CHAP. XIX.
right wing, depended on the dexterity of his archers and the weight of his cuirassiers. But his ranks were instantly broken by an irregular mixture of light horse and of light infantry, and he had the mortification of beholding the flight of six hundred of his most renowned cuirassiers[1]. The fugitives were stopped and rallied by the presence and authority of Julian, who, careless of his own safety, threw himself before them, and urging every motive of shame and honour, led them back against the victorious enemy. The conflict between the two lines of infantry was obstinate and bloody. The Germans possessed the superiority of strength and stature, the Romans that of discipline and temper; and as the barbarians who served under the standard of the empire, united the respective advantages of both parties, their strenuous efforts, guided by a skilful leader, at length determined the event of the day. The Romans lost four tribunes, and two hundred and forty-three soldiers, in this memorable battle of Strasburgh, so glorious to the Cæsar[2], and so salutary to the afflicted provinces of Gaul. Six thousand of the Alemanni were slain in the field, without including those who were drowned in the Rhine, or transfixed with darts whilst they attempted to swim across the river[3]. Chnodomar himself was surrounded and taken prisoner, with three of his brave companions, who had devoted themselves to follow in life or death
- ↑ After the battle, Julian ventured to revive the rigour of ancient dis- cipline, by exposing these fugitives in female apparel to the derision of the whole camp. In the next campaign, these troops nobly retrieved their honour. Zosimus, 1. iii. p. 142.
- ↑ Julian himself (ad S. P. Q. Athen. p. 279.) speaks of the battle of
Strasburgh with the modesty of conscious merit: (
Greek characters). Zosimus compares it with the victory of Alexander over Darius; and yet we are at a loss to discover any of those strokes of military genius which fix the attention of ages on the conduct and success of a single day.
- ↑ Animianus, xvi. 12. Libanius adds two thousand more to the number
of the slain, Orat. x. p. 274. But these trifling differences disappear before
the sixty thousand barbarians, whom Zosimus has sacrificed to the glory of
his hero, 1. iii. p. 141. We might attribute this extravagant number to
the carelessness of transcribers, if this credulous or partial historian had not swelled the army of thirty-five thousand Alemanni to an innumerable multitude of barbarians, (Greek characters). It is our own fault if this
detection does not inspire us with proper distrust on similar occasions.
