Page:Lesser Eastern Churches.djvu/45

Rh to have been a special local cult of the Heavenly Twins. A small native kingdom had little chance of keeping its independence between such neighbours as Rome and Persia. When Trajan (98–117) was fighting Persia the Romans stormed and sacked Edessa (in 116). It held out after that for another century. Rome asserted a kind of suzerainty over the little frontier state, which Osroene did not obey; so in 216 Abgar IX, the last king, was sent in chains to Rome. Osroene became a Roman province and the Empire established itself on the other side of the Euphrates. The kingdom had lasted about three centuries.

The first centuries of the Roman occupation of Syria were certainly the happiest period in the long history of that much-tried people. They have obeyed in turn Babylon, Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Greeks, Rome, and then Arabs and Turks. During all these centuries of subjection never were they so well ruled, never did their chains hang so lightly, as under Rome. Even to-day the land is covered with splendid ruins of cities and temples, witnesses of the one bright period of Syrian history: from Ba‘albek to Mosul you may read Latin inscriptions and see relics of the Roman rule.

The Parthian kings carried on the old quarrel against the West; there was fignting all down Mesopotamia. The Parthians were half-Hellenized; easygoing and tolerant, they had not behind them the full force of Persian loyalty. In the third century after Christ their place was taken by a fiercer foe to Rome. Ardashir son of Pabēk, Satrap of Iran, rose against the Parthian king (Artaban), slew him at Hormuz on May 28, 227, and gathered up his inheritance. Ardashir (of the house of Sassan) founded a monarchy which was a closer revival of that of Cyrus and Darius. From him came the Sassanid kings, who reigned for four centuries. Their rule was pure Persian; their ideal was to restore Iran as it had been before Alexander. One result of this was a revival of the old Persian national faith. The religion of Persia was dualism. All the universe is a battle-ground between the good