CHAP. the main body, under the command of Alex. VIII. ander himself, fhould fupport their attack, by

Character

invading the centre of the kingdom. But the unexperienced youth, influenced by his mo ther's counfels, and perhaps by his own fears, deferted the braveft troops, and the fairest prospect of victory; and after confuming in Mefopotamia an inactive and inglorious summer, he led back to Antioch an army diminished by ficknefs, and provoked by disappointment. The behaviour of Artaxerxes had been very dif ferent. Flying with rapidity from the hills of Media to the marshes of the Euphrates, he had every where opposed the invaders in perfon; and in either fortune had united with the ableft conduct the moft undaunted refolution. But in feveral obftinate engagements against the veteran legions of Rome, the Perfian monarch had loft the flower of his troops. Even his victories had weakened his power. The favourable opportunities of the absence of Alexander, and of the confufion that followed that Emperor's death, prefented themselves in vain to his ambition. Inftead of expelling the Romans, as he pretended, from the continent of Afia, he found himself unable to wreft from their hands the little province of Mefopotamia $3.

53

The reign of Artaxerxes, which from the last and max- defeat of the Parthians lafted only fourteen years, forms a memorable æra in the hiftory of the Eaft,

ims of Ar

taxerxes.

A.D.

240.

53 For the account of this war, fee Herodian, 1. vi. p. 209. 212. The old abbreviators and modern compilers have blindly followed the Auguftan History.

and

VIII,

and even in that of Rome, His character feems C HA P, to have been marked by those bold and commanding features, that generally distinguish the princes who conquer, from thofe who inherit, an empire. Till the last period of the Perfian monarchy, his code of laws was refpected as the ground-work of their civil and religious policy 54. Several of his fayings are preferved. One of them in particular discovers a deep infight into the constitution of government. "The autho

"rity of the prince," faid Artaxerxes, " must "be defended by a military force; that force

can only be maintained by taxes; all taxes “`must, at last, fall upon agriculture; and agri"culture can never flourish except under the "protection of juftice and moderation "." Ar taxerxes bequeathed his new empire, and his ambitious designs against the Romans, to Sapor, a fon not unworthy of his great father; but those defigns were too extenfive for the power of Perfia, and served only to involve both nations in a long feries of deftructive wars and reciprocal calamities.

The Perfians, long fince civilized and cor- Military rupted, were very far from poffeffing the martial power of independence, and the intrepid hardinefs, both fians. of mind and body, which have rendered the

54 Eutychius, tom. ii. p. 180. verf. Pocock. The great Chofroes Noushirwan fent the Code of Artaxerxes to all his fatraps, as the invariable rule of their conduct.

ss D'Herbelot Bibliotheque Orientale, au mot Ardshir. We may observe, that after an ancient period of fables, and a long interval of darkness, the modern histories of Perfia begin to affume an air of truth with the dynasty of the Saffanides.

the Per

CHAP. northern barbarians mafters of the world.

The VIII. fcience of war, that conftituted the more rational force of Greece and Rome, as it now does of Europe, never made any confiderable progress in the Eaft. Thofe difciplined evolutions which harmonize and animate a confufed multitude, were unknown to the Perfians. They were equally unfkilled in the arts of constructing, befieging, or defending regular fortifications. They trusted more to their numbers than to their courage; more to their courage than to their dif Their in- dipline. The infantry was a half-armed fpiritlefs crowd of peasants, levied in hafte by the allurements of plunder, and as eafily difperfed by a victory as by a defeat. The monarch and his nobles tranfported into the camp the pride and luxury of the feraglio. Their military operations were impeded by a useless train of women, eunuchs, horfes, and camels; and in the midst of a fuccefsful campaign, the Perfian hoft was often feparated or deftroyed by an unexpected famine 56.

fantry con

temptible.

Their ca

valry excellent.

But the nobles of Perfia, in the bofom of luxury and defpotifm, preferved a strong sense of perfonal gallantry and national honour. From the age of feven of feven years they were taught to speak truth, to fhoot with the bow, and to ride; and it was univerfally confeffed, that in the two laft of thefe arts, they had made a more than common

56 Herodian, 1. vi. p. 214. Ammianus Marcellinus, 1. xxiii. c.6. Some differences may be obferved between the two hiftorians, the 'natural effects of the changes produced by a century and a half.

57

VIII.

proficiency $7. The moft diftinguished youth CHAP. were educated under their monarch's eye, practiced their exercifes in the gate of his palace, and were feverely trained up to the habits of temperance and obedience, in their long and laborious parties of hunting. In every province, the fatrap maintained a like fchool of military virtue. The Perfian nobles (fo natural is the idea of feudal tenures) received from the King's bounty lands and houfes, on the condition of their fervice in war. They were ready on the first fummons to mount on horseback, with a martial and fplendid train of followers, and to join the numerous bodies of guards, who were carefully felected from amongst the most robuft flaves, and the braveft adventurers of Asia. Thefe armies, both of light and of heavy cavalry, equally formidable by the impetuofity of their charge, and the rapidity of their motions, threatened, as an impending cloud, the eastern provinces of the declining empire of Rome 58.

57 The Perfians are still the most skilful horsemen, and their horfes the finest in the East.

58 From Herodotus, Xenophon, Herodian, Ammianus, Chardin, &c. I have extracted such probable accounts of the Persian nobility, as seem either common to every age, or particular to that of the Saf fanides.

Z 4

CHAP. IX.

The State of Germany till the Invasion of the Bar barians, in the Time of the Emperor Decius.

CHAP. THE government and religion of Perfia have

IX.

deferved fome notice, from their connexion with the decline and fall of the Roman empire, We fhall occafionally mention the Scythian or Sarmatian tribes, which, with their arms and horfes, their flocks and herds, their wives and families, wandered over the immenfe plains which fpread themselves from the Cafpian Sea to the Viftula, from the confines of Perfia to thofe of Germany. But the warlike Germans, who firft refifted, then invaded, and at length overturned, the western monarchy of Rome, will occupy a much more important place in this hiftory, and poffefs a ftronger, and, if we may ufe the expreffion, a more domeftic, claim to our attention and regard. The moft civilized nations of modern Europe iffued from the woods of Germany; and in the rude inftitutions of thofe barbarians we may ftill distinguish the original principles of our prefent laws and manners. In their primitive state of fimplicity and independence, the Germans were furveyed by the difcerning eye, and delineated by the masterly pencil, of Tacitus, the first of hiftorians who applied the science of philofophy to the ftudy of facts. The expreffive conciseness of his descriptions has deferved to ex