exposed, in a specious tale, the injuries
which he had sustained; exaggerated the cruelty of Sapor, the discontent
of the people, and the weakness of the monarchy; and confidently offered
himself as the hostage and guide of the Roman march. The most rational
grounds of suspicion were urged, without effect, by the wisdom and
experience of Hormisdas; and the credulous Julian, receiving the traitor
into his bosom, was persuaded to issue a hasty order, which, in the
opinion of mankind, appeared to arraign his prudence, and to endanger
his safety. He destroyed, in a single hour, the whole navy, which had
been transported above five hundred miles, at so great an expense of
toil, of treasure, and of blood. Twelve, or, at the most, twenty-two
small vessels were saved, to accompany, on carriages, the march of the
army, and to form occasional bridges for the passage of the rivers.
A supply of twenty days' provisions was reserved for the use of the
soldiers; and the rest of the magazines, with a fleet of eleven hundred
vessels, which rode at anchor in the Tigris, were abandoned to the
flames, by the absolute command of the emperor. The Christian bishops,
Gregory and Augustin, insult the madness of the Apostate, who executed,
with his own hands, the sentence of divine justice. Their authority, of
less weight, perhaps, in a military question, is confirmed by the cool
judgment of an experienced soldier, who was himself spectator of the
conflagration, and who could not disapprove the reluctant murmurs of the
troops. [78] Yet there are not wanting some specious, and perhaps solid,
reasons, which might justify the resolution of Julian. The navigation of
the Euphrates never ascended above Babylon, nor that of the Tigris above
Opis. [79] The distance of the last-mentioned city from the Roman camp
was not very considerable: and Julian must soon have renounced the vain
and impracticable attempt of forcing upwards a great fleet against the
stream of a rapid river, [80] which in several places was embarrassed
by natural or artificial cataracts. [81] The power of sails and oars was
insufficient; it became necessary to tow the ships against the current
of the river; the strength of twenty thousand soldiers was exhausted
in this tedious and servile labor, and if the Romans continued to march
along the banks of the Tigris, they could only expect to return home
without achieving any enterprise worthy of the genius or fortune of
their leader. If, on