Dictionary of Battles / From the Earliest Date to the Present Time

by Thomas Benfield Harbottle

Julian's Defeat by the Persians (Persian Wars).

Fought June 28, 363, between the Romans, under Julian, and the Persians, under Sapor II. Julian had advanced against Ctesiphon, the Persian capital, but finding himself too weak to attack it, was retreating along the left bank of the Tigris. In the course of the retreat he was attacked by the Persians, and worsted in an action unimportant in itself, but resulting in the death of Julian, who was mortally wounded in the skirmish. The election of Jovian as Emperor was followed by a peace which restored to Sapor almost all the Roman conquests in Persia.