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ISDIGERDES king of the Persians, who had in no way molested
the Christians in his dominions, having died, his son Vararanes by
name succeeded him in the kingdom. This prince yielding to the
influence of the magi, persecuted the Christians there with rigor, by
inflicting on them a variety of Persian punishments and tortures.
They were therefore on account of the oppression obliged to desert
their country and seek refuge among the Romans, entreating them not to
suffer them to be completely extirpated. Atticus the bishop received
these suppliants with great benignity, and did his utmost to help them
in whatsoever way it was possible: accordingly he made the emperor
Theodosius acquainted with the facts. It happened at the same time
that another grievance of the Romans against Persians came to light.
The Persians, that is to say, would not send back the laborers in
the gold mines who had been hired from among the Romans; and they also
plundered the Roman merchants. The bad feeling which these things
produced was greatly increased by the flight of the Persian Christians
into the Roman territories. For the Persian king immediately sent an
embassy to demand the fugitives. But the Romans were by no means
disposed to deliver them up; not only as desirous of defending their
suppliants, but also because they were ready to do anything for the
sake of the Christian religion. For which reason they chose rather to
renew the war with the Persians, than to suffer the Christians to be
miserably destroyed. The league was accordingly broken, and a fierce
war followed. Of which war I deem it not unseasonable to give some
brief account. The Roman emperor first sent a body of troops under
the command of the general Ardaburius; who making an irruption through
Armenia into Persia, ravaged one of its provinces called Azazene.
Narsaeus the Persian general marched against him with the Persian
army; but on coming to an engagement he was defeated, and obliged to
retreat. Afterwards he judged it advantageous to make an unexpected
irruption through Mesopotamia into the Roman territories there
unguarded, thinking by this means to be revenged on the enemy. But
this design of Narsaeus did not escape the observation of the Roman
general. Having therefore plundered Azazene, he then himself also
hastily marched into Mesopotamia. Wherefore Narsaeus, although
furnished with a large army, was prevented from invading the Roman
provinces; but arriving at Nisibis -a city in the possession of the
Persians situated on the frontiers of both empires -- he sent
Ardaburius desiring that they might make mutual arrangements about
carrying on the war, and appoint a time and place for an engagement.
But he said to the messengers, 'Tell Narsaeus that the Roman
emperors will not fight when it pleases him.' The emperor perceiving
that the Persian was mustering his whole force, made additional levies
to his army, and put his whole trust in God for the victory: and that
the king was not without immediate benefit from this pious confidence
the following circumstance proves. As the Constantinopolitans were in
great consternation, and apprehensive respecting the issue of the war,
angels from God appeared to some persons in Bithynia who were
travelling to Constantinople on their own affairs, and bade them tell
the people not to be alarmed, but pray to God and be assured that the
Romans would be conquerors. For they said that they themselves were
appointed by God to defend them. When this message was circulated it
not only comforted the residents of the city, but rendered the soldiers
more courageous. The seat of war being transferred, as we have said,
from Armenia. to Mesopotamia, the Romans shut up the Persians in
the city of Nisibis, which they besieged; and having constructed
wooden towers which they advanced by means of machines to the walls,
they slew great numbers of those who defended them, as well as of those
who ran to their assistance. When Vararanes the Persian monarch
learned that his province of Azazene on the one hand had been
desolated, and that on the other his army was closely besieged in the
city of Nisibis, he resolved to march in person with all his forces
against the Romans: but dreading the Roman valor, he implored the
aid of the Saracens, who were then governed by a warlike chief named
Alamundarus. This prince accordingly brought with him a large
reinforcement of Saracen auxiliaries, exhorted the king of the
Persians to fear nothing, for that he would soon reduce the Romans
under his power, and deliver Antioch in Syria into his hands. But
the event did not realize these promises; for God infused into the
minds of the Saracens a terrible panic; and imagining that the Roman
army was falling upon them, and finding no other way of escape, they
precipitated themselves, armed as they were, into the river
Euphrates, wherein nearly one hundred thousand of them were drowned.
Such was the nature of the panic.
The Romans besieging Nisibis, understanding that the king of Persia
was bringing with him a great number of elephants, became alarmed in
their turn, burnt all the machines they had used in carrying on the
siege, and retired into their own country. What engagements
afterwards took place, and how Areobindus another Roman general
killed the bravest of the Persians in single combat, and by what means
Ardaburius destroyed seven Persian commanders in an ambuscade, and in
what manner Vitian another Roman general vanquished the remnant of the
Saracen forces, I believe I ought to pass by, lest I should
digress too far from my subject.
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