conducted with equal
vigor; and the armies of Rome and Persia encountered each other in nine
bloody fields, in two of which Constantius himself commanded in person.
The event of the day was most commonly adverse to the Romans, but in the
battle of Singara, heir imprudent valor had almost achieved a signal
and decisive victory. The stationary troops of Singara * retired on
the approach of Sapor, who passed the Tigris over three bridges, and
occupied near the village of Hilleh an advantageous camp, which, by the
labor of his numerous pioneers, he surrounded in one day with a deep
ditch and a lofty rampart. His formidable host, when it was drawn out in
order of battle, covered the banks of the river, the adjacent heights,
and the whole extent of a plain of above twelve miles, which separated
the two armies. Both were alike impatient to engage; but the Barbarians,
after a slight resistance, fled in disorder; unable to resist, or
desirous to weary, the strength of the heavy legions, who, fainting with
heat and thirst, pursued them across the plain, and cut in pieces a line
of cavalry, clothed in complete armor, which had been posted before the
gates of the camp to protect their retreat. Constantius, who was hurried
along in the pursuit, attempted, without effect, to restrain the ardor
of his troops, by representing to them the dangers of the approaching
night, and the certainty of completing their success with the return
of day. As they depended much more on their own valor than on the
experience or the abilities of their chief, they silenced by their
clamors his timid remonstrances; and rushing with fury to the charge,
filled up the ditch, broke down the rampart, and dispersed themselves
through the tents to recruit their exhausted strength, and to enjoy
the rich harvest of their labors. But the prudent Sapor had watched the
moment of victory. His army, of which the greater part, securely posted
on the heights, had been spectators of the action, advanced in silence,
and under the shadow of the night; and his Persian archers, guided by
the illumination of the camp, poured a shower of arrows on a disarmed
and licentious crowd. The sincerity of history declares, that the Romans
were vanquished with a dreadful slaughter, and that the flying remnant
of the legions was exposed to the most intolerable hardships. Even the
tenderness of panegyric, confessing that the glory of the emperor was
sullied by the disobedience of his soldiers