CHAP.

X.

The imperial slave was eager to secure the favour of his master, by an act of treason to his native country. He conducted Sapor over the runs Syria, Euphrates, and, by the way of Chalcis, to the Cilicia, and metropolis of the East. So rapid were the mo

Sapor over

Cappado.

tions of the Persian cavalry, that, if we may credit a very judicious historian*, the city of Antioch was surprised when the idle multitude was fondly gazing on the amusements of the theatre. The splendid buildings of Antioch, private as well as public, were either pillaged or destroyed; and the numerous inhabitants were put to the sword, or led away into captivity †. The tide of devastation was stopped for a moment, by the resolution of the high priest of Emesa. Arrayed in his sacerdotal robes, he appeared at the head of a great body of fanatic peasants, armed only with slings, and defended his god and his property from the sacrilegious hands of the followers of Zoroaster t. But the ruin of Tarsus, and of many other cities, furnishes a melancholy proof, that, except in this singular instance, the conquest of Syria and Cilicia scarcely interrupted the progress of the Persian arms. The advantages of the narrow passes of Mount Taurus were abandoned, in which an invader, whose principal force consisted in his cavalry, would have been engaged in a very unequal combat; and

1

*The sack of Antioch, anticipated by some historians, is assigned, by the decisive testimony of Ammianus Marcellinus, to the reign of Gallienus, xxiii. 5.

John Malala, tom. i. p. 391. He corrupts this event by some fabulous circumstances.

probable

X.

and Sapor was permitted to form the siege of CHA P. Cæsaria, the capital of Cappadocia a city, though of the second rank, which was supposed to contain four hundred thousand inhabitants. Demosthenes commanded in the place, not so much by the Commission of the emperor, as in the voluntary defence of his country. For a long time he deferred its fate; and, when at last Cæsarea was betrayed by the perfidy of a physician, he cut his way through the Persians, who had been ordered to exert their utmost diligence to take him alive. This heroic chief escaped

r

the power of a foe, who might either have honoured or punished his obstinate valour; but many thousands of his fellow-citizens were involved in a general massacre; and Sapor is accused of treating his prisoners with wanton and unrelenting cruelty. Much should undoubtedly be allowed for national animosity, much for humbled pride and impotent revenge; yet, upon the whole, it is certain, that the same prince, who in Armenia had displayed the mild aspect of a legislator, shewed himself to the Romans under the stern features of a conqueror. He despaired of making ..any permanent establishment in the empire, and sought only to leave behind him a wasted desert, whilst he transported into Persia the people and the treasures of the provinces t.

* Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 630. Deep vallies were filled up with the slain. Crowds of prisoners were driven to water like beasts, nd many perished for want of food.

+ Zosimus, l. i. p. 25. asserts, that Sapor, had he not preferred spoil to conquest, might have remained master of Asia.

X.

Boldness

thus against

Sapor.

66

CHAP. At the time when the East trembled at the name of Sapor, he received a present, not unwore thy of the greatest kings; a long train of camels, and success laden with the most rare and valuable merchanof Odena- dises. The rich offering was accompanied with an epistle, respectful, but not servile, from Odenathus, one of the noblest and most opulent senators of Palmyra, "Who is this Odenathus," (said the haughty victor, and he commanded that the presents should be cast into the Euphrates,)" that he thus insolently presumes to "write to his lord? If he entertains a hope of mitigating his punishments, let him fall pro "strate before the foot of our throne, with his "hands bound behind his back. Should he he "sitate, swift destruction shall be poured on his "head, on his whole race, and on his coun"try *." The desperate extremity to which the Palmyrenian was reduced, called into action all the latent powers of his soul. He met Sapor; but he met him in arms. Infusing his own spirit into a little army, collected from the villages of Syria †, and the tents of the desert ‡, he hovered round the Persian host, harassed their retreat, carried off part of the treasure, and, what was dearer than any treasure, several of the

women

* Peter Patricius in Excerpt. Leg. p. 29.

Rufus

+ Syrorum agrestium manu, Sextus Rufus, c. 23. Victor, the Augustan History, (p. 192.) and several inscriptions, agree in making Odenathus a citizen of Palmyra,

He possessed so powerful an interest among the wandering tribes, that Procopius (Bell. Persic. 1. ii. c. 5.) and John Malala (tom. i. p. 391.) stile him prince of the Saracens.

women of the Great King; who was at last CHAP. obliged to repass the Euphrates with some marks of haste and confusion *. By this exploit, Odenathus laid the foundations of his future fame and fortunes. The majesty of Rome, oppressed by a Persian, was protected by a Syrian or Arab of Palmyra.

of Valerian

The voice of history, which is often little Treatment more than the organ of hatred or flattery, reproaches Sapor with a proud abuse of the rights of conquest. We are told that Valerian, in chains, but invested with the Imperial purple, was exposed to the multitude, a constant spectacle of fallen greatness; and that whenever the Persian monarch mounted on horseback, he placed his foot on the neck of a Roman emperor, Notwithstanding all the remonstrances of his allies, who repeatedly advised him to remember the vicissitude of fortune, to dread the returning power of Rome, and to make his illustrious captive the pledge of peace, not the object of insult, Sapor still remained inflexible, When Valerian sunk under the weight of shame and grief, his skin, stuffed with straw, and formed into the likeness of a human figure, was preserved for ages in the most celebrated temple of Persia; a more real monument of triumph, than the fancied trophies of brass and marble so often erected by Roman vanity †, The tale is moral and pathetic,

* Peter Patricius, p. 25.

+ The Pagan writers lament, the Christian insult, the misfor, tunes of Valerian. Their various testimonies are accurately col lected

X.

CHAP. pathetic, but the truth of it may very fairly be called in question. The letters still extant from the princes of the East to Sapor, are manifest forgeries *; nor is it natural to suppose that a jealous monarch should, even in the person of a rival, thus publicly degrade the majesty of kings. Whatever treatment the unfortunate Valerian might experience in Persia, it is at least certain, that the only emperor of Rome who had ever fallen into the hands of the enemy, languished away his life in hopeless captivity.

Character and admini

stration of Gallienus.

The emperor Gallienus, who had long supported with impatience the censorial severity of his father and colleague, received the intelligence of his misfortunes with secret pleasure and avowed indifference. "I knew that my father was a "mortal," said he ;" and since he has acted as

becomes a brave man, I am satisfied." Whilst Rome lamented the fate of her sovereign, the savage coldness of his son was extolled by the servile courtiers, as the perfect firmness of a hero and a stoic +. It is difficult to paint the light, the various, the inconstant character of Gallienus, which he displayed without constraint, as soon as he became sole possessor of the empire. In every art that he attempted, his lively genius enabled

lected by Tillemont, tom. iii. p. 739, &c. So little has been preserved of eastern history before Mahomet, that the modern Persians are totally ignorant of the victory of Sapor, an event, so glorious to their nation. See Bibliotheque Orientale.

* One of these epistles is from Artavasdes, king of Armenia!: Since Armenia was then a province in Persia, the king, the kingdom, and the epistle, must be fictitious.

+ See his life in the Augustan History.