s a clear
and magnificent idea of the extent of the empire of Cyrus. Herodotus (l.
iii. c. 79, &c.) enters into a curious and particular description of
the twenty great Satrapies into which the Persian empire was divided by
Darius Hystaspes.]

[Footnote 48: Herodian, vi. 209, 212.]

If we credit what should seem the most authentic of all records, an
oration, still extant, and delivered by the emperor himself to the
senate, we must allow that the victory of Alexander Severus was not
inferior to any of those formerly obtained over the Persians by the
son of Philip. The army of the Great King consisted of one hundred and
twenty thousand horse, clothed in complete armor of steel; of seven
hundred elephants, with towers filled with archers on their backs, and
of eighteen hundred chariots armed with scythes. This formidable
host, the like of which is not to be found in eastern history, and has
scarcely been imagined in eastern romance, [49] was discomfited in a
great battle, in which the Roman Alexander proved himself an intrepid
soldier and a skilful general. The Great King fled before his valor;
an immense booty, and the conquest of Mesopotamia, were the immediate
fruits of this signal victory. Such are the circumstances of this
ostentatious and improbable relation, dictated, as it too plainly
appears, by the vanity of the monarch, adorned by the unblushing
servility of his flatterers, and received without contradiction by a
distant and obsequious senate. [50] Far from being inclined to believe
that the arms of Alexander obtained any memorable advantage over the
Persians, we are induced to suspect that all this blaze of imaginary
glory was designed to conceal some real disgrace.

[Footnote 49: There were two hundred scythed chariots at the battle of
Arbela, in the host of Darius. In the vast army of Tigranes, which was
vanquished by Lucullus, seventeen thousand horse only were completely
armed. Antiochus brought fifty-four elephants into the field against the
Romans: by his frequent wars and negotiations with the princes of India,
he had once collected a hundred and fifty of those great animals; but
it may be questioned whether the most powerful monarch of Hindostan evci
formed a line of battle of seven hundred elephants. Instead of three or
four thousand elephants, which the Great Mogul was supposed to possess,
Tavernier (Voyages, part ii. l. i. p. 198) discovered, by a more
accurate inquiry, that he had only five hundr