importance, Sapor, who had destroyed
Singara, carefully repaired the defences of Bezabde, provisioned it
abundantly, and garrisoned it with some of his best troops. He was well
aware that the Romans would feel keenly the loss of so important a post,
and expected that it would not be long before they made an effort to
recover possession of it.

The winter was now approaching, but the Persian monarch still kept the
field. The capture of Bezabde was followed by that of many other less
important strongholds, which offered little resistance. At last, towards
the close of the year, an attack was made upon a place called Virta,
said to have been a fortress of great strength, and by some moderns
identified with Tekrit, an important city upon the Tigris between
Mosul and Bagdad. Here the career of the conqueror was at last arrested.
Persuasion and force proved alike unavailing to induce or compel a
surrender; and, after wasting the small remainder of the year, and
suffering considerable loss, the Persian monarch reluctantly gave up the
siege, and returned to his own country.

Meanwhile the movements of the Roman emperor had been slow and
uncertain. Distracted between a jealous fear of his cousin Julian's
proceedings in the West, and a desire of checking the advance of his
rival Sapor in the East, he had left Constantinople in the early spring,
but had journeyed leisurely through Cappadocia and Armenia Minor to
Samosata, whence, after crossing the Euphrates, he had proceeded to
Edessa, and there fixed himself. While in Cappadocia he had summoned to
his presence Arsaces, the tributary king of Armenia, had reminded him
of his engagements, and had endeavored to quicken his gratitude by
bestowing on him liberal presents. At Edessa he employed himself during
the whole of the summer in collecting troops and stores; nor was it till
the autumnal equinox was past that he took the field, and, after weeping
over the smoking ruins of Amida, marched to Bezabde, and, when the
defenders rejected his overtures of peace, formed the siege of the
place. Sapor was, we must suppose, now engaged before Virta, and it is
probable that he thought Bezabde strong enough to defend itself. At any
rate, he made no effort to afford it any relief; and the Roman emperor
was allowed to employ all the resources at his disposal in reiterated
assaults upon the walls. The defence, however, proved stronger than the
attack. Time after time the bold sallies of the bes