[202] Lunari acie, siuuatisque lateribus occursuros hosti manipulos instruebat.
[203] Ctesiphon—see note, p. [214]. Sogdiana, the northern province of the Parthian empire, adjoining Scythia.
[204] Arachosia, now Arakhaj, one of the eastern provinces of Persia, separated by Candahar (Candaor) from the Indus. Margiana, a province of Parthia, south of the Oxus, and rather between that river and the Caspian Sea. Iberia lies between the Caspian and Black seas, south of Caucasus. Atropatia is south of Iberia, separated from Armenia by the Araxes. Adiabene is the western part of Babylonia. The poet proceeds southward through Media to Susiana, the province of Susa, on the lowest part of the eastern bank of the Tigris, to Balsora, a celebrated city and emporium of the East; having completed the circuit of the Parthian empire, except the deserts forming its southern boundary, between the Persian Gulf and Arachosia, where he began.
[205] Paradise Regained, iii. 300–344.
[206] The night before Julian consented to accept the imperial purple at the hands of his rebellious army, he saw in a vision (so at least he told his friends) one with the attributes of the tutelary genius of the empire. The phantom complained that hitherto his desire to serve the sleeper had been, frustrated, and warned him to accept the proffered dignity as he valued the continuance of his care and protection.
[207] Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. xxv. 2.
[208] Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, was remarkable for the favourable issue of all his undertakings. Amasis, king of Egypt, wrote thus to him: “It is pleasant to hear of the good fortune of a friend and connexion; but your extraordinary prosperity pleases not me, knowing, as I do, that the Deity is envious: and I would have those for whom I am interested meet both with success and failure, and think a chequered life better than unclouded fortune. For I have never heard of any man who, being prosperous in all things, has not at last perished miserably, root and branch. Be persuaded, then, and take this precaution against your good fortune; select whatever you have most valuable, and would most regret to lose, and so bestow this that it shall never come to man again; and if, in future, good and evil fortune are not blended, remedy it in the manner which I now propose.” Polycrates took the advice and cast into the sea an engraved gem of extraordinary value; and within a few days a fish was presented to him within which the gem was found. Amasis, hearing of it, renounced all friendship and connexion with him, as a man predestined to an evil fate. The event must have strongly confirmed the notion from which the advice proceeded; for Polycrates having given offence to the satrap of Sardis, or, as is more likely, being considered too powerful and dangerous a neighbour to remain on the Ionian coast, was entrapped into that nobleman’s power, and crucified by him.—Herod. iii. 40.
[209] Scott, vol. vii. p. 215.
[210] Segur, liv. vi. chap. 6.
[211] Scott, p. 301.