Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/351

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 333 embarrassed in the miul, and great numbers were CHAP, drowned in the unseen holes which had been filled by ' the rushing waters. The elephants, made furious by their wounds, increased the disorder, and trampled down thousands of the Persian archers. The great king, who from an exalted throne beheld the mis- fortunes of his arms, sounded, with reluctant indigna- tion, the signal of the retreat, and suspended' for some hours the prosecution of the attack. But the vigilant citizens improved the opportunity of the night; and the return of day discovered a new wall of six feet in height, rising every moment to fill up the interval of the breach. Notwithstanding the disappointment of his hopes, and the loss of more than twenty thousand men, Sapor still pressed the reduction of Nisibis with an obstinate firmness, which could have yielded only to the necessity of defending the eastern provinces of Persia against a formidable invasion of the Massagetae". Alarmed by this intelligence, he hastily relinquished the siege, and marched with rapid diligence from the banks of the Tigris to those of the Oxus. The danger and difficulties of the Scythian war engaged him soon afterwards to conclude, or at least to observe, a truce with the Roman emperor, which was equally grateful to both princes ; as Constantius himself, after the deaths of his two brothers, was involved, by the revo- lutions of the west, in a civil contest, which required and seemed to exceed the most vigorous exertion of his undivided strength. After the partition of the empire, three years had Civil war, scarcely elapsed, before the sons of Constantine seemed of Constan- impatient to convince mankind that they were incapa- tine. . . . . . A.D. 340 ble of contenting themselves with the dominions which March. they were unqualified to govern. The eldest of those princes soon complained, that he was defrauded of his just proportion of the spoils of their murdered kins- " We are obliged to Zonaras (torn. ii. 1. xiii. p. 11.") for this invasion of the MassagetjE, which is perfectly consistent with the general series of events, to which we are darkly led by the broken history of Ammianus.