that, according to the Greek myth,
Marsyas was flayed alive. Now, flaying alive was a punishment not
unknown to the Persian law; and the nobles, fearing that the prince
really entertained the intention which he had expressed, became
thoroughly alienated from him, and made up their minds that they would
not allow him to reign. During his father's lifetime, they could, of
course, do nothing; but they laid up the dread threat in their memory,
and patiently waited for the moment when the throne would become vacant,
and their enemy would assert his right to it.

Apparently, their patience was not very severely taxed. Hormisdas II.
died within a few years; and Prince Hormisdas, as the only son whom he
had left behind him, thought to succeed as a matter of course. But the
nobles rose in insurrection, seized his person, and threw him into a
dungeon, intending that he should remain there for the rest of his life.
They themselves took the direction of affairs, and finding that, though
King Hormisdas had left behind him no other son, yet one of his wives
was pregnant, they proclaimed the unborn infant king, and even with the
utmost ceremony proceeded to crown the embryo by suspending the royal
diadem over the womb of the mother. A real interregnum must have
followed; but it did not extend beyond a few months. The pregnant widow
of Hormisdas fortunately gave birth to a boy, and the difficulties of
the succession were thereby ended. All classes acquiesced in the rule
of the infant monarch, who received the name of Sapor--whether simply to
mark the fact that he was believed to be the late king's son, or in the
hope that he would rival the glories of the first Sapor, is uncertain.

The reign of Sapor II. is estimated variously, at 69, 70, 71, and 72
years; but the balance of authority is in favor of seventy. He was born
in the course of the year A.D. 309, and he seems to have died in the
year after the Roman emperor Valens, or A.D. 379. He thus reigned nearly
three-quarters of a century, being contemporary with the Roman emperors,
Galerius, Constantine, Constantius and Constans, Julian, Jovian,
Valentinian I., Valens, Gratian, and Valentinian II.

This long reign is best divided into periods. The first period of it
extended from A.D. 309 to A.D. 337, or a space of twenty-eight years.
This was the time anterior to Sapor's wars with the Romans. It included
the sixteen years of his minority and a space of twelve years during
which he