Chap, xlii] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 393 had elapsed since Antioch was ruined by an earthquake ; but the queen of the East, the new Theopolis, had been raised from the ground by the liberality of Justinian; and the in- creasing greatness of the buildings and the people already erased the memory of this recent disaster. On one side, the city was defended by the mountain, on the other by the river Orontes; but the most accessible part was commanded by a superior eminence; the proper remedies were rejected, from the despicable fear of discovering its weakness to the enemy; and Germanus, the emperor's nephew, refused to trust his person and dignity within the walls of a besieged city. The people of Antioch had inherited the vain and satirical genius of their ancestors : they were elated by a sudden reinforcement of six thousand soldiers; they disdained the offers of an easy capitulation ; and their intemperate clamours insulted from the ramparts the majesty of the great king. Under his eye the Persian myriads mounted with scaling-ladders to the assault ; the Eoman mercenaries fled through the opposite gate of Daphne ; and the generous resistance of the youth of Antioch served only to aggravate the miseries of their country. As Chosroes, attended by the ambassadors of Justinian, was de- scending from the mountain, he affected, in a plaintive voice, to deplore the obstinacy and ruin of that unhappy people ; but the slaughter still raged with unrelenting fury; and the city, at the command of a Barbarian, was delivered to the flames. The cathedral of Antioch was indeed preserved by the avarice, not the piety, of the conqueror ; a more honourable exemption was granted to the church of St. Julian and the quarter of the town where the ambassadors resided ; some distant streets were saved by the shifting of the wind ; and the walls still subsisted to protect, and soon to betray, their new inhabitants. Fanaticism had defaced the ornaments of Daphne, but Chosroes breathed a purer air amidst her groves and fountains; and some idolaters in his train might sacrifice with impunity to the nymphs of that elegant retreat. Eighteen miles below Antioch, the river Orontes falls into the Mediterranean. The haughty Persian visited the term of his conquests ; and, after bathing alone in the sea, he offered a solemn sacrifice of thanksgiving to the sun, or rather to the creator of the sun, whom the Magi adored. If this act of superstition offended the prejudices of
