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OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
371
As soon as Diocletian had indulged his private resentment, Second campaign of Galorius, A.D. 297 and asserted the majesty or supreme power, he yielded to the submissive entreaties of the Cæsar, and permitted him to retrieve his own honour as well as that of the Roman arms. In the room of the unwarlike troops of Asia, which had most probably served in the first expedition, a second army was drawn from the veterans and new levies of the Illynan frontier, and a considerable body of Gothic auxiliaries were taken into the Imperial pay.[1] At the head of a chosen army of twenty-five thousand men, Galerius again passed the Euphrates; but, instead of exposing his legions in the open plains of Mesopotamia, he advanced through the mountains of Armenia, where he found the inhabitants devoted to his cause, and the country as favourable to the operations of infantry as it was inconvenient for the motions of cavalry.[2] Adversity had confirmed the Roman discipline, His victory whilst the barbarians, elated by success, were become so negligent and remiss, that, in the moment when they least expected it, they were surprised by the active conduct of Galerius, who, attended only by two horsemen, had, with his own eyes, secretly examined the state and position of their camp. A surprise, especially in the night-time, was for the most part fatal to a Persian army. "Their horses were tied, and generally shackled, to prevent their running away; and, if an alarm happened, a Persian had his housing to fix, his horse to bridle, and his corslet to put on, before he could mount."[3] On this occasion, the impetuous attack of Galerius spread disorder and dismay over the camp of the barbarians. A slight resistance was followed by a dreadful carnage, and, in the general confusion, the wounded monarch (for Narses commanded his armies in person) fled towards the deserts of Media. His sumptuous tents, and those of his satraps, afforded an immense booty to the conqueror; and an incident is mentioned, which proves the rustic but martial ignorance of the legions in the elegant superfluities of life. A bag of shining leather, filled with pearls, fell into the hands of a private soldier; he carefully preserved the bag, but he threw away its contents, judging that whatever was of no use could not possibly be of any value.[4] The principal loss of Narses was and behaviour to his royal captives
- ↑ Aurelius Victor. Jornandes de rebus Geticis, c. 21.
- ↑ Aurelius Victor [Cæs. 39] says, "Per Armeniam in hostes contendit, quæ ferme sola, seu facilior vincendi via est". He followed the conduct of Trajan, and the idea of Julius Cæsar.
- ↑ Xenophon's Anabasis, l. iii. [c. 4]. For that reason, the Persian cavalry encamped sixty stadia from the enemy.
- ↑ The story is told by Ammianus, l. xxii. [4, 8]. Instead of saccum some read scutum [sacculum is the true reading, the Mss. having saccutum and saeculum].
