203

THE DECLINE AND FALL

chap, the soldiers, who were provided with every spe-cies of missile weapons, could engage almoston level ground with the troops who defendedthe rampart. Every mode of resistance whichart conld suggest, or courage could execute,was employed in the defence of Amida, and theworks of Sapor were more than once destroyedby the fire of the Romans. But the resourcesof a besieged city may be exhausted. The Per-< sians repaired their losses, and pushed theirapproaches; a large breach was made by thebattering ram, and the strength of the garrison,wasted by the sword and by disease, yielded tothe fury of the assault. The soldiers, the citi-zens, their wives, their children, all who hadnot time to escape through the opposite gate■were involved by the conquerors in a promis-cuous massacre.

orsinga- But the ruin of Amida was the safety of the

A a .D?36o. Roman provinces. As soon as the first tran-sports of victory had subsided, Sapor was at lei-sure to reflect, that to chastise a disobedient ci-ty, he had lost the flower of his troops, and themost favourable season for conquest . 1 Thirty

1 Ammianus has marked th£ chronology of this year by three signs,which do not perfectly coincide with each other, or with the series ofthe history. 1, The corn was ripe when Sapor invaded Mesopotamia ;<c Cnm jam stipuli flavente turgerenta circumstance, which, in thelatitude of Aleppo , would naturally refer us to the month of April orMay. See Harmer's Observations on Scripture, vol. i, p. 41. Shaw'sTravels, p. 335, edit. 4to. 2, The progress of Sapor was checked bythe overflowing of the Euphrates , which generally happens in July andAugust. Plin. Hist. Nat. v, 21. Viaggi di Pietro della Valle, tom. i,p. 696. 3, When Sapor had taken Amida, after a siege of seventy-

three days, the autumn was far advanced. “ Autumno prascipiti lue-u dorumque improbo sidere exorto.” To reconcile these apparent con-tradictions, we must allow for some delay in the Persian king, someinaccuracy in the historian, and some disorder in the seasons.