r pacified the Barbarians of the Danube, Constantius proceeded
by slow marches into the East; and after he had wept over the smoking
ruins of Amida, he formed, with a powerful army, the siege of Becabde.
The walls were shaken by the reiterated efforts of the most enormous of
the battering-rams; the town was reduced to the last extremity; but it
was still defended by the patient and intrepid valor of the garrison,
till the approach of the rainy season obliged the emperor to raise the
siege, and ingloviously to retreat into his winter quarters at Antioch.
[63] The pride of Constantius, and the ingenuity of his courtiers, were
at a loss to discover any materials for panegyric in the events of the
Persian war; while the glory of his cousin Julian, to whose military
command he had intrusted the provinces of Gaul, was proclaimed to the
world in the simple and concise narrative of his exploits.

[Footnote 62: Ammianus (xviii. 5, 6, xix. 3, xx. 2) represents the merit
and disgrace of Ursicinus with that faithful attention which a soldier
owed to his general. Some partiality may be suspected, yet the whole
account is consistent and probable.]

[Footnote 63: Ammian. xx. 11. Omisso vano incepto, hiematurus Antiochiae
redit in Syriam aerumnosam, perpessus et ulcerum sed et atrocia, diuque
deflenda. It is thus that James Gronovius has restored an obscure
passage; and he thinks that this correction alone would have deserved
a new edition of his author: whose sense may now be darkly perceived.
I expected some additional light from the recent labors of the learned
Ernestus. (Lipsiae, 1773.) * Note: The late editor (Wagner) has
nothing better to suggest, and le menta with Gibbon, the silence of
Ernesti.--M.]

In the blind fury of civil discord, Constantius had abandoned to the
Barbarians of Germany the countries of Gaul, which still acknowledged
the authority of his rival. A numerous swarm of Franks and Alemanni were
invited to cross the Rhine by presents and promises, by the hopes of
spoil, and by a perpetual grant of all the territories which they should
be able to subdue. [64] But the emperor, who for a temporary service had
thus imprudently provoked the rapacious spirit of the Barbarians, soon
discovered and lamented the difficulty of dismissing these formidable
allies, after they had tasted the richness of the Roman soil. Regardless
of the nice distinction of loyalty and rebellion, these undisciplined
robbers treated as their nat