by Bingley
Chapter X "Treatment of Valerian"
The voice of history, which is often little more than the organ of hatred or flattery, reproaches Sapor with a proud abuse of the rights of conquest. We are told that Valerian, in chains, but invested with the Imperial purple, was exposed to the multitude, a constant spectacle of fallen greatness; and that whenever the Persian monarch mounted on horseback, he placed his foot on the neck of a Roman emperor.
Chapter X "Their real number was no more than nineteen"
To illustrate the obscure monuments of the life and death of each individual, would prove a laborious task, alike barren of instruction and of amusement.
Chapter XIII "Valour of the Caesars"
From the monuments of those times the obscure traces of several other victories over the barbarians of Sarmatia and Germany might possibly be collected; but the tedious search would not be rewarded either with amusement or with instruction.
What instruction and amusement do we get from Gibbon or from the study of Roman History in general?
