nced by any prospect of success, and it was in vain
that the Magi deduced a flattering prediction from the indecency of the
women [1361] on the ramparts, who had revealed their most secret charms
to the eyes of the assailants. At length, in a silent night, they
ascended the most accessible tower, which was guarded only by some
monks, oppressed, after the duties of a festival, with sleep and
wine. Scaling-ladders were applied at the dawn of day; the presence of
Cabades, his stern command, and his drawn sword, compelled the Persians
to vanquish; and before it was sheathed, fourscore thousand of the
inhabitants had expiated the blood of their companions. After the siege
of Amida, the war continued three years, and the unhappy frontier tasted
the full measure of its calamities. The gold of Anastasius was offered
too late, the number of his troops was defeated by the number of their
generals; the country was stripped of its inhabitants, and both the
living and the dead were abandoned to the wild beasts of the desert. The
resistance of Edessa, and the deficiency of spoil, inclined the mind of
Cabades to peace: he sold his conquests for an exorbitant price; and the
same line, though marked with slaughter and devastation, still separated
the two empires. To avert the repetition of the same evils, Anastasius
resolved to found a new colony, so strong, that it should defy the power
of the Persian, so far advanced towards Assyria, that its stationary
troops might defend the province by the menace or operation of offensive
war. For this purpose, the town of Dara, [137] fourteen miles from
Nisibis, and four days' journey from the Tigris, was peopled and
adorned; the hasty works of Anastasius were improved by the perseverance
of Justinian; and, without insisting on places less important, the
fortifications of Dara may represent the military architecture of the
age. The city was surrounded with two walls, and the interval between
them, of fifty paces, afforded a retreat to the cattle of the besieged.
The inner wall was a monument of strength and beauty: it measured sixty
feet from the ground, and the height of the towers was one hundred
feet; the loopholes, from whence an enemy might be annoyed with missile
weapons, were small, but numerous; the soldiers were planted along the
rampart, under the shelter of double galleries, and a third platform,
spacious and secure, was raised on the summit of the towers. The
exterior wall appears to hav