umph the
glory of Sapor; and ventured to assure the emperor, that he might
ascend the starry mansion of Ormusd, before he could hope to take the
impregnable city of Maogamalcha. The city was already taken. History has
recorded the name of a private soldier the first who ascended from the
mine into a deserted tower. The passage was widened by his companions,
who pressed forwards with impatient valor. Fifteen hundred enemies were
already in the midst of the city. The astonished garrison abandoned the
walls, and their only hope of safety; the gates were instantly burst
open; and the revenge of the soldier, unless it were suspended by lust
or avarice, was satiated by an undistinguishing massacre. The governor,
who had yielded on a promise of mercy, was burnt alive, a few days
afterwards, on a charge of having uttered some disrespectful words
against the honor of Prince Hormisdas. The fortifications were razed to
the ground; and not a vestige was left, that the city of Maogamalcha had
ever existed. The neighborhood of the capital of Persia was adorned with
three stately palaces, laboriously enriched with every production that
could gratify the luxury and pride of an Eastern monarch. The pleasant
situation of the gardens along the banks of the Tigris, was improved,
according to the Persian taste, by the symmetry of flowers, fountains,
and shady walks: and spacious parks were enclosed for the reception
of the bears, lions, and wild boars, which were maintained at a
considerable expense for the pleasure of the royal chase. The park walls
were broken down, the savage game was abandoned to the darts of the
soldiers, and the palaces of Sapor were reduced to ashes, by the command
of the Roman emperor. Julian, on this occasion, showed himself ignorant,
or careless, of the laws of civility, which the prudence and refinement
of polished ages have established between hostile princes. Yet these
wanton ravages need not excite in our breasts any vehement emotions of
pity or resentment. A simple, naked statue, finished by the hand of a
Grecian artist, is of more genuine value than all these rude and costly
monuments of Barbaric labor; and, if we are more deeply affected by the
ruin of a palace than by the conflagration of a cottage, our humanity
must have formed a very erroneous estimate of the miseries of human
life. [57]

[Footnote 57a: And as guilty of a double treachery, having first engaged
to surrender the city, and afterwards valian