To this minister the praetorians
imputed the reforms, and perhaps the whole spirit of reform; for they
pursued him with a vengeance which is else hardly to be explained. Many
days was Ulpian protected by the citizens of Rome, until the whole city
was threatened with conflagration; he then fled to the palace of the young
emperor, who in vain attempted to save him from his pursuers under the
shelter of the imperial purple. Ulpian was murdered before his eyes; nor
was it found possible to punish the ringleader in this foul conspiracy,
until he had been removed by something like treachery to a remote
government.
Meantime, a great revolution and change of dynasty had been effected in
Parthia; the line of the Arsacidae was terminated; the Parthian empire was
at an end; and the sceptre of Persia was restored under the new race of
the Sassanides. Artaxerxes, the first prince of this race, sent an embassy
of four hundred select knights, enjoining the Roman emperor to content
himself with Europe, and to leave Asia to the Persians. In the event of a
refusal, the ambassadors were instructed to offer a defiance to the Roman
prince.
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