triumph the
glory of Sapor; and ventured to assure the emperor, that he might
ascend the starry mansion of Ormusd, before he could hope to take the
impregnable city of Maogamalcha. The city was already taken. History has
recorded the name of a private soldier the first who ascended from the
mine into a deserted tower. The passage was widened by his companions,
who pressed forwards with impatient valor. Fifteen hundred enemies were
already in the midst of the city. The astonished garrison abandoned the
walls, and their only hope of safety; the gates were instantly burst
open; and the revenge of the soldier, unless it were suspended by lust
or avarice, was satiated by an undistinguishing massacre. The governor,
who had yielded on a promise of mercy, was burnt alive, a few days
afterwards, on a charge of having uttered some disrespectful words
against the honor of Prince Hormisdas. * The fortifications were razed
to the ground; and not a vestige was left, that the city of Maogamalcha
had ever existed. The neighborhood of the capital of Persia was adorned
with three stately palaces, laboriously enriched with every production
that could gratify the luxury and pride of an Eastern monarch. The
pleasant situation of the gardens along the banks of the Tigris, was
improved, according to the Persian taste, by the symmetry of flowers,
fountains, and shady walks: and spacious parks were enclosed for the
reception of the bears, lions, and wild boars, which were maintained
at a considerable expense for the pleasure of the royal chase. The park
walls were broken down, the savage game was abandoned to the darts of
the soldiers, and the palaces of Sapor were reduced to ashes, by the
command of the Roman emperor. Julian, on this occasion, showed himself
ignorant, or careless, of the laws of civility, which the prudence and
refinement of polished ages have established between hostile princes.
Yet these wanton ravages need not excite in our breasts any vehement
emotions of pity or resentment. A simple, naked statue, finished by the
hand of a Grecian artist, is of more genuine value than all these rude
and costly monuments of Barbaric labor; and, if we are more deeply
affected by the ruin of a palace than by the conflagration of a cottage,
our humanity must have formed a very erroneous estimate of the miseries
of human life.

Julian was an object of hatred and terror to the Persian and the
painters of that nation represented the invader of t