he entire Persian host in confusion to the gates of
Ctesiphon. He even returned to lay siege to that city; but it was not
long before effectual relief arrived; from all the provinces flocked in
contingents for the defence of the western capital; several engagements
were fought, in some of which Odenathus was defeated; and at last he
found himself involved in difficulties through his ignorance of the
localities, and so thought it best to retire. Apparently his retreat was
undisturbed; he succeeded in carrying off his booty and his prisoners,
among whom were several satraps, and he retained possession of
Mesopotamia, which continued to form a part of the Palmyrene kingdom
until the capture of Zenobia by Aurelian, A.D. 273.

The successes of Odenathus, in A.D. 263, were followed by a period of
comparative tranquillity. That ambitious prince seems to have been
content with ruling from the Tigris to the Mediterranean, and with the
title of "Augustus," which he received from the Roman emperor Gallienus,
and "King of Kings," which he assumed upon his coins. He did not press
further upon Sapor, nor did the Roman Emperor make any serious attempt
to recover his father's person or revenge his defeat upon the Persians.
An expedition which he sent out to the East, professedly with this
object, in the year A.D. 267, failed utterly, its commander,
Heraclianus, being signally defeated by Zenobia, the widow and successor
of Odenathus. Odenathus himself was murdered by a kinsman three or four
years after his great successes, and though Zenobia ruled his kingdom
almost with a man's vigor, the removal of his powerful adversary must
have been felt as a relief by the Persian monarch. It is evident, too,
that from the time of the accession of Zenobia the relations between
Rome and Palmyra had become unfriendly; the old empire grew jealous of
the new kingdom which had sprung up upon its borders; and the effect of
this jealousy, while it lasted, was to secure Persia from any attack on
the part of either.

It appears that Sapor, relieved from any further necessity of defending
his empire in arms, employed the remaining years of his life in the
construction of great works, and especially in the erection and
ornamentation of a new capital. The ruins of Shapur, which still exist
near Kazerun, in the province of Fars, commemorate the name and afford
some indication of the grandeur of the second Persian monarch. Besides
remains of buildings, they co