333 AH VIII. six hundred thousand citizens; the walls were c HAP. strong, and as long as concord prevailed among the several orders of the state, they viewed with contempt the power of the Parthian; but the madness of faction was sometimes provoked to implore the dangerous aid of the common enemy, who was posted almost at the gates of the colony *. The Parthian monarchs, like the Mogul sovereigns of Hindostan, delighted in the pastoral life of their Scythian ancestors; and the Imperial camp was frequently pitched in the plain of Ctesiphon, on the eastern bank of the Tigris, at the distance of only three miles from Seleucia †. The innumerable attendants on luxury and despotism resorted to the court, and the little village of Ctesiphon insensibly swelled into a great city t. Under the reign of Marcus, the Roman generals penetrated as far as Ctesiphon and Seleucia. They were received as friends A D. 165. by the Greek colony; they attacked as enemies the seat of the Parthian kings; yet both cities experienced the same treatment. The sack and conflagration of Seleucia, with the massacre of three hundred thousand of the inhabitants, tarnished * *Tacit. Annal. xi. 42. Plin. Hist. Nat. vi. 26. This may be inferred from Strabo, 1. xvi. 743. That most curious traveller Bernier, who followed the camp of Aurengzebe from Dehli to Cashmir, describes with great accuracy the immense moving city. The guard of cavalry consisted of 35,000 men, that of infantry of 10,000. It was computed that the camp contained 150,000 horses, mules, and elephants; 50,000 camels, 30,000 oxen, and between 800,000 and 400,000 persons. Almost all Dehli followed the court, whose magnificence supported its industry. A. D, 198. CHA P. nished the glory of the Roman triumph * Seleu VIII. cia, already exhausted by the neighbourhood of a too powerful rival, sunk under the fatal blow; but Ctesiphon, in about thirty-three years, had sufficiently recovered its strength to maintain an obstinate siege against the emperor Severus The city was, however, taken by assault, the king, who defended it in person, escaped with precipitation; an hundred thousand captives, and a rich booty, rewarded the fatigues of the Roman soldiers t. Notwithstanding these misfortunes, Ctesiphon succeeded to Babylon and to Seleucia, as one of the great capitals of the East. In summer the monarch of Persia enjoyed at Ecbatana the cool breezes of the mountains of Media; but the mildness of the climate engaged him to prefer Ctesiphon for his winter residence, Conquest of Ortho ene by the Romans. oman 13.7 From these successful inroads the Romans derived no real or lasting benefit; nor did they attempt to preserve such distant conquests, separated from the provinces of the empire by a large tract of intermediate desert. The reduction of the kingdom of Osrhoene was an acquisition of less splendor indeed, but of a far more solid advantage. That little state occupied the northern and most fertile part of Mesopotamia, between the Euphrates and the Tigris. Edessa, * its Dion, 1. lxxi. p. 1178. Hist. August. p. 38. Eutrop. viij. 10. Euseb. in Chronic. Quadratus (quoted in the Augustan History) attempted to vindicate the Romans, by alledging, that the citizens of Seleucia had first violated their faith. + Dion, 1. lxxv. p. 1263. Herodian, 1. iii. p. 120. Hist. August. P. 70. VIIL .801 its capital, was situated about twenty miles be- CHAP. yond the former of those rivers; and the inhabitants, since the time of Alexander, were a mixed race of Greeks, Arabs, Syrians, and Armenians. *. The feeble sovereigns of Osrhoene, placed on the dangerous verge of two contending empires, were attached from inclination to the Parthian cause; but the superior power of Rome exacted from them a reluctant homage, which is still attested by their medals. After the conclusion of the Parthian war under Marcus, it was judged prudent to secure some substantial pledges of their doubtful fidelity. Forts were constructed in several parts of the country, and a Roman garrison was fixed in the strong town of Nisibis, During the troubles that followed the death of Commodus, the princes of Osrhoene attempted to shake off the yoke; but the stern policy of Severus confirmed their dependence †, and the perfidy of Caracalla completed the easy conquest. Abgarus, the last king of Edessa, was sent in A. D. 216. 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, obtained The polished citizens of Antioch called those of Edessa mixed barbarians. It was, however, some praise, that of the three dialects of the Syriac, the purest and most elegant (the Aramæan) was spoke at Edessa, The remark M. Bayer (Hist. Edess. p. 5.) has borrowed from George of Malatia, a Syrian writer. + Dion, 1. lxxv. p. 1248, 1249, 1250. M. Bayer has neglected to use this most important passage. Low! q vaxt { \nolG + CHAP tained a firm and permanent establishment be... VIII. yond the Euphrates *eriges si s sos Prudence as well as glory might have justified i Artaxerxes claims the of Asia, and dec ares the Ro mans A. D. 230. a war on the side of Artaxerxes, had his views provinces been confined to the defence or the acquisition of a useful frontier. But the ambitious Persiani war against openly avowed a far more extensive design of conquest; and he thought himself able to sup port his lofty pretensions by the arms of reason as well as by those of power. Cyrus, he alledged,! had first subdued, and his successors had for as long time possessed, the whole extent of Asia, as far as the Propontis and the gean sea; the provinces of Caria and Ionia, under their empire, had been governed by Persian satraps, and ali Egypt, to the confines of Ethiopia, had acknowledged their sovereignty t. Their rights had been suspended, though not destroyed, by a long! usurpation; and as soon as he received the Per sian diadem, which birth and successful valour had placed upon his head, the first great duty of! his station called upon him to restore the ancient limits and splendor of the monarchy. The Great King, therefore (such was the haughty style of his embassies to the emperor Alexander,) commanded the Romans instantly to depart from.. all. * This kingdom, from Osrhoes, who gave a new name to the country, to the last Abgarus, had lasted 353 years. "See the learned work of M. Bayer, Historia Osrhoena et Edessena. + 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 Persian empire was divided by Darius Hystaspes. VIII. all the provinces of his ancestors, and yielding CHA P. to the Persians the empire of Asia, to content themselves with the undisturbed possession of Europe. This haughty mandate was delivered £ by four hundred of the tallest and most beauti ful of the Persians; who, by their fine horses, splendid arms, and rich apparel, displayed the pride and greatness of their master*. Such an embassy 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 Persian monarchies, resolved in this important contest to lead their armies in person. Severus. If we credit what should seem the most authen- Pretended tic of all records, an oration, still extant, and Alexander victory of delivered by the emperor himself to the senate, AD235. we must allow that the victory of Alexander Severus was not inferior to any of those formerly obtained over the Persians by the son of Philip." The army of the Great King consisted of one hundred and twenty thousand horse, 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 scythes. This formidable host, the like of which is not to be found in eastern history, and has scarcely been imagined in eastern romancet, VOL. I. * Herodian, vi. 209. 212. was There were two hundred scythed chariots at the battle of Arbela, in the host of Darius. In the vast army of Tigranes, which was vanquished by Lucullus, seventeen thousand horse only were com |