United States or Tuvalu ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !


The weakness produced by this division encouraged the enemies of the Romans, whom the dread of Constantine's power had hitherto kept quiet, to take up arms. Of these the most formidable was Sa'por king of Persia. 8.

Though Sa'por had been victorious in the field, he failed in his chief design of seizing the Roman fortresses in Mesopota'mia; during twelve years he repeatedly besieged Ni'sibis, which had been long the great eastern bulwark of the empire, but was invariably baffled by the strength of the place, and the valour of the garrison.

The mutual hatred of the Pagans and Christians would probably have rekindled the flames of civil war, had not Julian fallen in an expedition against the Persians. 5. The emperor triumphantly advanced through the dominions of Sa'por as far as the Ti'gris; but the Asiatics, though defeated in the field, adopted means of defence more terrible to an invader than arms.

At length both parties became wearied of a struggle which exhausted their resources, and new enemies appearing, they resolved to conclude a peace. Sa'por returned home to repel an invasion of the Scythians; Constan'tius, by the death of his two brothers, found himself involved in a civil war which required his undivided attention.

The new sovereign successfully repelled some fresh attacks of the Persians, but despairing of final success, he entered into a treaty with Sa'por, and purchased a peace, or rather a long truce of thirty years, by the cession of several frontier provinces.

The young conqueror did not abuse his victory; he treated the vanquished with such clemency, that the Arabs gave him the title of Doulacnaf or protector of the nation. On the death of Constantine, Sa'por invaded the eastern provinces of the Roman empire; he was vigorously opposed by Constan'tius, and the war was protracted during several years with varying fortune.