e of emperor and marched against Gallienus, the son and
colleague of Valerian, who had been left to direct affairs in the West.
But another rival started up in the East. Sapor conceived the idea of
complicating the Roman affairs by himself putting forward a pretender;
and an obscure citizen of Antioch, a certain Miriades, or Cyriades, a
refugee in his camp, was invested with the purple and assumed the title
of Caesar.

The blow struck at Edessa laid the whole of Roman Asia open to attack,
and the Persian monarch was not slow to seize the occasion. His troops
crossed the Euphrates in force, and, marching on Antioch, once more
captured that unfortunate town, from which the more prudent citizens had
withdrawn, but where the bulk of the people, not displeased at the turn
of affairs, remained and welcomed the conqueror. Miriades was installed
in power, while Sapor himself, at the head of his irresistible
squadrons, pressed forward, bursting "like a mountain torrent" into
Cilicia, and thence into Cappadocia. Tarsus, the birthplace of St. Paul,
at once a famous seat of learning and a great emporium of commerce,
fell; Cilicia Campestris was overrun, and the passes of Taurus, deserted
or weakly defended by the Romans, came into Sapor's hand.

Penetrating through them and entering the campaign country beyond, his
bands soon began the siege of Caesarea Mazaca, the greatest city of these
parts, estimated at this time to have contained a population of four
hundred thousand souls. Demosthenes, the governor of Caesarea, defended
it bravely, and, had force only been used against him, might have
prevailed; but Sapor found friends within the walls, and by their help
made himself master of the place, while its bold defender was obliged to
content himself with escaping by cutting his way through the victorious
host. All Asia Minor now seemed open to the conqueror; and it is
difficult to understand why he did not at any rate attempt a permanent
occupation of the territory which he had so easily overrun. But it seems
certain that he entertained no such idea.

Devastation and plunder, revenge and gain, not permanent conquest, were
his objects; and hence his course was everywhere marked by ruin and
carnage, by smoking towns, ravaged fields, and heaps of slain. His
cruelties have no doubt been exaggerated; but when we hear that he
filled the ravines and valleys of Cappadocia with dead bodies, and so
led his cavalry across them; that he depopu