pitulate: every
obstacle was surmounted by their patience, courage, and military skill;
and the memorable retreat of the ten thousand exposed and insulted the
weakness of the Persian monarchy.

As the price of his disgraceful concessions, the emperor might
perhaps have stipulated, that the camp of the hungry Romans should be
plentifully supplied; and that they should be permitted to pass the
Tigris on the bridge which was constructed by the hands of the Persians.
But, if Jovian presumed to solicit those equitable terms, they were
sternly refused by the haughty tyrant of the East, whose clemency had
pardoned the invaders of his country. The Saracens sometimes intercepted
the stragglers of the march; but the generals and troops of Sapor
respected the cessation of arms; and Jovian was suffered to explore the
most convenient place for the passage of the river. The small vessels,
which had been saved from the conflagration of the fleet, performed
the most essential service. They first conveyed the emperor and his
favorites; and afterwards transported, in many successive voyages, a
great part of the army. But, as every man was anxious for his personal
safety, and apprehensive of being left on the hostile shore, the
soldiers, who were too impatient to wait the slow returns of the boats,
boldly ventured themselves on light hurdles, or inflated skins; and,
drawing after them their horses, attempted, with various success, to
swim across the river. Many of these daring adventurers were swallowed
by the waves; many others, who were carried along by the violence of the
stream, fell an easy prey to the avarice or cruelty of the wild Arabs:
and the loss which the army sustained in the passage of the Tigris, was
not inferior to the carnage of a day of battle. As soon as the Romans
were landed on the western bank, they were delivered from the hostile
pursuit of the Barbarians; but, in a laborious march of two hundred
miles over the plains of Mesopotamia, they endured the last extremities
of thirst and hunger. They were obliged to traverse the sandy desert,
which, in the extent of seventy miles, did not afford a single blade
of sweet grass, nor a single spring of fresh water; and the rest of
the inhospitable waste was untrod by the footsteps either of friends or
enemies. Whenever a small measure of flour could be discovered in the
camp, twenty pounds weight were greedily purchased with ten pieces of
gold: the beasts of burden were slaugh