erous question, how far the public faith should
be observed, when it becomes incompatible with the public safety, was
freely agitated in popular conversation; and some hopes were entertained
that the emperor would redeem his pusillanimous behavior by a splendid
act of patriotic perfidy. The inflexible spirit of the Roman senate had
always disclaimed the unequal conditions which were extorted from the
distress of their captive armies; and, if it were necessary to satisfy
the national honor, by delivering the guilty general into the hands of
the Barbarians, the greatest part of the subjects of Jovian would have
cheerfully acquiesced in the precedent of ancient times.

But the emperor, whatever might be the limits of his constitutional
authority, was the absolute master of the laws and arms of the state;
and the same motives which had forced him to subscribe, now pressed him
to execute, the treaty of peace. He was impatient to secure an empire
at the expense of a few provinces; and the respectable names of
religion and honor concealed the personal fears and ambition of Jovian.
Notwithstanding the dutiful solicitations of the inhabitants, decency,
as well as prudence, forbade the emperor to lodge in the palace of
Nisibis; but the next morning after his arrival. Bineses, the ambassador
of Persia, entered the place, displayed from the citadel the standard
of the Great King, and proclaimed, in his name, the cruel alternative
of exile or servitude. The principal citizens of Nisibis, who, till that
fatal moment, had confided in the protection of their sovereign, threw
themselves at his feet. They conjured him not to abandon, or, at least,
not to deliver, a faithful colony to the rage of a Barbarian tyrant,
exasperated by the three successive defeats which he had experienced
under the walls of Nisibis. They still possessed arms and courage to
repel the invaders of their country: they requested only the permission
of using them in their own defence; and, as soon as they had asserted
their independence, they should implore the favor of being again
admitted into the ranks of his subjects. Their arguments, their
eloquence, their tears, were ineffectual. Jovian alleged, with some
confusion, the sanctity of oaths; and, as the reluctance with which he
accepted the present of a crown of gold, convinced the citizens of their
hopeless condition, the advocate Sylvanus was provoked to exclaim, "O
emperor! may you thus be crowned by all the ci