Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/461

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 437 to the different seasons of the year. They were em- CHAP. • • • XIII ployed to repel the invasion of Tiridates; but their leader, after weighing the obligations and injuries which he had received from the Persian monarch, re- solved to abandon his party. The Armenian prince, who was well acquainted with the merit as well as power of Mamgo, treated him with distinguished re- spect; and by admitting him into his confidence, ac- quired a brave and faithful servant, who contributed very effectually to his restoration ". For a while, fortune appeared to favour the enter- The Per- prising valour of Tiridates. He not only expelled the cover Ar- enemies of his family and country from the whole ex- mema. tent of Armenia, but in the prosecution of his revenge he carried his arms, or at least his incursions, into the heart of Assyria. The historian, who has preserved the name of Tiridates from oblivion, celebrates, with a degree of national enthusiasm, his personal prowess ; and, in the true spirit of eastern romance, describes the giants and the elephants that fell beneath his in- vincible arm. It is from other information that we discover the distracted state of the Persian monarchy, to which the king of Armenia was indebted for some part of his advantages. The throne was disputed by the ambition of contending brothers ; and Hormuz, after exerting without success the strength of his own party, had recourse to the dangerous assistance of the barbarians who inhabited the banks of the Caspian sea P. The civil war was, however, soon terminated, either by a victory, or by a reconciliation ; and Narses, who was universally acknowledged as king of Persia, directed his whole force against the foreign enemy. The contest then became too unequal ; nor was the valour of the hero able to withstand the power of the o See Hist. Armen. 1. ii. e. 81. P Ipsos Persas ipsumque regem, ascitis Saccis, et Ruffis, et Gellis, petit frater Orraies. Panegyric. Vet. iii. 1. The Saccae were a nation of wan- dering Scythians, who encamped towards the sources of the Oxus and the Jaxartes. The Gelli were the inhabitants of Ghilan along the Caspian sea, and who so long, under the name of Dilemites, infested the Persian mon- archy. See d'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale.