ten thousand exposed and insulted the
weakness of the Persian monarchy. [115]

[Footnote 112: Libanius, Orat. Parent. c. 143, p. 364, 365.]

[Footnote 113: Conditionibus..... dispendiosis Romanae reipublicae
impositis.... quibus cupidior regni quam gloriae Jovianus, imperio
rudis, adquievit. Sextus Rufus de Provinciis, c. 29. La Bleterie has
expressed, in a long, direct oration, these specious considerations of
public and private interest, (Hist. de Jovien, tom. i. p. 39, &c.)]

[Footnote 114: The generals were murdered on the bauks of the Zabatus,
(Ana basis, l. ii. p. 156, l. iii. p. 226,) or great Zab, a river of
Assyria, 400 feet broad, which falls into the Tigris fourteen hours
below Mosul. The error of the Greeks bestowed on the greater and lesser
Zab the names of the Walf, (Lycus,) and the Goat, (Capros.) They created
these animals to attend the Tiger of the East.]

[Footnote 115: The Cyropoedia is vague and languid; the Anabasis
circumstance and animated. Such is the eternal difference between
fiction and truth.]

As the price of his disgraceful concessions, the emperor might
perhaps have stipulated, that the camp of the hungry Romans should be
plentifully supplied; [116] 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