Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/463

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 4S9 sandy desert, without a hillock, without a tree, and CHAP. without a spring of fresh water *. 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, har- assed by the rapid evolutions, and destroyed by the arrows of the barbarian cavalry. The king of Armenia had signalized his valour in the battle, and acquired personal glory by the public misfortune. He was pur- sued as far as the Euphrates; his horse was wounded, and it appeared impossible for him to escape the victo- rious enemy. In this extremity Tiridates embraced the only refuge which he saw before him; he dis- mounted and plunged into the stream. His armour was heavy, the river very deep, and at those parts at least half a mile in breadth " ; yet such was his strength and dexterity, that he reached in safety the opposite bank. With regard to the Roman general, we are ignorant of the circumstances of his escape ; but when he returned to Antioch, Diocletian received him, not His recep- with the tenderness of a friend and colleague, but with cjetian. "^" the indignation of an offended sovereign. The haugh- tiest 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 ex- hibit, before the whole court, the spectacle of his dis- grace ^. As soon as Diocletian had indulged his private re- Second sentment, and asserted the majesty of supreme power, q^jJ^ JJ.^^" ^ he yielded to the submissive entreaties of the Caesar, A. D. 297. t 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. " See Foster's Dissertation in the second volume of the translation of the Anabasis by Spelnianj which I will venture to recommend as one of the best versions extant. - Hist. Armen. 1. ii. c. 76. I have transfer! ed this exploit of Tiridates from an imaginary defeat to the real one of Galerius. y Ammian. Marcellin. 1. xiv. The mile, in the hands of Eutropius, (ix. 24.) of Festus, (c. 25.) and of Orosius, (vii. 25.) easily increased to several miles. I