Sextus Rufus, (c. 26,) who on this occasion is no
contemptible authority, affirms, that the Persians sued in vain for
peace, and that Constantine was preparing to march against them: yet
the superior weight of the testimony of Eusebius obliges us to admit the
preliminaries, if not the ratification, of the treaty. See Tillemont,
Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 420. ----Constantine had endeavored
to allay the fury of the prosecutions, which, at the instigation of the
Magi and the Jews, Sapor had commenced against the Christians. Euseb
Vit. Hist. Theod. i. 25. Sozom. ii. c. 8, 15.--M.]

[Footnote 57: Julian. Orat. i. p. 20.]

[Footnote 57a: Tiridates had sustained a war against Maximin. caused
by the hatred of the latter against Christianity. Armenia was the
first nation which embraced Christianity. About the year 276 it was the
religion of the king, the nobles, and the people of Armenia. From St.
Martin, Supplement to Le Beau, v. i. p. 78.----Compare Preface to
History of Vartan by Professor Neumann, p ix.--M.]

[Footnote 57b: Chosroes was restored probably by Licinius, between 314
and 319. There was an Antiochus who was praefectus vigilum at Rome, as
appears from the Theodosian Code, (l. iii. de inf. his quae sub ty.,) in
326, and from a fragment of the same work published by M. Amedee Peyron,
in 319. He may before this have been sent into Armenia. St. M. p. 407.
[Is it not more probable that Antiochus was an officer in the service
of the Caesar who ruled in the East?--M.] Chosroes was succeeded in the
year 322 by his son Diran. Diran was a weak prince, and in the sixteenth
year of his reign. A. D. 337. was betrayed into the power of the
Persians by the treachery of his chamberlain and the Persian governor of
Atropatene or Aderbidjan. He was blinded: his wife and his son Arsaces
shared his captivity, but the princes and nobles of Armenia claimed the
protection of Rome; and this was the cause of Constantine's declaration
of war against the Persians.--The king of Persia attempted to make
himself master of Armenia; but the brave resistance of the people, the
advance of Constantius, and a defeat which his army suffered at Oskha in
Armenia, and the failure before Nisibis, forced Shahpour to submit to
terms of peace. Varaz-Shahpour, the perfidious governor of Atropatene,
was flayed alive; Diran and his son were released from captivity; Diran
refused to ascend the throne, and retired to an obscure retreat: his son
Arsaces w