The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus Part 38

Below the pin is a large sack filled with shreds of cloth, fastened by strong ties, and resting on heaped-up turves or mounds of brick. For an engine of this kind, if placed on a stone wall would destroy whatever was beneath it, not by its weight, but by the violence of its concussion.

6. Then when a conflict begins, a round stone is placed on the sling, and four youths on each side, loosening the bar to which the cords are attached, bend the pin back till it points almost upright into the air; then the worker of the engine, standing by on high ground, frees by a blow with the heavy hammer the bolt which keeps down the whole engine; and the pin being set free by the stroke, and striking against the ma.s.s of cloth shreds, hurls forth the stone with such force as to crush whatever it strikes.

7. This engine is called a _tormentum_, because all its parts are twisted (_torquetur_); or a scorpion, because it has an erect sting; but modern times have given it the name of the wild-a.s.s, because when wild a.s.ses are hunted, they throw the stones behind them by their kicks so as to pierce the chests of those who pursue them, or to fracture their skulls.

8. Now let us come to the battering ram. A lofty pine or ash is chosen, the top of which is armed with a long and hard head of iron, resembling a ram, which form has given the name to the engine. It is suspended from iron beams running across on each side, like the top of a pair of scales, and is kept in its place by ropes hanging from a third beam. A number of men draw it back as far as there is room, and then again drive it forward to break down whatever opposes it by mighty blows, like a ram which rises up and b.u.t.ts.

9. By the frequent blows of this rebounding thunderbolt, buildings are torn asunder and walls are loosened and thrown down. By this kind of engine, if worked with proper vigour, garrisons are deprived of their defences, and the strongest cities are laid open and sieges rapidly brought to a conclusion.

10. Instead of these rams, which from their common use came to be despised, a machine was framed called in Greek the helepolis, by the frequent use of which Demetrius, the son of king Antigonus, took Rhodes and other cities, and earned the surname of Poliorcetes.

11. It is constructed in this manner. A vast testudo is put together, strengthened with long beams and fastened with iron nails; it is covered with bullocks' hides and wicker-work made of freshly cut twigs, and its top is smeared over with clay to keep off missiles and fiery darts.

12. Along its front very sharp spears with three points are fastened, heavy with iron, like the thunderbolts represented by painters or sculptors, and strong enough with the projecting points to tear to pieces whatever it strikes.

13. A number of soldiers within guide this vast mast with wheels and ropes, urging with vehement impulse against the weaker parts of the wall, so that, unless repelled by the strength of the garrison above, it breaks down the wall and lays open a great breach.

14. The firebolts, which are a kind of missile, are made thus. They take an arrow of cane, joined together between the point and the reed with jagged iron, and made in the shape of a woman's spindle, with which linen threads are spun; this is cunningly hollowed out in the belly and made with several openings, and in the cavity fire and fuel of some kind is placed.

15. Then if it be shot slowly from a slack bow (for if it be shot with too much speed the fire is extinguished), so as to stick anywhere, it burns obstinately, and if sprinkled with water it creates a still fiercer fire, nor will anything but throwing dust upon it quench it.

This is enough to say of mural engines; let us now return to our original subject.

V.

-- 1. Having received the reinforcements of the Saracens which they so cheerfully offered, the emperor advanced with speed, and at the beginning of April entered Circesium, a very secure fortress, and skilfully built, it is surrounded by the two rivers Aboras (or Chaboras) and Euphrates, which make it as it were an island.

2. It had formerly been small and insecure, till Diocletian surrounded it with lofty towers and walls when he was strengthening his inner frontier within the very territories of the barbarians, in order to prevent the Persians from overrunning Syria, as had happened a few years before to the great injury of the province.

3. For it happened one day at Antioch, when the city was in perfect tranquillity, a comic actor being on the stage with his wife, acting some common play, while the people were delighted with his acting, the wife suddenly exclaimed, "Unless I am dreaming, here are the Persians;"

and immediately the populace turning round, were put to flight, and driven about in every direction while seeking to escape the darts which were showered upon them; and so the city being burnt and numbers of the citizens slain, who, as is usual in time of peace, were strolling about carelessly, and all the places in the neighbourhood being burnt and laid waste, the enemy loaded with booty returned in safety to their own country after having burnt Mareades alive, who had wickedly guided them to the destruction of his fellow-citizens. This event took place in the time of Gallienus.

4. But Julian, while remaining at Circesium to give time for his army and all its followers to cross the bridge of boats over the Aboras, received letters with bad news from Sall.u.s.t, the prefect of Gaul, entreating him to suspend his expedition against the Parthians, and imploring him not in such an unseasonable manner to rush on irrevocable destruction before propitiating the G.o.ds.

5. But Julian disregarded his prudent adviser, and advanced boldly; since no human power or virtue can ever avail to prevent events prescribed by the order of the Fates. And immediately, having crossed the river, he ordered the bridge to be taken to pieces, that the soldiers might have no hope of safety by quitting their ranks and returning.

6. Here also a bad omen was seen; the corpse of an officer who had been put to death by the executioner, whom Sall.u.s.t, the prefect, while in this country had condemned to death, because, after having promised to deliver an additional supply of provisions by an appointed day, he disappointed him through some hindrance. But after the unhappy man had been executed, the very next day there arrived, as he had promised, another fleet heavily laden with corn.

7. Leaving Circesium, we came to Zaitha, the name of the place meaning an olive-tree. Here we saw the tomb of the emperor Gordian, which is visible a long way off, whose actions from his earliest youth, and whose most fortunate campaigns and treacherous murder we related at the proper time,[138] and when, in accordance with his innate piety he had offered due honours to this deified emperor and was on his way to Dura, a town now deserted, he stood without moving on beholding a large body of soldiers.

8. And as he was doubting what their object was, they brought him an enormous lion which had attacked their ranks and had been slain by their javelins. He, elated at this circ.u.mstance, which he looked on as an omen of success in his enterprise, advanced with increased exultation; but so uncertain is fortune, the event was quite contrary to his expectation.

The death of a king was certainly foreshown, but who was the king was uncertain.

9. For we often read of ambiguous oracles, never understood till the results interpreted them; as, for instance, the Delphic prophecy, which foretold that after crossing the Halys, Croesus would overthrow a mighty kingdom; and another, which by hints pointed out the sea to the Athenians as the field of combat against the Medes; and another; later than these, but not less ambiguous:--

"O son of aeacus, I say that you the Romans can subdue."

10. The Etrurian soothsayers who accompanied him, being men skilful in portents, had often warned him against this campaign, but got no credit; so now they produced their books of such signs, and showed that this was an omen of a forbidding character, and unfavourable to a prince who should invade the country of another sovereign however justly.

11. But he spurned the opposition of philosophers, whose authority he ought to have reverenced, though at times they were mistaken, and though they were sometimes obstinate in cases which they did not thoroughly understand. In truth, they brought forward as a plausible argument to secure credit to their knowledge, that in time past, when Caesar Maximia.n.u.s was about to fight Na.r.s.es, king of the Persians, a lion and a huge boar which had been slain were at the same time brought to him, and after subduing that nation he returned in safety; forgetting that the destruction which was now portended was to him who invaded the dominions of another, and that Na.r.s.es had given the offence by being the first to make an inroad into Armenia, a country under the Roman jurisdiction.

12. On the next day, which was the 7th of April, as the sun was setting, suddenly the air became darkened, and all light wholly disappeared, and after repeated claps of thunder and flashes of lightning, a soldier named Jovia.n.u.s was struck by the lightning and killed, with two horses which he was leading back from the river to which he had taken them to drink.

13. When this was seen, the interpreters of such things were sent for and questioned, and they with increased boldness affirmed that this event forbade the campaign, demonstrating it to be a monitory lightning (for this term is applied to signs which advise or discourage any line of action). And this, as they said, was to be the more guarded against, because it had killed a soldier of rank, with war-horses; and the books which explain lightnings p.r.o.nounce that places struck in this manner should not be trodden on, nor even looked upon.

14. On the other hand, the philosophers declared that the brilliancy of this sacred fire thus suddenly presented to the eye had no special meaning, but was merely the course of a fiercer breath descending by some singular power from the sky to the lower parts of the world; and that if any foreknowledge were to be derived from such a circ.u.mstance, it was rather an increase of renown which was portended to the emperor now engaged in a glorious enterprise; since it is notorious that flame, if it meet with no obstacle, does of its own nature fly upwards.

15. The bridge then, as has been narrated, having been finished, and all the troops having crossed it, the emperor thought it the most important of all things to address his soldiers who were advancing resolutely, in full reliance on their leader and on themselves. Accordingly, a signal having been given by the trumpets, the centurions, cohorts, and maniples a.s.sembled, and he, standing on a mound of earth, and surrounded by a ring of officers of high rank, spoke thus with a cheerful face, being favourably heard with the unanimous good will of all present.

16. "Seeing, my brave soldiers, that you are full of great vigour and alacrity, I have determined to address you, to prove to you by several arguments that the Romans are not, as spiteful grumblers a.s.sert, now for the first time invading the kingdom of Persia. For, to say nothing of Lucullus or of Pompey, who, having forced his way through the Albani and Ma.s.sagetae, whom we call Alani, penetrated through this nation also so as to reach the Caspian lake; we know that Ventidius, the lieutenant of Antony, gained many victories in these regions.

17. "But to leave those ancient times, I will enumerate other exploits of more recent memory. Trajan, and Verus, and Severus have all gained victories and trophies in this country; and the younger Gordian, whose monument we have just been honouring, would have reaped similar glory, having conquered and routed the king of Persia at Resaina, if he had not been wickedly murdered in this very place by the faction of Philip, the prefect of the praetorium, with the a.s.sistance of a few other impious men.

18. "But his shade was not long left to wander unavenged, since, as if Justice herself had laboured in the cause, all those who conspired against him have been put to death with torture. Those men, indeed, ambition prompted to the atrocious deed; but we are exhorted by the miserable fate of cities recently taken, by the unavenged shades of our slaughtered armies, by the heaviness of our losses, and the loss of many camps and fortresses, to the enterprise which we have undertaken. All men uniting in their wishes that we may remedy past evils, and having secured the honour and safety of the republic on this side, may leave posterity reason to speak n.o.bly of us.

19. "By the a.s.sistance of the eternal deity, I, your emperor, will be always among you as a leader and a comrade, relying, as I well believe, on favourable omens. But if variable fortune shall defeat me in battle, it will still be sufficient for me to have devoted myself for the welfare of the Roman world, like ancient Curtii and Mucii, and the ill.u.s.trious family of the Decii. We have to abolish a most pernicious nation, on whose swords the blood of our kindred is not yet dry.

20. "Our ancestors have before now devoted ages to cause the destruction of enemies who hara.s.sed them. Carthage was overthrown after a long and distressing war; and its great conqueror feared to let it survive his victory. After a long and often disastrous siege, Scipio utterly destroyed Numantia. Rome destroyed Fidenae, that it might not grow up as a rival to the empire; and so entirely laid waste Falisci and Veii, that it is not easy to attach so much faith to ancient records as to believe that those cities ever were powerful.

21. "These transactions I have related to you as one acquainted with ancient history. It follows that all should lay aside, as unworthy of him, the love of plunder, which has often been the insidious bane of the Roman soldier, and that every one should keep steadily to his own troop and his own standard, when the necessity for fighting arises, knowing that should he loiter anywhere he will be hamstrung and left to his fate. I fear nothing of our over-crafty enemies but their tricks and perfidy.

22. "Finally, I promise you all, that when our affairs have met with success, without entrenching myself behind my imperial prerogative, so as to consider all my own decisions and opinions irrefragably just and reasonable because of my authority, I will give, if required, a full explanation of all that I have done, that you may be able to judge whether it has been wise or not.

23. "Therefore, I entreat you, now summon all your courage, in full reliance on your good fortune, sure at all events that I will share all dangers equally with you, and believing that victory ever accompanies justice."

24. When he had ended his harangue with this pleasant peroration, the soldiers, exulting in the glory of their chief, and elated with the hopes of success, lifted up their shields on high, and cried out that they should think nothing dangerous nor difficult under an emperor who imposed more toil on himself than on his common soldiers.

25. And above all the rest his Gallic troops showed this feeling with triumphant shouts, remembering how often while he as their leader was marshalling their ranks, they had seen some nations defeated and others compelled to sue for mercy and peace.

VI.

-- 1. Our history here leads us to a digression explanatory of the situation of Persia. It has been already dilated upon by those who describe different nations, though but few of them have given a correct account; if my story should be a little longer, it will contribute to a better knowledge of the country. For whoever affects excessive conciseness while speaking of things but little known, does not so much consider how to explain matters intelligibly, as how much he may omit.

2. This kingdom, formerly but small, and one which had been known by several names, from causes which we have often mentioned, after the death of Alexander at Babylon received the name of Parthia from Arsaces, a youth of obscure birth, who in his early youth was a leader of banditti, but who gradually improved his condition, and rose to high renown from his ill.u.s.trious actions.

3. After many splendid and gallant exploits he defeated Nicator Seleucus, the successor of the above-named Alexander, who had received the surname of Nicator[139] from his repeated victories; and having expelled the Macedonian garrisons, he lived for the remainder of his life in peace, like a merciful ruler of willing subjects.

4. At last, after all the neighbouring districts had been brought under his power, either by force or by fear, or by his reputation for justice, he died a peaceful death in middle age, after he had filled all Persia with flourishing cities and well-fortified camps and fortresses, and had made it an object of terror to its neighbours whom previously it used to fear. And he was the first of these kings who had by the unanimous consent of all his countrymen of all ranks, in accordance with the tenets of their religion, had his memory consecrated as one now placed among the stars.

5. And it is from his era that the arrogant sovereigns of that nation have allowed themselves to be ent.i.tled brothers of the sun and moon.

And, as the t.i.tle of Augustus is sought for and desired by our emperors, so now the additional dignities first earned by the fortunate auspices of Arsaces are claimed by all the Parthian kings, who were formerly abject and inconsiderable.

6. So that they still worship and honour Arsaces as a G.o.d, and down to our day have given him so much honour that, in conferring the royal power, one of his race has been always preferred to any one else. And also in intestine quarrels, such as are common in that nation, every one avoids as sacrilege wounding any descendant of Arsaces, whether in arms or living as a private individual.

7. It is well known that this nation, after subduing many others by force, extended its dominions as far as the Propontis and Thrace; but that it subsequently became diminished and suffered great disasters, owing to the arrogance of its ambitious monarchs, who carried their licentious inroads into distant countries. First, in consequence of the conduct of Cyrus, who crossed the Bosphorus with a fabulous host, but was wholly destroyed by Tomyris, queen of the Scythians, who thus terribly avenged her sons.

8. After him, when Darius, and subsequently Xerxes, changed the use[140]

of the elements and invaded Greece, they had nearly all their forces destroyed by land and sea, and could scarcely escape in safety themselves. I say nothing of the wars of Alexander, and of his leaving the sovereignty over the whole nation by will to his successor.