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DISASTERS 0Γ VALERIAN.
the country of the Lahn, as far as Switzerland.6 The Goths
invaded the Roman dominion from the Danube, Dniester, and
Don, and came with swarms of boats out of the rivers of their
own country into those of the Romans, the latter not being
able to oppose them with a fleet. The ravages which the
Goths made were like those made in the ninth and tenth cen-
turies by the Normans, who likewise sailed up the large rivers
and destroyed the towns on their banks. The Goths pene-
trated even into the interior of Achaia, the whole of which was
plundered. Argos, Corinth and Athens were destroyed by fire
and by the sword. It was on this occasion that Athens rose
from the obscurity in which it had long been buried. A cou-
rageous band of Athenians, under the command of Dexippus,
the historian, came forward and took up a position in the
mountains. They were cut off from the city, which was taken.
But the Athenians from their mountains surprised the Gothic
fleet in Piraeeus, and took vengeance upon the formidable
enemy in a manner which cannot be otherwise than pleasing to
a friend of the city of Pallas Athene.7 Dexippus must have
been a very able man; but his historical work was a bad rheto-
rical composition. In this expedition of the barbarians into
Greece, the Heruli and Peuci are also mentioned.8
While these things were going on, affairs took a still more
unfortunate turn in the East, and were still more humiliating
to the Romans ; for Sapor had invaded Mesopotamia and Syria.
The Emperor Valerian in person led the Roman army against
this enemy; but—whether it was by treachery, by bad man-
agement, or by allowing himself to be ensnared, is uncertain,
■—in short, Valerian, like general Mack at Ulm, got into a
highly unfortunate position, and was compelled to capitulate
and thus become a prisoner. He is said to have been after-
wards treated by the Persians with truly oriental cruelty.
Whether he was actually skinned alive, or dragged out his
existence in misery, cannot be decided, and was a disputed
point among the ancients themselves. The Persians fell upon
Syria and Cappadocia like a mountain torrent, and in the
6 The Juthungi, who are mentioned only at this time, perhaps derived their
name from the ruling dynasty of the Longohards, and it is probably only
another name for that people; a name terminating in ingi or ungi, is a sign
that the people bearing it derived its name from a dynasty.—N.
7 Trebell. PoUio, Galhenus, 13; Dexippus, p.xiv. foil. ed. Bekker and Niebuhr.
8 Zosimus, i. 42.
Odenathus.
295
neiO-Iibourhood of Caesarea they nearly came in contact with
the Goths, who were returning from Pontus. Antioch was
taken and plundered, and its inhabitants suffered most severely;
for all who escaped the sword were led away into slavery, with
a barbarity resembling that which was exercised during the
siege of Vienna by Soliman, when 200,000 men were driven
away or butchered like cattle. The city was then set on fire.
Such was the conduct of the Persians in Syria and also at
Caesarea, which made a noble and brave defence before it fell.
The towns on the frontier of Persia were, generally speaking,
still fortified by walls; but in the interior, in Greece and Asia
Minor, where no enemy was expected, the fortifications had
everywhere been allowed to decay, or been pulled down for
the sake of convenience; all Syria was thus inundated by the
conquerors, and only a few fortified towns seem to have been
able to maintain themselves.
One place in particular, situated in the midst of the desert,
must be excepted ; this place was Palmyra, which, unobserved
by the rest of the ancient world, had gradually become an im-
portant commercial town. Its population consisted of Arabs
and Syrians, and led on by Odenathus it now rose against
Sapor. Odenathus is justly reckoned among the great men of
the East: he defeated the rear of Sapor’s army, and did not
hesitate to make open war upon him. His power and influence
appear to have extended far beyond the countries which were
under the dominion of Pome, and included all the Saracen≡
towns in Arabia, whence he is called jrrinceps Saracenorum.
Odenathus must have assembled a great force, and there must
also have been diversions on the eastern side of the Persian
empire, of which we know nothing. The history of the Persians
and of their relations to the Pomans is very obscure, and still
more so are their relations to other eastern nations. While
Valerian was retained as a prisoner by the Persians, his son
Gallienus is charged with having made no effort to effect his
liberation; but it would have been a fearful sacrifice to give
up provinces as a ransom for him.
The time when Valerian fell into the hands of the Persians
is the beginning of the period of the so called Thirty Tyrants, a
9 The name is derived from the Semitic Shark, that if, the East, and occurs
long before the time of Mohammed. Yemen means the right hand, taking
Mecca as tlɪe point from which the country is looked at. ∙-K.