the conqueror rigorously insisted, that the Romans should
forever abandon the king and kingdom of Armenia. Sec. A peace, or rather a
long truce, of thirty years, was stipulated between the hostile nations;
the faith of the treaty was ratified by solemn oaths and religious
ceremonies; and hostages of distinguished rank were reciprocally
delivered to secure the performance of the conditions.

The sophist of Antioch, who saw with indignation the sceptre of his hero
in the feeble hand of a Christian successor, professes to admire the
moderation of Sapor, in contenting himself with so small a portion of
the Roman empire. If he had stretched as far as the Euphrates the
claims of his ambition, he might have been secure, says Libanius, of not
meeting with a refusal. If he had fixed, as the boundary of Persia,
the Orontes, the Cydnus, the Sangarius, or even the Thracian Bosphorus,
flatterers would not have been wanting in the court of Jovian to
convince the timid monarch, that his remaining provinces would still
afford the most ample gratifications of power and luxury. Without
adopting in its full force this malicious insinuation, we must
acknowledge, that the conclusion of so ignominious a treaty was
facilitated by the private ambition of Jovian. The obscure domestic,
exalted to the throne by fortune, rather than by merit, was impatient to
escape from the hands of the Persians, that he might prevent the designs
of Procopius, who commanded the army of Mesopotamia, and establish his
doubtful reign over the legions and provinces which were still ignorant
of the hasty and tumultuous choice of the camp beyond the Tigris. In the
neighborhood of the same river, at no very considerable distance from
the fatal station of Dura, the ten thousand Greeks, without generals, or
guides, or provisions, were abandoned, above twelve hundred miles from
their native country, to the resentment of a victorious monarch. The
difference of their conduct and success depended much more on their
character than on their situation. Instead of tamely resigning
themselves to the secret deliberations and private views of a single
person, the united councils of the Greeks were inspired by the generous
enthusiasm of a popular assembly; where the mind of each citizen is
filled with the love of glory, the pride of freedom, and the contempt
of death. Conscious of their superiority over the Barbarians in arms and
discipline, they disdained to yield, they refused to ca