was to find fome fpecious pretence which might CHAP. release his confcience from the obligation of an XVIII. imprudent promise. The arts of fraud were made fubfervient to the defigns of cruelty; and a manifeft forgery was attefted by a perfon of the moft facred character. From the hands of the bishop of Nicomedia, Conftantius received a fatal scroll, affirmed to be the genuine teftament of his father; in which the emperor expreffed his fufpicions that he had been poifoned by his brothers; and conjured his fons to revenge his death, and to confult their own fafety by the punishment of the guilty". Whatever reasons might have been alleged by these unfortunate princes to defend their life and honour against fo incredible an accufation, they were filenced by the furious clamours of the foldiers, who declared themselves, at once, their enemies, their judges, and their executioners. The spirit, and even the forms of legal proceedings were repeatedly violated in a promifcuous maffacre; which involved the two uncles of Conftantius, feven of his coufins, of whom Dalmatius and Hannibalianus were the most illuftrious, the Patrician Optatus, who had married a fifter of the late emperor, and the Præfect Ablavius, whofe power and riches had infpired him with fome hopes of obtaining the purple. If it were neceffary to aggravate the horrors of this bloody fcene, we might add, that Conftantius himself had efpoufed the daughter of his uncle Julius, and that he had beftowed his fifter in marriage on, his coufin Hannibalianus. Thefe CHAP. alliances, which the policy of Conftantine, reXVIIL gardless of the public prejudice " had formed between the feveral branches of the Imperial houfe, ferved only to convince mankind, that these princes were as cold to the endearments of conjugal affection, as they were infenfible to the ties of confanguinity, and the moving entreaties of youth and innocence. Of fo numerous a family, Gallus and Julian alone, the two youngest children of Julius Conftantius, were faved from the hands of the affaffins, till their rage, fatiated with slaughter, had in fome measure fubfided. The emperor Conftantius, who, in the absence of his brothers, was the most obnoxious to guilt and reproach, discovered, on fome future occafions, a faint and tranfient remorfe for those cruelties which the perfidious counfels of his minifters, and the irresistible violence of the troops, had extorted from his unexperienced youth ". Divifion of A. D. 337. Sept. II. The maffacre of the Flavian race was fucceeded the empire, by a new divifion of the provinces; which was ratified in a perfonal interview of the three brothers. Conftantine, the eldest of the Cæfars, obtained, with a certain pre-eminence of rank, the poffeffion of the new capital, which bore his own name and that of his father. Thrace, and the countries of the eaft, were allotted for the patrimony of Conftantius; and Conftans was acknowledged as the lawful fovereign of Italy, Africa, and the western Illyricum. The armies fubmitted to their hereditary right; and they condescended, after fome delay, to accept from the Roman fe nate, the title of Auguftus. When they first af- СНАР. XVIII. Sapor king A. D. 310. While the martial nations of Europe followed of Perfia, the ftandards of his brothers, Conftantius, at the head of the effeminate troops of Afia, was left to fuftain the weight of the Persian war. At the decease of Conftantine, the throne of the east was filled by Sapor, fon of Hormouz, or Hormifdas, and grandfon of Narfes, who, after the victory of Galerius, had humbly confeffed the fuperiority of the Roman power. Although Sapor was in the thirtieth year of his long reign, he was still in the vigour of youth, as the date of his acceffion, by a very strange fatality, had preceded that of his birth. The wife of Hormouz remained pregnant at the time of her husband's death; and the uncertainty of the fex, as well as of the event, excited the ambitious hopes of the princes of the houfe of Saffan. The apprehenfions of civil war were at length removed, by the pofitive affurance of the Magi, that the widow of Hormouz had conceived, and would fafely produce a fon. Obedient to the voice of fuperftition, the Perfians prepared, without delay, the ceremony of his coronation. A royal bed, on which the queen lay in state, was exhibited in the midst of the palace; the diadem was placed on the fpot, which might be supposed to conceal the future heir of Artaxerxes, and the proftrate Satraps adored the majesty of their invisible and infenfible sovereign ". 54 XVIII. CHAP. If any credit can be given to this marvellous tale, which feems however to be countenanced by the manners of the people, and by the extraordinary duration of his reign, we must admire not only the fortune, but the genius, of Sapor. In the foft fequeftered education of a Perfian haram, the royal youth could difcover the importance of exercifing the vigour of his mind and body; and, by his perfonal merit,, deferved a throne, on which he had been feated, while he was yet unconfcious of the duties and temptations of abfolute power. His minority was expofed to the almoft inevitable calamities of domeftic difcord; his capital was furprised and plundered by Thair, a powerful king of Yemen, or Arabia; and the majesty of the royal family was degraded by the captivity of a princefs, the ffter of the deceafed king. But as foon as Sapor attained the age of manhood, the prefumptuous Thair, his nation, and his country, fell beneath the fift effort of the young war rior; who used his victory with fo judicious a mixture of rigour and clemency, that he obtained from the fears and gratitude of the Arabs, the title of Dhoulacnaf, or protector of the nation ". State of Neforetomia and Armenia. The ambition of the Perfian, to whom his enemies afcribe the virtues of a foldier and a ftatefman, was animated by the defire of revenging the difgrace of his fathers, and of wrefting from the hands of the Romans the five provinces beyond the Tigris. The military fame of Conftantine, and the real or apparent ftrength of his government, fufpended the attack; and while 56 XVIII. the hoftile conduct of Sapor provoked the refent- CHAP. ment, his artful negociations amused the patience of the Imperial court. The death of Conftantine was the fignal of war and the actual condition of the Syrian and Armenian frontier, feemed to encourage the Perfians by the prospect of a rich fpoil, and an eafy conqueft. The example of the maffacres of the palace, d.ffufed a spirit of licentioufnefs and fedition among the troops of the east, who were no longer reftrained by their habits of obedience to a veteran commander. By the prudence of Conftantius, who, from the interview with his brothers in Pannonia, immediately haftened to the banks of the Euphrates, the legions were gradually reftored to a fenfe of duty and difcipline; but the feafon of anarchy had permitted Sapor to form the fiege of Nifibis, and to occupy feveral of the most important fortreffes of Mefopotamia". In Armenia, the renowned Tiridates had long enjoyed the peace and glory which he deferved by his valour and fidelity to the caufe of Rome. The firm alliance which he maintained with Constantine, was productive of fpiritual as well as of temporal benefits: by the converfion of Tiridates, the character of a faint was applied to that of a hero, the Chriftian faith was preached and established from the Euphrates to the shores of the Cafpian, and Armenia was attached to the empire by the double ties of policy and of religion. But as many of the Armenian nobles ftill refufed to abandon the plurality of their gods and of their wives, the public tranquillity was difturbed by a |