ight arrive under the walls of Ctesiphon at the same time that he
himself, advancing with equal steps along the banks of the Euphrates,
should besiege the capital of the Persian monarchy. The success of this
well-concerted plan depended, in a great measure, on the powerful and
ready assistance of the king of Armenia, who, without exposing the
safety of his own dominions, might detach an army of four thousand
horse, and twenty thousand foot, to the assistance of the Romans. [37]
But the feeble Arsaces Tiranus, [38] king of Armenia, had degenerated
still more shamefully than his father Chosroes, from the manly virtues
of the great Tiridates; and as the pusillanimous monarch was averse
to any enterprise of danger and glory, he could disguise his timid
indolence by the more decent excuses of religion and gratitude. He
expressed a pious attachment to the memory of Constantius, from whose
hands he had received in marriage Olympias, the daughter of the praefect
Ablavius; and the alliance of a female, who had been educated as
the destined wife of the emperor Constans, exalted the dignity of
a Barbarian king. [39] Tiranus professed the Christian religion; he
reigned over a nation of Christians; and he was restrained, by every
principle of conscience and interest, from contributing to the victory,
which would consummate the ruin of the church. The alienated mind of
Tiranus was exasperated by the indiscretion of Julian, who treated the
king of Armenia as his slave, and as the enemy of the gods. The haughty
and threatening style of the Imperial mandates [40] awakened the secret
indignation of a prince, who, in the humiliating state of dependence,
was still conscious of his royal descent from the Arsacides, the lords
of the East, and the rivals of the Roman power. [40a]

[Footnote 33a: Or Bambyce, now Bambouch; Manbedj Arab., or Maboug, Syr.
It was twenty-four Roman miles from the Euphrates.--M.]

[Footnote 34: I take the earliest opportunity of acknowledging my
obligations to M. d'Anville, for his recent geography of the Euphrates
and Tigris, (Paris, 1780, in 4to.,) which particularly illustrates the
expedition of Julian.]

[Footnote 35: There are three passages within a few miles of each
other; 1. Zeugma, celebrated by the ancients; 2. Bir, frequented by the
moderns; and, 3. The bridge of Menbigz, or Hierapolis, at the distance
of four parasangs from the city. ----- Djisr Manbedj is the same with
the ancient Zeugma. St. Martin,