86 Conclusion, TREATY OF PEACE WITH PERSIA. СНАР. ХІІІ In pursuance of their promise, the emperors soon afterwards appointed Sicorius Probus, one of their secretaries, to acquaint the Persian court with their final resolution. As the minister of peace, he was received with every mark of politeness and friendship; but, under the pretence of allowing him the necessary repose after so long a journey, the audience of Probus was deferred from day to day, and he attended the slow motions of the king, till at length he was admitted to his presence, near the river Asprudus, in Media. The secret motive of Narses in this delay had been to collect such a military force as might enable him, though sincerely desirous of peace, to negotiate with the greater weight and dignity. Three persons only assisted at this important conference, the minister Apharban, the præfect of the guards, and an officer who had commanded on the Armenian frontier.76 The first condition proposed by the ambassador is not at present of a very intelligible nature; that the city of Nisibis might be established for the place of mutual exchange, or, as we should formerly have termed it, for the staple of trade, between the two empires. There is no difficulty in conceiving the intention of the Roman princes to improve their revenue by some restraints upon commerce; but as Nisibis was situated within their own dominions, and as they were masters both of the imports and exports, it should seem that such restraints were the objects of an internal law, rather than of a foreign treaty. To render them more effectual, some stipulations were probably required on the side of the king of Persia, which appeared so very repugnant either to his interest or to his dignity that Narses could not be persuaded to subscribe them. As this was the only article to which he refused his consent, it was no longer insisted on; and the emperors either suffered the trade to flow in its natural channels, or contented themselves with such restrictions as it depended on their own authority to establish. As soon as this difficulty was removed a solemn peace was concluded and ratified between the two nations. The conof the treaty. ditions of a treaty so glorious to the empire, and so necessary to Persia, may deserve a more peculiar attention, as the history of Rome presents very few transactions of a similar nature; most of her wars having either been terminated by absolute conquest, or The Aboras waged against barbarians ignorant of the use of letters I. The Aboras, or, as it is called by Xenophon, the Araxes, was fixed as the boundary between the two mo and articles fixed as the limits be tween the empires. 76 He had been governor of Sumium" (Pet. Patricius in Excerpt. Legat. p. 30 [ed. Paris; p. 21, ed. Ven.; p. 135, ed. Bonn]. This province seems to be mentioned by Moses of Chorene (Geograph. p. 360), and lay to the east of Mount Ararat. a The Siounikh of the Armenian writers. St. Martin, Mém. sur l'Arménie, i. 142. -M. A.D. 298. ARTICLES OF THE TREATY. five pro 87 narchies." That river, whien rose near the Tigris, was increased, a few miles below Nisibis, by the little stream of the Mygdonius, passed under the walls of Singara, and fell into the Euphrates at Circesium, a frontier town, which, by the care of Diocletian, was very strongly fortified.78 Mesopotamia, the object of so many wars, was ceded to the empire; and the Persians, by this treaty, renounced all pretensions to that great province. II. They relinquished to the Cession of Romans five provinces beyond the Tigris." Their situa- vinces tion formed a very useful barrier, and their natural strength Tigris. was soon improved by art and military skill. Four of these, to the north of the river, were districts of obscure fame and inconsiderable extent-Intiline, Zabdicene, Arzanene, and Moxoene; but on the east of the Tigris the empire acquired the large and mountainous territory of Carduene, the ancient seat of the Carduchians, who preserved for many ages their manly freedom in the heart of the despotic monarchies of Asia. The ten thousand Greeks traversed b beyond the 77 By an error of the geographer Ptolemy, the position of Singara is removed from the Aboras to the Tigris, which may have produced the mistake of Peter in assigning the latter river for the boundary instead of the former. The line of the Roman frontier traversed, but never followed, the course of the Tigris." 78 Procopius de Edificiis, 1. ii. c. 6. 79 Three of the provinces, Zabdicene, Arzanene, and Carduene, are allowed on all sides. But instead of the other two, Peter (in Excerpt. Leg. p. 30) inserts Rehimene and Sophene. I have preferred Ammianus (1. xxv. 7), because it might be proved that Sophene was never in the hands of the Persians, either before the reign of Diocletian or after that of Jovian. For want of correct maps, like those of M. d'Anville, almost all the moderns, with Tillemont and Valesius at their head, have imagined that it was in respect to Persia, and not to Rome, that the five provinces were situate beyond the Tigris. a There are here several errors. The course of the Aboras, or Aborrhas, the Araxes of Xenophon (Anab. i. 4, § 19), more usually called Chaboras, the Habor or Chebar of the Samaritan captivity, and the modern Khabur, has been traced for the first time by Mr. Layard. It does not rise near the Tigris, but far to the west, in the direction of Harran, at a place called Ras-al-Ain (the head of the spring). From thence it flows in a general southeasterly direction to the hill Koukab, where it receives the Mygdonius, now called Jerujer, upon which Nisibis was situated, and which rises near the Tigris. After its union with the Mygdonius, the Chaboras flows in a southerly direction and falls into the Euphrates at Circesium, the Carchemish of the Old Testament, now called Karkeseea, or Abou Psera. Singara, the modern Sinjar, is not upon the Chaboras, nor indeed upon any river. It lies between Mosul and the Chaboras, at the foot of the Sinjar hill, a solitary ridge rising abruptly in the midst of the desert. See Layard, Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, p. 234, seq.-S. b See St. Martin, note on Le Beau, vol. i. p. 380. He would read, for Intiline, Ingeleme, the name of a small province of Armenia near the sources of the Tigris, mentioned by St. Epiphanius (Hæres. 60): for the unknown name Arzacene, with Gibbon, Arzanene. These provinces do not appear to have made an integral part of the Roman empire; Roman garrisons replaced those of Persia, but the sovereignty remained in the hands of the feudatory princes of Armenia. A prince of Carduene, ally or dependent on the empire, with the Roman name of Jovianus, occurs in the reign of Julian.-M. Moxoene, called Mogkh by the Armenians, and now Mukus, a district south of the lake Wan, from which it was separated by high mountains. See Layard, Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, p. 415-417.—S. 888 Armenia. a ARTICLES OF TREATY WITH PERSIA. CHAP. XIII. their country after a painful march, or rather engagement, of seven days; and it is confessed by their leader, in his incomparable relation of the retreat, that they suffered more from the arrows of the Carduchians than from the power of the Great King.80 Their posterity, the Curds, with very little alteration either of name or manners, acknowledged the nominal sovereignty of the Turkish sultan. III. It is almost needless to observe that Tiridates, the faithful ally of Rome, was restored to the throne of his fathers, and that the rights of the Imperial supremacy were fully asserted and secured. The limits of Armenia were extended as far as the fortress of Sintha in Media, and this increase of dominion was not so much an act of liberality as of justice. Of the provinces already mentioned beyond the Tigris, the four first had been dismembered by the Parthians from the crown of Armenia ;81 and when the Romans acquired the possession of them, they stipulated, at the expense of the usurpers, an ample compensation, which invested their ally with the extensive and fertile country of Atropatene. Its principal city, in the same situation perhaps as the modern Tauris, was frequently honoured with the residence of Tiridates; and as it sometimes bore the name of Ecbatana, he imitated, in the buildings and fortifications, the splendid capital of the Medes. 82 IV. The country of Iberia was barren, its inhabitants rude and savage. But they were accustomed to the use of arms, and they separated from the empire barbarians much fiercer and more formidable than themselves. The narrow defiles of Mount Caucasus were in their hands, and it was in their choice either to admit or to exclude the wandering tribes of Sarmatia, whenever a rapacious spirit urged them to penetrate into the richer climates of the South.83 The nomination of the kings of Iberia, which was resigned by the Persian monarch to the emperors, contributed to the strength and security of the Roman power in Asia.84 The East enjoyed a profound tran Iberia. 80 Xenophon's Anabasis, 1. iv. [c. 3 init.] Their bows were three cubits in length, their arrows two; they rolled down stones that were each a waggon-load. The Greeks found a great many villages in that rude country. 81 According to Eutropius (vi. 9, as the text is represented by the best MSS.), the city of Tigranocerta was in Arzanene. The names and situation of the other three may be faintly traced. 82 Compare Herodotus, 1. . c. 98, with Moses Chorenens. Hist. Armen. 1. ii. c. 84, and the map of Armenia given by his editors. 83 Hiberi, locorum potentes, Caspiâ viâ Sarmatam in Armenios raptim effundunt. Tacit. Annal. vi. 33. See Strabon. Geograph. 1. xi. p. 500. 84 Peter Patricius (in Excerpt. Leg. p. 30 [ed. Paris; p. 21, ed. Ven.; p. 135, ed. Bonn]) is the only writer who mentions the Iberian article of the treaty. a I travelled through this country in 1810, and should judge, from what I have read and seen of its inhabitants, that they have remained unchanged in their appear ance and character for more than twenty centuries. Malcolm, note to Hist. of Persia, vol. i. p. 82.-M. A.D. 303. TRIUMPH OF THE EMPERORS. 89 quillity during forty years; and the treaty between the rival mo narchies was strictly observed till the death of Tiridates; when a new generation, animated with different views and different passions, succeeded to the government of the world; and the grandson of Narses undertook a long and memorable war against the princes of the house of Constantine. tian and A.D. 303. The arduous work of rescuing the distressed empire from tyrants and barbarians had now been completely achieved by a Triumph succession of Illyrian peasants. As soon as Diocletian of Diocleentered into the twentieth year of his reign, he celebrated Maximian. that memorable æra, as well as the success of his arms, by Nov. 20. the pomp of a Roman triumph.85 Maximian, the equal partner of his power, was his only companion in the glory of that day. The two Cæsars had fought and conquered, but the merit of their exploits was ascribed, according to the rigour of ancient maxims, to the auspicious influence of their fathers and emperors.86 The triumph of Diocletian and Maximian was less magnificent, perhaps, than those of Aurelian and Probus, but it was dignified by several circumstances of superior fame and good fortune. Africa and Britain, the Rhine, the Danube, and the Nile, furnished their respective trophies; but the most distinguished ornament was of a more singular nature, a Persian victory followed by an important conquest. The representations of rivers, mountains, and provinces were carried before the Imperial car. The images of the captive wives, the sisters, and the children of the Great King afforded a new and grateful spectacle to the vanity of the people.87 In the eyes of posterity this triumph is remarkable by a distinction of a less honourable kind. It was the last that Rome ever beheld. Soon after this period the emperors ceased to vanquish, and Rome ceased to be the capital of the empire. The spot on which Rome was founded had been consecrated by ancient ceremonies and imaginary miracles. The presence Long abof some god, or the memory of some hero, seemed to ani- sence of the mate every part of the city, and the empire of the world from Rome. had been promised to the Capitol.88 The native Romans felt and emperors 85 Euseb. in Chron. Pagi ad annum. Till the discovery of the treatise De Mortibus Persecutorum, it was not certain that the triumph and the Vicennalia were celebrated at the same time.a 86 At the time of the Vicennalia, Galerius seems to have kept his station on the Danube. See Lactant. de M. P. c. 38. 87 Eutropius (ix. 27 [16]) mentions them as a part of the triumph. As the persons had been restored to Narses, nothing more than their images could be exhibited. 88 Livy gives us a speech of Camillus on that subject (v. 51-54), full of eloquence 90 IMPERIAL RESIDENCES. CHAP. XIII. confessed the power of this agreeable illusion. It was derived from their ancestors, had grown up with their earliest habits of life, and was protected, in some measure, by the opinion of political utility. The form and the seat of government were intimately blended together, nor was it esteemed possible to transport the one without destroying the other.89 But the sovereignty of the capital was gradually annihilated in the extent of conquest; the provinces rose to the same level, and the vanquished nations acquired the name and privileges, without imbibing the partial affections, of Romans. During a long period, however, the remains of the ancient constitution and the influence of custom preserved the dignity of Rome. The emperors, though perhaps of African or Illyrian extraction, respected their adopted country, as the seat of their power and the centre of their extensive dominions. The emergencies of war very frequently required their presence on the frontiers; but Diocletian and Maximian were the first Roman princes who fixed, in time of peace, their ordinary residence in the provinces; and their conduct, however it might be suggested by private motives, was justified by very specious considerations of policy. The court of the emperor of the West was, for the most part, established at Milan, whose situation, at the foot of the Alps, appeared far more convenient than that of Rome, for the important purpose of watching the motions of the barbarians of Germany. Milan soon assumed the splendour of an Imperial city. The houses are described as numerous and well built; the manners of the people as polished and liberal. A circus, a theatre, a mint, a palace, baths, which bore the name of their founder Maximian; porticoes adorned with statues, and a double circumference of walls, contributed to the beauty of the new capital; nor did it seem oppressed even by the proximity of Rome.90 Their residence at Milan, and sensibility, in opposition to a design of removing the seat of government from Rome to the neighbouring city of Veii. 89 Julius Cæsar was reproached with the intention of removing the empire to Ilium or Alexandria. See Sueton. in Cæsar. c. 79. According to the ingenious conjecture of Le Fèvre and Dacier, the third ode of the third book of Horace was intended to divert Augustus from the execution of a similar design. 90 See Aurelius Victor [de Cæsar. c. 39], who likewise mentions the buildings erected by Maximian at Carthage, probably during the Moorish war. We shall insert some verses of Ausonius de Clar. Urb. v. : Et Mediolani mira omnia: copia rerum; |