30 pieces of battering cannon and howitzers, with all the baggage of
the combined army, were captured.
AQUILEIA.—In the first battle fought there, Constantine II was
slain by Constans towards the close of March, A.D. 340. In the
second, Maximus was defeated and slain by Theodosius, July 28th.
A.D. 388. In the third, Theodosius defeated Eugenius and Arbogastes,
the Gaul, and remained sole emperor of the Roman world,
September 6th, A.D. 394. Eugenius was put to death, and Arbogastes
died by his own hand, mortified by his overthrow.
ARBELA.—The third and decisive battle fought between Alexander
the Great and Darius Codomanus, king of Persia, which decided the
fate of Persia, B.C. 331. The army of Darius consisted of 1,000,000 of
foot and 100,000 horse; the Macedonian army amounted to only
40,000 foot and 7,000 horse. The gold and silver found in the cities
of Susa, Babylon, and Persepolis, which fell into the hands of
Alexander, after this victory, amounted to £30,000,000, and the
jewels and other precious spoil, belonging to Darius, sufficed to load
20,000 mules and 5,000 camels. At the battle of Arbela, the Persians
lost 300,000, or as some, with greater probability, say 40,000, whilst
the Macedonians had only 500 slain. Darius betook himself to flight,
and was slain by Bessus, Governor of Bactria, who was punished for
his perfidy in the following manner:—He was taken and bound
naked, hand and foot, and four trees having been by main force
bent down to the ground, and one of the criminal’s limbs tied to
each of them, the trees, as they were suffered to return to their
natural position, flew back with prodigious violence, each carrying
with it one of the limbs.
ARCOLA.—This battle was fought between the French, under
General Bonaparte, and the Austrians, under Field-Marshal Alvinzy,
November 19th, 1796. The result of this bloody conflict, which was
fought for eight successive days, was the loss on the part of the
Austrians of 12,000 men in killed, wounded, and prisoners, with 4
flags and 18 guns.