jealous tyranny, deserves to be applauded as an act of prudence and humanity. He caused a dili- He suppresses gent enquiry to be made "for all the books of alchymy. "ancient books which treated of the "admirable art of making gold and silver, and "without pity committed them to the flames; "apprehensive, as we are assured, lest the opu"lence of the Egyptians should inspire them "with confidence to rebel against the empire." 50 But if Diocletian had been convinced of the reality of that valuable art, far from extinguishing the memory, he would have converted the operation of it to the benefit of the public revenue. It is much more likely, that his good sense discovered to him the folly of such magnificent pretensions, and that he was desirous of pre lence. 42 Diocletian, on his side, Diocletian in opened the campaign in Egypt by Egypt. the siege of Alexandria, cut off the aqueducts which conveyed the waters of the Nile into every quarter of that immense city, 43 and rendering his camp impregnable to the sallies of the besieged multitude, he pushed his reiterated attacks with caution and vigour. After a siege of eight months, Alexandria, wasted by the sword and by fire, implored the clemency of the conqueror; but it experienced the full extent of his severity. Many thousands of the citizens perished in a promiscuous slaughter, and there were few obnoxious persons in Egypt who escaped a sentence either of death, or at least of exile. 44 The fate of Busiris and of Coptos was still more melancholy than that of Alexandria; those proud cities, the former distinguished by its antiquity, the latter enriched by the passage of the Indian trade, were utterly destroyed by the arms and by the severe order of Diocletian. 45 The character of the Egyp-serving the reason and fortunes of his subjects tian nation, insensible to kindness, but extremely susceptible of fear, could alone justify this excessive rigour. The seditions of Alexandria had often affected the tranquillity and subsistence of Rome itself. Since the usurpation of Firmus, the province of Upper Egypt, incessantly relapsing into rebellion, had embraced the alliance of the savages of Ethiopia. The number of the Blemmyes, scattered between the island of Meroe and the Red Sea, was very inconsiderable, their disposition was unwarlike, their weapons rude and inoffensive, 46 Yet in the public disorders these barbarians, whom antiquity, shocked with the deformity of their figure, had almost excluded from the human species, presumed to rank themselves among the enemies of Rome.47 Such had been the unworthy allies of the Egyptians; and while the attention of the state was engaged in more serious wars, their vexatious inroads might again harass the repose of the province. With a view of opposing to the Blemmyes a suitable adversary, Diocletian persuaded the Nobatæ, or people of Nubia, to remove from their ancient habitations in the deserts of Libya, and resigned 40 Scaliger (Animadvers. ad Euseb. p. 243.) decides in his usual manner, that the quinque gentiani, or five African nations, were the five great cities, the Pentapolis of the inoffensive province of Cyrene. 41 After his defeat, Julian stabbed himself with a dagger, and immediately leaped into the flames. Victor in Epitome. 42 Tu ferocissimos Mauritaniæ populos inaccessis montium jugis et naturali munitione fidentes, expugnasti, recepisti, transtulisti. Panegyr. Vet. vi. 8. 43 See the description of Alexandria, in Hirtius de Bel. Alexandirin. c. 5. 44 Eutrop. ix. 24. Orosius, vii. 25. John Malela in Chron. Antioch. p. 409, 410. Yet Eumenius assures us, that Egypt was pacified by the clemency of Diocletian. 45 Eusebius (in Chron.) places their destruction several years sooner, that art. from the mischievous pursuit. It Novelty and and at a time when Egypt itself was in a state of rebellion against the 46 Strabo, l. xvii. p. 1. 172. Pomponius Mela, I. i. c. 4. His words are curious," Intra, si credere libet, vix homines magisque semiferi; "Egipanes, et Blemmyes, et Satyri." 47 Ausus sese inserere fortunae et provocare arma Romana. 49 He fixed the public allowance of corn for the people of Alexandria, at two millions of medimni; about four hundred thousand quar ters. Chron. Paschal. p. 276. Procop. Hist. Arcan. c. 26. 50 John Antioch. in Excerp. Valesian, p. 834. Suidas in Diocletian. 51 See a short history and confutation of alchymy, in the works of that philosophical compiler, La Mothe le Vayer, tom. i. p. 327-333. war. The Perstan The reduction of Egypt was immediately followed by the Persian war. It was reserved for the reign of Diocletian to vanquish that powerful nation, and to extort a confession from the successors of Artaxerxes, of the superior majesty of the Roman empire. Tiridates the We have observed under the reign Araruan. of Valerian, that Armenia was subdued by the perfidy and the arms of the Persians, and that, after the assassination of Chosroes, his son Tiridates, the infant heir of the monarchy, was saved by the fidelity of his friends, and educated under the protection of the emperor. Tiridates derived from his exile such advantages as he could never have obtained on the throne of Armenia; the early knowledge of adversity, of mankind, and of the Roman discipline. He signalised his youth by deeds of valour, and displayed a matchless dexterity, as well as strength, in every martial exercise, and even in the less honourable contests of the Olympian games. 52 Those qualities were more nobly exerted in the defence of his benefactor Licinius. 53 A. D. 282. That officer, in the sedition which occasioned the death of Probus, was exposed to the most imminent danger, and the enraged soldiers were forcing their way into his tent, when they were checked by the single arm of the Armenian prince. The gratitude of Tiridates contributed soon afterwards to his restoration. Licinius was in every station the friend and companion of Galerius, and the merit of Galerius, long before he was raised to the dignity of Cæsar, had been known and esteemed by Diocletian. In the third year of that emperor's reign Tiridates was invested with the kingdom of Armenia. The justice of the measure was not less evident than its expediency. It was time to rescue from the usurpation of the Persian monarch an important territory, which, since the reign of Nero, had been always granted under the protection of the empire to a younger branch of the house of Arsaces. 5+ 52 See the education and strength of Tiridates in the Armenian history of Moses of Chorene, 1. ii. c. 76. He could seize two wild bulls by the horns, and break thein off with his hands. 33 If we give credit to the younger Victor, who supposes that in the year 323, Licinius was only sixty years of age, he could scarcely be the same person as the patron of Tiridates; but we know from much berter authority (Euseb. Hist. Ecclesiast. 1. x. c. 8.), that Licinius was at that time in the last period of old age: sixteen years before, he srepresented with grey hairs, and as the contemporary of Galerius. See Lactant. e. 32. Licinius was probably born about the year 250. M4 See the sixty-second and sixty-third books of Dion Cassius. Moses of Chorene, Hist. Armen. 1. ii. c. 74. The status had been erected by Valarsaces, who reigned in Armenia about 130 years before Christ, and was the first king of the family of Arsaces (see Moses Hut. Armen. Lu. 2, 3.). The deification of the Arsacides is menlamed by Justin (xli. 5.) and by Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiii. 6.). The Armenian nobility was numerous and powerful. Moses mentions many families which were distinguished under the reign of nobles. cable. We have already remarked the intolerant spirit of the Magian religion. The statues of the deified kings of Armenia, and the sacred images of the sun and moon, were broke in pieces by the zeal of the conqueror; and the perpetual fire of Ormuzd was kindled and preserved upon an altar erected on the summit of Mount Bagavan. 55 It was natural, Revolt of the that a people exasperated by so many people and injuries should arm with zeal in the cause of their independence, their religion, and their hereditary sovereign. The torrent bore down every obstacle, and the Persian garrisons retreated before its fury. The nobles of Armenia flew to the standard of Tiridates, all alleging their past merit, offering their future service, and soliciting from the new king those honours and rewards from which they had been excluded with disdain under the foreign government. 56 The command of the army was bestowed on Artavasdes, whose father had saved the infancy of Tiridates, and whose family had been massacred for that generous action. The brother of Artavasdes obtained the government of a province. One of the first military dignities was conferred on the satrap Otas, a man of singular temperance and fortitude, who presented to the king his sister57 and a considerable treasure, both of which, in a sequestered fortress, Otas had preserved from violation. Among the Armenian nobles appeared an ally, Story of Mamgo. whose fortunes are too remarkable to pass unnoticed. His name was Mamgo, his origin was Scythian, and the horde which acknowledged his authority had encamped a very few years before on the skirts of the Chinese empire, 58 which at that time extended as far as the neighbourhood of Sogdiana. 59 Having incurred the displeasure of his master, Mamgo, with his followers, retired to the banks of the Oxus, and implored the protection of Sapor. The emperor of China claimed the fugitive, and alleged 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, rc Valarsaces (1. ii. 7.), and which still subsisted in his own time, about the middle of the fifth century. See the preface of his editors. 57 She was named Chosroiduchta, and had not the ca patulum like other women. (Hist. Armen. 1. ii. c. 79.) I do not understand the expression. 58 In the Armenian History (I. ii. 78.), as well as in the Geography (p. 367.), China is called Zenia, or Zenastan. It is characterised by the production of silk, by the opulence of the natives, and by their love of peace, above all the other nations of the earth. 59 Vou-ti, the first emperor of the seventh dynasty, who then reigned 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 Académie des Incriptions, toan. xxii. p. 355. solved to abandon his party. The Armenian prince, who was well acquainted with the merit as well as power of Maingo, treated him with distinguished respect; and, by admitting him into his confidence, acquired a brave and faithful servant, who contributed very effectually to his restoration. 60 The Persians re- For a while, fortune appeared to cover Armenia. favour the enterprising 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.61 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 force against the foreign enemy. The contest then became too unequal; 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 re-established 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. 62 War between Neither prudence nor honour the Persians and could permit the emperors to forsake the Romans. A. D. 296. the cause of the Armenian king, and it was resolved to exert the force of the empire in the Persian war. Diocletian, with the calm dignity which he constantly assumed, fixed his own station in the city of Antioch, from whence he prepared and directed the military operations. 63 The conduct of the legions was intrusted to the intrepid valour of Galerius, who, for that important purpose, was removed from the banks of the Danube to those of the Euphrates. Defeat of Gale- The armies soon encountered each rius. 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 nature; and the Roman army received a total overthrow, which is attributed to 60 See Hist. Armen. 1. ii. c. 81. 61 Ipsos l'ersas ipsumque regem ascitis Saccis, et Russis, et Gellis, petit frater Ormies. Panegyric. Vet. iii. 1. 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 Dilemites, infested the Persian monarchy. See d'Herbelot, Bibliothèque Orientale. 62 Moses of Chorene takes no notice of this second revolution, which I have been obliged to collect from a passage of Ammianus Marcellinus. (1. xxiii. c. 5.) Lactantius speaks of the ambition of Nares, "Concitatus domesticis exemplis avi cui Saporis ad occupandum ** orientem magis copiis inhiafat." De Mort. Per ecut. c. 9. 63 We may readily believe, that Lactantius ascnbes to cowardice the conduct of Diocletian. Julian, in his oration, says, that he re the rashness of Galerfus, who, with an Inconsiderable body of troops, attacked the innumerable host of the Persians. 64 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. 65 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 imminent danger. In this situation they were gradually encompassed by the superior numbers, harassed by the rapid evolutions, and destroyed by the arrows of the barbarian cavalry. The king of Armenia had signalised 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 enemy. In this extremity Tiridates embraced the only refuge which he saw before him: he 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;66 yet such was his strength and dexterity, that he reached in safety the opposite bank.67 With regard to the Roman general, we are ignorant of the circumstances of his escape; but when he returned to Antioch, Diocletian re- His reception by ceived him, not with the tenderness Diocletian. of a friend and colleague, but with the indignation of an offended sovereign. The haughtiest of men, clothed in his purple, but 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.68 rius. As soon as Diocletian had in- Second camdulged his private resentment, and pain of Galeasserted the majesty of supreme A. D. 297. power, he yielded to the submissive entreaties of 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 considerable body of Gothic auxiliaries were taken into the Imperial pay.69 At the head of a chosen army of twenty-five thousand men, Galerius again passed the Euphrates; but, instead of exposing his legions in the open plains of Mesopotamia, he advanced through the mountains of mained with all the forces of the ampire; a very hyperbolical expression. 64 Our five abbreviators, Eutropius, Festus, the two Victors, and Orosius, all relate the last and great battle; but Orosius is the only one who speaks of the two former." 65 The nature of the country is finely described by Plutarch, in the life of Crassus; and by Xenophon, in the first book of the Anabasis. 66 See Foster's Dissertation 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. 67 Hist. Armen. 1. ii. c. 76. I have transferred this exploit of Tiridates from an imaginary defeat to the real one of Galerius, GS Ammian. Marcellin. 1. xiv. The mile, in the hands of Eutro pius (ix. 24.), of Festus (c. 25.), and of Orosius (vii. 23.), easily increased to teeral miles, 69 Aurelius Victor. Jornandes de Rebus Geticis, c. 21. |