Persia from the Earliest Period to the Arab

HISTORY OF PERSIA. 169
retaliated on a guiltless people the acts of rapine and
cruelty, which had been committed by their haughty
master in the Roman provinces. The trembling Assyrians
summoned the rivers to their assistance, and com-
pleted with their own hands the ruin of their country/'
But the Romans struggled on, and with un-
daunted perseverance overcame every obstacle; Peri-
sabor and Maozamalcha were taken by hard fighting ;
and Julian exclaimed with natural pride, " We have
now provided some materials for the sophist of
Antioch " (Libanius). In a few days more, the passage
of the Tigris was forced, and the Persians driven under
the walls of Ctesiphon. But here, Julians real difficulties
began ; indeed each Mesopotamian campaign seems to
repeat the previous one. The defection of the king of
Armenia and his own incapacity had prevented Procopius
from joining the emperor, by a parallel march
along the Tigris, and Julian was forced though most
reluctantly, to give up the siege of the great capital of
Shahpur; at the same time, rashly burning his boats
and fancying himself another Alexander, he advanced
like a madman, in pursuit of the still retreating enemy,
giving willing heed to every idle tale he could pick up
from the Persian deserters of the terror his onward
march inspired. The fate of the Roman army was
not long deferred; the Persians gradually closed
round them ;
food was scarce, and the heat intolerable
to the hardy warriors of Germany and Gaul ; till, at
length, having lost thousands of his best troops,
Julian was himself slain, after a brief but remarkable
reign of a year and eight months 1 . His successor,
1 Ammiants gives an interesting account of the state of the