Shahpoor was engaged in quelling a rebellion which had arisen in Khorasan, the Arabs invaded Mesopotamia, and a chief of the name of Manizen, or Malek Zeiren, seized on the almost impregnable fortress of Khadher or Khazm, near Tekrit, where he defied the power of the Persian army. The daughter of the Arabian chief is said to have fallen in love with Shahpoor, whom she had seen from the ramparts, and she found means to disclose to him her passion, offering to betray the fortress into his hands, on his promise to become her husband. The condition was accepted, Manizen and the garrison were massacred, his daughter for one night shared the bed of the conqueror, and the next morning she was tied by her beautiful hair to the tail of a wild horse, which was let loose in the desert.[1]
The Syrian Arabs were first subjected to Rome by the arms of Pompey.[2] The kingdom of Arethas at that time included Petra and Cœlosyria, as well as Damascus;[3] he had been the ally of Antipater, and had besieged Aristobulus in Jerusalem, and taken the city all but the temple, when he was
- ↑ Eutychius, Annal. ed. Seld. tom. i. p. 369. The history of Manizen is given by Malcolm (Hist. of Pers. vol. i. p. 97), from the Kozut ul Suffa, and by Major D. Price (Essay towards the history of Arabia), from the Tarikh Tebry.
- ↑ Dio Cassius, Hist. lib. xxxvi. p. 360. Appian, Mithridatica, c. 106, 117. Jo. Malala, p. 288. They afterwards fought on the side of their conqueror. Appian, Civil. lib. ii. c. 71.
- ↑ Frœlich, Annales Regum Syriæ. Josephus. Frœlich has engraved two coins of Arethas, on one of which he bears the title of ΦΙΛΕΛΛΗΝΟΣ, tab. xvi.
