ll be poured on his head, on his whole race, and on his country." The
desperate extremity to which the Palmyrenian was reduced, called into
action all the latent powers of his soul. He met Sapor; but he met him
in arms. Infusing his own spirit into a little army collected from the
villages of Syria and the tents of the desert, he hovered round the
Persian host, harassed their retreat, carried off part of the treasure,
and, what was dearer than any treasure, several of the women of the
great king; who was at last obliged to repass the Euphrates with some
marks of haste and confusion. By this exploit, Odenathus laid the
foundations of his future fame and fortunes. The majesty of Rome,
oppressed by a Persian, was protected by a Syrian or Arab of Palmyra.

The voice of history, which is often little more than the organ of
hatred or flattery, reproaches Sapor with a proud abuse of the rights
of conquest. We are told that Valerian, in chains, but invested with the
Imperial purple, was exposed to the multitude, a constant spectacle
of fallen greatness; and that whenever the Persian monarch mounted
on horseback, he placed his foot on the neck of a Roman emperor.
Notwithstanding all the remonstrances of his allies, who repeatedly
advised him to remember the vicissitudes of fortune, to dread the
returning power of Rome, and to make his illustrious captive the pledge
of peace, not the object of insult, Sapor still remained inflexible.
When Valerian sunk under the weight of shame and grief, his skin,
stuffed with straw, and formed into the likeness of a human figure, was
preserved for ages in the most celebrated temple of Persia; a more real
monument of triumph, than the fancied trophies of brass and marble so
often erected by Roman vanity. The tale is moral and pathetic, but the
truth of it may very fairly be called in question. The letters still
extant from the princes of the East to Sapor are manifest forgeries;
nor is it natural to suppose that a jealous monarch should, even in the
person of a rival, thus publicly degrade the majesty of kings. Whatever
treatment the unfortunate Valerian might experience in Persia, it is at
least certain that the only emperor of Rome who had ever fallen into the
hands of the enemy, languished away his life in hopeless captivity.

The emperor Gallienus, who had long supported with impatience
the censorial severity of his father and colleague, received the
intelligence of his misfortunes with secr