avalry; they knew
their walls to be strong; and they were masters of a peculiar kind
of fire, which was calculated to terrify and alarm, if not greatly to
injure, an enemy unacquainted with its qualities. Severus once more
lost almost all his machines; the Hatrene cavalry severely handled his
foragers; his men for a long time made but little impression upon the
walls, while they suffered grievously from the enemy's slingers and
archers, from his warlike engines, and especially, we are told, from
the fiery darts which were rained upon them incessantly. However, after
enduring these various calamities for a length of time, the perseverance
of the Romans was rewarded by the formation of a practicable breach
in the outer wall; and the soldiers demanded to be led to the assault,
confident in their power to force an entrance and carry the place. But
the emperor resisted their inclination. He did not wish that the city
should be stormed, since in that case it must have been given up to
indiscriminate pillage, and the treasures which he coveted would have
become the prey of the soldiery. The Hatreni, he thought, would make
their submission, if he only gave them a little time, now that they
must see further resistance to be hopeless. He waited therefore a day,
expecting an offer of surrender. But the Hatreni made no sign, and in
the night restored their wall where it had been broken down.

Severus then made up his mind to sacrifice the treasures on which his
heart had been set, and, albeit with reluctance, gave the word for the
assault. But now the legionaries refused. They had been forbidden to
attack when success was certain and the danger trivial--they were
now required to imperil their lives while the result could not but be
doubtful. Perhaps they divined the emperor's motive in withholding them
from the assault, and resented it; at any rate they openly declined to
execute his orders. After a vain attempt to force an entrance by means
of his Asiatic allies, Severus desisted from his undertaking. The summer
was far advanced the heat was great; disease had broken out among his
troops; above all, they had become demoralized, and their obedience
could no longer be depended on. Severus broke up from before Hatra a
second time, after having besieged it for twenty days, and returned--by
what route we are not told--into Syria.

Nothing is more surprising in the history of this campaign than the
inaction and apparent apathy of the P