Chapter XVIII: Character Of Constantine And His Sons.—Part III

The voice of the dying emperor had recommended the care of his
funeral to the piety of Constantius; and that prince, by the
vicinity of his eastern station, could easily prevent the
diligence of his brothers, who resided in their distant
government of Italy and Gaul. As soon as he had taken possession
of the palace of Constantinople, his first care was to remove the
apprehensions of his kinsmen, by a solemn oath which he pledged
for their security. His next employment was to find some specious
pretence which might release his conscience from the obligation
of an imprudent promise. The arts of fraud were made subservient
to the designs of cruelty; and a manifest forgery was attested by
a person of the most sacred character. From the hands of the
Bishop of Nicomedia, Constantius received a fatal scroll,
affirmed to be the genuine testament of his father; in which the
emperor expressed his suspicions that he had been poisoned by his
brothers; and conjured his sons to revenge his death, and to
consult their own safety, by the punishment of the guilty. 50
Whatever reasons might have been alleged by these unfortunate
princes to defend their life and honor against so incredible an
accusation, they were silenced by the furious clamors of the
soldiers, who declared themselves, at once, their enemies, their
judges, and their executioners. The spirit, and even the forms of
legal proceedings were repeatedly violated in a promiscuous
massacre; which involved the two uncles of Constantius, seven of
his cousins, of whom Dalmatius and Hannibalianus were the most
illustrious, the Patrician Optatus, who had married a sister of
the late emperor, and the Præfect Ablavius, whose power and
riches had inspired him with some hopes of obtaining the purple.
If it were necessary to aggravate the horrors of this bloody
scene, we might add, that Constantius himself had espoused the
daughter of his uncle Julius, and that he had bestowed his sister
in marriage on his cousin Hannibalianus. These alliances, which
the policy of Constantine, regardless of the public prejudice, 51
had formed between the several branches of the Imperial house,
served only to convince mankind, that these princes were as cold
to the endearments of conjugal affection, as they were insensible
to the ties of consanguinity, and the moving entreaties of youth
and innocence. Of so numerous a family, Gallus and Julian alone,
the two youngest children of Julius Constantius, were saved from
the hands of the assassins, till their rage, satiated with
slaughter, had in some measure subsided. The emperor Constantius,
who, in the absence of his brothers, was the most obnoxious to
guilt and reproach, discovered, on some future occasions, a faint
and transient remorse for those cruelties which the perfidious
counsels of his ministers, and the irresistible violence of the
troops, had extorted from his unexperienced youth. 52

50 (return) [ I have related this singular anecdote on the
authority of Philostorgius, l. ii. c. 16. But if such a pretext
was ever used by Constantius and his adherents, it was laid aside
with contempt, as soon as it served their immediate purpose.
Athanasius (tom. i. p. 856) mention the oath which Constantius
had taken for the security of his kinsmen. ——The authority of
Philostorgius is so suspicious, as not to be sufficient to
establish this fact, which Gibbon has inserted in his history as
certain, while in the note he appears to doubt it.—G.]

51 (return) [ Conjugia sobrinarum diu ignorata, tempore addito
percrebuisse. Tacit. Annal. xii. 6, and Lipsius ad loc. The
repeal of the ancient law, and the practice of five hundred
years, were insufficient to eradicate the prejudices of the
Romans, who still considered the marriages of cousins-german as a
species of imperfect incest. (Augustin de Civitate Dei, xv. 6;)
and Julian, whose mind was biased by superstition and resentment,
stigmatizes these unnatural alliances between his own cousins
with the opprobrious epithet (Orat. vii. p. 228.). The
jurisprudence of the canons has since received and enforced this
prohibition, without being able to introduce it either into the
civil or the common law of Europe. See on the subject of these
marriages, Taylor’s Civil Law, p. 331. Brouer de Jure Connub. l.
ii. c. 12. Hericourt des Loix Ecclésiastiques, part iii. c. 5.
Fleury, Institutions du Droit Canonique, tom. i. p. 331. Paris,
1767, and Fra Paolo, Istoria del Concilio Trident, l. viii.]

52 (return) [ Julian (ad S. P.. Q. Athen. p. 270) charges his
cousin Constantius with the whole guilt of a massacre, from which
he himself so narrowly escaped. His assertion is confirmed by
Athanasius, who, for reasons of a very different nature, was not
less an enemy of Constantius, (tom. i. p. 856.) Zosimus joins in
the same accusation. But the three abbreviators, Eutropius and
the Victors, use very qualifying expressions: “sinente potius
quam jubente;” “incertum quo suasore;” “vi militum.”]

The massacre of the Flavian race was succeeded by a new division
of the provinces; which was ratified in a personal interview of
the three brothers. Constantine, the eldest of the Cæsars,
obtained, with a certain preëminence of rank, the possession of
the new capital, which bore his own name and that of his father.
Thrace, and the countries of the East, were allotted for the
patrimony of Constantius; and Constans was acknowledged as the
lawful sovereign of Italy, Africa, and the Western Illyricum. The
armies submitted to their hereditary right; and they
condescended, after some delay, to accept from the Roman senate
the title of _Augustus_. When they first assumed the reins of
government, the eldest of these princes was twenty-one, the
second twenty, and the third only seventeen, years of age. 53

53 (return) [ Euseb. in Vit. Constantin. l. iv. c. 69. Zosimus,
l. ii. p. 117. Idat. in Chron. See two notes of Tillemont, Hist.
des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 1086-1091. The reign of the eldest
brother at Constantinople is noticed only in the Alexandrian
Chronicle.]

While the martial nations of Europe followed the standards of his
brothers, Constantius, at the head of the effeminate troops of
Asia, was left to sustain the weight of the Persian war. At the
decease of Constantine, the throne of the East was filled by
Sapor, son of Hormouz, or Hormisdas, and grandson of Narses, who,
after the victory of Galerius, had humbly confessed the
superiority of the Roman power. Although Sapor was in the
thirtieth year of his long reign, he was still in the vigor of
youth, as the date of his accession, by a very strange fatality,
had preceded that of his birth. The wife of Hormouz remained
pregnant at the time of her husband’s death; and the uncertainty
of the sex, as well as of the event, excited the ambitious hopes
of the princes of the house of Sassan. The apprehensions of civil
war were at length removed, by the positive assurance of the
Magi, that the widow of Hormouz had conceived, and would safely
produce a son. Obedient to the voice of superstition, the
Persians prepared, without delay, the ceremony of his coronation.

A royal bed, on which the queen lay in state, was exhibited in
the midst of the palace; the diadem was placed on the spot, which
might be supposed to conceal the future heir of Artaxerxes, and
the prostrate satraps adored the majesty of their invisible and
insensible sovereign. 54 If any credit can be given to this
marvellous tale, which seems, however, to be countenanced by the
manners of the people, and by the extraordinary duration of his
reign, we must admire not only the fortune, but the genius, of
Sapor. In the soft, sequestered education of a Persian harem, the
royal youth could discover the importance of exercising the vigor
of his mind and body; and, by his personal merit, deserved a
throne, on which he had been seated, while he was yet unconscious
of the duties and temptations of absolute power. His minority was
exposed to the almost inevitable calamities of domestic discord;
his capital was surprised and plundered by Thair, a powerful king
of Yemen, or Arabia; and the majesty of the royal family was
degraded by the captivity of a princess, the sister of the
deceased king. But as soon as Sapor attained the age of manhood,
the presumptuous Thair, his nation, and his country, fell beneath
the first effort of the young warrior; who used his victory with
so judicious a mixture of rigor and clemency, that he obtained
from the fears and gratitude of the Arabs the title of
_Dhoulacnaf_, or protector of the nation. 55 5511

54 (return) [ Agathias, who lived in the sixth century, is the
author of this story, (l. iv. p. 135, edit. Louvre.) He derived
his information from some extracts of the Persian Chronicles,
obtained and translated by the interpreter Sergius, during his
embassy at that country. The coronation of the mother of Sapor is
likewise mentioned by Snikard, (Tarikh. p. 116,) and D’Herbelot
(Bibliothèque Orientale, p. 703.) ——The author of the
Zenut-ul-Tarikh states, that the lady herself affirmed her belief
of this from the extraordinary liveliness of the infant, and its
lying on the right side. Those who are sage on such subjects must
determine what right she had to be positive from these symptoms.
Malcolm, Hist. of Persia, i 83.—M.]

55 (return) [ D’Herbelot, Bibliothèque Orientale, p. 764.]

5511 (return) [ Gibbon, according to Sir J. Malcolm, has greatly
mistaken the derivation of this name; it means Zoolaktaf, the
Lord of the Shoulders, from his directing the shoulders of his
captives to be pierced and then dislocated by a string passed
through them. Eastern authors are agreed with respect to the
origin of this title. Malcolm, i. 84. Gibbon took his derivation
from D’Herbelot, who gives both, the latter on the authority of
the Leb. Tarikh.—M.]

The ambition of the Persian, to whom his enemies ascribe the
virtues of a soldier and a statesman, was animated by the desire
of revenging the disgrace of his fathers, and of wresting from
the hands of the Romans the five provinces beyond the Tigris. The
military fame of Constantine, and the real or apparent strength
of his government, suspended the attack; and while the hostile
conduct of Sapor provoked the resentment, his artful negotiations
amused the patience of the Imperial court. The death of
Constantine was the signal of war, 56 and the actual condition of
the Syrian and Armenian frontier seemed to encourage the Persians
by the prospect of a rich spoil and an easy conquest. The example
of the massacres of the palace diffused a spirit of
licentiousness and sedition among the troops of the East, who
were no longer restrained by their habits of obedience to a
veteran commander. By the prudence of Constantius, who, from the
interview with his brothers in Pannonia, immediately hastened to
the banks of the Euphrates, the legions were gradually restored
to a sense of duty and discipline; but the season of anarchy had
permitted Sapor to form the siege of Nisibis, and to occupy
several of the mo st important fortresses of Mesopotamia. 57 In
Armenia, the renowned Tiridates had long enjoyed the peace and
glory which he deserved by his valor and fidelity to the cause of
Rome. 5711 The firm alliance which he maintained with Constantine
was productive of spiritual as well as of temporal benefits; by
the conversion of Tiridates, the character of a saint was applied
to that of a hero, the Christian faith was preached and
established from the Euphrates to the shores of the Caspian, and
Armenia was attached to the empire by the double ties of policy
and religion. But as many of the Armenian nobles still refused to
abandon the plurality of their gods and of their wives, the
public tranquillity was disturbed by a discontented faction,
which insulted the feeble age of their sovereign, and impatiently
expected the hour of his death. He died at length after a reign
of fifty-six years, and the fortune of the Armenian monarchy
expired with Tiridates. His lawful heir was driven into exile,
the Christian priests were either murdered or expelled from their
churches, the barbarous tribes of Albania were solicited to
descend from their mountains; and two of the most powerful
governors, usurping the ensigns or the powers of royalty,
implored the assistance of Sapor, and opened the gates of their
cities to the Persian garrisons. The Christian party, under the
guidance of the Archbishop of Artaxata, the immediate successor
of St. Gregory the Illuminator, had recourse to the piety of
Constantius. After the troubles had continued about three years,
Antiochus, one of the officers of the household, executed with
success the Imperial commission of restoring Chosroes, 5712 the
son of Tiridates, to the throne of his fathers, of distributing
honors and rewards among the faithful servants of the house of
Arsaces, and of proclaiming a general amnesty, which was accepted
by the greater part of the rebellious satraps. But the Romans
derived more honor than advantage from this revolution. Chosroes
was a prince of a puny stature and a pusillanimous spirit.
Unequal to the fatigues of war, averse to the society of mankind,
he withdrew from his capital to a retired palace, which he built
on the banks of the River Eleutherus, and in the centre of a
shady grove; where he consumed his vacant hours in the rural
sports of hunting and hawking. To secure this inglorious ease, he
submitted to the conditions of peace which Sapor condescended to
impose; the payment of an annual tribute, and the restitution of
the fertile province of Atropatene, which the courage of
Tiridates, and the victorious arms of Galerius, had annexed to
the Armenian monarchy. 58 5811

56 (return) [ Sextus Rufus, (c. 26,) who on this occasion is no
contemptible authority, affirms, that the Persians sued in vain
for peace, and that Constantine was preparing to march against
them: yet the superior weight of the testimony of Eusebius
obliges us to admit the preliminaries, if not the ratification,
of the treaty. See Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p.
420. ——Constantine had endeavored to allay the fury of the
prosecutions, which, at the instigation of the Magi and the Jews,
Sapor had commenced against the Christians. Euseb Vit. Hist.
Theod. i. 25. Sozom. ii. c. 8, 15.—M.]

57 (return) [ Julian. Orat. i. p. 20.]

5711 (return) [ Tiridates had sustained a war against Maximin.
caused by the hatred of the latter against Christianity. Armenia
was the first _nation_ which embraced Christianity. About the
year 276 it was the religion of the king, the nobles, and the
people of Armenia. From St. Martin, Supplement to Le Beau, v. i.
p. 78.——Compare Preface to History of Vartan by Professor
Neumann, p ix.—M.]

5712 (return) [ Chosroes was restored probably by Licinius,
between 314 and 319. There was an Antiochus who was præfectus
vigilum at Rome, as appears from the Theodosian Code, (l. iii. de
inf. his quæ sub ty.,) in 326, and from a fragment of the same
work published by M. Amedee Peyron, in 319. He may before this
have been sent into Armenia. St. M. p. 407. [Is it not more
probable that Antiochus was an officer in the service of the
Cæsar who ruled in the East?—M.] Chosroes was succeeded in the
year 322 by his son Diran. Diran was a weak prince, and in the
sixteenth year of his reign. A. D. 337. was betrayed into the
power of the Persians by the treachery of his chamberlain and the
Persian governor of Atropatene or Aderbidjan. He was blinded: his
wife and his son Arsaces shared his captivity, but the princes
and nobles of Armenia claimed the protection of Rome; and this
was the cause of Constantine’s declaration of war against the
Persians.—The king of Persia attempted to make himself master of
Armenia; but the brave resistance of the people, the advance of
Constantius, and a defeat which his army suffered at Oskha in
Armenia, and the failure before Nisibis, forced Shahpour to
submit to terms of peace. Varaz-Shahpour, the perfidious governor
of Atropatene, was flayed alive; Diran and his son were released
from captivity; Diran refused to ascend the throne, and retired
to an obscure retreat: his son Arsaces was crowned king of
Armenia. Arsaces pursued a vacillating policy between the
influence of Rome and Persia, and the war recommenced in the year
345. At least, that was the period of the expedition of
Constantius to the East. See St. Martin, additions to Le Beau, i.
442. The Persians have made an extraordinary romance out of the
history of Shahpour, who went as a spy to Constantinople, was
taken, harnessed like a horse, and carried to witness the
devastation of his kingdom. Malcolm. 84—M.]

58 (return) [ Julian. Orat. i. p. 20, 21. Moses of Chorene, l.
ii. c. 89, l. iii. c. 1—9, p. 226—240. The perfect agreement
between the vague hints of the contemporary orator, and the
circumstantial narrative of the national historian, gives light
to the former, and weight to the latter. For the credit of Moses,
it may be likewise observed, that the name of Antiochus is found
a few years before in a civil office of inferior dignity. See
Godefroy, Cod. Theod. tom. vi. p. 350.]

5811 (return) [ Gibbon has endeavored, in his History, to make
use of the information furnished by Moses of Chorene, the only
Armenian historian then translated into Latin. Gibbon has not
perceived all the chronological difficulties which occur in the
narrative of that writer. He has not thought of all the critical
discussions which his text ought to undergo before it can be
combined with the relations of the western writers. From want of
this attention, Gibbon has made the facts which he has drawn from
this source more erroneous than they are in the original. This
judgment applies to all which the English historian has derived
from the Armenian author. I have made the History of Moses a
subject of particular attention; and it is with confidence that I
offer the results, which I insert here, and which will appear in
the course of my notes. In order to form a judgment of the
difference which exists between me and Gibbon, I will content
myself with remarking, that throughout he has committed an
anachronism of thirty years, from whence it follows, that he
assigns to the reign of Constantius many events which took place
during that of Constantine. He could not, therefore, discern the
true connection which exists between the Roman history and that
of Armenia, or form a correct notion of the reasons which induced
Constantine, at the close of his life, to make war upon the
Persians, or of the motives which detained Constantius so long in
the East; he does not even mention them. St. Martin, note on Le
Beau, i. 406. I have inserted M. St. Martin’s observations, but I
must add, that the chronology which he proposes, is not generally
received by Armenian scholars, not, I believe, by Professor
Neumann.—M.]

During the long period of the reign of Constantius, the provinces
of the East were afflicted by the calamities of the Persian war.
5813 The irregular incursions of the light troops alternately
spread terror and devastation beyond the Tigris and beyond the
Euphrates, from the gates of Ctesiphon to those of Antioch; and
this active service was performed by the Arabs of the desert, who
were divided in their interest and affections; some of their
independent chiefs being enlisted in the party of Sapor, whilst
others had engaged their doubtful fidelity to the emperor. 59 The
more grave and important operations of the war were conducted
with equal vigor; and the armies of Rome and Persia encountered
each other in nine bloody fields, in two of which Constantius
himself commanded in person. 60 The event of the day was most
commonly adverse to the Romans, but in the battle of Singara,
their imprudent valor had almost achieved a signal and decisive
victory. The stationary troops of Singara 6011 retired on the
approach of Sapor, who passed the Tigris over three bridges, and
occupied near the village of Hilleh an advantageous camp, which,
by the labor of his numerous pioneers, he surrounded in one day
with a deep ditch and a lofty rampart. His formidable host, when
it was drawn out in order of battle, covered the banks of the
river, the adjacent heights, and the whole extent of a plain of
above twelve miles, which separated the two armies. Both were
alike impatient to engage; but the Barbarians, after a slight
resistance, fled in disorder; unable to resist, or desirous to
weary, the strength of the heavy legions, who, fainting with heat
and thirst, pursued them across the plain, and cut in pieces a
line of cavalry, clothed in complete armor, which had been posted
before the gates of the camp to protect their retreat.
Constantius, who was hurried along in the pursuit, attempted,
without effect, to restrain the ardor of his troops, by
representing to them the dangers of the approaching night, and
the certainty of completing their success with the return of day.
As they depended much more on their own valor than on the
experience or the abilities of their chief, they silenced by
their clamors his timid remonstrances; and rushing with fury to
the charge, filled up the ditch, broke down the rampart, and
dispersed themselves through the tents to recruit their exhausted
strength, and to enjoy the rich harvest of their labors. But the
prudent Sapor had watched the moment of victory. His army, of
which the greater part, securely posted on the heights, had been
spectators of the action, advanced in silence, and under the
shadow of the night; and his Persian archers, guided by the
illumination of the camp, poured a shower of arrows on a disarmed
and licentious crowd. The sincerity of history 61 declares, that
the Romans were vanquished with a dreadful slaughter, and that
the flying remnant of the legions was exposed to the most
intolerable hardships. Even the tenderness of panegyric,
confessing that the glory of the emperor was sullied by the
disobedience of his soldiers, chooses to draw a veil over the
circumstances of this melancholy retreat. Yet one of those venal
orators, so jealous of the fame of Constantius, relates, with
amazing coolness, an act of such incredible cruelty, as, in the
judgment of posterity, must imprint a far deeper stain on the
honor of the Imperial name. The son of Sapor, the heir of his
crown, had been made a captive in the Persian camp. The unhappy
youth, who might have excited the compassion of the most savage
enemy, was scourged, tortured, and publicly executed by the
inhuman Romans. 62

5813 (return) [ It was during this war that a bold flatterer
(whose name is unknown) published the Itineraries of Alexander
and Trajan, in order to direct the _victorious_ Constantius in
the footsteps of those great conquerors of the East. The former
of these has been published for the first time by M. Angelo Mai
(Milan, 1817, reprinted at Frankfort, 1818.) It adds so little to
our knowledge of Alexander’s campaigns, that it only excites our
regret that it is not the Itinerary of Trajan, of whose eastern
victories we have no distinct record—M]

59 (return) [ Ammianus (xiv. 4) gives a lively description of the
wandering and predatory life of the Saracens, who stretched from
the confines of Assyria to the cataracts of the Nile. It appears
from the adventures of Malchus, which Jerom has related in so
entertaining a manner, that the high road between Beræa and
Edessa was infested by these robbers. See Hieronym. tom. i. p.
256.]

60 (return) [ We shall take from Eutropius the general idea of
the war. A Persis enim multa et gravia perpessus, sæpe captis,
oppidis, obsessis urbibus, cæsis exercitibus, nullumque ei contra
Saporem prosperum prælium fuit, nisi quod apud Singaram, &c. This
honest account is confirmed by the hints of Ammianus, Rufus, and
Jerom. The two first orations of Julian, and the third oration of
Libanius, exhibit a more flattering picture; but the recantation
of both those orators, after the death of Constantius, while it
restores us to the possession of the truth, degrades their own
character, and that of the emperor. The Commentary of Spanheim on
the first oration of Julian is profusely learned. See likewise
the judicious observations of Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs,
tom. iv. p. 656.]

6011 (return) [ Now Sinjar, or the River Claboras.—M.]

61 (return) [ Acerrimâ nocturnâ concertatione pugnatum est,
nostrorum copiis ngenti strage confossis. Ammian. xviii. 5. See
likewise Eutropius, x. 10, and S. Rufus, c. 27. ——The Persian
historians, or romancers, do not mention the battle of Singara,
but make the captive Shahpour escape, defeat, and take prisoner,
the Roman emperor. The Roman captives were forced to repair all
the ravages they had committed, even to replanting the smallest
trees. Malcolm. i. 82.—M.]

62 (return) [ Libanius, Orat. iii. p. 133, with Julian. Orat. i.
p. 24, and Spanneism’s Commentary, p. 179.]

Whatever advantages might attend the arms of Sapor in the field,
though nine repeated victories diffused among the nations the
fame of his valor and conduct, he could not hope to succeed in
the execution of his designs, while the fortified towns of
Mesopotamia, and, above all, the strong and ancient city of
Nisibis, remained in the possession of the Romans. In the space
of twelve years, Nisibis, which, since the time of Lucullus, had
been deservedly esteemed the bulwark of the East, sustained three
memorable sieges against the power of Sapor; and the disappointed
monarch, after urging his attacks above sixty, eighty, and a
hundred days, was thrice repulsed with loss and ignominy. 63 This
large and populous city was situate about two days’ journey from
the Tigris, in the midst of a pleasant and fertile plain at the
foot of Mount Masius. A treble enclosure of brick walls was
defended by a deep ditch; 64 and the intrepid resistance of Count
Lucilianus, and his garrison, was seconded by the desperate
courage of the people. The citizens of Nisibis were animated by
the exhortations of their bishop, 65 inured to arms by the
presence of danger, and convinced of the intentions of Sapor to
plant a Persian colony in their room, and to lead them away into
distant and barbarous captivity. The event of the two former
sieges elated their confidence, and exasperated the haughty
spirit of the Great King, who advanced a third time towards
Nisibis, at the head of the united forces of Persia and India.
The ordinary machines, invented to batter or undermine the walls,
were rendered ineffectual by the superior skill of the Romans;
and many days had vainly elapsed, when Sapor embraced a
resolution worthy of an eastern monarch, who believed that the
elements themselves were subject to his power. At the stated
season of the melting of the snows in Armenia, the River
Mygdonius, which divides the plain and the city of Nisibis,
forms, like the Nile, 66 an inundation over the adjacent country.
By the labor of the Persians, the course of the river was stopped
below the town, and the waters were confined on every side by
solid mounds of earth. On this artificial lake, a fleet of armed
vessels filled with soldiers, and with engines which discharged
stones of five hundred pounds weight, advanced in order of
battle, and engaged, almost upon a level, the troops which
defended the ramparts. 6611 The irresistible force of the waters
was alternately fatal to the contending parties, till at length a
portion of the walls, unable to sustain the accumulated pressure,
gave way at once, and exposed an ample breach of one hundred and
fifty feet. The Persians were instantly driven to the assault,
and the fate of Nisibis depended on the event of the day. The
heavy-armed cavalry, who led the van of a deep column, were
embarrassed in the mud, and great numbers were drowned in the
unseen holes which had been filled by the rushing waters. The
elephants, made furious by their wounds, increased the disorder,
and trampled down thousands of the Persian archers. The Great
King, who, from an exalted throne, beheld the misfortunes of his
arms, sounded, with reluctant indignation, the signal of the
retreat, and suspended for some hours the prosecution of the
attack. But the vigilant citizens improved the opportunity of the
night; and the return of day discovered a new wall of six feet in
height, rising every moment to fill up the interval of the
breach. Notwithstanding the disappointment of his hopes, and the
loss of more than twenty thousand men, Sapor still pressed the
reduction of Nisibis, with an obstinate firmness, which could
have yielded only to the necessity of defending the eastern
provinces of Persia against a formidable invasion of the
Massagetæ. 67 Alarmed by this intelligence, he hastily
relinquished the siege, and marched with rapid diligence from the
banks of the Tigris to those of the Oxus. The danger and
difficulties of the Scythian war engaged him soon afterwards to
conclude, or at least to observe, a truce with the Roman emperor,
which was equally grateful to both princes; as Constantius
himself, after the death of his two brothers, was involved, by
the revolutions of the West, in a civil contest, which required
and seemed to exceed the most vigorous exertion of his undivided
strength.

63 (return) [ See Julian. Orat. i. p. 27, Orat. ii. p. 62, &c.,
with the Commentary of Spanheim, (p. 188-202,) who illustrates
the circumstances, and ascertains the time of the three sieges of
Nisibis. Their dates are likewise examined by Tillemont, (Hist.
des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 668, 671, 674.) Something is added
from Zosimus, l. iii. p. 151, and the Alexandrine Chronicle, p.
290.]

64 (return) [ Sallust. Fragment. lxxxiv. edit. Brosses, and
Plutarch in Lucull. tom. iii. p. 184. Nisibis is now reduced to
one hundred and fifty houses: the marshy lands produce rice, and
the fertile meadows, as far as Mosul and the Tigris, are covered
with the ruins of towns and allages. See Niebuhr, Voyages, tom.
ii. p. 300-309.]

65 (return) [ The miracles which Theodoret (l. ii. c. 30)
ascribes to St. James, Bishop of Edessa, were at least performed
in a worthy cause, the defence of his couutry. He appeared on the
walls under the figure of the Roman emperor, and sent an army of
gnats to sting the trunks of the elephants, and to discomfit the
host of the new Sennacherib.]

66 (return) [ Julian. Orat. i. p. 27. Though Niebuhr (tom. ii. p.
307) allows a very considerable swell to the Mygdonius, over
which he saw a bridge of _twelve_ arches: it is difficult,
however, to understand this parallel of a trifling rivulet with a
mighty river. There are many circumstances obscure, and almost
unintelligible, in the description of these stupendous
water-works.]

6611 (return) [ Macdonald Kinnier observes on these floating
batteries, “As the elevation of place is considerably above the
level of the country in its immediate vicinity, and the Mygdonius
is a very insignificant stream, it is difficult to imagine how
this work could have been accomplished, even with the wonderful
resources which the king must have had at his disposal”
Geographical Memoir. p. 262.—M.]

67 (return) [ We are obliged to Zonaras (tom. ii. l. xiii. p. 11)
for this invasion of the Massagetæ, which is perfectly consistent
with the general series of events to which we are darkly led by
the broken history of Ammianus.]

After the partition of the empire, three years had scarcely
elapsed before the sons of Constantine seemed impatient to
convince mankind that they were incapable of contenting
themselves with the dominions which they were unqualified to
govern. The eldest of those princes soon complained, that he was
defrauded of his just proportion of the spoils of their murdered
kinsmen; and though he might yield to the superior guilt and
merit of Constantius, he exacted from Constans the cession of the
African provinces, as an equivalent for the rich countries of
Macedonia and Greece, which his brother had acquired by the death
of Dalmatius. The want of sincerity, which Constantine
experienced in a tedious and fruitless negotiation, exasperated
the fierceness of his temper; and he eagerly listened to those
favorites, who suggested to him that his honor, as well as his
interest, was concerned in the prosecution of the quarrel. At the
head of a tumultuary band, suited for rapine rather than for
conquest, he suddenly broke onto the dominions of Constans, by
the way of the Julian Alps, and the country round Aquileia felt
the first effects of his resentment. The measures of Constans,
who then resided in Dacia, were directed with more prudence and
ability. On the news of his brother’s invasion, he detached a
select and disciplined body of his Illyrian troops, proposing to
follow them in person, with the remainder of his forces. But the
conduct of his lieutenants soon terminated the unnatural contest.

By the artful appearances of flight, Constantine was betrayed
into an ambuscade, which had been concealed in a wood, where the
rash youth, with a few attendants, was surprised, surrounded, and
slain. His body, after it had been found in the obscure stream of
the Alsa, obtained the honors of an Imperial sepulchre; but his
provinces transferred their allegiance to the conqueror, who,
refusing to admit his elder brother Constantius to any share in
these new acquisitions, maintained the undisputed possession of
more than two thirds of the Roman empire. 68

68 (return) [ The causes and the events of this civil war are
related with much perplexity and contradiction. I have chiefly
followed Zonaras and the younger Victor. The monody (ad Calcem
Eutrop. edit. Havercamp.) pronounced on the death of Constantine,
might have been very instructive; but prudence and false taste
engaged the orator to involve himself in vague declamation.]