t: and Sapor was permitted to
form the siege of Caesarea, 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 Caesarea 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 the power of a foe who might either
have honored or punished his obstinate valor; 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.
[144] 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, showed 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. [145]

[Footnote 141: The sack of Antioch, anticipated by some historians,
is assigned, by the decisive testimony of Ammianus Marcellinus, to the
reign of Gallienus, xxiii. 5. * Note: Heyne, in his note on Zosimus,
contests this opinion of Gibbon and observes, that the testimony of
Ammianus is in fact by no means clear, decisive. Gallienus and Valerian
reigned together. Zosimus, in a passage, l. iiii. 32, 8, distinctly
places this event before the capture of Valerian.--M.]

[Footnote 142: Zosimus, l. i. p. 35.]

[Footnote 143: John Malala, tom. i. p. 391. He corrupts this probable
event by some fabulous circumstances.]

[Footnote 144: Zonaras, l. xii. p. 630. Deep valleys were filled up with
the slain. Crowds of prisoners were driven to water like beasts, and
many perished for want of food.]

[Footnote 145: Zosimus, l. i. p. 25 asserts, that Sapor, had he not
preferred spoil to conquest, might have remained master of Asia.]

At the time when the East trembled at the name of Sapor, he received
a present not unworthy of the greatest kings; a long train of camels,
laden with the most rare and valuable merchandises. The rich offering
was acc