t in the
defence, and escaped with difficulty when the city was stormed by the
Persians.]

[Footnote 58: Of these four nations, the Albanians are too well known
to require any description. The Segestans [Sacastene. St. Martin.]
inhabited a large and level country, which still preserves their name,
to the south of Khorasan, and the west of Hindostan. (See Geographia
Nubiensis. p. 133, and D'Herbelot, Biblitheque Orientale, p. 797.)
Notwithstanding the boasted victory of Bahram, (vol. i. p. 410,) the
Segestans, above fourscore years afterwards, appear as an independent
nation, the ally of Persia. We are ignorant of the situation of the
Vertae and Chionites, but I am inclined to place them (at least
the latter) towards the confines of India and Scythia. See Ammian.
----Klaproth considers the real Albanians the same with the ancient
Alani, and quotes a passage of the emperor Julian in support of his
opinion. They are the Ossetae, now inhabiting part of Caucasus. Tableaux
Hist. de l'Asie, p. 179, 180.--M. ----The Vertae are still unknown. It
is possible that the Chionites are the same as the Huns. These people
were already known; and we find from Armenian authors that they were
making, at this period, incursions into Asia. They were often at war
with the Persians. The name was perhaps pronounced differently in the
East and in the West, and this prevents us from recognizing it. St.
Martin, ii. 177.--M.]

But the ruin of Amida was the safety of the Roman provinces.

As soon as the first transports of victory had subsided, Sapor was at
leisure to reflect, that to chastise a disobedient city, he had lost the
flower of his troops, and the most favorable season for conquest. [59]
Thirty thousand of his veterans had fallen under the walls of Amida,
during the continuance of a siege, which lasted seventy-three days; and
the disappointed monarch returned to his capital with affected triumph
and secret mortification. It is more than probable, that the inconstancy
of his Barbarian allies was tempted to relinquish a war in which they
had encountered such unexpected difficulties; and that the aged king
of the Chionites, satiated with revenge, turned away with horror from a
scene of action where he had been deprived of the hope of his family and
nation. The strength as well as the spirit of the army with which
Sapor took the field in the ensuing spring was no longer equal to the
unbounded views of his ambition. Instead of aspiring to t