Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/270

 246 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, bourhood of a too powerful rival, sunk under the fatal ' blow ; but Ctesiphon, in about thirty-three years, had A. D. 198. sufficiently recovered its strength to maintain an obsti- nate siege against the emperor Severus. The city was, however, taken by assault ; the king, who defended it in person, escaped with precipitation; an hundred thousand captives, and a rich booty, rewarded the fatigues of the Roman soldiers". Notwithstanding these misfortunes, Ctesiphon succeeded to Babylon and to Seleucia, as one of the great capitals of the east. In summer, the monarch of Persia enjoyed at Ecbatana the cool breezes of the mountains of Media ; but the mildness of the climate engaged him to prefer Ctesiphon for his winter residence. Conquest From these successful inroads the Romans derived by the Ro-^ "^ ^^^^ ^^ lasting benefit; nor did they attempt to pre- mans. serve such distant conquests, separated from the pro- vinces of the empire by U large tract of intermediate desert. The reduction of the kingdom of Osrhoene, was an acquisition of less splendour indeed, but of a far more solid advantage. That little state occupied the northern and most fertile part of Mesopotamia, between the Euphrates and the Tigris. Edessa, its capital, was situated about twenty miles beyond the former of those rivers ; and the inhabitants, since the time of Alexander, were a mixed race of Greeks, Arabs, Syrians, and Armenians^. The feeble sove- reigns of Osrhoene, placed on the dangerous verge of two contending empires, were attached from inclination to the Parthian cause ; but the superior power of Rome exacted from them a reluctant homage, which is still attested by their medals. After the conclusion of the Parthian war under Marcus, it was judged prudent to secure some substantial pledges of their doubtful fidelity. Forts were constructed in several parts of « Dion, 1. Ixxv.p. 1263; Herodian, 1. iii. p. 120; Hist. August p. 70. " The polished citizens of Antioch called those of Edessa mixed barba- rians. It was, however, some praise, that of the three dialects of the Sy- riac, the purest and most elegant (the Aramaean) was spoke at Edessa. This remark M. Bayer (Hist. Edess. p. 5.) has borrowed from George of Malatia, a Syrian writer.