212
THE DECLINE AND FALL
CHAP.
XIX.
zabde. The walls were shaken by the reiterat-ed efforts of the most enormous of the battering-rams ; the town was reduced to the last extre-mity ; but it was still defended by the patientand intrepid valour of the garrison, till the ap-proach of the rainy season obliged the emperorto raise the siege, and ingloriously to retreat in-to his winter-quarters at Antioch. p The prideof Constantius , and the ingenuity of his cour-tiers, were at a loss to discover any materialsfor panegyric in the events of the Persian war;while the glory of his cousin Julian, to whosemilitary command he had entrusted the pro-vinces of Gaul , was proclaimed to the world inthe simple and concise narrative of his exploits.
In the blind fury of civil discord, Constantius had abandoned to the barbarians of Germany the countries of Gaul , which still acknowledgedthe authority of his rival. A numerous swarmof Franks and Alemanni were invited to crossthe Rhine by presents and promises, by thehopes of spoil, and by a perpetual grant of allthe territories which they should be able to sub-due.’ But the emperor, w’ho for a temporaryservice had thus imprudently provoked the ra-pacious spirit of the barbarians, soon discovered
p Aminian. xx, 11. Omisso vano inccpto, hiematurus Antiochiae re-dit in Syriam aerumnosam, perpessus ct ulcerunr sed et atrocia, diuquedeflenda. It is thus that James Gronovins has restored an obscurepassage; and he thinks that this correction alone would have deserveda new- edition of his author; whose sense may now be darkly perceived.I expected some additional light from the recent labours of the learnedErnestos (Lipsite, 1773).
, The ravages of the Germans, and the distress of Gaul , may be col-lected from Julian himself. Orat. ad s. p. Q. Athen. p. 277. Am-mian. xv, II. Libanius, Orat. x. Zosimus , 1. iii, p. 140. SoiomenL iii, c. 1.