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VIII.

its capital, was fituated about twenty miles be- c HA P. yond the former of thofe rivers; and the inhabitants, fince the time of Alexander, were a mixed race of Greeks, Arabs, Syrians, and Armenians 44. The feeble fovereigns of Of rhoene, placed on the dangerous verge of two contending empires, were attached from inclination to the Parthian caufe; but the fuperior power of Rome exacted from them a reluctant homage, which is ftill attefted by their medals. After the conclufion of the Parthian war under Marcus, it was judged prudent to secure fome fubftantial pledges of their doubtful fidelity. Forts were constructed in several parts of the country, and a Roman garrifon was fixed in the ftrong town of Nifibis. During the troubles that followed the death of Commodus, the princes of Ofrhoene attempted to shake off the yoke; but the stern policy of Severus confirmed their dependence, and the perfidy of Caracalla completed the eafy conqueft. Ab- A.D. 216.

garus, the laft king of Edeffa, was fent in chains to Rome, his dominions reduced into a province, and his capital dignified with the rank of colony; and thus the Romans, about ten years before the fall of the Parthian monarchy,

44 The polished citizens of Antioch called those of Edessa mixed barbarians. It was, however, fome praise, that of the three dialects of the Syriac, the pureft and most elegant (the Aramæan) was spoke at Edeffa. This remark M. Bayer (Hift. Edeff. p. 5.) has borrowed from George of Malatia, a Syrian writer.

45 Dion, I. lxxv. p. 1248, 1249, 1250. M. Bayer has neglected to use this most important passage.

obtained

CHAP. obtained a firm and permanent establishment beyond the Euphrates.

VIII.

Artaxerxés claims

the provinces of

Afia, and

declares

war againft

the Ro

mans.

A.D. 230.

Prudence as well as glory might have justified a war on the fide of Artaxerxes, had his views been confined to the defence or the acquifition of a useful frontier. But the ambitious Perfian openly avowed a far more extenfive defign of conqueft; and he thought himself able to fupport his lofty pretenfions by the arms of reafon as well as by thofe of power. Cyrus, he alleged, had first fubdued, and his fucceffors had for a long time poffeffed, the whole extent of Afia, as far as the Propontis and the Egean fea; the provinces of Caria and Ionia, under their empire, had been governed by Persian fatraps, and all Egypt, to the confines of Ethiopia, had acknowledged their fovereignty 47. Their rights had been fufpended, though not deftroyed, by a long ufurpation; and as foon as he received the Perfian diadem, which birth and fuccessful valour had placed upon his head, the first great duty of his station called upon him to reftore the ancient limits and splendour of the monarchy. The Great King, therefore (fuch was the. haughty style of his embaffies to the Emperor Alexander), commanded the Romans inftantly to depart from

46 This kingdom, from Ofrhoes, who gave a new name to the country, to the last Abgarus, had lafted 353 years. See the learned work of M. Bayer, Hiftoria Ofrhoena et Edeffena.

47 Xenophon, in the preface to the Cyropædia, gives a clear and magnificent idea of the extent of the empire of Cyrus. Herodotus (1. iii. c. 79, &c.) enters into a curious and particular description of the twenty great Satrapies into which the Perfian empire was divided by Darius Hyftafpes.

all

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all the provinces of his ancestors, and yielding CHAP. to the Perfians the empire of Afia, to content themselves with the undisturbed poffeffion of Europe. This haughty mandate was delivered by four hundred of the tallest and most beautiful of the Perfians; who, by their fine horfes, fplendid arms, and rich apparel, difplayed the pride and greatnefs of their mafter 49. Such an embaffy was much less an offer of negociation than a declaration of war. Both Alexander Severus and Artaxerxes, collecting the military force of the Roman and Perfian monarchies, refolved in this important conteft to lead their armies in perfon.

If we credit what fhould feem the moft au- Pretended

Alexander

thentic of all records, an oration, ftill extant, victory of and delivered by the Emperor himself to the Severus. fenate, we must allow that the victory of Alex. A.D.233. ander Severus was not inferior to any of thofe formerly obtained over the Perfians by the fon of Philip. The army of the Great King con fifted of one hundred and twenty thoufand horfe, clothed in complete armour of steel; of seven hundred elephants, with towers filled with archers on their backs, and of eighteen hundred chariots, armed with fcythes. This formidable hoft, the like of which is not to be found in eaftern history, and has scarcely been imagined in eastern romance 49, was discomfited in a great battle,

48 Herodian, vi. 209. 212.

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49 There were two hundred fcythed chariots at the battle of Arbela, in the hoft of Darius. In the vaft army of Tigranes, which was vanquished by Lucullus, seventeen thousand horfe only were VOL. I.

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CHAP. battle, in which the Roman Alexander approved VIII. himself an intrepid foldier and a fkilful general.

More pro

bable account of

the war.

The Great King fled before his valour; an immenfe booty, and the conqueft of Mefopotamia, were the immediate fruits of this fignal victory. Such are the circumftances of this oftentatious and improbable relation, dictated, as it too plainly appears, by the vanity of the monarch, adorned by the unblushing fervility of his flatterers, and received without contradiction by a diftant and obfequious fenate. Far from being inclined to believe that the arms of Alexander obtained any memorable advantage over the Perfians, we are induced to suspect, that all this blaze of imaginary glory was defigned to conceal fome real difgrace.

Our fufpicions are confirmed by the authority of a contemporary hiftorian, who mentions the virtues of Alexander with respect, and his faults

completely armed. Antiochus brought fifty-four elephants into the field against the Romans: by his frequent wars and negociations with the princes of India, he had once collected an hundred and fifty of those great animals; but it may be queftioned, whether the most powerful monarch of Hindoftan ever formed a line of battle of seven hundred elephants. Instead of three or four thousand elephants, which the Great Mogul was fuppofed to poffefs, Tavernier (Voyages, part ii. 1. i. p. 198.) discovered, by a more accurate inquiry, that he had only five hundred for his baggage, and eighty or ninety for the fervice of war. The Greeks have varied with regard to the number which Porus brought into the field; but Quintus Curtius (viii. 13.), in this instance judicious and moderate, is contented with eighty-five elephants, diftinguished by their fize and ftrength. In Siam, where these animals are the most numerous and the most esteemed, eighteen elephants are allowed as a fufficient proportion for each of the nine brigades into which a juft army is divided. The whole number, of one hundred and fixty-two elephants of war, may fometimes be doubled. Hift. des Voyages, tom. ix. p. 260.

sc Hift. Auguft. p. 133.

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with candour. He defcribes the judicious plan CHA P. which had been formed for the conduct of the war. Three Roman armies were deftined to invade Perfia at the fame time, and by different roads. But the operations of the campaign, though wifely concerted, were not executed either with ability or fuccefs. The first of these armies, as foon as it had entered the marshy plains of Babylon, towards the artificial conflux of the Euphrates and the Tigris ", was encom paffed by the fuperior numbers, and destroyed by the arrows, of the enemy. The alliance of Chofroes King of Armenia 52, and the long tract of mountainous country, in which the Persian cavalry was of little fervice, opened a fecure éntrance into the heart of Media, to the second of the Roman armies. Thefe brave troops laid waste the adjacent provinces, and by feveral fuccefsful actions against Artaxerxes, gave a faint colour to the Emperor's vanity. But the retreat of this victorious army was imprudent, or at least unfortunate. In repaffing the mountains, great numbers of foldiers perished by the badnefs of the roads, and the severity of the winter feafon. It had been refolved, that whilst these two great detachments penetrated into the oppofite extremes of the Perfian dominions,

s1 M. de Tillemont has already observed, that Herodian's geography is fomewhat confused.

52 Mofes of Chorene (Hift. Armen. 1. ii. c. 71.) illuftrates this invafion of Media, by afferting that Chofroes, King of Armenia, defeated Artaxerxes, and pursued him to the confines of India. The exploits of Chofroes have been magnified; and he acted as a dependent ally to the Romans.

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