Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/272

 248 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP. vm. Pretended victory of Alexander Severus. A. D. 233. to depart from all the provinces of his ancestors ; and, yielding to the Persians the empire of Asia, to content themselves with the undisturbed possession of Europe. This haughty mandate was delivered by four hundred of the tallest and most beautiful of the Persians ; who, by their fine horses, splendid arms, and rich apparel, displayed the pride and greatness of their master ^ Such an embassy was much less an offer of negociation than a declaration of war. Both Alexander Severus and Artaxerxes, collecting the military force of the Roman and Persian monarchies, resolved in this im- portant contest to lead their armies in person. If we credit what should seem the most authentic of all records, an oration, still extant, and delivered by the emperor himself to the senate, we must allow that the victory of Alexander Severus was not inferior to any of those formerly obtained over the Persians by the son of Philip. The army of the great king con- sisted of one hundred and twenty thousand horse, clothed in complete armour of steel ; of seven hundred elephants, with towers filled with archers on their backs, and of eighteen hundred chariots, armed with scythes. This formidable host, the hke of which is not to be found in eastern history, and has scarcely been imagined in eastern romance % was discomfited in a great battle, in which the Roman Alexander ap- b Herodian, vi. p. 209. 212. c There were two hundred scythed chariots at the battle of Arbela, in the host of Darius. In the vast army of Tigranes, which was vanquished by Lucullus, seventeen thousand horse only were completely armed. Antio- chus brought fifty-four elephants into the field against the Romans : by his frequent wars and negociations with the princes of India, he had once col- lected an hundred and fifty of those great animals ; but it may be questioned whether the most powerful monarch of Hindostan ever formed a line of battle of seven hundred elephants. Instead of three or four thousand elephants, which the great mogul was supposed to possess, Tavernier (Voyages, part ii. 1. i. p. 198.) discovered, by a more accurate enquiry, that he had only five hundred for his baggage, and eighty or ninety for the ser- vice of war. The Greeks have varied with regard to the number which Porus brought into the field: but QuintusCurtius, (viii. 13.) in this instance judicious and moderate, is contented with eighty-five elephants, distin- guished by their size and strength. In Siam, where these animals are the most numerous and the most esteemed, eighteen elephants are allowed as a sufficient proportion for each of the nine brigades into which a just army is divided. The whole number, of one hundred and sixty-two elephants of war, may sometimes be doubled. Hist, des Voyages, torn, ix. p. 260.