328
WAR WITH SAPOR.
calculated that tlιe Armenians, who in the latter years of
Constantine the Great, or under Constantius, had been again
deprived by Sapor of Aderbidjan, would advance towards
Media. He appears, moreover, to have relied upon the
Iberians, whom Sapor had again subdued. But in Armenia
and Iberia, Julian’s religious views proved an obstacle to
his success. The Armenian rulers were Arsacidae and Christ-
ians, and hence hostile to the Persians, on account of the
bigotry of the Magian religion, but still more hostile to the
apostate. They would have been scarcely willing to assist him,
even if they had been governed by a prince like Tiridatcs, who
had greatly distinguished himself in the war of Galerius; but
the prince who now sat upon the throne was pusillanimous.
The Armenians, therefore, remained neutɪal; and the Iberians
shewed themselves even hostile to the Romans. Procopius and
Sebastianus met with immense difficulties in their undertaking,
and neither of them was the man to overcome them. Julian
went down the Euphrates, but he had begun his expedition
too late. As the summer is extremely hot in that country, he
ought to have set out in the middle of the winter, so as to ar-
rive at Babylon at the beginning of spring—in March or
April—for the summer begins there about the middle of April.
But he did not commence his expedition till the month of
March; and as he came down the Euphrates, his appearance
produced the greatest consternation among the Persians. Two
fortified towns submitted to him, and he arrived, without en-
countering any resistance, in the neighbourhood of Ctesiphon,
where he expected to find Procopius and Sebastianus waiting
for him. His movements, up to this point, were altogether
excellent, and attest his skill as a general; but he had not
imagined that Ctesiphon was so strongly fortified as it really
was. These fortifications must have been made after the time
of Carus; as the place had been taken by Trajan, Septimius
Severus, and Carus. Julian became convinced that he could
there effect nothing with his army ; but this conviction came
too late. He was right in not venturing to storm the city when
the soldiers demanded it; but his immense blunder was not a
military one. Sapor had repeatedly and most urgently asked
for peace; but Julian probably wanted to destroy the Persian
empire completely, that he might no longer be prevented by
an Eastern war from directing all his forces against his enemies
DEATH OF JULIAN.
329
in the West and Noith. TIie Persian empire was still, to a great
extent, a feudal empire, so that a dissolution of it was certainly
not impossible. But Julian ought to have been satisfied with
the peace which he might have obtained. Aderbidjan would
probably have been given up to him, and perhaps other coun-
tries also, though not Babylon; but he was revelling in dreams
of success from which he was awakened eight days after the last
ambassadors had quitted him. Sapor made great preparations
for a desperate defence; and as Julian could effect nothing in
the neighbourhood of Ctesiphon, and the army of Procopius
did not arrive, he found himself under the necessity of retreat-
ing. It being impossible to draw the fleet up the river, he de-
termined to destroy it, and to lead his army back across the
mountains of Assyria. This retreat in a burning plain, sur-
rounded by Persian cavalry, during the dog-days in the climate
of Babylon, was an almost impracticable undertaking. Being
constantly attacked by his enemies, Julian was obliged to leave
behind all the wounded and the dead; every straggler died,
and the Persians spoiled all the water. But the Bomans might
nevertheless have maintained themselves for five days longer,
after which they would have reached the heights and been safe ;
but on the 26th July, Julian was mortally wounded, and hs
death produced the greatest despondency. It is useless to inves-
tigate whether he was killed by a traitor or by an enemy. The
joy of his domestic enemies was certainly greater than that of
his foreign ones. As it was found necessary to elect a successor
immediately ; and as Sallustius, the prefect of the praetorians,
unfortunately for the empire, declared that he was too old to
accept the imperial dignity, the election fell upon Jovian.
The latter obtained a peace by giving up Nisibis, and the
five provinces east of the Tigris. On these terms, Sapor granted
him a free retreat, and pledged himself to provide for his
army.
LECTURE CXXXIII.
Jovian seems to have been a man of great mediocrity, of
whom neither good nor bad can be said. He was a Christian,