*

History of the First Principle, even as the Eye by means of Light. The vision, or intuition of God, the great point of perfection and felicity, by which the Mind, a link in the chain of Intelligence, ascends, by the various steps of purification, to the great Source of Life and Being, -was the high object of the Plotinian School. Porphyry relates that Plotinus had four times during his life enjoyed an intimate communication with the Divine Being, and that he himself had attained that favour once.' The liberation of the Soul from its corporeal prison, was the end of the new Platonic Morals, to attain which it was to pass through several degrees of Human and Divine Virtues.† The Human Virtues are Physical, Economical, and Political; they relate to the care of the body and the duties of private and public life. The Divine Virtues are Purgative, requiring abstinence and mortification; theoretic, comprising the Intellectual exercise of contemplating Intelligible natures; and Theurgic, leading by immediate communications with superior Beings, to obtain power over Demons, and to attain to the enjoyment of the Divine Vision.

Plotinian

Comparison It is evident that there is the greatest similarity bebetween the tween the mysticism of the Plotinian School and that School and of the Quietists in later times, who regarded an intense the Quietists and undisturbed contemplation of the Divine perfections as a means of obtaining an intimate union with the Deity. Indeed, it would be no uninteresting speculation to compare the Plotinian reveries with those of the Hesychasts and of the Illuminati, as well as with those of Molinos, Malaval, Mad. Guyon, and Fenelon -names which show (and it is the best lesson of Charity) how often mistaken, and even dangerous, opinions may find admission into minds, to which it would be unjust to deny the praise of amiable and benevolent and pious feelings.

Difference

Plato and Plotinus,

It is to be remarked, that Plotinus not merely exbetween the tended, but even departed from, the doctrines of Plato. theories of For instance, according to Plato, Matter is coeternal with the Divinity, to whom he alone attributes those ideas, of which it imposes the forms on Matter; according to Plotinus, all that is real is in the Divinity, emanates from it; Matter is only a vain appearance, a mere negation. According to Plato, the object of Man is to draw near to God, to endeavour to resemble Him; according to Plotinus, Man may unite, and, as it were,

not in the preservation or trace of received impressious, but, on the contrary, in a developement of the energy of the Soul, powerful in proportion as this energy is intense. (See Enn. iv. lib. iv. c. 3. &c.) (Degerando, Hist. des Syst. Philos. tom. iii. c. 21.)

There are three ways of elevating oneself to the First Principle. Harmony, Love, Wisdom: these are expressed by Plotinus when he distinguished three states, called the Musician, the Lover, (Exes,) and the Philosopher. The first is still placed in the midst of lower objects, but the admiration which is raised within him by the Image of Beauty reflected on them, prepares his Soul for Truth: the second resides in a more exalted sphere; he is engaged in the love of immaterial things: the third soars, as if borne on wings, to the sphere sublime, to the contemplation of Intelligibles in their very source. Plotinus recommends, therefore, his followers to prepare themselves by purifications, by prayers, by exercises, which adorn the mind to ascend to the Intellectual world, to nourish themselves with the celestial food which it contains; to raise themselves to that height where the spectacle becomes identical with the spectator; where the Mind not merely sees itself in itself, but every thing else; where Essence is one with Intelligence; where, confounded in a manner with the Universality of Beings, it embraces it not as being external, but as belonging to it. Enn. vi. lib. vii. c. 36. Degerando, Hist. Comp. des Syst. Phil. tom. iii. p. 382.

See the learned Dissertation of Fabricius, De Gradibus Virtutum, secundum quas Proclum laudat Marinus, in his Prolegomena to the Life of Proclus by Marinus.

identify himself with God. According to Plato, ideas Plotinus. are only present to the Supreme Intelligence ;* according to Plotinus, they are substances identified with that Intelligence.†

Eclectic

was calcu

It is scarcely necessary to point out the consummate Manner in art with which the Eclectic Philosophy was adapted to which the thwart and perplex the progress of Revealed Religion. Philosophy By the help of allegory, of all devices the most accommodatingly flexible, it endeavoured to detect aud trace lated to imthe features of hidden wisdom in those monstrous pede Chris fictions of Paganism, which afforded so much scope to tianity. the sarcastic severity of the early advocates of Christianity. By adopting, too, the Oriental theory of a scale of Divine emanations, and by representing those inferior Spirits as Mediators between the Supreme Deity and Mankind, it justified and enjoined Polytheistic worship. Moreover, by attempting to mould into ac cordance the chief tenets of various Schools, it undertook to remove the objection to which Philosophy was repeatedly exposed by the disputes of its most eminent Professors on momentous questions. Again, by the elevated tone of Morality and mysticism which it assumed, a strong effort was made to remove the stigma of inconsistency which rested on the character of a Philosopher. And while many of the peculiarities of the new Religion were adroitly introduced, in the disguise of expanded and embellished Platonism, every art of falsehood was taxed to maintain the pretensions of in effable communications with, and miraculous control over, the Powers of the invisible world.‡

This Platonic doctrine has been described with exquisite beauty by one of our own Poets, whose genius, "warm from the Schools" of Athens, and truly "enchanted with Socratic sounds," was peculiarly adapted to lend attractions no less to the Philosophical, than to the Political sentiments of Ancient Greece:

Ere the radiant sun

Sprang from the East, or 'mid the vault of night
The moon suspended her serener lamp:
Ere mountains, woods, or streams adorn'd the Globe,
Or Wisdom taught the sons of men her lore-
Then lived the Almighty One, then, deep retired,
In his unfathomed essence, view'd the forms,
The forms eternal of created things;

The radiant sun, the moon's nocturnal lamp,
The mountains, woods, and streams, the rolling Globe,
And Wisdom's mien celestial. From the first
Of days, on them his love divine he fix'd,
His admiration, till, in time complete,
What he admir'd and lov'd, his vital smile
Unfolded into being. Hence the breath
Of life, informing each organic frame;
Hence the green Earth, and wild-resounding waves;
Hence light and shade, alternate warmth and cold,
And clear autumnal skies and vernal showers,
And all the fair variety of things.

Akenside, Pleasures of Imagination, book i.
It would be curious to compare the above systems with that of
Malebranche.

+ Degerando, Hist. Comp. des Syst. Phil. tom. ii. c. 21. The following may serve as an instance of their manner of combining, or rather confounding the opinions of different Sects. After having explained the Plotinian cosmology, Brucker adds, Luculenter ex hoc Plotiniane physologiæ systemate constare potest, quo pacto æternitatem mundi Aristotelicam cum Platonis opinione, mundum à Deo, factum esse Plotinus conciliaverit. Intelligi autem ex eo quoque potest, quomodo Plotiniana secta eandem de rerum origine hypothesin Christianorum decretis, omnia ex nihilo esse producta, assimilaverit. Nam idem quoque dicere ausi sunt, sed significatione diversâ : nempe Deum omnia, ipsamque materiam non preexistentem et sibi subjectam habuisse, sed ex suo sinu libero voluntatis suæ actu, adeoque ex nullo preexistente subjecto eduxisse. Quod exemplum esse potest, quam turpiter horum hominum syncretismus decreta philosophorum, et ipsum veritatem celestem corruperit. (Instit. Hist. Phil. p. 282.) See Brucker, Instit. Hist. Phil. p. 275.

In brief, for our limits forbid us from entering into the obscurity of the Neo-Platonic subtilties, the doctrines of Plotinus may be thus recapitulated. He considers the Metaphysical generation of ideas as the type of the generation of Beings, or rather he represents both generations as identical, for he admits no Beings but Spirits. Spirit in its turn is identical with its own ideas, it has no object out of itself; the intuition, immediate or reflex, is also the source of all Knowledge, and as particular notions are, according to Metaphysical order, comprised in the most general notion, the First Principle comprises all realities; the first Intelligence is at the same time the Universal Intelligence, and it contains necessarily all other Intelligences.f

"Even the errors of great men are fruitful of truths," and this one practical advantage at least may be derived from a survey, however brief, of Philosophical errors, that, in enabling us to trace, it teaches us to avoid, the source from which they have arisen, and the mazes through which they run. The History of the Plotinian School of men who rendered profitless the high mental endowments they had received from Nature, by substituting "ungrounded fancies" and mystical aspirations for those sober inquiries which lie within the reach of the human intellect-affords, we think, a useful exemplification of that species of error, which the great Bacon has placed among the "peccant humours" by which Learning has been corrupted. It has proceeded" from too great a reverence and a kind of adoration of the mind and understanding of Man, by means whereof, men have withdrawn themselves from the contemplation of Nature, and the observations of experience, and have tumbled up and down in their own reason and conceits. Upon these Intellectualists, which are, notwithstanding, commonly taken for the most sublime and divine Philosophers, Heraclitus gave a just censure, saying, men sought truth in their own little worlds, and not in the great and common world;' for they disdain to spell,

*Tiedemann, in his Work on the Spirit of Speculative Philoso phy, regards the Plotinian system as gross Spinosism, because Plotinus considers all existing things as parts of the Divinity, and the Divinity itself as the first matter, which, by diverse transformations, reproduces itself under forms infinitely varied; and as subtle Spinosism, because he makes the Divinity the original subject of all the varied appearances which present themselves on the theatre of experience, and wishes to deduce all things from the sole notions of the understanding.

Degerando, Hist. Comp, des Syst. Phil, tom, ii. c. 21.

and so by degrees to read in the volume of God's Works; Plotinus. and contrariwise, by continual meditation and agitation of wit, do urge and, as it were, invocate their own spirits to divine and give oracles unto them, whereby they are deservedly deluded."*

Such is a faint and naturally very imperfect outline of the peculiar Philosophy,† which, generally spread, exerted mighty influence from the IIId to the VIIth century; which, after having reappeared in the Middle Ages, shone with great lustre in the XVth and XVIth centuries; and which, notwithstanding its wildness and extravagance, still perhaps may be destined to rise into new importance by the united efforts of Learning in Germany and Enthusiasm in France.

*Of the Advancement of Learning, lib. i. c.5.

+ Our object having been merely to present a clear outline of the most prominent features of the Eclectic School, together with a succinct view of its most noted propagators, we have been obliged to avoid entering into a detail of its Metaphysical and Theological principles, or into notices of the long train of eminent men, who have successively adopted and extended Platonic notions. These will find a more appropriate place under other heads. Accounts, for instance, of Synesius, &c. more properly belong to the Biographical portion of Ecclesiastic History. Chalcidius, a Platonic Philosopher of the Illd century, has been, perhaps erroneously, considered as a Christian. Boethius, whose elegant Treatise De Consolatione Philosophia holds a distinguished place among the most happy productions which writers imbued with the Alexandrian Philosophy have left us, may be referred to in other parts of this Work. Among the authors of a marked Platonic cast, who adorn the annals of English Literature, it is sufficient to mention the celebrated names of Theophilus Gale, of Henry More, and, above all, of R. Cudworth.

Degerando, Hist. Comp. des Syst. Phil. Besides this able Work, by which, together with the learned Brucker's Hist. Critic. Phil. tom. ii. and Enfield's Hist. of Phil. we have been chiefly guided, the reader will find additional information in the writings of Mather, Tiedemann, Tennemann, Buhle, and V. Cousin. See, also, Cudworth's Intellectual System, with Mosheim's valuable notes to his Latin translation; Mosheim de turbatá per recentiores Platonicos Ecclesia. Fabric. Biblioth. Græc. tom. ix. Ed. Harles. Creuzer's Letter to Wyttenbach, prefixed to his edition of the Fragment of Plotinus, De Pulchro; to which may be added the following Works, noticed by Degerando, (tom. iii. note p. p. 478.) Beausobre, Hist. de l'Eclectisme; Obarius, Dissert. de Eclecticis, prefixed to the German translation of Stanley; Elrich's Commert, de Doctrina Platon. &c.; Roth, Dissert. Trinit. Platonic.; Leder Müller, Dissert. de Theurgia, &c.; Dicell. Majer, Series veterum in Schol. Alexandr. Doctor.; Rosler, De Commentitiis Phil. Ammonianæ fraudib. et noris; Feussling, De tribus Hypostasibus Plotini; Habenftreet, Dissert. de Jamblic. Phil. Syr. Doctrin.; Hilscher, De Scholâ Alexandrin. ; a Letter by M. de Ste. Croix, in a new edition of the Eclectics; a Dissertation by the son of Fichte, De Philosophic novæ Platonic. origine; Neander, Uber den Kaiser Julian and sein Zeitalter, &c.

History.

From

A. D. 363.

to

A. D.

395.

UPON the death of Julian the Romans found themselves surrounded with the greatest difficulties and dangers. From the varying accounts which have come down to us of the issue of the battle in which the Emperor fell, it is doubtful whether he bequeathed to his successor a defeat or a victory; but the privations to which the soldiers were immediately afterwards exposed, rendered it almost a matter of indifference, whether they could claim a triumph, or were compelled to acknowledge a repulse. Their provisions were already the death exhausted; and, as the Persians had removed, or destroyed, every thing which could supply the wants of the invaders, the deepest apprehensions were entertained throughout the camp that the Legions would soon be compelled, either to surrender to the enemy, or to fall under the more alarming attacks of famine and disease.*

State of Roman

army on

of Julian.

Early in the morning of the twenty-seventh of June, the principal Officers assembled to elect a Chief, and to deliberate on the means of extricating the army from the perilous situation in which it was placed. As the death of Julian was sudden, neither of the two great factions which at that period divided the Empire, had an opportunity of promoting its particular interests by securing the vacant throne for one of its partisans; and, as the safety of the troops required the aid of a prudent and experienced leader, the voice of the electors was nearly unanimous in offering the Purple to Sallustius, a soldier of high reputation, and who enjoyed the dignity of Præfect in one of the Eastern Provinces. This distinguished veteran justified the opinion which had been formed of his character, by the steadiness with which he refused to accept an office, to the duties of which, he alleged, his age and infirmities had rendered Election of him unequal. His self-denial, however, threw the assembly into some embarrassment; and the Commanders had already begun to listen to the suggestion of an inferior officer, who advised them to confine all their cares, in the mean time, to the removal of the army from a wasted and hostile Country, and to postpone the election of an Emperor until they should reach the borders of Mesopotamia, where they would receive at once a supply of food, and a powerful reinforcement of men, when a few individuals shouted the name of Jovian as the future master of the Roman State. The tumultuary acclamation was instantly

• Amm. Mar. lib. xxv. c. 6. Zosim. lib. iii. c. 30.

VOL. XI.

taken up by those who surrounded the tent, and who were waiting with impatience the result of the conference; and, accordingly, before half of the troops could be informed that the nephew of Constantine had expired, the authority of his successor was fully established by the suffrages or acquiescence of their Generals. Ammianus, indeed, relates that they were proceeding from the camp to begin their march, when the new Emperor, decorated with the ensigns of his rank, made his appearance amongst them; and that, as his name, which now resounded from every quarter, bore a great resemblance to that of his predecessor, the soldiers imagined that Julian felt so little inconvenience from his wound as to be able to put himself at their head, and to resume the fatigues of war. But this momentary joy, he adds, was followed by affliction and tears, when they found what had actually come to pass, and that their destiny was now confided to a leader whose military talents had not yet acquired their confidence.

Roman Empire.

From

A. D. 363.

to

A. D. 395.

the new

Flavius Claudius Jovianus was the son of Varro- Lineage and nianus, an officer of talent, who commanded one of the character of corps to which Diocletian gave the name of Jovians; Emperor. the origin, perhaps, of the appellation which was introduced into his family. He was a native of Mæsia, and probably a soldier of fortune; but being now advanced in years he lived in retirement, enjoying a degree of reputation which, it has been insinuated, reflected upon the successor of Julian the only distinction which attached to his person. Jovian held an office in the Imperial establishment, which conferred a considerable share of dignity, and was usually bestowed as a mark of favour, or as a proof of confidence, on the part of the reigning Prince. As he lent the weight of his power to the restoration of Christianity, his fame has been cherished by some of the best Writers among the Fathers of the Church; while, on the other hand, his conduct, in this respect, roused the indignation of the Pagan Historians, who have laboured to depreciate his abilities both as a soldier and as a statesman. The shortness of his reign did not supply materials sufficiently ample to establish the conjectures of either party: but it seems to be admitted by the least favourable of his biographers, that his mind was generous and his manners affable; that he was fond of Literature, and much disposed to further its advancement; that he was active, and capable of prolonged application; and, finally, that he was sincere in his religious preferences,

From A. D.

363.

to

History. and liberal towards those who retained a different form of belief. It is not denied, at the same time, by his panegyrists, that he was deficient in experience, and altogether unaccustomed to high command; and, moreover, that in matters of personal indulgence, he did not always exercise such a degree of restraint as would have become his rank in the State and his profession as a Christian. But it is worthy of being recorded, that even Ammianus, who was very little inclined to flatter his memory, acknowledges that the few faults with which he was chargeable, were of such a nature as respect for his Imperial dignity would, probably, have led him to correct.*

A. D. 395.

Sapor informed of the death of Julian.

He attacks

While Jovian was yet receiving the homage of the army, a standard-bearer, who had reason to dread his resentment, went over to the enemy, and, upon being admitted to the audience of Sapor, informed him that Julian was no more, and that the lowest of the military had set up in his place the mere phantom of an Emperor, a simple guardsman, equally destitute of talents and of courage. The King was delighted with this intelligence, which relieved his mind from great apprehension. He immediately issued orders to his cavalry to prepare for an attack, resolving to hang upon the rear of the Romans during their retreat towards the Tigris.

Scarely, then, had the Legions proceeded from their the Romans, camp when they found themselves assailed by a numerous body of horsemen, supported by a line of elephants. The Roman cavalry were thrown into some disorder at the first onset, and were about to give way, when the foot soldiers advanced to the charge, drove back the huge animals which had trampled down the light squadrons, and, after a sanguinary struggle, compelled the Barbarians to retire. But the Historian remarks, that this advantage was purchased by the Romans at a dear price, for it cost them the lives of three of their bravest officers. At the close of the day Jovian encamped near a small town or fortress called Sumara; and, on the following morning, as the enemy had again begun to act on the offensive, he deemed it necessary to entrench the advanced guard of his army in a narrow plain, encompassed on all sides by elevated ground. Here the Persians discharged upon them showers of arrows, and even made an attempt to reach the Imperial tent, by bursting through the Prætorian gate with a band of determined horsemen. This effort being repelled, the Romans continued their march to Earcha, from whence they pursued their route next day to Dura, a village situated on the banks of the Tigris.†

who continue to retreat.

Murmurs of

Not more than four days had elapsed since the death the soldiers. of Julian, but so great were the sufferings of the troops, aggravated by undefined alarms as to the final result of the campaign, that it had already become extremely difficult to dissuade them from having recourse to the most desperate measures. At the position just named a report spread through the army that the frontiers of the Empire were at hand, separated from them only by the river, along the course of which their march had been for some time directed. Misled by this false statement, the soldiers addressed the Emperor with clamorous importunity, entreating that they

* Edax tamen et vino venerique indulgens; quæ vitia Imperiali verecundiá forsitan correxisset. Amm. Mar. lib. xxv. c. 6. † Amm. Mar. lib. xxv. Liban, Orat. Parent.

might be permitted to attempt the passage of the Tigris, and thereby put an end to the miseries of their retreat. In vain was it that Jovian, with the principal officers, opposed this rash project; representing to them that a river at all times rapid, and now swoln by the melting snows of Armenia, could not be crossed but by the most dexterous swimmers; that the enemy was in possession of both banks; and that if a few of the strongest of their number should gain the opposite side, it would only be to fall into their hands. These wise remonstrances were entirely disregarded. Threatenings were mingled with the seditious shouts of the Legionaries; and it became necessary to permit a limited number of Gauls and Germans to make the attempt. The Emperor trusted, that if they perished, the rest would become more reasonable, and that, if they succeeded, means might be devised for transporting the whole.*

Roman

Empire.

From

A. D. 363.

to

A. D. 395.

Under the favour of night, five hundred practised Attempted swimmers threw themselves into the Tigris, and crossed passage of the Tigris. it in less time than the most resolute had dared to hope. The Persians, who guarded the right bank, were buried in deep sleep, and, consequently, fell an easy prey into the hands of their enemies. Upon the return of dawn the Germans made a signal to announce their success, which induced the Emperor to listen to the scheme of his engineers, who undertook to construct a species of bridge formed of inflated bladders and covered with reeds. Two days were spent in a fruitless struggle with the rapid current, which incessantly swept away the frail materials which the architects laid upon it; after which, as the soldiers had in the mean time consumed the remainder of their provisions, the whole army became quite furious, and demanded to be led against their pursuers, that they might die with arms in their hands, rather than sink by slow degrees under the horrors of famine.

At this important crisis overtures for Peace were Sapor offer made by Sapor, who, it is thought, being unwilling to Peace. drive the Romans to despair, or to expose himself further to the vicissitudes of fortune, proposed to sell to the invaders that security which they could no longer hope to procure by force of arms. Ammianus and Eutropius both served in this disastrous campaign, and wrote the History of it; and yet, it is not easy to draw from their pages a satisfactory view of the reasons which induced the Persian Monarch to prefer negotiation with beaten foes, to the honour of expelling them from his territory, or of retaining them in perpetual servitude. The latter of these writers does not conceal that the Romans had been worsted in more than one action, and, hence, that the Peace which Jovian made was as necessary as it was disgraceful; while, on the other hand, the former maintains that his countrymen were uniformly victorious, and that the desire for an armistice was suggested to Sapor, not less by a regard to his own situation, than by any feeling of generosity, which may be supposed to have influenced him towards the remains of Julian's army.†

Having listened to the propositions of Sapor, deli- Negotiation vered by the General of cavalry and another indivi

Zosim. lib. iii. c. 30, 31. Amm. Mar. lib. xxv. c. 6. Liban. Orat. Parent.

Jam turbatis rebus, exercitu quoque inopiú laborante, uno a Persis atque altero prælio victus pacem cum Sapore necessariam quidem sed ignobilem fecit. Eut. lib. x. Omnibus pene prœlus pars Romana superior. Amm. Mar. lib. xxv. c. 6.

From A. D 363.

to

A. D.

395. Insincere conduct of Sapor.

History. dual of similar rank, Jovian thought proper to send two deputies to the Persian quarters, to ascertain from the mouth of the Sovereign himself the terms on which he would consent to the termination of hostilities. The Officers whom he chose for this purpose were Sallustius, who had declined the Purple, and Arinthæus, a person of remarkable strength and valour, and esteemed one of the best captains of his age. The conduct of the aged Monarch did not justify the professions of self-denial and humanity which he had instructed his representatives to make. On the contrary, he gave reason to suspect his real motive was to gain time, and, by detaining the Romans in his Country till their strength should be exhausted, to render retreat and resistance equally impracticable. It was remarked of him that he managed a negotiation on the same principle which he followed in carrying on war. The more the envoys of Jovian conceded, the more he demanded, and in proportion as they removed difficulties he busied himself in creating them. In this way four days were consumed, during which, Ammianus informs us, the Romans endured the severest sufferings. Had the Emperor, says he, penetrated the designs of Sapor, and continued his march while the Treaty was on foot, he would certainly, in the interval which was lost, have reached the strong holds of Corduena, a fruitful and friendly region, from which he was not distant more than a hundred miles.*

Peace con

As the strength of the Romans was founded on decluded-the spair, the hope of Peace melted their resolution, and

terms.

Suferings of the Romans, and

weakened the desire of resistance. Hence Jovian, who had been deceived by the arts of his antagonist, no longer possessed the alternative of continuing the war. The terms dictated by the wily Persian were disadvantageous, and even disgraceful to the Empire; for he insisted, not only on having restored to him the five Provinces beyond the Tigris, which had been wrested from his grandfather by Maximianus Galerus, but also upon receiving the impregnable city of Nisibis, Singara, and a place of arms called the Castle of the Moors, one of the strongest fortresses in Mesopotamia. Perhaps the hardest, or at least the most humiliating, of all the conditions, was that which prohibited the Romans from interposing in the affairs of Armenia, and even from granting assistance to Arsaces, the King of that country, in the event of his being attacked by any of the neighbouring Powers. On this basis, so little creditable to the great Empire of the West, was a truce of thirty years established, duly ratified by oaths and religious ceremonies, and confirmed by the exchange of hostages. All that Jovian could obtain from the generosity of the Persian ruler was permission to the garrisons of the castles, and to the inhabitants of the towns, which were ceded to him, to retire with their families into the nearest lands of the Romans.†

It does not appear that the Emperor made any stipulation for obtaining food or a passage across the river page of for his famished soldiers. It is, indeed, very probable that, as the Barbarians had no magazines, they could not have drawn a supply from the desolated country through which the armies had recently marched; but they had formed a bridge at no great distance from

Tigris.

Quo temporis spatio antequam hi mitterentur, si exabusus princeps paulatim terris hostilibus excessisset, profectò venisset ad præsidia Corduena, uberis regionis et nostræ, ex eo loco in quo hæc agebantur centesimo lapide disparate. Amm. Mar. lib. xxv. c. 7.

Amm. Mar. lib. xxv. c. 7. Zosim. lib. iii. c. 32.

Roman

From A. D.

363.

to

A. D.

Dura, the use of which would have saved much time and life to the Romans, now fatigued and dispirited in Empire. the highest degree. Relieved from the dread of the Persian cavalry, the troops were indeed permitted to spread into the fields in search of fruits or water, or even of a shorter road to the place at which it was determined that they should pass the Tigris; while some of them, impatient to leave a Country in which they had experienced nothing but various forms of suffering, threw themselves into the stream, with the faint hope of reaching the further bank. The greater part of these perished in the water; the others fell into the hands of the Saracens stationed along the river, who, enraged at the loss of their comrades, recently surprised by the Gauls, put their captives to death without mercy.*

395.

reach Meso

It is remarkable that none of the Historians have Pass mentioned the precise spot where Jovian embarked the through the relics of his army. The passage appears to have been Desert and effected without any annoyance from the enemy; but, potamia. owing to the want of boats, and the insufficiency of the other means which were used as a substitute, the sacrifice of life was very great. At the distance of a few leagues from the Tigris, the Romans encamped near the deserted city of Atra, a place rendered famous by the fruitless attempts to reduce it, which were successively made by Trajan, by Severus, and by Artaxerxes, the founder of the second Persian Monarchy. Nearly two hundred miles of wilderness still stretched out before them, in which there was neither grass nor water for their cattle, and the greater part of which presented not the trace of a human foot. They therefore killed a number of their camels and other beasts of burden, and supplied themselves with as much water as they could carry; after which they proceeded upon their dreary march through the Mesopotamian Desert. At the end of six days they met near the castle of Ur a small convoy of provisions, forwarded by the Generals Procopius and Sebastianus, who, immediately after the election of the new Emperor, had received notice of the distressed state of the army, by means of a Tribune whom Jovian had despatched for that purpose. This supply, therefore, was the more gratifying to the Prince, inasmuch as it assured him of the fidelity of two Commanders, whose adhesion to his government, in his present circumstances, was of the very first importance, and, in fact, implied that of all the Oriental Provinces. At length the remains of a powerful army arrived under the walls of Nisibis, leaving the sandy waste strewed with their arms, their baggage, and even the unburied bones of their comrades, and presenting in their haggard countenances a picture of the misery which they had survived, and of the sufferings which they still continued to endure.†

the news of such dis

asters.

The intelligence, which now rapidly spread throughout Sensations the Eastern parts of the Empire, of the death of Julian, created by and of the unfortunate Treaty by which it was succeeded, created everywhere a deep sensation. Disappointment prevailed among all classes of men, and a sincere grief among those who were attached to ancient maxims in Religion and Philosophy. Zosimus relates that the first person who announced at Carrhena the demise of the Emperor, was overwhelmed with a shower of stones. But the inhabitants of Nisibis deprecated with the loudest lamentations the fatal conditions of the Peace. They saw themselves exposed to the resentment of * Liban. Orat. Parent. Amm. Mar. ubi suprà. Amm. Mar. lib. xxv. c. 9. Liban. Orat. Parent. Zosim, lib. iii,

c. 33.