1847.] Journal of a Steam Trip to the north of Baghdad. 315 



About four miles north of the modern town of Samarrah, a high 

 tumulus stands on the plain. It is called Tel Alij* or the "nose bag 

 round," and is said by tradition to have been raised by some former ruler 

 ordering his troops each to bring the nose bag of his horse full of earth 

 for this purpose. It exactly resembles the tumuli to be met with in 

 Syria and in the plains of Shiragoor near Suleimanieh. 



* This highly curious and interesting mound, in all probability marks the site of the 

 " Ustrima" or pyre on which the body of the Emperor Julian was burnt previous to the 

 removal of his ashes to Tarsus. 



We learn from Gibbon in his Decline and Fall, chap. 24, that the Roman army under 

 Julian wandered many days to the East of Baghdad and afterwards countermarched in 

 the direction of the Tigris, that the Emperor received his mortal wound and died within 

 a few days march of Samarrah, and that his body was embalmed amid a scene of terror 

 and distress ; we are informed also that Anatolius, master of the offices and the personal 

 friend of Julian, with three tribunes met their death on the same day. That the army, 

 after having elected Jovian Emperor, resumed its route at the next dawn in the direction 

 of the Tigris and after marching and fighting a long summer's day encamped in the even- 

 ing at Samarrah. On the next day the second after the death of Julian, it appears the 

 Roman legions remained encamped at Sammariah as instead of being harassed on the 

 march, the Persian troops attacked the camp which was pitched in a sequestered valley. 

 On the evening of the third day, it is related the Roman army encamped at Carche (see 

 sequel) tolerably secure from assault in the protection afforded by the lofty dikes 

 of the river ; and that on the fourth day after the death of Julian they pitched their tents 

 at Dina where they remained a considerable time occupied in vain attempts to cross 

 the Tigris and finally accepted after four days' negotiation, the humiliating conditions 

 of peace. 



The circumstances attending the death of Julian and the subsequent marches of the 

 army to Dina are here so clearly related that any one conversant with the geographical 

 detail of the country between Samarrah and Dur would trace, at a single glance, almost 

 every footstep of the worn out and incessantly exposed legions. It will be seen therefore 

 that the site of Tel Alij must have been the very ground on which the army 

 encamped on the second day after the demise of the Emperor, and it is presumed 

 that the act of encamping, under such circumstances, was one of duty and not of 

 choice. The heat of a Sammariah summer cannot have materially changed since the 

 time of Julian, the interment or burning of the dead therefore within 36 hours was impera- 

 tively necessary. The reason for embalming his body I conceive was only a compliance 

 with universal custom (vide Digest 14, Ed. 3, S. 5, E. 8), or for the purpose of enabling it 

 to accompany the army until the passage of the Tigris was effected, when comparatively 

 secure, more time would have been afforded them for performing the sacred rites, than in 

 the presence of an active enemy. But the insufferable heat, if such was the intention, 

 I conjecture prevented its execution and caused either the interment of the body or its 

 reduction to ashes on this very spot. The delay had already been extended to its farth- 

 est limits, for the time above stated is the utmost that can be accorded to the non-inter- 

 ment of the dead on the sultry plains of Irak or Mesopotamia, the army therefore was 



