emselves, and not look to Rome for
help or protection. Thus Jovian, though strongly urged to follow ancient
precedent, and refuse to fulfil the engagements contracted under the
pressure of imminent peril, stood firm, and honorably performed all the
conditions of the treaty. The second period of struggle between Rome
and Persia had thus a termination exactly the reverse of the first.
Rome ended the first period by a great victory and a great diplomatic
success. At the close of the second she had to relinquish all her
gains, and to draw back even behind the line which she occupied when
hostilities first broke out. Nisibis, the great stronghold of Eastern
Mesopotamia, had been in her possession ever since the time of Verus.
Repeatedly attacked by Parthia and Persia, it had never fallen; but
once, after which it had been soon recovered; and now for many years it
had come to be regarded as the bulwark of the Roman power in the East,
and as carrying with it the dominion of Western Asia.102 A fatal blow
was dealt to Roman prestige when a city held for near two hundred years,
and one honored with the name of "colony," was wrested from the empire
and occupied by the most powerful of its adversaries. Not only Amida and
Carrhae, but Antioch itself, trembled at a loss which was felt to lay
open the whole eastern frontier to attack, and which seemed ominous of
further retrogression. Although the fear generally felt proved to be
groundless, and the Roman possessions in the East were not, for 200
years, further curtailed by the Persians, yet Roman influence in Western
Asia from this time steadily declined, and Persia came to be regarded
as the first power in these regions. Much credit is due to Sapor II. for
his entire conduct of the war with Constantius, Julian, and Jovian. He
knew when to attack and when to remain upon the defensive, when to
press on the enemy and when to hold himself in reserve and let the
enemy follow his own devices. He rightly conceived from the first the
importance of Nisibis, and resolutely persisted in his determination to
acquire possession of it, until at last he succeeded. When, in A.D. 337,
he challenged Rome to a trial of strength, he might have seemed rash
and presumptuous. But the event justified him. In a war which lasted
twenty-seven years, he fought numerous pitched battles with the Romans,
and was never once defeated. He proved himself greatly superior as
a general to Constantius and Jovian, and not