The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Volume 3 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1816 edition. Excerpt: ...of his ministers, who conjured him not to sacrifice the success of his ambition to the gratification of his resentment. The following day Grumbates advanced towards th gates with a select body of troops, and required ths instant surrender of the city, as the only atonement which could be accepted for such an act of rashness and insolence. His proposals were answered by a general discharge, and his only son, a beautiful and valiant youth, was pierced through the heart by a javelin, shot from one of the balistae. The funeral of the prince of the Chionites was celebrated according to the rites of his country; and the grief of his aged father was alleviated by the solemn promise of Sapor, that the guilty city of Amida should serve as a funeral pile to expiate the death, and to perpetuate the memory, of his son. The ancient city of Amid or Amida, which Siege sometimes assumes the provincial appellation of Diarbekir,1' is advantageously situate in a fertile ' For the description of Amida, see d'Herbrlot, Bibtiotheqne Orirntale, p. 108. Histoire de Timur Bee, par Chereteddin All, I. iii, c. 41. Ahmed Arabsiadea, torn, i, p. 331, c. 43. Voyages tie Tavrrnier, torn, i, p. 301. Voyages d'Otter, torn' ii, p. 273; and Voyages de Niebnbr, torn, ii, p. 324-328. The last of these travellers, a learned and accu. rate Dane, has given a plan of Amida, which illustrates the operation of the siege. " Oi.si lsrkii which is styled Amid, or Kara-Amid, in the public wrstingf of the Turks, contains above 16,000 houses, and is the residence of ft Chah. plain, watered by the natural and artificial chan V Y V ' '. nels of the Tigris, of which the least inconsiderable stream bends in a semicircular form round the eastern part of the...