torian praefect.
That worthless minister rendered his master formidable only to the
oppressed subjects, and contemptible to the enemies of Rome. By his
weak or wicked counsels, the Imperial army was betrayed into a situation
where valor and military skill were equally unavailing. The vigorous
attempt of the Romans to cut their way through the Persian host was
repulsed with great slaughter; and Sapor, who encompassed the camp with
superior numbers, patiently waited till the increasing rage of famine
and pestilence had insured his victory. The licentious murmurs of the
legions soon accused Valerian as the cause of their calamities; their
seditious clamors demanded an instant capitulation. An immense sum of
gold was offered to purchase the permission of a disgraceful retreat.
But the Persian, conscious of his superiority, refused the money with
disdain; and detaining the deputies, advanced in order of battle to the
foot of the Roman rampart, and insisted on a personal conference with
the emperor. Valerian was reduced to the necessity of intrusting his
life and dignity to the faith of an enemy. The interview ended as it was
natural to expect. The emperor was made a prisoner, and his astonished
troops laid down their arms. In such a moment of triumph, the pride and
policy of Sapor prompted him to fill the vacant throne with a successor
entirely dependent on his pleasure. Cyriades, an obscure fugitive of
Antioch, stained with every vice, was chosen to dishonor the Roman
purple; and the will of the Persian victor could not fail of being
ratified by the acclamations, however reluctant, of the captive army.

The Imperial slave was eager to secure the favor of his master by an act
of treason to his native country. He conducted Sapor over the Euphrates,
and, by the way of Chalcis, to the metropolis of the East. So rapid
were the motions of the Persian cavalry, that, if we may credit a very
judicious historian, the city of Antioch was surprised when the idle
multitude was fondly gazing on the amusements of the theatre. The
splendid buildings of Antioch, private as well as public, were either
pillaged or destroyed; and the numerous inhabitants were put to the
sword, or led away into captivity. The tide of devastation was stopped
for a moment by the resolution of the high priest of Emesa. Arrayed in
his sacerdotal robes, he appeared at the head of a great body of fanatic
peasants, armed only with slings, and defended his god and his p