tory answer,
either from gods or men. At length, as the only practicable measure, he
embraced the resolution of directing his steps towards the banks of
the Tigris, with the design of saving the army by a hasty march to
the confines of Corduene; a fertile and friendly province, which
acknowledged the sovereignty of Rome. The desponding troops obeyed
the signal of the retreat, only seventy days after they had passed the
Chaboras, with the sanguine expectation of subverting the throne of
Persia. [87]

[Footnote 83: See the judicious reflections of the author of the Essai
sur la Tactique, tom. ii. p. 287-353, and the learned remarks of M.
Guichardt Nouveaux Memoires Militaires, tom. i. p. 351-382, on the
baggage and subsistence of the Roman armies.]

[Footnote 84: The Tigris rises to the south, the Euphrates to the north,
of the Armenian mountains. The former overflows in March, the latter
in July. These circumstances are well explained in the Geographical
Dissertation of Foster, inserted in Spelman's Expedition of Cyras, vol.
ii. p. 26.]

[Footnote 85: Ammianus (xxiv. 8) describes, as he had felt, the
inconveniency of the flood, the heat, and the insects. The lands of
Assyria, oppressed by the Turks, and ravaged by the Curds or Arabs,
yield an increase of ten, fifteen, and twenty fold, for the seed which
is cast into the ground by the wretched and unskillful husbandmen.
Voyage de Niebuhr, tom. ii. p. 279, 285.]

[Footnote 86: Isidore of Charax (Mansion. Parthic. p. 5, 6, in Hudson,
Geograph. Minor. tom. ii.) reckons 129 schaeni from Seleucia, and
Thevenot, (part i. l. i. ii. p. 209-245,) 128 hours of march from
Bagdad to Ecbatana, or Hamadan. These measures cannot exceed an ordinary
parasang, or three Roman miles.]

[Footnote 87: The march of Julian from Ctesiphon is circumstantially,
but not clearly, described by Ammianus, (xxiv. 7, 8,) Libanius, (Orat.
Parent. c. 134, p. 357,) and Zosimus, (l. iii. p. 183.) The two last
seem ignorant that their conqueror was retreating; and Libanius absurdly
confines him to the banks of the Tigris.]

As long as the Romans seemed to advance into the country, their march
was observed and insulted from a distance, by several bodies of Persian
cavalry; who, showing themselves sometimes in loose, and sometimes
in close order, faintly skirmished with the advanced guards. These
detachments were, however, supported by a much greater force; and the
heads of the columns were no sooner poi