eries of expeditions, he ravaged
the whole district of the Hejer, gaining numerous victories over the
tribes of the Temanites, the Beni-Wa'iel, the Abdul-Kais, and others,
which had taken a leading part in the invasion of Persia. His military
genius and his valor were everywhere conspicuous; but unfortunately
these excellent qualities were unaccompanied by the humanity which has
been the crowning virtue oL many a conqueror. Sapor, exasperated by the
sufferings of his countrymen during so many years, thought that he could
not too severely punish those who had inflicted them. He put to the
sword the greater part of every tribe that he conquered; and, when his
soldiers were weary of slaying, he made them pierce the shoulders of
their prisoners, and insert in the wound a string or thong by which to
drag them into captivity. The barbarity of the age and nation approved
these atrocities; and the monarch who had commanded them was, in
consequence, saluted as Dhoulacta, or "Lord of the Shoulders," by
an admiring people. Cruelties almost as great, but of a different
character, were at the same time sanctioned by Sapor in regard to
one class of his own subjects--viz., those who had made profession
of Christianity. The Zoroastrian zeal of this king was great, and he
regarded it as incumbent on him to check the advance which Christianity
was now making in his territories. He issued severe edicts against the
Christians soon after attaining his majority; and when they sought
the protection of the Roman emperor, he punished their disloyalty by
imposing upon them a fresh tax, the weight of which was oppressive. When
Symeon, Archbishop of Seleucia, complained of this additional burden in
an offensive manner, Sapor retaliated by closing the Christian churches,
confiscating the ecclesiastical property, and putting the complainant
to death. Accounts of these severities reached Constantine, the Roman
emperor, who had recently embraced the new religion (which, in spite
of constant persecution, had gradually overspread the empire), and had
assumed the character of a sort of general protector of the Christians
throughout the world. He remonstrated with Sapor, but to no purpose.
Sapor had formed the resolution to renew the contest terminated
so unfavorably forty years earlier by his grandfather. He made the
emperor's interference with Persian affairs, and encouragement of his
Christian subjects in their perversity, a ground of complaint, and bega
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