It has been observed
that great mystery hangs over the operations and issue of this short war.
Thus much, however, is evident, that nothing but the previous exhaustion
of the Persian king saved the Roman armies from signal discomfiture; and
even thus there is no ground for claiming a victory (as most historians
do) to the Roman arms. Any termination of the Persian war, however,
whether glorious or not, was likely to be personally injurious to
Alexander, by allowing leisure to the soldiery for recurring to their
grievances. Sensible, no doubt, of this, Alexander was gratified by the
occasion which then arose for repressing the hostile movements of the
Germans. He led his army off upon this expedition; but their temper was
gloomy and threatening; and at length, after reaching the seat of war, at
Mentz, an open mutiny broke out under the guidance of Maximin, which
terminated in the murder of the emperor and his mother. By Herodian the
discontents of the army are referred to the ill management of the Persian
campaign, and the unpromising commencement of the new war in Germany. But
it seems probable that a dissolute and wicked army, like that of
Alexander, had not murmured under the too little, but the too much of
military service; not the buying a truce with gold seems to have offended
them, but the having led them at all upon an enterprise of danger and
hardship.
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