ARGUMENT.
I. Julian in vain attempts to restore the temple at Jerusalem,
which had been destroyed long before.--II. He orders Arsaces, king
of Armenia, to prepare for the war with Persia, and with an army
and auxiliary troops of the Scythians crosses the Euphrates.--III.
As he marches through Mesopotamia, the princes of the Saracenic
tribes of their own accord offer him a golden crown and auxiliary
troops--A Roman fleet of eleven hundred ships arrives, and bridges
over the Euphrates.--IV. A description of several engines, balistæ,
scorpions, or wild-asses, battering-rams, helepoles, and
fire-machines.--V. Julian, with all his army, crosses the river
Aboras by a bridge of boats at Circesium--He harangues his
soldiers.--VI. A description of the eighteen principal provinces of
Persia, their cities, and the customs of their inhabitants.
I.
A.D. 363.
§ 1. To pass over minute details, these were the principal events of the
year. But Julian, who in his third consulship had taken as his colleague
Sallustius, the prefect of Gaul now entered on his fourth year, and by a
novel arrangement took as his colleague a private individual; an act of
which no one recollected an instance since that of Diocletian and
Aristobulus.
2. And although, foreseeing in his anxious mind the various accidents
that might happen, he urged on with great diligence all the endless
preparations necessary for his expedition, yet distributing his
diligence everywhere; and being eager to extend the recollection of his
reign by the greatness of his exploits, he proposed to rebuild at a vast
expense the once magnificent temple of Jerusalem, which after many
deadly contests was with difficulty taken by Vespasian and Titus, who
succeeded his father in the conduct of the siege. And he assigned the
task to Alypius of Antioch, who had formerly been proprefect of Britain.
3. But though Alypius applied himself vigorously to the work, and though
the governor of the province co-operated with him, fearful balls of fire
burst forth with continual eruptions close to the foundations, burning
several of the workmen and making the spot altogether inaccessible. And
thus the very elements, as if by some fate, repelling the attempt, it
was laid aside.
4. About the same time the emperor conferred various honours on the
ambassadors who were sent to him from the Eternal City, being men of
high rank and established excellence of character. He appointed
Apronianus to be prefect of Rome, Octavianus to be proconsul of Africa,
Venustus to be viceroy of Spain, and promoted Rufinus Aradius to be
count of the East in the room of his uncle Julian, lately deceased.
5. When all this had been carried out as he arranged, he was alarmed by
an omen which, as the result showed, indicated an event immediately at
hand. Felix, the principal treasurer, having died suddenly of a
hemorrhage, and Count Julian having followed him, the populace, looking
on their public titles, hailed Julian as Felix and Augustus.
6. Another bad omen had preceded this, for, on the very first day of the
year, as the emperor was mounting the steps of the temple of the Genius,
one of the priests, the eldest of all, fell without any one striking him
and suddenly expired; an event which the bystanders, either out of
ignorance or a desire to flatter, affirmed was an omen affecting
Sallustius, as the elder consul; but it was soon seen that the death it
portended was not to the elder man, but to the higher authority.
7. Besides these several other lesser signs from time to time indicated
what was about to happen; for, at the very beginning of the arrangements
for the Parthian campaign, news came that there had been an earthquake
at Constantinople, which those skilful in divination declared to be an
unfavourable omen to a ruler about to invade a foreign country; and
therefore advised Julian to abandon his unreasonable enterprise,
affirming that these and similar signs can only be disregarded with
propriety when one's country is invaded by foreign armies, as then there
is one everlasting and invariable law, to defend its safety by every
possible means, allowing no relaxation nor delay. News also came by
letter that at Rome the Sibylline volumes had been consulted on the
subject of the war by Julian's order, and that they had in plain terms
warned him not to quit his own territories that year.
II.
§ 1. But in the mean time embassies arrived from several nations
promising aid, and they were liberally received and dismissed; the
emperor with plausible confidence replying that it by no means became
the power of Rome to rely on foreign aid to avenge itself, as it was
rather fitting that Rome should give support to its friends and allies
if necessity drove them to ask it.
2. He only warned Arsaces, king of Armenia, to collect a strong force,
and wait for his orders, as he should soon know which way to march, and
what to do. Then, as soon as prudence afforded him an opportunity,
hastening to anticipate every rumour of his approach by the occupation
of the enemy's country, before spring had well set in, he sent the
signal for the advance to all his troops, commanding them to cross the
Euphrates.
3. As soon as the order reached them, they hastened to quit their winter
quarters; and having crossed the river, according to their orders, they
dispersed into their various stations, and awaited the arrival of the
emperor. But he, being about to quit Antioch, appointed a citizen of
Heliopolis, named Alexander, a man of turbulent and ferocious character,
to govern Syria, saying that he indeed had not deserved such a post, but
that the Antiochians, being covetous and insolent, required a judge of
that kind.
4. When he was about to set forth, escorted by a promiscuous multitude
who wished him a fortunate march and a glorious return, praying that he
would be merciful and kinder than he had been, he (for the anger which
their addresses and reproaches had excited in his breast was not yet
appeased) spoke with severity to them, and declared that he would never
see them again.
5. For he said that he had determined, after his campaign was over, to
return by a shorter road to Tarsus in Cilicia, to winter there: and that
he had written to Memorius, the governor of the city, to prepare
everything that he might require in that city. This happened not long
afterwards; for his body was brought back thither and buried in the
suburbs with a very plain funeral, as he himself had commanded.
6. As the weather was now getting warm he set out on the fifth of March,
and by the usual stages arrived at Hieropolis; and as he entered the
gates of that large city a portico on the left suddenly fell down, and
as fifty soldiers were passing under it at that moment it wounded many,
crushing them beneath the vast weight of the beams and tiles.
7. Having collected all his troops from thence, he marched with such
speed towards Mesopotamia, that before any intelligence of his march
could arrive (an object about which he was especially solicitous) he
came upon the Assyrians quite unexpectedly. Then having led his whole
army and the Scythian auxiliaries across the Euphrates by a bridge of
boats, he arrived at Batnæ, a town of Osdroene, and there again a sad
omen met him.
8. For when a great crowd of grooms was standing near an enormously
high haystack, in order to receive their forage (for in this way those
supplies used to be stored in that country), the mass was shaken by the
numbers who sought to strip it, and falling down, overwhelmed fifty men.
III.
§ 1. Leaving this place with a heavy heart, he marched with great speed,
and arrived at Carrhæ, an ancient town notorious for the disasters of
Crassus and the Roman army. From this town two royal roads branch off,
both leading into Persia; that on the left hand through Adiabene and
along the Tigris, that on the right through the Assyrians and along the
Euphrates.
2. There he stayed some days, preparing necessary supplies; and
according to the custom of the district he offered sacrifices to the
moon, which is religiously worshipped in that region; and it is said
that while before the altar, no witness to the action being admitted, he
secretly gave his own purple robe to Procopius, and bade him boldly
assume the sovereignty if he should hear that he had died among the
Parthians.
3. Here while asleep his mind was agitated with dreams, and foresaw some
sad event about to happen; on which account he and the interpreters of
dreams considering the omens which presented themselves, pronounced that
the next day, which was the nineteenth of March, ought to be solemnly
observed. But, as was ascertained subsequently, that very same night,
while Apronianus was prefect of Rome, the temple of the Palatine Apollo
was burnt in the Eternal City; and if aid from all quarters had not come
to the rescue the violence of the conflagration would have destroyed
even the prophetic volumes of the Sibyl.
4. After these things had happened in this manner, and while Julian was
settling his line of march, and making arrangements for supplies of all
kinds, his scouts come panting in, and bring him word that some
squadrons of the enemy's cavalry have suddenly passed the frontier in
the neighbourhood of the camp, and have driven off a large booty.
5. Indignant at such atrocity and at such an insult, he immediately (as
indeed he had previously contemplated) put thirty thousand chosen men
under the orders of Procopius, who has been already mentioned, uniting
with him in this command Count Sebastian, formerly Duke of Egypt; and he
ordered them to act on this side of the Tigris, observing everything
vigilantly, so that no danger might arise on any side where it was not
expected, for such things had frequently happened. He charged them
further, if it could be done, to join King Arsaces; and march with him
suddenly through Corduena and Moxoëne, ravaging Chiliocomus, a very
fertile district of Media, and other places; and then to rejoin him
while still in Assyria, in order to assist him as he might require.
6. Having taken these measures, Julian himself, pretending to march by
the line of the Tigris, on which road he had purposely commanded
magazines of provisions to be prepared, turned towards the right, and
after a quiet night, asked in the morning for the horse which he was
accustomed to ride: his name was Babylonius. And when he was brought,
being suddenly griped and starting at the pain, he fell down, and
rolling about scattered the gold and jewels with which his trappings
were decked. Julian, in joy at this omen, cried out, amid the applause
of those around, that "Babylon had fallen, and was stripped of all her
ornaments."
7. Having delayed a little that he might confirm the omen by the
sacrifice of some victims, he advanced to Davana, where he had a
garrison-fortress, and where the river Belias rises which falls into the
Euphrates. Here he refreshed his men with food and sleep, and the next
day reached Callinicus, a strong fortress, and also a great commercial
mart, where, on the 27th of March (the day on which at Rome the annual
festival in honour of Cybele is celebrated, and the car in which her
image is borne is, as it is said, washed in the waters of the Almo), he
kept the same feast according to the manner of the ancients, and then,
retiring to rest, passed a triumphant, and joyful night.
8. The next day he proceeded along the bank of the river, which other
streams began to augment, marching with an armed escort; and at night he
rested in a tent where some princes of the Saracenic tribes came as
suppliants, bringing him a golden crown, and adoring him as the master
of the world and of their own nations: he received them graciously, as
people well adapted for surprises in war.
9. And while addressing them a fleet arrived equal to that of the mighty
sovereign Xerxes, under the command of the tribune Constantianus, and
Count Lucillianus; they threw a bridge over the broadest part of the
Euphrates: the fleet consisted of one thousand transports, of various
sorts and sizes, bringing large supplies of provisions, and arms, and
engines for sieges, and fifty ships of war, and as many more suitable
for the construction of bridges.
IV.
§ 1. I am reminded by the circumstances to explain instruments of this
kind briefly, as far as my moderate talent may enable me to do, and
first I will set forth the figure of the balista.
2. Between two axletrees a strong large iron bar is fastened, like a
great rule, round, smooth, and polished; from its centre a square pin
projects for some distance, hollowed out into a narrow channel down its
middle. This is bound by many ligatures of twisted cords: to it two
wooden nuts are accurately fitted, by one of which stands a skilful man
who works it, and who fits neatly into the hollow of the pin or pole a
wooden arrow with a large point; and as soon as this is done, some
strong young men rapidly turn a wheel.
3. When the tip of the arrow's point has reached the extremity of the
cords, the arrow is struck by a blow from the balista, and flies out of
sight; sometimes even giving forth sparks by its great velocity, and it
often happens that before the arrow is seen, it has given a fatal wound.
4. The scorpion, which they now call the wild-ass, is in the following
form. Two axletrees of oak or box are cut out and slightly curved, so as
to project in small humps, and they are fastened together like a sawing
machine, being perforated with large holes on each side; and between
them, through the holes, strong ropes are fastened to hold the two parts
together, and prevent them from starting asunder.
5. From these ropes thus placed a wooden pin rises in an oblique
direction, like the pole of a chariot, and it is so fastened by knotted
cords as to be raised or depressed at pleasure. To its top, iron hooks
are fastened, from which a sling hangs, made of either cord or iron.
Below the pin is a large sack filled with shreds of cloth, fastened by
strong ties, and resting on heaped-up turves or mounds of brick. For an
engine of this kind, if placed on a stone wall would destroy whatever
was beneath it, not by its weight, but by the violence of its
concussion.
6. Then when a conflict begins, a round stone is placed on the sling,
and four youths on each side, loosening the bar to which the cords are
attached, bend the pin back till it points almost upright into the air;
then the worker of the engine, standing by on high ground, frees by a
blow with the heavy hammer the bolt which keeps down the whole engine;
and the pin being set free by the stroke, and striking against the mass
of cloth shreds, hurls forth the stone with such force as to crush
whatever it strikes.
7. This engine is called a _tormentum_, because all its parts are
twisted (_torquetur_); or a scorpion, because it has an erect sting; but
modern times have given it the name of the wild-ass, because when wild
asses are hunted, they throw the stones behind them by their kicks so as
to pierce the chests of those who pursue them, or to fracture their
skulls.
8. Now let us come to the battering ram. A lofty pine or ash is chosen,
the top of which is armed with a long and hard head of iron, resembling
a ram, which form has given the name to the engine. It is suspended from
iron beams running across on each side, like the top of a pair of
scales, and is kept in its place by ropes hanging from a third beam. A
number of men draw it back as far as there is room, and then again drive
it forward to break down whatever opposes it by mighty blows, like a ram
which rises up and butts.
9. By the frequent blows of this rebounding thunderbolt, buildings are
torn asunder and walls are loosened and thrown down. By this kind of
engine, if worked with proper vigour, garrisons are deprived of their
defences, and the strongest cities are laid open and sieges rapidly
brought to a conclusion.
10. Instead of these rams, which from their common use came to be
despised, a machine was framed called in Greek the helepolis, by the
frequent use of which Demetrius, the son of king Antigonus, took Rhodes
and other cities, and earned the surname of Poliorcetes.
11. It is constructed in this manner. A vast testudo is put together,
strengthened with long beams and fastened with iron nails; it is covered
with bullocks' hides and wicker-work made of freshly cut twigs, and its
top is smeared over with clay to keep off missiles and fiery darts.
12. Along its front very sharp spears with three points are fastened,
heavy with iron, like the thunderbolts represented by painters or
sculptors, and strong enough with the projecting points to tear to
pieces whatever it strikes.
13. A number of soldiers within guide this vast mast with wheels and
ropes, urging with vehement impulse against the weaker parts of the
wall, so that, unless repelled by the strength of the garrison above, it
breaks down the wall and lays open a great breach.
14. The firebolts, which are a kind of missile, are made thus. They take
an arrow of cane, joined together between the point and the reed with
jagged iron, and made in the shape of a woman's spindle, with which
linen threads are spun; this is cunningly hollowed out in the belly and
made with several openings, and in the cavity fire and fuel of some kind
is placed.
15. Then if it be shot slowly from a slack bow (for if it be shot with
too much speed the fire is extinguished), so as to stick anywhere, it
burns obstinately, and if sprinkled with water it creates a still
fiercer fire, nor will anything but throwing dust upon it quench it.
This is enough to say of mural engines; let us now return to our
original subject.
V.
§ 1. Having received the reinforcements of the Saracens which they so
cheerfully offered, the emperor advanced with speed, and at the
beginning of April entered Circesium, a very secure fortress, and
skilfully built, it is surrounded by the two rivers Aboras (or Chaboras)
and Euphrates, which make it as it were an island.
2. It had formerly been small and insecure, till Diocletian surrounded
it with lofty towers and walls when he was strengthening his inner
frontier within the very territories of the barbarians, in order to
prevent the Persians from overrunning Syria, as had happened a few years
before to the great injury of the province.
3. For it happened one day at Antioch, when the city was in perfect
tranquillity, a comic actor being on the stage with his wife, acting
some common play, while the people were delighted with his acting, the
wife suddenly exclaimed, "Unless I am dreaming, here are the Persians;"
and immediately the populace turning round, were put to flight, and
driven about in every direction while seeking to escape the darts which
were showered upon them; and so the city being burnt and numbers of the
citizens slain, who, as is usual in time of peace, were strolling about
carelessly, and all the places in the neighbourhood being burnt and laid
waste, the enemy loaded with booty returned in safety to their own
country after having burnt Mareades alive, who had wickedly guided them
to the destruction of his fellow-citizens. This event took place in the
time of Gallienus.
4. But Julian, while remaining at Circesium to give time for his army
and all its followers to cross the bridge of boats over the Aboras,
received letters with bad news from Sallust, the prefect of Gaul,
entreating him to suspend his expedition against the Parthians, and
imploring him not in such an unseasonable manner to rush on irrevocable
destruction before propitiating the gods.
5. But Julian disregarded his prudent adviser, and advanced boldly;
since no human power or virtue can ever avail to prevent events
prescribed by the order of the Fates. And immediately, having crossed
the river, he ordered the bridge to be taken to pieces, that the
soldiers might have no hope of safety by quitting their ranks and
returning.
6. Here also a bad omen was seen; the corpse of an officer who had been
put to death by the executioner, whom Sallust, the prefect, while in
this country had condemned to death, because, after having promised to
deliver an additional supply of provisions by an appointed day, he
disappointed him through some hindrance. But after the unhappy man had
been executed, the very next day there arrived, as he had promised,
another fleet heavily laden with corn.
7. Leaving Circesium, we came to Zaitha, the name of the place meaning
an olive-tree. Here we saw the tomb of the emperor Gordian, which is
visible a long way off, whose actions from his earliest youth, and whose
most fortunate campaigns and treacherous murder we related at the proper
time,[138] and when, in accordance with his innate piety he had offered
due honours to this deified emperor and was on his way to Dura, a town
now deserted, he stood without moving on beholding a large body of
soldiers.
8. And as he was doubting what their object was, they brought him an
enormous lion which had attacked their ranks and had been slain by their
javelins. He, elated at this circumstance, which he looked on as an omen
of success in his enterprise, advanced with increased exultation; but so
uncertain is fortune, the event was quite contrary to his expectation.
The death of a king was certainly foreshown, but who was the king was
uncertain.
9. For we often read of ambiguous oracles, never understood till the
results interpreted them; as, for instance, the Delphic prophecy, which
foretold that after crossing the Halys, Croesus would overthrow a
mighty kingdom; and another, which by hints pointed out the sea to the
Athenians as the field of combat against the Medes; and another; later
than these, but not less ambiguous:--
"O son of Æacus,
I say that you the Romans can subdue."
10. The Etrurian soothsayers who accompanied him, being men skilful in
portents, had often warned him against this campaign, but got no credit;
so now they produced their books of such signs, and showed that this was
an omen of a forbidding character, and unfavourable to a prince who
should invade the country of another sovereign however justly.
11. But he spurned the opposition of philosophers, whose authority he
ought to have reverenced, though at times they were mistaken, and though
they were sometimes obstinate in cases which they did not thoroughly
understand. In truth, they brought forward as a plausible argument to
secure credit to their knowledge, that in time past, when Cæsar
Maximianus was about to fight Narses, king of the Persians, a lion and a
huge boar which had been slain were at the same time brought to him, and
after subduing that nation he returned in safety; forgetting that the
destruction which was now portended was to him who invaded the dominions
of another, and that Narses had given the offence by being the first to
make an inroad into Armenia, a country under the Roman jurisdiction.
12. On the next day, which was the 7th of April, as the sun was setting,
suddenly the air became darkened, and all light wholly disappeared, and
after repeated claps of thunder and flashes of lightning, a soldier
named Jovianus was struck by the lightning and killed, with two horses
which he was leading back from the river to which he had taken them to
drink.
13. When this was seen, the interpreters of such things were sent for
and questioned, and they with increased boldness affirmed that this
event forbade the campaign, demonstrating it to be a monitory lightning
(for this term is applied to signs which advise or discourage any line
of action). And this, as they said, was to be the more guarded against,
because it had killed a soldier of rank, with war-horses; and the books
which explain lightnings pronounce that places struck in this manner
should not be trodden on, nor even looked upon.
14. On the other hand, the philosophers declared that the brilliancy of
this sacred fire thus suddenly presented to the eye had no special
meaning, but was merely the course of a fiercer breath descending by
some singular power from the sky to the lower parts of the world; and
that if any foreknowledge were to be derived from such a circumstance,
it was rather an increase of renown which was portended to the emperor
now engaged in a glorious enterprise; since it is notorious that flame,
if it meet with no obstacle, does of its own nature fly upwards.
15. The bridge then, as has been narrated, having been finished, and all
the troops having crossed it, the emperor thought it the most important
of all things to address his soldiers who were advancing resolutely, in
full reliance on their leader and on themselves. Accordingly, a signal
having been given by the trumpets, the centurions, cohorts, and maniples
assembled, and he, standing on a mound of earth, and surrounded by a
ring of officers of high rank, spoke thus with a cheerful face, being
favourably heard with the unanimous good will of all present.
16. "Seeing, my brave soldiers, that you are full of great vigour and
alacrity, I have determined to address you, to prove to you by several
arguments that the Romans are not, as spiteful grumblers assert, now for
the first time invading the kingdom of Persia. For, to say nothing of
Lucullus or of Pompey, who, having forced his way through the Albani and
Massagetæ, whom we call Alani, penetrated through this nation also so as
to reach the Caspian lake; we know that Ventidius, the lieutenant of
Antony, gained many victories in these regions.
17. "But to leave those ancient times, I will enumerate other exploits
of more recent memory. Trajan, and Verus, and Severus have all gained
victories and trophies in this country; and the younger Gordian, whose
monument we have just been honouring, would have reaped similar glory,
having conquered and routed the king of Persia at Resaina, if he had not
been wickedly murdered in this very place by the faction of Philip, the
prefect of the prætorium, with the assistance of a few other impious
men.
18. "But his shade was not long left to wander unavenged, since, as if
Justice herself had laboured in the cause, all those who conspired
against him have been put to death with torture. Those men, indeed,
ambition prompted to the atrocious deed; but we are exhorted by the
miserable fate of cities recently taken, by the unavenged shades of our
slaughtered armies, by the heaviness of our losses, and the loss of many
camps and fortresses, to the enterprise which we have undertaken. All
men uniting in their wishes that we may remedy past evils, and having
secured the honour and safety of the republic on this side, may leave
posterity reason to speak nobly of us.
19. "By the assistance of the eternal deity, I, your emperor, will be
always among you as a leader and a comrade, relying, as I well believe,
on favourable omens. But if variable fortune shall defeat me in battle,
it will still be sufficient for me to have devoted myself for the
welfare of the Roman world, like ancient Curtii and Mucii, and the
illustrious family of the Decii. We have to abolish a most pernicious
nation, on whose swords the blood of our kindred is not yet dry.
20. "Our ancestors have before now devoted ages to cause the
destruction of enemies who harassed them. Carthage was overthrown after
a long and distressing war; and its great conqueror feared to let it
survive his victory. After a long and often disastrous siege, Scipio
utterly destroyed Numantia. Rome destroyed Fidenæ, that it might not
grow up as a rival to the empire; and so entirely laid waste Falisci and
Veii, that it is not easy to attach so much faith to ancient records as
to believe that those cities ever were powerful.
21. "These transactions I have related to you as one acquainted with
ancient history. It follows that all should lay aside, as unworthy of
him, the love of plunder, which has often been the insidious bane of the
Roman soldier, and that every one should keep steadily to his own troop
and his own standard, when the necessity for fighting arises, knowing
that should he loiter anywhere he will be hamstrung and left to his
fate. I fear nothing of our over-crafty enemies but their tricks and
perfidy.
22. "Finally, I promise you all, that when our affairs have met with
success, without entrenching myself behind my imperial prerogative, so
as to consider all my own decisions and opinions irrefragably just and
reasonable because of my authority, I will give, if required, a full
explanation of all that I have done, that you may be able to judge
whether it has been wise or not.
23. "Therefore, I entreat you, now summon all your courage, in full
reliance on your good fortune, sure at all events that I will share all
dangers equally with you, and believing that victory ever accompanies
justice."
24. When he had ended his harangue with this pleasant peroration, the
soldiers, exulting in the glory of their chief, and elated with the
hopes of success, lifted up their shields on high, and cried out that
they should think nothing dangerous nor difficult under an emperor who
imposed more toil on himself than on his common soldiers.
25. And above all the rest his Gallic troops showed this feeling with
triumphant shouts, remembering how often while he as their leader was
marshalling their ranks, they had seen some nations defeated and others
compelled to sue for mercy and peace.
VI.
§ 1. Our history here leads us to a digression explanatory of the
situation of Persia. It has been already dilated upon by those who
describe different nations, though but few of them have given a correct
account; if my story should be a little longer, it will contribute to a
better knowledge of the country. For whoever affects excessive
conciseness while speaking of things but little known, does not so much
consider how to explain matters intelligibly, as how much he may omit.
2. This kingdom, formerly but small, and one which had been known by
several names, from causes which we have often mentioned, after the
death of Alexander at Babylon received the name of Parthia from Arsaces,
a youth of obscure birth, who in his early youth was a leader of
banditti, but who gradually improved his condition, and rose to high
renown from his illustrious actions.
3. After many splendid and gallant exploits he defeated Nicator
Seleucus, the successor of the above-named Alexander, who had received
the surname of Nicator[139] from his repeated victories; and having
expelled the Macedonian garrisons, he lived for the remainder of his
life in peace, like a merciful ruler of willing subjects.
4. At last, after all the neighbouring districts had been brought under
his power, either by force or by fear, or by his reputation for justice,
he died a peaceful death in middle age, after he had filled all Persia
with flourishing cities and well-fortified camps and fortresses, and had
made it an object of terror to its neighbours whom previously it used to
fear. And he was the first of these kings who had by the unanimous
consent of all his countrymen of all ranks, in accordance with the
tenets of their religion, had his memory consecrated as one now placed
among the stars.
5. And it is from his era that the arrogant sovereigns of that nation
have allowed themselves to be entitled brothers of the sun and moon.
And, as the title of Augustus is sought for and desired by our emperors,
so now the additional dignities first earned by the fortunate auspices
of Arsaces are claimed by all the Parthian kings, who were formerly
abject and inconsiderable.
6. So that they still worship and honour Arsaces as a god, and down to
our day have given him so much honour that, in conferring the royal
power, one of his race has been always preferred to any one else. And
also in intestine quarrels, such as are common in that nation, every one
avoids as sacrilege wounding any descendant of Arsaces, whether in arms
or living as a private individual.
7. It is well known that this nation, after subduing many others by
force, extended its dominions as far as the Propontis and Thrace; but
that it subsequently became diminished and suffered great disasters,
owing to the arrogance of its ambitious monarchs, who carried their
licentious inroads into distant countries. First, in consequence of the
conduct of Cyrus, who crossed the Bosphorus with a fabulous host, but
was wholly destroyed by Tomyris, queen of the Scythians, who thus
terribly avenged her sons.
8. After him, when Darius, and subsequently Xerxes, changed the use[140]
of the elements and invaded Greece, they had nearly all their forces
destroyed by land and sea, and could scarcely escape in safety
themselves. I say nothing of the wars of Alexander, and of his leaving
the sovereignty over the whole nation by will to his successor.
9. Then, a long time after these events, while our republic was under
consuls, and was afterwards brought under the power of the Cæsars, that
nation was constantly warring with us, sometimes with equal fortune;
being at one time defeated, and at another victorious.
10. Now I will in a few words describe the situation and position of the
country as well as I can. It is a region of great extent both in length
and breadth, entirely surrounding on all sides the famous Persian gulf
with its many islands. The mouth of this gulf is so narrow that from
Harmozon, the promontory of Carmania, the opposite headland, which the
natives call Maces, is easily seen.
11. When the strait between these capes is passed, and the water becomes
wider, they are navigable up to the city Teredon, where, after having
suffered a great diminution of its waters, the Euphrates falls into the
sea. The entire gulf, if measured round the shore, is 20,000 furlongs,
being of a circular form as if turned in a lathe. And all round its
coasts are towns and villages in great numbers; and the vessels which
navigate its waters are likewise very numerous.
12. Having then passed through this strait we come to the gulf of
Armenia on the east, the gulf of Cantichus on the south, and on the west
to a third, which they call Chalites.[141] These gulfs, after washing
many islands, of which but few are known, join the great Indian Ocean,
which is the first to receive the glowing rising of the sun, and is
itself of an excessive heat.
13. As the pens of geographers delineate it, the whole of the region
which we have been speaking of is thus divided. From the north to the
Caspian gates it borders on the Cadusii, and on many Scythian tribes,
and on the Arimaspi, a fierce one-eyed people. On the west it is bounded
by the Armenians, and Mount Niphates, the Asiatic Albani, the Red Sea,
and the Scenite Arabs, whom later times have called the Saracens. To the
south it looks towards Mesopotamia, on the east it reaches to the
Ganges, which falls into the Southern Ocean after intersecting the
countries of the Indians.
14. The principal districts of Persia, under command of the Vitaxæ, that
is to say of the generals of the cavalry, and of the king's Satraps, for
the many inferior provinces it would be difficult and superfluous to
enumerate, are Assyria, Susiana, Media, Persia, Parthia, the greater
Carmania, Hyrcania, Margiana, the Bactrians, the Sogdians, the Sacæ,
Scythia beyond Mount Emodes, Serica, Aria, the Paropanisadæ, Drangiana,
Arachosia, and Gedrosia.
15. Superior to all the rest is that which is the nearest to us,
Assyria, both in renown, and extent, and its varied riches and
fertility. It was formerly divided among several peoples and tribes, but
is now known under one common name as Assyria. It is in that country
that amid its abundance of fruits and ordinary crops, there is a lake
named Sosingites, near which bitumen is found. In this lake the Tigris
is for a while absorbed, flowing beneath its bed, till, at a great
distance, it emerges again.
16. Here also is produced naphtha, an article of a pitchy and glutinous
character, resembling bitumen: on which if ever so small a bird perches,
it finds its flight impeded and speedily dies. It is a species of
liquid, and when once it has taken fire, human ingenuity can find no
means of extinguishing it except that of heaping dust on it.
17. In the same district is seen an opening in the earth from which a
deadly vapour arises, which by its foul odour destroys any animal which
comes near it. The evil arises from a deep well, and if that odour
spread beyond its wide mouth before it rose higher, it would make all
the country around uninhabitable by its fetid effect.
18. There used, as some affirm, to be a similar chasm near Hierapolis in
Phrygia; from which a noxious vapour rose in like manner with a fetid
smell which never ceased, and destroyed everything within the reach of
its influence, except eunuchs; to what this was owing we leave natural
philosophers to determine.
19. Also near the temple of the Asbamæan Jupiter, in Cappadocia (in
which district that eminent philosopher Apollonius is said to have been
born near the town of Tyana), a spring rises from a marsh, which,
however swollen with its rising floods, never overflows its banks.
20. Within this circuit is Adiabene, which was formerly called Assyria,
but by long custom has received its present name from the circumstance,
that being placed between the two navigable rivers the Ona and the
Tigris, it can never be approached by fording; for in Greek we use
+diabainein+ for to "cross:" this was the belief of the ancients.
21. But we say that in this country there are two rivers which never
fail, which we ourselves have crossed, the Diabas, and the Adiabas:
both having bridges of boats over them; and that Adiabene has received
its name from this last, as Homer tells us Egypt received its name from
its great river, and India also, and Commagena which was formerly called
Euphratensis, as did the country now called Spain, which was formerly
called Iberia from the Iberus.[142] And the great Spanish province of
Boetica from the river Boetis.[143]
22. In this district of Adiabene is the city of Nineveh, named after
Ninus, a most mighty sovereign of former times, and the husband of
Semiramis, who was formerly queen of Persia, and also the cities of
Ecbatana, Arbela, and Gaugamela, where Alexander, after several other
battles, gave the crowning defeat to Darius.
23. In Assyria there are many cities, among which one of the most
eminent is Apamia, surnamed Mesene, and Teredon, and Apollonia, and
Vologesia, and many others of equal importance. But the most splendid
and celebrated are these three, Babylon, the walls of which Semiramis
cemented with pitch; for its citadel indeed was founded by that most
eminent monarch Belus. And Ctesiphon which Vardanes built long ago, and
which subsequently King Pacorus enlarged by an immigration of many
citizens, fortifying it also with walls, and giving it a name, made it
the most splendid place in Persia--next to it Seleucia, the splendid
work of Seleucus Nicator.
24. This, however, as we have already related, was stormed by the
generals of Verus Cæsar, who carried the image of the Cumæan Apollo to
Rome, and placed it in the temple of the Palatine Apollo, where it was
formally dedicated to that god by his priests. But it is said that after
this statue was carried off, and the city was burnt, the soldiers,
searching the temple, found a narrow hole, and when this was opened in
the hope of finding something of value in it, from some deep gulf which
the secret science of the Chaldæans had closed up, issued a pestilence,
loaded with the force of incurable disease, which in the time of Verus
and Marcus Antoninus polluted the whole world from the borders of Persia
to the Rhine and Gaul with contagion and death.
25. Near to this is the region of the Chaldæans, the nurse of the
ancient philosophy, as the Chaldæans themselves affirm; and where the
art of true divination has most especially been conspicuous. This
district is watered by the noble rivers already mentioned, by the
Marses, by the Royal river, and by that best of all, the Euphrates,
which divides into three branches, and is navigable in them all, having
many islands, and irrigating the fields around in a manner superior to
any industry of cultivators, making them fit both for the plough and for
the production of trees.
26. Next to these come the Susians, in whose province there are not many
towns; though Susa itself is celebrated as a city which has often been
the home of kings, and Arsiana, and Sele, and Aracha. The other towns in
this district are unimportant and obscure. Many rivers flow through this
region, the chief of which are the Oroates, the Harax, and the Meseus,
passing through the narrow sandy plain which separates the Caspian from
the Red Sea, and then fall into the sea.
27. On the left, Media is bounded by the Hyrcanian Sea;[144] a country
which, before the reign of the elder Cyrus and the rise of Persia, we
read was the supreme mistress of all Asia after the Assyrians had been
conquered; the greater part of whose cantons had their name changed into
one general appellation of Acrapatena, and fell by right of war under
the power of the Medes.
28. They are a warlike nation, and the most formidable of all the
eastern tribes, next to the Parthians, by whom alone they are conquered.
The region which they inhabit is in the form of a square. All the
inhabitants of these districts extend over great breadth of country,
reaching to the foot of a lofty chain of mountains known by the names of
Zagrus, Orontes, and Jasonium.
29. There is another very lofty mountain called Coronus; and those who
dwell on its western side abound in corn land and vineyards, being
blessed with a most fertile soil, and one enriched by rivers and
fountains.
30. They have also green meadows, and breeds of noble horses, on which
(as ancient writers relate, and as we ourselves have witnessed) their
men when going to battle mount with great exultation. They call them
Nesæi.[145]
31. They have also as many cities as Media, and villages as strongly
built as towns in other countries, inhabited by large bodies of
citizens. In short, it is the richest quarter of the kingdom.
32. In these districts the lands of the Magi are fertile; and it may be
as well to give a short account of that sect and their studies, since we
have occasion to mention their name. Plato, that most learned deliverer
of wise opinions, teaches us that Magiæ is by a mystic name
Machagistia,[146] that is to say, the purest worship of divine beings;
of which knowledge in olden times the Bactrian Zoroaster derived much
from the secret rites of the Chaldæans; and after him Hystaspes, a very
wise monarch, the father of Darius.
33. Who while boldly penetrating into the remoter districts of upper
India, came to a certain woody retreat, of which with its tranquil
silence the Brahmans, men of sublime genius, were the possessors. From
their teaching he learnt the principles of the motion of the world and
of the stars, and the pure rites of sacrifice, as far as he could; and
of what he learnt he infused some portion into the minds of the Magi,
which they have handed down by tradition to later ages, each instructing
his own children, and adding to it their own system of divination.
34. From his time, through many ages to the present era, a number of
priests of one and the same race has arisen, dedicated to the worship of
the gods. And they say, if it can be believed, that they even keep alive
in everlasting fires a flame which descended from heaven among them; a
small portion of which, as a favourable omen, used to be borne before
the kings of Asia.
35. Of this class the number among the ancients was small, and the
Persian sovereigns employed their ministry in the solemn performance of
divine sacrifices, and it was profanation to approach the altars, or to
touch a victim before a Magus with solemn prayers had poured over it a
preliminary libation. But becoming gradually more numerous they arrived
at the dignity and reputation of a substantial race; inhabiting towns
protected by no fortifications, allowed to live by their own laws, and
honoured from the regard borne to their religion.
36. It was of this race of Magi that the ancient volumes relate that
after the death of Cambyses, seven men seized on the kingdom of Persia,
who were put down by Darius, after he obtained the kingdom through the
neighing of his horse.
37. In this district a medical oil is prepared with which if an arrow be
smeared, and it be shot gently from a loose bow (for it loses its effect
in a rapid flight), wherever it sticks it burns steadily, and if any one
attempts to quench it with water it only burns more fiercely, nor can it
be put out by any means except by throwing dust on it.
38. It is made in this manner. Those skilful in such arts mix common oil
with a certain herb, keep it a long time and when the mixture is
completed they thicken it with a material derived from some natural
source, like a thicker oil. The material being a liquor produced in
Persia, and called, as I have already said, naphtha in their native
language.
39. In this district there are many cities, the most celebrated of which
are Zombis, Patigran, and Gazaca; but the richest and most strongly
fortified are Heraclia, Arsacia, Europos, Cyropolis, and Ecbatana, all
of which are situated in the Syromedian region at the foot of Mount
Jasonius.
40. There are many rivers in this country, the principal of which are
the Choaspes, the Gyndes, the Amardus, the Charinda, the Cambyses, and
the Cyrus, to which, on account of its size and beauty, the elder Cyrus,
that amiable king, gave its present name, abolishing that which it used
to bear, when he was proceeding on his expedition against Scythia; his
reason being that it was strong, as he accounted himself to be, and that
making its way with great violence, as he proposed to do, it falls into
the Caspian Sea.
41. Beyond this frontier ancient Persia, stretching towards the south,
extends as far as the sea, and is very thickly peopled, being also rich
in grain and date-trees, and well supplied with excellent water. Many of
its rivers fall into the gulf already mentioned, the chief of which are
the Vatrachites, the Rogomanis, the Brisoana, and the Bagrada.
42. Its inland towns are very considerable; it is uncertain why they
built nothing remarkable on the sea-coast. Those of most note are
Persepolis, Ardea, Obroatis, and Tragonice. The only islands visible
from that coast are these:--Tabiana, Fara, and Alexandria.
43. On the borders of this ancient Persia towards the north is Parthia,
a country subject to snow and frost; the principal river which
intersects that region is the Choatres; the chief towns are Genonia,
Moesia, Charax, Apamia, Artacana, and Hecatompylos; from its frontier
along the shores of the Caspian Sea to the Caspian gates is a distance
of 1040 furlongs.
44. The inhabitants of all the countries in that district are fierce and
warlike, and they are so fond of war and battle that he who is slain in
battle is accounted the happiest of men, while those who die a natural
death are reproached as degenerate and cowardly.
45. These tribes are bounded on the east and the south by Arabia Felix,
so called because it abounds equally in corn, cattle, vines, and every
kind of spice: a great portion of that country reaches on the right down
to the Red Sea, and on its left extends to the Persian Gulf; so that the
inhabitants reap the benefits of both.
46. There are in that country many havens and secure harbours, and
well-frequented marts; many spacious and splendid abodes for their
kings, and wholesome springs of water naturally warm, and a great number
of rivers and streams; the climate is temperate and healthy, so that if
one considers the matter rightly, the natives seem to want nothing to
perfect their happiness.
47. There are in it very many cities both on the coast and inland; many
fertile hills and valleys. The chief cities are Geapolis, Nascon,
Baraba, Nagara, Mephra, Taphra, and Dioscurias. And in both seas it
possesses several islands lying off the coast, which it is not worth
while to enumerate. But the most important of them is Turgana, in which
there is said to be a magnificent temple of Serapis.
48. Beyond the frontier of this nation is the greater Carmania, lying on
high ground, and stretching to the Indian Sea; fertile in fruit and
timber trees, but neither so productive nor so extensive as Arabia. With
rivers it is as well supplied, and in grass and herbage scarcely
inferior.
49. The most important rivers are the Sagareus, the Saganis, and the
Hydriacus. The cities are not numerous, but admirably supplied with all
the necessaries and luxuries of life; the most celebrated of them all
are Carmania the metropolis, Portospana, Alexandria, and Hermopolis.
50. Proceeding inland, we next come to the Hyrcanians, who live on the
coast of the sea of that name. Here the land is so poor that it kills
the seed crops, so that agriculture is not much attended to; but they
live by hunting, taking wonderful pleasure in every kind of sport.
Thousands of tigers are found among them, and all kinds of wild beasts;
we have already mentioned the various devices by which they are caught.
51. Not indeed that they are ignorant of the art of ploughing, and some
districts where the soil is fertile are regularly sown; nor are trees
wanting to plant in suitable spots: many of the people too support
themselves by commerce.
52. In this province are two rivers of universal celebrity the Oxus and
the Maxera, which tigers sometimes, when urged by hunger, cross by
swimming, and unexpectedly ravage the neighbouring districts. It has
also besides other smaller towns some strong cities, two on the
sea-shore named Socunda and Saramanna; and some inland, such as Azmorna
and Sole, and Hyrcana, of higher reputation than either.
53. Opposite to this tribe, towards the north, live the Abii, a very
devout nation, accustomed to trample under foot all worldly things, and
whom, as Homer somewhat fabulously says, Jupiter keeps in view from
Mount Ida.
54. The regions next to the Hyrcaneans are possessed by the Margiani,
whose district is almost wholly surrounded by high hills, by which they
are separated from the sea; and although the greater part of this
province is deserted from want of water, still there are some towns in
it; the best known of which are Jasonium, Antiochia, and Nisæa.
55. Next to them are the Bactrians, a nation formerly very warlike and
powerful, and always hostile to the Persians, till they drew all the
nations around under their dominion, and united them under their own
name; and in old time the Bactrian kings were formidable even to
Arsaces.
56. The greater part of their country, like that of the Margiani, is
situated far from the sea-shore, but its soil is fertile, and the cattle
which feed both on the plains and on the mountains in that district are
very large and powerful; of this the camels which Mithridates brought
from thence, and which were first seen by the Romans at the siege of
Cyzicus, are a proof.
57. Many tribes are subject to the Bactrians, the most considerable of
which are the Tochari: their country is like Italy in the number of its
rivers, some of which are the Artemis and the Zariaspes, which were
formerly joined, and the Ochus and Orchomanes, which also unite and
afterwards fall into the Oxus, and increase that large river with their
streams.
58. There are also cities in that country, many of them on the border of
different rivers, the best of which are Chatra, Charte, Alicodra,
Astacea, Menapila, and Bactra itself, which has given its name both to
the region and to the people.
59. At the foot of the mountains lie a people called the Sogdians, in
whose country are two rivers navigable for large vessels, the Araxates
and the Dymas, which, flowing among the hills and through the valleys
into the open plain, form the extensive Oxian marsh. In this district
the most celebrated towns are Alexandria, Cyreschata, and Drepsa the
metropolis.
60. Bordering on these are the Sacæ, a fierce nation dwelling in a
gloomy-looking district, only fit for cattle, and on that account
destitute of cities. They are at the foot of Mount Ascanimia and Mount
Comedus, along the bottom of which, and by a town called the Stone
Tower, is the long road much frequented by merchants which leads to
China.
61. Around the glens at the bottom of the Imanian and Tapurian
mountains, and within the Persian frontier, is a tribe of Scythians,
bordering on the Asiatic Sarmatians, and touching the furthest side of
the Allemanni, who, like dwellers in a secluded spot, and made for
solitude, are scattered over the regions at long distances from one
another, and live on hard and poor food.
62. And various tribes inhabit these districts, which, as I am
hastening to other topics, I think superfluous to enumerate. But this is
worth knowing, that among these tribes, which are almost unapproachable
on account of their excessive ferocity, there are some races of gentle
and devout men, as the Jaxartæ and the Galactophagi, whom Homer mentions
in his verses:--
+Glaktophagôn, Abiônte, dikaiotatôn anthrôpôn.+[147]
63. Among the many rivers which flow through this land, either uniting
at last with larger streams, or proceeding straight to the sea, the most
celebrated are the Roemnus, the Jaxartes, and the Talicus. There are
but three cities there of any note, Aspabota, Chauriana, and Saga.
64. Beyond the districts of the two Scythias, on the eastern side, is a
ring of mountains which surround Serica, a country considerable both for
its extent and the fertility of its soil. This tribe on their western
side border on the Scythians, on the north and the east they look
towards snowy deserts; towards the south they extend as far as India and
the Ganges. The best known of its mountains are Annib, Nazavicium,
Asmira, Emodon, and Opurocarra.
65. The plain, which descends very suddenly from the hills, and is of
considerable extent, is watered by two famous rivers, the OEchardes
and the Bautis, which is less rapid than the other. The character too of
the different districts is very varied. One is extensive and level, the
other is on a gentle slope, and therefore very fertile in corn, and
cattle, and trees.
66. The most fertile part of the country is inhabited by various tribes,
of which the Alitrophagi, the Annibi, the Sisyges, and the Chardi lie to
the north, exposed to the frost; towards the east are the Rabannæ, the
Asmiræ, and the Essedones, the most powerful of all, who are joined on
the west by the Athagoræ, and the Aspacaræ; and on the south by the
Betæ, who live on the highest slopes of the mountains. Though they have
not many cities they have some of great size and wealth; the most
beautiful and renowned of which are Asmira, Essedon, Asparata, and Sera.
67. The Seres themselves live quietly, always avoiding arms and
battles; and as ease is pleasant to moderate and quiet men, they give
trouble to none of their neighbours. Their climate is agreeable and
healthy; the sky serene, the breezes gentle and delicious. They have
numbers of shining groves, the trees of which through continued watering
produce a crop like the fleece of a sheep, which the natives make into a
delicate wool, and spin into a kind of fine cloth, formerly confined to
the use of the nobles, but now procurable by the lowest of the people
without distinction.
68. The natives themselves are the most frugal of men, cultivating a
peaceful life, and shunning the society of other men. And when strangers
cross their river to buy their cloth, or any other of their merchandise,
they interchange no conversation, but settle the price of the articles
wanted by nods and signs; and they are so moderate that, while selling
their own produce, they never buy any foreign wares.
69. Beyond the Seres, towards the north, live the Ariani; their land is
intersected by a navigable river called the Arias, which forms a huge
lake known by the same name. This district of Asia is full of towns, the
most illustrious of which are Bitaxa, Sarmatina, Sotera, Nisibis, and
Alexandria, from which last down the river to the Caspian Sea is a
distance of fifteen hundred furlongs.
70. Close to their border, living on the slopes of the mountains, are
the Paropanisatæ, looking on the east towards India, and on the west
towards Mount Caucasus. Their principal river is Ortogordomaris, which
rises in Bactria. They have some cities, the principal being Agazaca,
Naulibus, and Ortopana, from which if you coast along the shore to the
borders of Media which are nearest to the Caspian gates, the distance is
two thousand two hundred furlongs.
71. Next to them, among the hills, are the Drangiani, whose chief river
is the Arabis, so called because it rises in Arabia; and their two
principal towns are Prophthasia and Aniaspe, both wealthy and well
known.
72. Next to them is Arachosia, which on the right extends as far as
India. It is abundantly watered by a river much smaller than the Indus,
that greatest of rivers, which gives its name to the surrounding
regions; in fact their river flows out of the Indus, and passes on till
it forms the marsh known as Arachotoscrene. Its leading cities are
Alexandria, Arbaca, and Choaspa.
73. In the most inland districts of Persia is Gedrosia; which on its
right touches the frontier of India, and is fertilized by several
rivers, of which the greatest is the Artabius. There the Barbitani
mountains end, and from their lowest parts rise several rivers which
fall into the Indus, losing their own names in the greatness of that
superior stream. They have several islands, and their principal cities
are Sedratyra and Gynæcon.
74. We need not detail minutely every portion of the sea-coast on the
extremity of Persia, as it would lead us into too long a digression. It
will suffice to say that the sea which stretches from the Caspian
mountains along the northern side to the straits above mentioned, is
nine thousand furlongs in extent; the southern frontier, from the mouth
of the Nile to the beginning of Carmania, is fourteen thousand furlongs.
75. In these varied districts of different languages, the races of men
are as different as the places. But to describe their persons and
customs in general terms, they are nearly all slight in figure, swarthy
or rather of a pale livid complexion; fierce-looking, with goat-like
eyes, and eyebrows arched in a semicircle and joined, with handsome
beards, and long hair. They at all times, even at banquets and
festivals, wear swords; a custom which that excellent author Thucydides
tells us the Athenians were the first of the Greeks to lay aside.
76. They are generally amazingly addicted to amatory pleasures; each man
scarcely contenting himself with a multitude of concubines: from
unnatural vices they are free. Each man marries many or few wives, as he
can afford them, so that natural affection is lost among them because of
the numerous objects of their licence. They are frugal in their
banquets, avoiding immoderate indulgence and especially hard drinking,
as they would the plague.
77. Nor, except at the king's table, have they any settled time for
dining, but each man's stomach serves as his sun-dial; nor does any one
eat after he is satisfied.
78. They are marvellously temperate and cautious, so that when sometimes
marching among the gardens and vineyards of enemies, they neither
desire nor touch anything, from fear of poison or witchcraft.
79. They perform all the secret functions of nature with the most
scrupulous secrecy and modesty.
80. But they are so loose in their gait, and move with such correct ease
and freedom, that you would think them effeminate, though they are most
vigorous warriors; still they are rather crafty than bold, and are most
formidable at a distance. They abound in empty words, and speak wildly
and fiercely; they talk big, are proud, unmanageable, and threatening
alike in prosperity and adversity; they are cunning, arrogant, and
cruel, exercising the power of life and death over their slaves, and all
low-born plebeians. They flay men alive, both piecemeal, and by
stripping off the whole skin. No servant while waiting on them, or
standing at their table, may gape, speak, or spit, so that their mouths
are completely shut.
81. Their laws are remarkably severe: the most stringent are against
ingratitude and against deserters; some too are abominable, inasmuch as
for the crime of one man they condemn all his relations.
82. But as those only are appointed judges who are men of proved
experience and uprightness, and of such wisdom as to stand in no need of
advice, they laugh at our custom of sometimes appointing men of
eloquence and skill in public jurisprudence as guides to ignorant
judges. The story that one judge was compelled to sit on the skin of
another, who had been condemned for his injustice, is either an ancient
fable, or else, if ever there was such a custom, it has become obsolete.
83. In military system and discipline, by continual exercises in the
business of the camp, and the adoption of the various manoeuvres which
they have learnt from us, they have become formidable even to the
greatest armies; they trust chiefly to the valour of their cavalry, in
which all their nobles and rich men serve. Their infantry are armed like
mirmillos,[148] and are as obedient as grooms; and they always follow
the cavalry like a band condemned to everlasting slavery, never
receiving either pay or gratuity. This nation, besides those whom it has
permanently subdued, has also compelled many others to go under the
yoke; so brave is it and so skilful in all warlike exercises, that it
would be invincible were it not continually weakened by civil and by
foreign wars.
84. Most of them wear garments brilliant with various colours, so
completely enveloping the body that even though they leave the bosoms
and sides of their robes open so as to flutter in the wind, still from
their shoes to their head no part of their person is exposed. After
conquering Croesus and subduing Lydia, they learnt also to wear golden
armlets and necklaces, and jewels, especially pearls, of which they had
great quantities.
85. It only remains for me to say a few words about the origin of this
stone. Among the Indians and Persians pearls are found in strong white
sea-shells, being created at a regular time by the admixture of dew. For
the shells, desiring as it were a kind of copulation, open so as to
receive moisture from the nocturnal aspersion. Then becoming big they
produce little pearls in triplets, or pairs, or unions, which are so
called because the shells when scaled often produce only single pearls,
which then are larger.
86. And a proof that this produce arises from and is nourished by some
aërial derivation rather than by any fattening power in the sea, is that
the drops of morning dew when infused into them make the stones bright
and round; while the evening dew makes them crooked and red, and
sometimes spotted. They become either small or large in proportion to
the quality of the moisture which they imbibe, and other circumstances.
When they are shaken, as is often the case by thunder, the shells either
become empty, or produce only weak pearls, or such as never come to
maturity.
87. Fishing for them is difficult and dangerous, and this circumstance
increases their value; because, on account of the snares of the
fishermen they are said to avoid the shores most frequented by them, and
hide around rocks which are difficult of access and the hiding places of
sharks.
88. We are not ignorant that the same species of jewel is also produced
and collected in the remote parts of the British sea; though of an
inferior value.
[138] The book containing this account is lost.
[139] From +nikaô+, to conquer.
[140] As the Greek epigram has it--
+Ton gaiês kai pontou ameiphtheisaisi keleuthois
Nautên êpeirou, pezoporon pelagous.+
_Thus translated in Bohn's 'Greek Anthology,' p. 25_:--
Him, who reversed the laws great Nature gave,
Sail'd o'er the continent and walk'd the wave,
Three hundred spears from Sparta's iron plain
Have stopp'd. Oh blush, ye mountains and thou main!
[141] The probability is that all these names are corrupt. Ammianus's
ignorance of the relative bearings of countries makes it difficult to
decide what they ought to be. If the proper reading of the last name be,
as Valesius thinks, Sarbaletes, that is the name given by Ptolemy to a
part of the Red Sea. A French translator of the last century considers
the Gulf of Armenia a portion of the Caspian Sea.
[142] The Ebro.
[143] The Guadalquivir.
[144] Ammianus seems to distinguish between the Hyrcanian and Caspian
Sea, which are only different names for the same sea or inland lake.
[145] A name not very unlike Nejid, to this day the most celebrated Arab
breed.
[146] There is evidently some corruption here; there is no such Greek
word as Machagistia.
[147] Il. xiii. 10.
[148] A kind of gladiator.