Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/386

 362 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, cavalry clothed in complete steel. The Moorish and Illyrian horse of Aurelian were unable to sustain the ponderous charge of their antagonists. They fled in real or affected disorder, engaged the Palmyrenians in a laborious pursuit, harassed them by a desultory com- bat, and at length discomfited this impenetrable but unwieldy body of cavalry. The light infantry, in the mean time, when they had exhausted their quivers, remaining without protection against a closer onset, exposed their naked sides to the swords of the legions. Aurelian had chosen these veteran troops who were usually stationed on the Upper Danube, and whose valour had been severely tried in the Alemannic war''. After the defeat of Emesa, Zenobia found it impossible to collect a third army. As far as the frontier of Egypt, the nations subject to her empire had joined the standard of the conqueror, who detached Probus, the bravest of his generals, to possess himself of the Egyptian provinces. Palmyra was the last resource of the widow of Odenathus. She retired within the walls of her capital, made every preparation for a vigorous resistance, and declared, with the intrepidity of a he- roine, that the last moment of her reign and of her life should be the same. The state of Amid the barren deserts of Arabia, a few cultivated Palmyra. . • ti • i i n •, -, -r-. spots rise hke islands out of the sandy ocean. Even the name of Tadmor, or Palmyra, by its signification in the Syriac as well as in the Latin language, denoted the multitude of palm trees which afforded shade and verdure to that temperate region. The air was pure, and the soil, watered by some invaluable springs, was capable of producing fruits as well as corn. A place possessed of such singular advantages, and situated at a convenient distance ^ between the gulf of Persia and ^ Zosimus, 1. i. p. 44 — 48. His account of the two battles is clear and circumstantial. y It was five hundred and thirty-seven miles from Seleucia, and two hun- dred and three from the nearest coast of Syria, according to the reckoning of Pliny, who, in a few words, (Hist. Nat. v. 21.) gives an excellent de- scription of Palmyra.