Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/344

 320 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP. He reposed an implicit confidence in Macrianus, his ' pretorian prefect ". That worthless minister rendered his master formidable only to the oppressed subjects, and contemptible to the enemies of Rome "", By his weak or wicked counsels, the imperial army was be- trayed into a situation where valour and military skill were equally unavaihng^. The vigorous attempt of the Romans to cut their way through the Persian host was repulsed with great slaughter^; and Sapor, who encompassed the camp with superior numbers, pa- tiently waited till the increasing rage of famine and pestilence had ensured his victory. The licentious murmurs of the legions soon accused Valerian as the cause of their calamities ; their seditious clamours de- manded an instant capitulation. An immense sum of gold was offered to purchase the permission of a dis- graceful retreat. But the Persian, conscious of his superiority, refused the money with disdain; and de- taining the deputies, advanced in order of battle to the foot of the Roman rampart, and insisted on a personal conference with the emperor. Valerian was reduced to the necessity of intrusting his life and dignity to the faith of an enemy. The interview ended as it was na- tural to expect. The emperor was made a prisoner, and his astonished troops laid down their arms^ In such a moment of triumph, the pride and policy of Sapor prompted him to fill the vacant throne with a successor entirely dependent on his pleasure. Cyri- ades, an obscure fugitive of Antioch, stained with every vice, w^as chosen to dishonour the Roman purple ; and the will of the Persian victor could not fail of being ratified by the acclamations, however reluctant, of the captive army''. " Hist. August, p. 191. As Macrianus was an enemy to the christians, they charged him with being a magician. ^ Zosimus, 1. i. p. 33. y Hist. August, p. 174. a Zosimus, 1. i. p. 33; Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 630; Peter Patricius in the Excerpta Legat. p. 29. ^ Hist. August, p. 185. The reign of Cyriades appears in that collection prior to the death of Valerian ; but I have preferred a probable series of events to the doubtful chronology of a most inaccurate writer.
 * Victor in Caesar, ; Eutropius, ix. 7.