Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/346

 322 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, the power of a foe, who might either have honoured or X punished his obstinate valour ; but many thousands of his fellow citizens were involved in a general massacre, and Sapor is accused of treating his prisoners with wanton and unrelenting cruelty ^ Much should un- doubtedly be allowed for national animosity, much for humbled pride and impotent revenge; yet, upon the whole, it is certain, that the same prince, who in Ar- menia had displayed the mild aspect of a legislator, showed himself to the Romans under the stern features of a conqueror. He despaired of making any perma- nent establishment in the empire, and sought only to leave behind him a wasted desert, whilst he trans- ported into Persia the people and the treasures of the provinces *. Boldness At the time when the east trembled at the name of of Odena-^^ Sapor, he received a present not unworthy of the thus against greatest kings ; a long train of camels laden with the most rare and valuable merchandises. The rich of- fering was accompanied with an epistle, respectful but not servile, from Odenathus, one of the noblest and most opulent senators of Palmyra. " Who is this Odenathus," said the haughty victor, and he com- manded that the presents should be cast into the Eu- phrates, " that he thus insolently presumes to write to his lord ? If he entertains a hope of mitigating his punishment, let him fall prostrate before the foot of our throne with his hands bound behind his back. Should he hesitate, swift destruction shall be poured on his head, on his whole race, and on his country " The desperate extremity to which the Palmyrenian was reduced, called into action all the latent powers of his soul. He met Sapor ; but he met him in arms. Infusing his own spirit into a little army collected from ' Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 630. Deep valleys were filled up with the slain. Crowds of prisoners were driven to water like beasts, and many perished for want of food. « Zosimus, (1. i. p. 25.) asserts that Sapor, had he not preferred spoil to conquest, might have remained master of Asia.
 * • Peter Patricias in Excerpt. Leg. p. 29.