us, and
the war was protracted during several years with varying fortune. At
the battle of Sin'gara, the Romans surprised the Persian camp, but
were in their turn driven from it with great slaughter by the troops
which Sapor had rallied. The eldest son of the Persian king was,
however, brought off as a prisoner by the Romans, and the barbarous
Constan'tius ordered him to be scourged, tortured, and publicly
executed. 10. Though Sa'por had been victorious in the field, he
failed in his chief design of seizing the Roman fortresses in
Mesopota'mia; during twelve years he repeatedly besieged Ni'sibis,
which had been long the great eastern bulwark of the empire, but was
invariably baffled by the strength of the place, and the valour of the
garrison. At length both parties became wearied of a struggle which
exhausted their resources, and new enemies appearing, they resolved to
conclude a peace. Sa'por returned home to repel an invasion of the
Scythians; Constan'tius, by the death of his two brothers, found
himself involved in a civil war which required his undivided
attention.

11. Constan'tine had scarcely been seated on his throne, when he
attempted to wrest from Con'stans some of the provinces which had
been assigned as his portion. He rashly led his army over the Julian
Alps, and devastated the country round Aquile'ia where, falling into
an ambuscade, he perished ingloriously. Con'stans seized on the
inheritance of the deceased prince, and retained it during ten years,
obstinately refusing to give any share to his brother Constan'tius.
12. But the tyranny of Con'stans at last became insupportable.
Magnen'tius, an enterprising general, proclaimed himself emperor, and
his cause was zealously embraced by the army. Con'stans was totally
unprepared for this insurrection; deserted by all except a few
favourites, whom dread of the popular hatred they had justly incurred
prevented from desertion, he attempted to escape into Spain, but was
overtaken at the foot of the Pyrenees, and murdered. 13. The
prefectures of Gaul and Italy cheerfully submitted to the usurpation
of Magnen'tius; but the legions of Illyr'icum elected their general,
Vetra'nio, emperor, and his usurpation was sanctioned by the princess
Constanti'na, who, regardless of her brother's rights, placed the
diadem upon his head with her own hands. 14. The news of these events
hastened the return of Constan'tius to Europe; on his arrival at the
capital, he received emba