Chapter XXIV: The Retreat And Death Of Julian.—Part II

The martial impatience of Julian urged him to take the field in
the beginning of the spring; and he dismissed, with contempt and
reproach, the senate of Antioch, who accompanied the emperor
beyond the limits of their own territory, to which he was
resolved never to return. After a laborious march of two days, 29
he halted on the third at Beræa, or Aleppo, where he had the
mortification of finding a senate almost entirely Christian; who
received with cold and formal demonstrations of respect the
eloquent sermon of the apostle of paganism. The son of one of the
most illustrious citizens of Beræa, who had embraced, either from
interest or conscience, the religion of the emperor, was
disinherited by his angry parent. The father and the son were
invited to the Imperial table. Julian, placing himself between
them, attempted, without success, to inculcate the lesson and
example of toleration; supported, with affected calmness, the
indiscreet zeal of the aged Christian, who seemed to forget the
sentiments of nature, and the duty of a subject; and at length,
turning towards the afflicted youth, “Since you have lost a
father,” said he, “for my sake, it is incumbent on me to supply
his place.” 30 The emperor was received in a manner much more
agreeable to his wishes at Batnæ, 3011 a small town pleasantly
seated in a grove of cypresses, about twenty miles from the city
of Hierapolis. The solemn rites of sacrifice were decently
prepared by the inhabitants of Batnæ, who seemed attached to the
worship of their tutelar deities, Apollo and Jupiter; but the
serious piety of Julian was offended by the tumult of their
applause; and he too clearly discerned, that the smoke which
arose from their altars was the incense of flattery, rather than
of devotion. The ancient and magnificent temple which had
sanctified, for so many ages, the city of Hierapolis, 31 no
longer subsisted; and the consecrated wealth, which afforded a
liberal maintenance to more than three hundred priests, might
hasten its downfall. Yet Julian enjoyed the satisfaction of
embracing a philosopher and a friend, whose religious firmness
had withstood the pressing and repeated solicitations of
Constantius and Gallus, as often as those princes lodged at his
house, in their passage through Hierapolis. In the hurry of
military preparation, and the careless confidence of a familiar
correspondence, the zeal of Julian appears to have been lively
and uniform. He had now undertaken an important and difficult
war; and the anxiety of the event rendered him still more
attentive to observe and register the most trifling presages,
from which, according to the rules of divination, any knowledge
of futurity could be derived. 32 He informed Libanius of his
progress as far as Hierapolis, by an elegant epistle, 33 which
displays the facility of his genius, and his tender friendship
for the sophist of Antioch.

29 (return) [ From Antioch to Litarbe, on the territory of
Chalcis, the road, over hills and through morasses, was extremely
bad; and the loose stones were cemented only with sand, (Julian.
epist. xxvii.) It is singular enough that the Romans should have
neglected the great communication between Antioch and the
Euphrates. See Wesseling Itinerar. p. 190 Bergier, Hist des
Grands Chemins, tom. ii. p. 100]

30 (return) [ Julian alludes to this incident, (epist. xxvii.,)
which is more distinctly related by Theodoret, (l. iii. c. 22.)
The intolerant spirit of the father is applauded by Tillemont,
(Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 534.) and even by La Bleterie,
(Vie de Julien, p. 413.)]

3011 (return) [ This name, of Syriac origin, is found in the
Arabic, and means a place in a valley where waters meet. Julian
says, the name of the city is Barbaric, the situation Greek. The
geographer Abulfeda (tab. Syriac. p. 129, edit. Koehler) speaks
of it in a manner to justify the praises of Julian.—St. Martin.
Notes to Le Beau, iii. 56.—M.]

31 (return) [ See the curious treatise de Deâ Syriâ, inserted
among the works of Lucian, (tom. iii. p. 451-490, edit. Reitz.)
The singular appellation of _Ninus vetus_ (Ammian. xiv. 8) might
induce a suspicion, that Heirapolis had been the royal seat of
the Assyrians.]

32 (return) [ Julian (epist. xxviii.) kept a regular account of
all the fortunate omens; but he suppresses the inauspicious
signs, which Ammianus (xxiii. 2) has carefully recorded.]

33 (return) [ Julian. epist. xxvii. p. 399-402.]

Hierapolis, 3311 situate almost on the banks of the Euphrates, 34
had been appointed for the general rendezvous of the Roman
troops, who immediately passed the great river on a bridge of
boats, which was previously constructed. 35 If the inclinations
of Julian had been similar to those of his predecessor, he might
have wasted the active and important season of the year in the
circus of Samosata or in the churches of Edessa. But as the
warlike emperor, instead of Constantius, had chosen Alexander for
his model, he advanced without delay to Carrhæ, 36 a very ancient
city of Mesopotamia, at the distance of fourscore miles from
Hierapolis. The temple of the Moon attracted the devotion of
Julian; but the halt of a few days was principally employed in
completing the immense preparations of the Persian war. The
secret of the expedition had hitherto remained in his own breast;
but as Carrhæ is the point of separation of the two great roads,
he could no longer conceal whether it was his design to attack
the dominions of Sapor on the side of the Tigris, or on that of
the Euphrates. The emperor detached an army of thirty thousand
men, under the command of his kinsman Procopius, and of
Sebastian, who had been duke of Egypt. They were ordered to
direct their march towards Nisibis, and to secure the frontier
from the desultory incursions of the enemy, before they attempted
the passage of the Tigris. Their subsequent operations were left
to the discretion of the generals; but Julian expected, that
after wasting with fire and sword the fertile districts of Media
and Adiabene, they might arrive under the walls of Ctesiphon at
the same time that he himself, advancing with equal steps along
the banks of the Euphrates, should besiege the capital of the
Persian monarchy. The success of this well-concerted plan
depended, in a great measure, on the powerful and ready
assistance of the king of Armenia, who, without exposing the
safety of his own dominions, might detach an army of four
thousand horse, and twenty thousand foot, to the assistance of
the Romans. 37 But the feeble Arsaces Tiranus, 38 king of
Armenia, had degenerated still more shamefully than his father
Chosroes, from the manly virtues of the great Tiridates; and as
the pusillanimous monarch was averse to any enterprise of danger
and glory, he could disguise his timid indolence by the more
decent excuses of religion and gratitude. He expressed a pious
attachment to the memory of Constantius, from whose hands he had
received in marriage Olympias, the daughter of the præfect
Ablavius; and the alliance of a female, who had been educated as
the destined wife of the emperor Constans, exalted the dignity of
a Barbarian king. 39 Tiranus professed the Christian religion; he
reigned over a nation of Christians; and he was restrained, by
every principle of conscience and interest, from contributing to
the victory, which would consummate the ruin of the church. The
alienated mind of Tiranus was exasperated by the indiscretion of
Julian, who treated the king of Armenia as _his_ slave, and as
the enemy of the gods. The haughty and threatening style of the
Imperial mandates 40 awakened the secret indignation of a prince,
who, in the humiliating state of dependence, was still conscious
of his royal descent from the Arsacides, the lords of the East,
and the rivals of the Roman power. 4011

3311 (return) [ Or Bambyce, now Bambouch; Manbedj Arab., or
Maboug, Syr. It was twenty-four Roman miles from the
Euphrates.—M.]

34 (return) [ I take the earliest opportunity of acknowledging my
obligations to M. d’Anville, for his recent geography of the
Euphrates and Tigris, (Paris, 1780, in 4to.,) which particularly
illustrates the expedition of Julian.]

35 (return) [ There are three passages within a few miles of each
other; 1. Zeugma, celebrated by the ancients; 2. Bir, frequented
by the moderns; and, 3. The bridge of Menbigz, or Hierapolis, at
the distance of four parasangs from the city. —— Djisr Manbedj is
the same with the ancient Zeugma. St. Martin, iii. 58—M.]

36 (return) [ Haran, or Carrhæ, was the ancient residence of the
Sabæans, and of Abraham. See the Index Geographicus of Schultens,
(ad calcem Vit. Saladin.,) a work from which I have obtained much
_Oriental_ knowledge concerning the ancient and modern geography
of Syria and the adjacent countries. ——On an inedited medal in
the collection of the late M. Tochon. of the Academy of
Inscriptions, it is read Xappan. St. Martin. iii 60—M.]

37 (return) [ See Xenophon. Cyropæd. l. iii. p. 189, edit.
Hutchinson. Artavasdes might have supplied Marc Antony with
16,000 horse, armed and disciplined after the Parthian manner,
(Plutarch, in M. Antonio. tom. v. p. 117.)]

38 (return) [ Moses of Chorene (Hist. Armeniac. l. iii. c. 11, p.
242) fixes his accession (A. D. 354) to the 17th year of
Constantius. ——Arsaces Tiranus, or Diran, had ceased to reign
twenty-five years before, in 337. The intermediate changes in
Armenia, and the character of this Arsaces, the son of Diran, are
traced by M. St. Martin, at considerable length, in his
supplement to Le Beau, ii. 208-242. As long as his Grecian queen
Olympias maintained her influence, Arsaces was faithful to the
Roman and _Christian_ alliance. On the accession of Julian, the
same influence made his fidelity to waver; but Olympias having
been poisoned in the sacramental bread by the agency of
Pharandcem, the former wife of Arsaces, another change took place
in Armenian politics unfavorable to the Christian interest. The
patriarch Narses retired from the impious court to a safe
seclusion. Yet Pharandsem was equally hostile to the Persian
influence, and Arsaces began to support with vigor the cause of
Julian. He made an inroad into the Persian dominions with a body
of Rans and Alans as auxiliaries; wasted Aderbidgan and Sapor,
who had been defeated near Tauriz, was engaged in making head
against his troops in Persarmenia, at the time of the death of
Julian. Such is M. St. Martin’s view, (ii. 276, et sqq.,) which
rests on the Armenian historians, Faustos of Byzantium, and
Mezrob the biographer of the Partriarch Narses. In the history of
Armenia by Father Chamitch, and translated by Avdall, Tiran is
still king of Armenia, at the time of Julian’s death. F. Chamitch
follows Moses of Chorene, The authority of Gibbon.—M.]

39 (return) [ Ammian. xx. 11. Athanasius (tom. i. p. 856) says,
in general terms, that Constantius gave to his brother’s widow,
an expression more suitable to a Roman than a Christian.]

40 (return) [ Ammianus (xxiii. 2) uses a word much too soft for
the occasion, _monuerat_. Muratori (Fabricius, Bibliothec. Græc.
tom. vii. p. 86) has published an epistle from Julian to the
satrap Arsaces; fierce, vulgar, and (though it might deceive
Sozomen, l. vi. c. 5) most probably spurious. La Bleterie (Hist.
de Jovien, tom. ii. p. 339) translates and rejects it. Note: St.
Martin considers it genuine: the Armenian writers mention such a
letter, iii. 37.—M.]

4011 (return) [ Arsaces did not abandon the Roman alliance, but
gave it only feeble support. St. Martin, iii. 41—M.]

The military dispositions of Julian were skilfully contrived to
deceive the spies and to divert the attention of Sapor. The
legions appeared to direct their march towards Nisibis and the
Tigris. On a sudden they wheeled to the right; traversed the
level and naked plain of Carrhæ; and reached, on the third day,
the banks of the Euphrates, where the strong town of Nicephorium,
or Callinicum, had been founded by the Macedonian kings. From
thence the emperor pursued his march, above ninety miles, along
the winding stream of the Euphrates, till, at length, about one
month after his departure from Antioch, he discovered the towers
of Circesium, 4012 the extreme limit of the Roman dominions. The
army of Julian, the most numerous that any of the Cæsars had ever
led against Persia, consisted of sixty-five thousand effective
and well-disciplined soldiers. The veteran bands of cavalry and
infantry, of Romans and Barbarians, had been selected from the
different provinces; and a just preëminence of loyalty and valor
was claimed by the hardy Gauls, who guarded the throne and person
of their beloved prince. A formidable body of Scythian
auxiliaries had been transported from another climate, and almost
from another world, to invade a distant country, of whose name
and situation they were ignorant. The love of rapine and war
allured to the Imperial standard several tribes of Saracens, or
roving Arabs, whose service Julian had commanded, while he
sternly refused the payment of the accustomed subsidies. The
broad channel of the Euphrates 41 was crowded by a fleet of
eleven hundred ships, destined to attend the motions, and to
satisfy the wants, of the Roman army. The military strength of
the fleet was composed of fifty armed galleys; and these were
accompanied by an equal number of flat-bottomed boats, which
might occasionally be connected into the form of temporary
bridges. The rest of the ships, partly constructed of timber, and
partly covered with raw hides, were laden with an almost
inexhaustible supply of arms and engines, of utensils and
provisions. The vigilant humanity of Julian had embarked a very
large magazine of vinegar and biscuit for the use of the
soldiers, but he prohibited the indulgence of wine; and
rigorously stopped a long string of superfluous camels that
attempted to follow the rear of the army. The River Chaboras
falls into the Euphrates at Circesium; 42 and as soon as the
trumpet gave the signal of march, the Romans passed the little
stream which separated two mighty and hostile empires. The custom
of ancient discipline required a military oration; and Julian
embraced every opportunity of displaying his eloquence. He
animated the impatient and attentive legions by the example of
the inflexible courage and glorious triumphs of their ancestors.
He excited their resentment by a lively picture of the insolence
of the Persians; and he exhorted them to imitate his firm
resolution, either to extirpate that perfidious nation, or to
devote his life in the cause of the republic. The eloquence of
Julian was enforced by a donative of one hundred and thirty
pieces of silver to every soldier; and the bridge of the Chaboras
was instantly cut away, to convince the troops that they must
place their hopes of safety in the success of their arms. Yet the
prudence of the emperor induced him to secure a remote frontier,
perpetually exposed to the inroads of the hostile Arabs. A
detachment of four thousand men was left at Circesium, which
completed, to the number of ten thousand, the regular garrison of
that important fortress. 43

4012 (return) [ Kirkesia the Carchemish of the Scriptures.—M.]

41 (return) [ Latissimum flumen Euphraten artabat. Ammian. xxiii.
3 Somewhat higher, at the fords of Thapsacus, the river is four
stadia or 800 yards, almost half an English mile, broad.
(Xenophon, Anabasis, l. i. p. 41, edit. Hutchinson, with Foster’s
Observations, p. 29, &c., in the 2d volume of Spelman’s
translation.) If the breadth of the Euphrates at Bir and Zeugma
is no more than 130 yards, (Voyages de Niebuhr, tom. ii. p. 335,)
the enormous difference must chiefly arise from the depth of the
channel.]

42 (return) [ Munimentum tutissimum et fabre politum, Abora (the
Orientals aspirate Chaboras or Chabour) et Euphrates ambiunt
flumina, velut spatium insulare fingentes. Ammian. xxiii. 5.]

43 (return) [ The enterprise and armament of Julian are described
by himself, (Epist. xxvii.,) Ammianus Marcellinus, (xxiii. 3, 4,
5,) Libanius, (Orat. Parent. c. 108, 109, p. 332, 333,) Zosimus,
(l. iii. p. 160, 161, 162) Sozomen, (l. vi. c. l,) and John
Malala, (tom. ii. p. 17.)]

From the moment that the Romans entered the enemy’s country, 44
the country of an active and artful enemy, the order of march was
disposed in three columns. 45 The strength of the infantry, and
consequently of the whole army was placed in the centre, under
the peculiar command of their master-general Victor. On the
right, the brave Nevitta led a column of several legions along
the banks of the Euphrates, and almost always in sight of the
fleet. The left flank of the army was protected by the column of
cavalry. Hormisdas and Arinthæus were appointed generals of the
horse; and the singular adventures of Hormisdas 46 are not
undeserving of our notice. He was a Persian prince, of the royal
race of the Sassanides, who, in the troubles of the minority of
Sapor, had escaped from prison to the hospitable court of the
great Constantine. Hormisdas at first excited the compassion, and
at length acquired the esteem, of his new masters; his valor and
fidelity raised him to the military honors of the Roman service;
and though a Christian, he might indulge the secret satisfaction
of convincing his ungrateful country, that an oppressed subject
may prove the most dangerous enemy. Such was the disposition of
the three principal columns. The front and flanks of the army
were covered by Lucilianus with a flying detachment of fifteen
hundred light-armed soldiers, whose active vigilance observed the
most distant signs, and conveyed the earliest notice, of any
hostile approach. Dagalaiphus, and Secundinus duke of Osrhoene,
conducted the troops of the rear-guard; the baggage securely
proceeded in the intervals of the columns; and the ranks, from a
motive either of use or ostentation, were formed in such open
order, that the whole line of march extended almost ten miles.
The ordinary post of Julian was at the head of the centre column;
but as he preferred the duties of a general to the state of a
monarch, he rapidly moved, with a small escort of light cavalry,
to the front, the rear, the flanks, wherever his presence could
animate or protect the march of the Roman army. The country which
they traversed from the Chaboras, to the cultivated lands of
Assyria, may be considered as a part of the desert of Arabia, a
dry and barren waste, which could never be improved by the most
powerful arts of human industry. Julian marched over the same
ground which had been trod above seven hundred years before by
the footsteps of the younger Cyrus, and which is described by one
of the companions of his expedition, the sage and heroic
Xenophon. 47 “The country was a plain throughout, as even as the
sea, and full of wormwood; and if any other kind of shrubs or
reeds grew there, they had all an aromatic smell, but no trees
could be seen. Bustards and ostriches, antelopes and wild asses,
48 appeared to be the only inhabitants of the desert; and the
fatigues of the march were alleviated by the amusements of the
chase.” The loose sand of the desert was frequently raised by the
wind into clouds of dust; and a great number of the soldiers of
Julian, with their tents, were suddenly thrown to the ground by
the violence of an unexpected hurricane.

44 (return) [ Before he enters Persia, Ammianus copiously
describes (xxiii. p. 396-419, edit. Gronov. in 4to.) the eighteen
great provinces, (as far as the Seric, or Chinese frontiers,)
which were subject to the Sassanides.]

45 (return) [ Ammianus (xxiv. 1) and Zosimus (l. iii. p. 162,
163) rately expressed the order of march.]

46 (return) [ The adventures of Hormisdas are related with some
mixture of fable, (Zosimus, l. ii. p. 100-102; Tillemont, Hist.
des Empereurs tom. iv. p. 198.) It is almost impossible that he
should be the brother (frater germanus) of an _eldest_ and
_posthumous_ child: nor do I recollect that Ammianus ever gives
him that title. * Note: St. Martin conceives that he was an elder
brother by another mother who had several children, ii. 24—M.]

47 (return) [ See the first book of the Anabasis, p. 45, 46. This
pleasing work is original and authentic. Yet Xenophon’s memory,
perhaps many years after the expedition, has sometimes betrayed
him; and the distances which he marks are often larger than
either a soldier or a geographer will allow.]

48 (return) [ Mr. Spelman, the English translator of the
Anabasis, (vol. i. p. 51,) confounds the antelope with the
roebuck, and the wild ass with the zebra.]

The sandy plains of Mesopotamia were abandoned to the antelopes
and wild asses of the desert; but a variety of populous towns and
villages were pleasantly situated on the banks of the Euphrates,
and in the islands which are occasionally formed by that river.
The city of Annah, or Anatho, 49 the actual residence of an
Arabian emir, is composed of two long streets, which enclose,
within a natural fortification, a small island in the midst, and
two fruitful spots on either side, of the Euphrates. The warlike
inhabitants of Anatho showed a disposition to stop the march of a
Roman emperor; till they were diverted from such fatal
presumption by the mild exhortations of Prince Hormisdas, and the
approaching terrors of the fleet and army. They implored, and
experienced, the clemency of Julian, who transplanted the people
to an advantageous settlement, near Chalcis in Syria, and
admitted Pusæus, the governor, to an honorable rank in his
service and friendship. But the impregnable fortress of Thilutha
could scorn the menace of a siege; and the emperor was obliged to
content himself with an insulting promise, that, when he had
subdued the interior provinces of Persia, Thilutha would no
longer refuse to grace the triumph of the emperor. The
inhabitants of the open towns, unable to resist, and unwilling to
yield, fled with precipitation; and their houses, filled with
spoil and provisions, were occupied by the soldiers of Julian,
who massacred, without remorse and without punishment, some
defenceless women. During the march, the Surenas, 4911 or Persian
general, and Malek Rodosaces, the renowned emir of the tribe of
Gassan, 50 incessantly hovered round the army; every straggler
was intercepted; every detachment was attacked; and the valiant
Hormisdas escaped with some difficulty from their hands. But the
Barbarians were finally repulsed; the country became every day
less favorable to the operations of cavalry; and when the Romans
arrived at Macepracta, they perceived the ruins of the wall,
which had been constructed by the ancient kings of Assyria, to
secure their dominions from the incursions of the Medes. These
preliminaries of the expedition of Julian appear to have employed
about fifteen days; and we may compute near three hundred miles
from the fortress of Circesium to the wall of Macepracta. 51

49 (return) [ See Voyages de Tavernier, part i. l. iii. p. 316,
and more especially Viaggi di Pietro della Valle, tom. i. lett.
xvii. p. 671, &c. He was ignorant of the old name and condition
of Annah. Our blind travellers _seldom_ possess any previous
knowledge of the countries which they visit. Shaw and Tournefort
deserve an honorable exception.]

4911 (return) [ This is not a title, but the name of a great
Persian family. St. Martin, iii. 79.—M.]

50 (return) [ Famosi nominis latro, says Ammianus; a high
encomium for an Arab. The tribe of Gassan had settled on the edge
of Syria, and reigned some time in Damascus, under a dynasty of
thirty-one kings, or emirs, from the time of Pompey to that of
the Khalif Omar. D’Herbelot, Bibliothèque Orientale, p. 360.
Pococke, Specimen Hist. Arabicæ, p. 75-78. The name of Rodosaces
does not appear in the list. * Note: Rodosaces-malek is king. St.
Martin considers that Gibbon has fallen into an error in bringing
the tribe of Gassan to the Euphrates. In Ammianus it is Assan. M.
St. Martin would read Massanitarum, the same with the Mauzanitæ
of Malala.—M.]

51 (return) [ See Ammianus, (xxiv. 1, 2,) Libanius, (Orat.
Parental. c. 110, 111, p. 334,) Zosimus, (l. iii. p. 164-168.) *
Note: This Syriac or Chaldaic has relation to its position; it
easily bears the signification of the division of the waters. M.
St. M. considers it the Missice of Pliny, v. 26. St. Martin, iii.
83.—M.]

The fertile province of Assyria, 52 which stretched beyond the
Tigris, as far as the mountains of Media, 53 extended about four
hundred miles from the ancient wall of Macepracta, to the
territory of Basra, where the united streams of the Euphrates and
Tigris discharge themselves into the Persian Gulf. 54 The whole
country might have claimed the peculiar name of Mesopotamia; as
the two rivers, which are never more distant than fifty,
approach, between Bagdad and Babylon, within twenty-five miles,
of each other. A multitude of artificial canals, dug without much
labor in a soft and yielding soil connected the rivers, and
intersected the plain of Assyria. The uses of these artificial
canals were various and important. They served to discharge the
superfluous waters from one river into the other, at the season
of their respective inundations. Subdividing themselves into
smaller and smaller branches, they refreshed the dry lands, and
supplied the deficiency of rain. They facilitated the intercourse
of peace and commerce; and, as the dams could be speedily broke
down, they armed the despair of the Assyrians with the means of
opposing a sudden deluge to the progress of an invading army. To
the soil and climate of Assyria, nature had denied some of her
choicest gifts, the vine, the olive, and the fig-tree; 5411 but
the food which supports the life of man, and particularly wheat
and barley, were produced with inexhaustible fertility; and the
husbandman, who committed his seed to the earth, was frequently
rewarded with an increase of two, or even of three, hundred. The
face of the country was interspersed with groves of innumerable
palm-trees; 55 and the diligent natives celebrated, either in
verse or prose, the three hundred and sixty uses to which the
trunk, the branches, the leaves, the juice, and the fruit, were
skilfully applied. Several manufactures, especially those of
leather and linen, employed the industry of a numerous people,
and afforded valuable materials for foreign trade; which appears,
however, to have been conducted by the hands of strangers.
Babylon had been converted into a royal park; but near the ruins
of the ancient capital, new cities had successively arisen, and
the populousness of the country was displayed in the multitude of
towns and villages, which were built of bricks dried in the sun,
and strongly cemented with bitumen; the natural and peculiar
production of the Babylonian soil. While the successors of Cyrus
reigned over Asia, the province of Syria alone maintained, during
a third part of the year, the luxurious plenty of the table and
household of the Great King. Four considerable villages were
assigned for the subsistence of his Indian dogs; eight hundred
stallions, and sixteen thousand mares, were constantly kept, at
the expense of the country, for the royal stables; and as the
daily tribute, which was paid to the satrap, amounted to one
English bushe of silver, we may compute the annual revenue of
Assyria at more than twelve hundred thousand pounds sterling. 56

52 (return) [ The description of Assyria, is furnished by
Herodotus, (l. i. c. 192, &c.,) who sometimes writes for
children, and sometimes for philosophers; by Strabo, (l. xvi. p.
1070-1082,) and by Ammianus, (l.xxiii. c. 6.) The most useful of
the modern travellers are Tavernier, (part i. l. ii. p. 226-258,)
Otter, (tom. ii. p. 35-69, and 189-224,) and Niebuhr, (tom. ii.
p. 172-288.) Yet I much regret that the _Irak Arabi_ of Abulfeda
has not been translated.]

53 (return) [ Ammianus remarks, that the primitive Assyria, which
comprehended Ninus, (Nineveh,) and Arbela, had assumed the more
recent and peculiar appellation of Adiabene; and he seems to fix
Teredon, Vologesia, and Apollonia, as the _extreme_ cities of the
actual province of Assyria.]

54 (return) [ The two rivers unite at Apamea, or Corna, (one
hundred miles from the Persian Gulf,) into the broad stream of
the Pasitigris, or Shutul-Arab. The Euphrates formerly reached
the sea by a separate channel, which was obstructed and diverted
by the citizens of Orchoe, about twenty miles to the south-east
of modern Basra. (D’Anville, in the Mémoires de l’Acad. des
Inscriptions, tom.xxx. p. 171-191.)]

5411 (return) [ We are informed by Mr. Gibbon, that nature has
denied to the soil an climate of Assyria some of her choicest
gifts, the vine, the olive, and the fig-tree. This might have
been the case ir the age of Ammianus Marcellinus, but it is not
so at the present day; and it is a curious fact that the grape,
the olive, and the fig, are the most common fruits in the
province, and may be seen in every garden. Macdonald Kinneir,
Geogr. Mem. on Persia 239—M.]

55 (return) [ The learned Kæmpfer, as a botanist, an antiquary,
and a traveller, has exhausted (Amœnitat. Exoticæ, Fasicul. iv.
p. 660-764) the whole subject of palm-trees.]

56 (return) [ Assyria yielded to the Persian satrap an _Artaba_
of silver each day. The well-known proportion of weights and
measures (see Bishop Hooper’s elaborate Inquiry,) the specific
gravity of water and silver, and the value of that metal, will
afford, after a short process, the annual revenue which I have
stated. Yet the Great King received no more than 1000 Euboic, or
Tyrian, talents (252,000l.) from Assyria. The comparison of two
passages in Herodotus, (l. i. c. 192, l. iii. c. 89-96) reveals
an important difference between the _gross_, and the _net_,
revenue of Persia; the sums paid by the province, and the gold or
silver deposited in the royal treasure. The monarch might
annually save three millions six hundred thousand pounds, of the
seventeen or eighteen millions raised upon the people.]