elty which had been committed by their haughty master in the
Roman provinces. The trembling Assyrians summoned the rivers to their
assistance; and completed, with their own hands, the ruin of their
country. The roads were rendered impracticable; a flood of waters was
poured into the camp; and, during several days, the troops of Julian
were obliged to contend with the most discouraging hardships. But every
obstacle was surmounted by the perseverance of the legionaries, who were
inured to toil as well as to danger, and who felt themselves animated
by the spirit of their leader. The damage was gradually repaired;
the waters were restored to their proper channels; whole groves of
palm-trees were cut down, and placed along the broken parts of the road;
and the army passed over the broad and deeper canals, on bridges of
floating rafts, which were supported by the help of bladders. Two cities
of Assyria presumed to resist the arms of a Roman emperor: and they
both paid the severe penalty of their rashness. At the distance of fifty
miles from the royal residence of Ctesiphon, Perisabor, * or Anbar,
held the second rank in the province; a city, large, populous, and well
fortified, surrounded with a double wall, almost encompassed by a branch
of the Euphrates, and defended by the valor of a numerous garrison. The
exhortations of Hormisdas were repulsed with contempt; and the ears of
the Persian prince were wounded by a just reproach, that, unmindful of
his royal birth, he conducted an army of strangers against his king and
country. The Assyrians maintained their loyalty by a skilful, as well
as vigorous, defence; till the lucky stroke of a battering-ram, having
opened a large breach, by shattering one of the angles of the wall, they
hastily retired into the fortifications of the interior citadel. The
soldiers of Julian rushed impetuously into the town, and after the
full gratification of every military appetite, Perisabor was reduced to
ashes; and the engines which assaulted the citadel were planted on the
ruins of the smoking houses. The contest was continued by an incessant
and mutual discharge of missile weapons; and the superiority which the
Romans might derive from the mechanical powers of their balistae and
catapultae was counterbalanced by the advantage of the ground on the side
of the besieged. But as soon as an Helepolis had been constructed, which
could engage on equal terms with the loftiest ramparts, the tremendous
aspe