CHA P. ratified in a perfonal interview of the three bro XVIII. thers. Conftantine, the eldeft of the Cæfars, ob tained with a certain pre-eminence of rank, the poffeffion of the new capital, which bore his own name and that of his father. Thrace and the countries of the east, were allotted for the patri. mony of Conftantius; and Conftans was acknowledged as the lawful fovereign of Italy, Africa, and the western Illyricum. The armies fubmitted to their hereditary right; and they condefcended, after fome delay, to accept from the Roman fenate, the title of Auguftus. When they first af fumed the reins of government, the eldest of these princes was twenty-one, the fecond twenty, and the third only feventeen, years of age 53. Sapor king While the martial nations of Europe followed of Perfia, the ftandards of his brothers, Conftantius, at the A.D. 310. head of the effeminate troops of Afia, was left to fuftain the weight of the Perfian war. At the decease of Conftantine, the throne of the east was filled by Sapor, fon of Hormouz, or Hormifdas, and grandfon of Narfes, who, after the victory of Galerius, had humbly confeffed the fuperiority of the Roman power. Although Sapor was in the thirtieth year of his long reign, he was still in the vigour of youth, as the date of his acceffion, by a very strange fatality, had preceded that of his birth. The wife of Hormouz remained pregnant at the time of her husband's death; and the un 53 Eufeb. in Vit. Conftantin. I. iv. c. 69. Zofimus, l. ii. P. 117. Idat, in Chron. See two notes of Tillemont, Hift. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 1086-1091. The reign of the eldest brother at Conftantinople is noticed only in the Alexandrian Chronicle. certainty of the fex, as well as of the event, ex- CH A P. cited the ambitious hopes of the princes of the XVIII. houfe of Saffan. The apprehenfions of civil war were at length removed, by the pofitive affurance of the Magi, that the widow of Hormouz had conceived, and would fafely produce a fon. Obedient to the voice of fuperftition, the Perfians prepared, without delay, the ceremony of his coronation. A royal bed, on which the queen lay in ftate, was exhibited in the midft of the palace; the diadem was placed on the fpot, which might be fuppofed to conceal the future heir of Artaxerxes, and the proftrate Satraps adored the majesty of their invifible and infenfible fovereign $4. If any credit can be given to this marvellous tale which feems however to be countenanced by the manners of the people, and by the extraordinary duration of his reign, we must admire not only the fortune, but the genius, of Sapor. In the foft fequestered education of a Perfian haram, the royal youth could discover the importance of exercifing the vigour of his mind and body; and, by his perfonal merit, deferved a throne, on which he had been feated, while he was yet unconscious of the duties and temptations of abfolute power. His minority was expofed to the almoft inevitable calamities of domeftic difcord; his capital was 54 Agathias, who lived in the fixth century, is the author of this ftory (1. iv. p. 135. edit. Louvre). He derived his information from some extracts of the Perfian Chronicles, obtained and translated by the interpreter Sergius, during his embaffy at that court. The coronation of the mother of Sapor is likewife mentioned by Schikard (Tarikh. p. 116.) and d'Herbelot (Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 763.). State of Mefopo tamia and CHAP. fùrprised and plundered by Thair, a powerful XVIII. king of Yemen, or Arabia; and the majesty of the royal family was degraded by the captivity of a princess, the fifter of the deceased king. But as foon as Sapor attained the age of manhood, the prefumptuous Thair, his nation, and his country, fell beneath the first effort of the young war rior; who used his victory with fo judicious a mixture of rigour and clemency, that he obtained from the fears and gratitude of the Arabs, the title of Dhoulacnaf, or protector of the nation ss. The ambition of the Perfian, to whom his enemies afcribe the virtue of a foldier and a statef Armenia. man, was animated by the defire of revenging the difgrace of his fathers, and of wresting from the hands of the Romans the five provinces beyond the Tigris. The military fame of Conftantine, and the real or apparent ftrength of his government, fufpended the attack; and while the hoftile conduct of Sapor provoked the refentment, his artful negociations amufed the patience of the Imperial court. The death of Conftantine was the fignal of war 56, and the actual condition of the Syrian and Armenian frontier, feemed to encourage the Perfians by the profpect of a rich fpoil, and an eafy conqueft. The example of the maffacres of the palace, diffused a spirit of licen 55 D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 764. 56 Sextus Rufus (c. 26.), who on this occafion is no contemptible authority, affirms, that the Perfians fued in vain for peace, and that Conftantine was preparing to march against them yet the fuperior weight of the testimony of Eufebius, obliges us to admit the preliminaries, if not the ratification, of the treaty. See Tillemont, Hift. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 420. tioufnefs tioufness and fedition among the troops of the CHAP. east, who were no longer restrained by their ha- XVIII. bits of obedience to a veteran commander. By the prudence of Conftantius, who, from the interview with his brothers in Pannonia, immediately haftened to the banks of the Euphrates, the legions were gradually restored to a sense of duty and difcipline; but the feafon of anarchy had permitted Sapor to form the fiege of Nifibis, and to occupy feveral of the most important fortreffes of Mefopotamia ". In Armenia, the renowned Tiridates had long enjoyed the peace and glory which he deferved by his valour and fidelity to the cause of Rome. The firm alliance which he maintained with Conftantine, was productive of fpiritual as well as of temporal benefits; by the converfion of Tiridates, the character of a faint was applied to that of a hero, the Christian faith was preached and established from the Euphrates to the fhores of the Cafpian, and Armenia was attached to the empire by the double ties of policy and of religion. But as many of the Armenian nobles ftill refufed to abandon the plurality of their gods and of their wives, the public tranquillity was disturbed by a discontented faction, which infulted the feeble age of their fovereign, and impatiently expected the hour of his death. He died at length after a reign of A.D. 342. fifty-fix years, and the fortune of the Armenian monarchy expired with Tiridates. His lawful heir was driven into exile, the Christian priests 57 Julian. Orat. i. p. 20. were CHAP. were either murdered or expelled from their XVIII. churches, the barbarous tribes of Albania were folicited to defcend from their mountains; and two of the most powerful governors, ufurping the enfigns or the powers of royalty, implored the affiftance of Sapor, and opened the gates of their cities to the Perfian garrifons. The Chriftian party, under the guidance of the archbishop of Artaxata, the immediate fucceffor of St. Gregory the Illuminator, had recourfe to the piety of Conftantius. After the troubles had continued about three years, Antiochus, one of the officers of the houfehold, executed with fuccefs the Imperial commiffion of reftoring Chofroes, the fon of Tividates, to the throne of his fathers, of distributing honors and rewards among the faithful fervants of the house of Arfaces, and of proclaiming a general amnefty, which was accepted by the greater part of the rebellious Satraps. But the Romans derived more honour than advantage from this revolution. Chofroes was a prince of a puny ftature, and a pufillanimous fpirit. Unequal to the fatigues of war, averfe to the fociety of mankind, he withdrew from his capital to a retired palace, which he built on the banks of the river Eleutherus, and in the centre of a fhady grove; where he confumed his vacant hours in the rural Sports of hunting and hawking. To fecure this inglorious cafe, he submitted to the conditions of peace which Sapor condefcended to impofe; the payment of an annual tribute, and the reftitution of the fertile province of Atropatene, which the courage |