Persia from the Earliest Period to the Arab

102 HISTORY 01' PERSIA.
emperor's chariot above a mile on foot, and to exhibit
before the whole Court the spectacle of his disgrace."
But neither Diocletian nor Galerius were men to
remain long quiet under unavenged wrongs. An army
having been rapidly collected, this time from the tried
veterans of Illyria, aided by Gothic auxiliaries in Im-
perial pay, Galerius again crossed the Euphrates, and,
avoiding the heats of the plain countries by clinging
to the friendly mountains of Armenia, secured, in this
way, ground especially favourable for his most important
arm, his with success.
infantry. His plans were
A night attack, generally fatal
crowned
as these
are to Eastern forces, surprised the Persians with their
horses tied up, and ended in the total defeat of Narses.
All his baggage, including his wives and children, fell
into the hands of the Roman general, who, emulating
the example of Alexander, treated them with the re-
spect due to their age, sex, and dignity.
The result was a conference between the emperors
and the Persian ambassador at Nisibis, with the view of
would secure
arranging a treaty which it was hoped
peace for a long time. Both sides were indeed weary of
war : Diocletian was only anxious to preserve the limits
of the Roman empire as suggested by Augustus
and acted on by Hadrian, while the Persian am-
bassador pointed out that the Roman and Persian
empires were the two " eyes of the world," which would
remain imperfect and mutilated, if either of them was
put out. The treaty, at length signed, ceded to Rome
Mesopotamia and the mountains of the Carduchi (now
Kurdistiin), with the right to nominate the kings of
Iberia ; while, at the same time the boundaries of the