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: [117] the beasts of burden were slaughtered and
devoured; and the desert was strewed with the arms and baggage of
the Roman soldiers, whose tattered garments and meagre countenances
displayed their past sufferings and actual misery. A small convoy of
provisions advanced to meet the army as far as the castle of Ur; and
the supply was the more grateful, since it declared the fidelity
of Sebastian and Procopius. At Thilsaphata, [118] the emperor most
graciously received the generals of Mesopotamia; and the remains of a
once flourishing army at length reposed themselves under the walls
of Nisibis. The messengers of Jovian had already proclaimed, in the
language of flattery, his election, his treaty, and his return; and
the new prince had taken the most effectual measures to secure the
allegiance of the armies and provinces of Europe, by placing the
military command in the hands of those officers, who, from motives
of interest, or inclination, would firmly support the cause of their
benefactor. [119]

[Footnote 116: According to Rufinus, an immediate supply of provisions
was stipulated by the treaty, and Theodoret affirms, that the obligation
was faithfully discharged by the Persians. Such a fact is probable but
undoubtedly false. See Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 702.]

[Footnote 117: We may recollect some lines of Lucan, (Pharsal. iv. 95,)
who describes a similar distress of Caesar's army in Spain:-- ----Saeva
fames aderat--Miles eget: toto censu non prodigus emit Exiguam Cererem.
Proh lucri pallida tabes! Non deest prolato jejunus venditor auro.
See Guichardt (Nouveaux Memoires Militaires, tom. i. p.