to his favorite and son-in-law, Galerius, while he
himself took up a position within the limits of the empire, which at
once enabled him to overawe his domestic adversaries and to support and
countenance his lieutenant.

The first attempts of Galerius were unfortunate. Summoned suddenly from
the Danube to the Euphrates, and placed at the head of an army composed
chiefly of the levies of Asia, ill-disciplined, and unacquainted with
their commander, he had to meet an adversary of whom he knew little
or nothing, in a region the character of which was adverse to his own
troops and favorable to those of the enemy. Narses had invaded the
Roman province of Mesopotamia, had penetrated to the Khabour, and was
threatening to cross the Euphrates into Syria. Galerius had no choice
but to encounter him on the ground which he had chosen. Now, though
Western Mesopotamia is ill-described as a smooth and barren surface of
sandy desert, without a hillock, without a tree, and without a spring
of fresh water, it is undoubtedly an open country, possessing numerous
plains, where, in a battle, the advantage of numbers is likely to be
felt, and where there is abundant room for the evolutions of cavalry.
The Persians, like their predecessors the Parthians, were especially
strong in horse; and the host which Narses had brought into the field
greatly outnumbered the troops which Diocletian had placed at the
disposal of Galerius. Yet Galerius took the offensive. Fighting under
the eye of a somewhat stern master, he was scarcely free to choose his
plan of campaign. Diocletian expected him to drive the Persians
from Mesopotamia, and he was therefore bound to make the attempt. He
accordingly sought out his adversary in this region, and engaged him
in three great battles. The first and second appear to have been
indecisive; but in the third the Roman general suffered a complete
defeat. The catastrophe of Crassus was repeated almost upon the same
battle-field, and probably almost by the same means. But, personally,
Galerius was more fortunate than his predecessor. He escaped from the
carnage, and, recrossing the Euphrates, rejoined his father-in-law in
Syria. A conjecture, not altogether destitute of probability, makes
Tiridates share both the calamity and the good fortune of the Roman
Caesar. Like Galerius, he escaped from the battle-field, and reached the
banks of the Euphrates. But his horse, which had received a wound, could
not be trusted to pass