might well give him
hopes of obtaining a decided advantage. Alexander, his father's
adversary, had been murdered in A.D. 235 by Maximin, who from the
condition of a Thracian peasant had risen into the higher ranks of the
army. The upstart had ruled like the savage that he was, and after three
years of misery the whole Roman world had risen against him. Two
emperors had been proclaimed in Africa. On their fall two others had
been elected by the senate; a third, a mere boy, had been added at the
demand of the Roman populace. All the pretenders except the last had met
with violent deaths; and after the shocks of a year, unparalleled since
A.D. 69, the administration of the greatest kingdom in the world was in
the hands of a youth of fifteen. Sapor, no doubt, thought he saw in this
condition of things an opportunity that he ought not to miss, and
rapidly matured his plans lest the favorable moment should pass away.

Crossing the middle Tigris into Mesopotamia, the bands of Sapor first
attacked the important city of Nisibis. Nisibis, at the time a Roman
colony, was strongly situated on the outskirts of the mountain range
which traverses Northern Mesopotamia between the thirty-seventh and
thirty-eighth parallels. The place was well fortified and well defended;
it offered a prolonged resistance; but the walls were breached and it
was forced to yield itself. The advance was then made along the southern
flank of the mountains by Carrhae (Harran) and Edessa to the Euphrates,
which was probably reached in the neighborhood of Birehjik. The hordes
then poured into Syria, and, spreading themselves over that fertile
region, surprised and took the metropolis of the Roman East, the rich
and luxurious city of Antioch. But meantime the Romans had shown a
spirit which had not been expected from them.

Gordian, young as he was, had quitted Rome and marched through Moesia
and Thrace into Asia, accompanied by a formidable army and by at least
one good general. Timesitheus, whose daughter Gordian had recently
married, though his life had hitherto been that of a civilian, exhibited
on his elevation to the dignity of praetorian prefect considerable
military ability. The army, nominally commanded by Gordian, really acted
under his orders. With it Timesitheus attacked and beat the bands of
Sapor in a number of engagements, recovered Antioch, crossed the
Euphrates, retook Carrhae, defeated the Persian monarch in a pitched
battle near Resaina (Ras