The southern aegis, and Harford County intelligencer., 1863-07-03

WV o"OCPAuS w ouu 1TO, ike bHt EuSu VI
the tornado, which leaves but ruin in its
path. Gallus, just before his death, had
summoned Valeriar, Roman Senator
who had obtained great renown as gene.
raj, to aid him in his endeavors to repel
the Goths. AS Valerian, with an army,
was crossing the Alps from Rome, he re:
ceiyed the tidings Of the death of Gallus
and resolved to avenge him. So ~
D Valerian gathered his own troops
around him, inspired them with his own
spirit, and marched to meet Emilianus.-
This latter general, forgetting the Goths
IN his eagerness to strike down rival,
headed his legions in rapid march to en-
counter Valerian. The two generals, with
armies nearly equal, were approaching
each other near Spoleto. But the SOL
dlers of Emilianus had imbibed the impress
sion that Valerian was the ADLER general
and his troops the more efficient army.
They, therefore, rose in mutiny, assassina-
ted Emilianus, and, with almost universal
acclaim, hailed Valerian as their emperor.
This distinguished man was then about
sixty years of age. He was of noble
birth, highly polished in his manners, and
his learning and purity of morals had Sc
cured for him the veneration both of the
senate and the people. The emergence
of the times required the utmost energy
on the part of the executive. Valerian
associated with him his son Gallienus, to
share the tolls of empire, giving the son
the more modest name Of Caesar, while
the father assumed that of Augustus
But Gallienus unfortunately was weak
and dissolute man. For eight years Rome
was rent with commissions, through inces-
SAINT assaults of foreign invaders and from
the lawless ambition of domestic foes.-
The Franks, who were the most powerful
of these northern barbarians, seemed to
sweep all opposition before them. From
the Rhine to the Pyrenees they pressed
on in resistless wave. Valerian, dis
tracted by these incessant assaults, left
his generals to encounter the foe on the
banks of the Danube and the Rhine,
while he, notwithstanding his advanced
age, marched in person to attempt to roll
back the swelling torrent on the banks of
the distant Euphrates. The overawed
Goths retired before him, and be passed
through Asia Minor unmolested. He
crossed the Euphrates and encountered
an army of barbarians, from the east, near
the walls of Edessa. Here, upon the
plains of Mesopotamia, Sapor, the chief
tain of the Persian host, surrounded the
Roman legions with numbers so overpuw-
ering, that the idea of escape or success
full battle was equally hopeless. Though
the Romans made several desperate but
Intellectual attempts to cut their way
through the Persian host, after being re-
peatedly repulsed with great slaug ghter,
they at length were compelled, by pesti..
lence and famine, to unconditional sur
render. @ VII "a. al.
The Roman emperor, and, through him,
the empire were now compelled to drain
the cup of humiliation and misery to the
dregs. The conqueror, affecting to treat
the vanquished army with some degree of
respect, compelled them to appoint one of
his own myrmidous, Cyriades, an infa-
nous fugitive from Antioch, to the impe-
rial purple. The degenerate army ac-
cepted him with acclamations. Cyriades,
the imperial slave, now conducted Sapor
over the road the army had traversed back
to Antioch, which the Persians took pos
session Of. The city Twas pillaged, and
the inhabitants, according to the custom
Of those times, were either put to the
sword or carried, away as slaves. Many
other cities Of Asia Minor the conqueror
seized, but despairing Of making any per.
manent conquest, he left behind him only
q wasted desert Sapor was suddenly re-
called across the Euphrates by war in his
own dominions. sValerian, the enslaved
emperor, was treated with every conceiv-
able indignity. Derisively robed in inn
perial purple, he was compelled to stoop
upon his hands and his feet, in the mud,
that his .conqueror. using him as. horse
block, might put his foot upon bis, neck,
and thus mount his charger. At length
the unhappy monarch sank beneath the
weight of humiliation and .woes. It. is
said that his skin, tanned, dyed red and
stuffed, was preserved for ages in one Of
the temples Of Persia, in commemmora,
ton Of this signal triumph over imperial
Rome. :" .....,l IA .,a,,
| With the retirement of Sapor, the eph-
emeral reign Of Cyriades ceased. Gsllie-
nus, the son Of Valerian, who had been
Ileft entrusted with the sceptre when bis
father went to the Eqpbrates, was pleased
ito hear Of tue captivity and death Of his
| father. a. III left him sole emperor. with