ZENOBIA AND LONGINUS. 357

death had no terrors. The ignorant emperor, in
seizing the treasures of Palmyra, did not know that
he had lost its choicest treasure in setting free the
soul of Longinus the scholar.

What followed may be more briefly told. March-
ing back with his spoils from Palmyra, Aurelian had
already reached Europe when word came to him
that the Palmyrians whom he had spared had risen
in revolt and massacred his garrison. Instantly
turning, he marched back, his soul filled with thirst
for revenge. Reaching Palmyra with great celerity,
his wrath fell with murderous fury on that devoted
city. Not only armed rebels, but women and chil-
dren, were massacred, and the city was almost
levelled with the earth. The greatness of Palmyra
was at anend. It never recovered from this dread-
ful blow. It sunk, step by step, into the miserable
village, in the midst of stately ruins, into which it
has now declined.

On his return Aurelian celebrated his victories and
conquests with a magnificent triumph, one of the
most ostentatious that any Roman emperor had ever
given. His conquests had been great, both in the
West and the Hast, and no emperor had better de-
served a triumphant return to the imperial city, the
mistress of the world.

All day long, from morning to night, the grand
procession wound on. At its head were twenty
elephants, four royal tigers, and about two hundred
of the most curious and interesting animals of the
North, South, and Hast. Sixteen hundred gladiators
followed, destined for the cruel sports to be held in