OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

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who, from the interview with his brothers inPannonia , immediately hastened to the banksof the Euphrates , the legions were graduallyrestored to a sense of duty and discipline; butthe season of anarchy had permitted Sapor toform the siege of Nisibis , and to occupy severalof the most important fortresses of Mesopota-mia .' 1 In Armenia, the renowned Tiridates hadlong enjoyed the peace and glory which he de-served by his valour and fidelity to the causeof Rome . The firm alliance which he main-tained with Constantine, was productive of spi-ritual as well as of temporal benefits; by theconversion of Tiridates , the character of asaint was applied to that of a hero, the Chris-tian faith was preached and established fromthe Euphrates to the shores of the Caspian,and Armenia was attached to the empire bythe double ties of policy and of religion. Butas many of the Armenian nobles still refusedto abandon the plurality of their gods and oftheir wives, the public tranquillity was dis-turbed by a discontented faction, which in-sulted the feeble age of their sovereign, andimpatiently expected the hour of his death.He died at length after a reign of fifty-sixyears, and the fortune of the Armenian mo-narchy expired with Tiridates . His lawfulheir was driven into exile; the Christian priestswere either murdered or expelled from theirchurches; the barbarous tribes of Albania

CHAP.

XVIII.

p,

’ Julian. Oral, i, i>. 20.