abdication of the emperor Justin ; a new spirit arose in the Byzantine councils ; and a truce of three years was obtained by the prudence of Tiberius. That seasonable interval was employed in the preparations of war; and the voice of rumour proclained to the world, that from the distant countries of the Alps and the Rhine, from Scythia, Mæsia, Pannonia, Illyricumn, and Isauria, the strength of the Iinperial cavalry was reinforced with one hundred and fifty thousand soldiers. Yet the king of Persia, without fear, or without faith, resolved to prevent the attack of the enemy; again passed the Euphrates, and, dismissing the ambassadors of Tiberius, arrogantly commanded them to await his arrival at Cæsarea, the metropolis of the Cappadocian provinces. The two armies encountered each other in the battle of Melitene : the Barbarians, who darkened the air with a cloud of arrows, prolonged their live, and extended their wings across the plain; while the Romans, in deep and solid bodies, expected to prevail in closer action, by the weight of their swords and lances. A Scythian chief, who commanded their right wing, suddenly turned the Aank of the enemy, attacked their rear guard in the presence of Chosroes, penetrated to the midst of the camp, pillaged the royal tent, profaned the eternal fire, loaded a train of camels with the spoils of Asia, cut bis way through the Persian host, and returned with songs of victory to his friends, who had consumed the day in single combats, or ineffectual skirmishes. The darkness of the night, and the separation of the Romans, afforded the Persian monarch an opportunity of revenge ; and one of their camps was swept away by a rapid and iinpetuous assault. But the review of his loss, and the consciousness of bis danger, determined Chosroes to a speedy retreat; he burnt, in his passage, the vacant town of Melitene : and without consulting the safety of his troops, boldly swam the Euphrates on the back of an elephant. After this unsuccessful campaign, the want of magazines, and perhaps some inroad of the Turks, obliged him to disband or divide his forces; the Romans were left masters of the field, and their general Justinian, advancing to the relief of the Persarmenian rebels, erected his standard on the banks of the Araxes. The great Pompey had formerly halted within three days' march of the Caspian :(5) that inland sea was explored, for the first time, by a hostile fleet,(6). and seventy thousand captives were transplanted from Hyrcania to the isle of Cyprus. On the return of spring, Justinian descended into the fertile plains of Assyria, the faines of war approached the residence of Nushirvan, the indignant inonarch sunk into the grave, and his last edict restrained his successors fron exposing their person in a battle against the Romans. Yet the memory of this transient affront was lost in the glories of a long reign; and his formidable enemies, after indulging their dream of conquest, again solicited a short respite from the calamities of war.(7)

(A. D. 579—590.] The throne of Chosroes Nushirvan was filled by Hormouz, or Horinisdas, the eldest or the most favoured of his sons. With the king. doms of Persia and India, he inherited the reputation and example of his father, the service, in every rank, of his wise and valiant officers, and a general system of adininistration, harmonized by time and political wisdom to promote the happiness of the prince and people. But the royal youth enjoyed a still more valuable blessing, the friendship of a sage who had presided over his education, and who always preferred the honour to the interest of his pupil, bis interest to bis inclination. In a dispute with the Greek and Indian philosophers,

a

(5) He had vanquished the Albanians, who brought into the field 12,000 horsc and 60,000 foot; but he dreaded the multitude of venomous reptiles, whose existence may adinit of some doubt, as well as that of the neighbouring Amazons. Plutarch, in Pompeio, tom. ii. p. 1165, 1166.

(6) In the history of the world I can only perceive iwo navies on the Caspian: 1. Of the Macedonians, when Patrocles, the admiral of the kings of Syria, Seleucus, and Antiochus, descended most probably the river Oxus, from the confines of India (Plin. Hist. Natur. vi 21). 2. Of the Russians, when Peter the First conducted a fleet and army from the neighbourhond of Moscow to the coast of Persia (Bell's Travels, vol. II. p. 325—352). He justly observes, that such martial pomp had never been displayed on the Volga.

(7) For these Persian wars and treaties, see Menander, in Excerpt. Legat. p. 113–125. Theophanes Byzant. apud Phoirim, cod. lxiv. p. 77. 80, 81. Evagrius, l. v. c. 7-15. Theophylact. l. iii. c. 8-16 Agathias, i. iv. p 140

gress

Buzurg(8) bad once maintained, that the most grievous misfortune of life is old age without the remembrance of virtue ; and our candour will presume that the same principle compelled him, during three years, to direct the councils of the Persian empire. His zeal was rewarded by the gratitude and docility of Hormouz, who acknowledged bimself more indebted to his preceptor than to his parent : but when age and labour had impaired the strength, and perhaps the faculties of this prudent counsellor, he retired from court, and abandoned the youthful monarch to bis own passions and those of his favourites. By the fatal vicissitudes of human affairs, the same scenes were renewed at Ctesipbon, which had been exbibited in Rome after the death of Marcus Antoninus. 'The ministers of Aattery and corruption, who had been banished by the father, were recalled and cherished by the son; the disgrace and exile of the friends of Nushirvan established their tyranny; and virtue was driven by degrees from the mind of Hormouz, from his palace, and from the government of the state. The faithful agents, the eyes and ears of the king, informed him of the pro

of disorder, that the provincial governors flew to their prey with the fierceness of lions and eagles, and that their rapine and injustice would teach the most loyal of his subjects to abhor the name and authority of their sovereign. The sincerity of this advice was punished with death, the murmurs of the cities were despised, their tumults were quelled by military execution; the intermediate powers between the throne and people were abolished; and the childish vanity of Hormouz, who affected the daily use of the tiara, was fond of declaring, that he alone would be the judge as well as the master of his kingdom. In every word, and in every action, the son of Nushirvan degenerated from the virtues of his father. His avarice defrauded the troops ; bis jealous caprice degraded the satraps ; the palace, the tribunals, the waters of the Tigris, were stained with the blood of the innocent, and the tyrant exulted in the sufferings and execution of thirteen thousand victims. As the excuse of his cruelty, he sometimes condescended to observe, that the fears of the Persians would be productive of hatred, and that their hatred must terminate in rebellion; but he forgot that his own guilt and folly had inspired the sentiments which he deplored,

and prepared the event which he so justly apprehended. Exasperated by long and hopeless oppression, the provinces of Babylon, Susa, and Carmania, erected the standard of revolt; and the princes of Arabia, India, and Scythia refused the customary tribute to the unworthy successor of Nushirvan. The arms of the Romans, in slow sieges and frequent inroads, afflicted the frontiers of Mesopotamia and Assyria; one of their generals professed bimself the disciple of Scipio, and the soldiers were animated by a miraculous image of Christ, whose mild aspect should never have been displayed in the front of battle. (9) At the same time, the eastern provinces of Persia were invaded by the great khan, who passed the Oxus at the head of three or four hundred ihousand Turks. The imprudent Hormouz accepted their perfidious and formidable aid ; the cities of Khorasan, or Bactriana, were commanded to open their gates; the march of the Barbarians towards the mountains of Hyrcania, revealed the correspondence of the Turkish and Roman arins; and their union must have subverted the throne of the house of Sassan.

(A. D. 590.] Persia had been lost by a king; it was saved by a hero. After his revost, Varanes or Bahram is stiginatized by the son of Hormouz as an ungrateful slave ; the proud and ambiguous reproach of despotism, since he was truly descended from the ancient princes of Rei,(10) one of the seven

(8) Buzurg Mihir may be considered, in his character and station, as the Seneca of the East; but his virtues, and perhaps his faults, are less known than those of the Roman, who appears to have been much more loquacious. The Persian sage was the person who imported from India the game of chess and the fables of Pilpay. Such has been the fame of his wisdom and virtues, that the Christians claim him as a believer in the gospel; and ihe Mahometans revere Buzurg as a premature Mussulman. D'Herbelot, Bibliothèque Orientale, p. 218.

(9) See the imitation of Scipio in Theophylact, 1. 1. c. 14; the image of Christ, 1. ii. c. 3. Hereafer, I shall speak more amply of the Christian images—I had almost said idols. This, if I am not mistaken, is the oldest axelporontos of divine manufacture; but in the next thousand years, many others issued from the same workshop.

(10) Raga, or Rei, is mentioned in the apocryphal book of Tobit as already flourishing, 700 years before

a

families whose splendid, as well as substantial, prerogative exalted them above the heads of the Persian nobility.(11) At the siege of Dara, the valour of Bahram was signalized under the eyes of Nushirvan, and both the father and son successively promoted him to the command of armies, the government of Media, and the superintendence of the palace. The popular prediction which marked him as the deliverer of Persia, might be inspired by his past victories and extraordinary figure: the epithet Giubin is expressive of the quality of dry wood; he had the strength and stature of a giant, and his savage countenance was fancifully compared to that of a wild cat. While the nation trembled, while Horinouz disguised his terror by the name of suspicion, and his servants concealed their disloyalty under the mask of lear, Bahram alone displayed bis undaunted courage and apparent fidelity : and as soon as he found that no more than twelve thousand soldiers would follow him against the enemy, be prudently declared, that to this fatal number heaven bad reserved the honours of the. triumph. The steep and narrow descent of the Pule Rudbar(12) or Hyrcanian rock, is the only pass through which an army can penetrate into the territory of Rei and the plains of Media. Froin the commanding heights, a band of resolute men might overwhelm with stones and darts the myriads of the Turkish bost : their emperor and his son were transpierced with arrows; and the fugitives were left, without counsel or provisions, to the revenge of an injured people. The patriotisin of the Persian general was stimulated by his affection for the city of his foretathers; in the hour of victory every peasant became a soldier, and every soldier a hero; and their ardour was kindled by the gorgeous spectacle of beds, and thrones, and tables of massy gold, the spoils of Asia, and the luxury of the hostile camp. A prince of a less malignant temper could not easily have forgiven his benefactor, and the secret hatred of Horinouz was envenomed by a nalicious report, that Bahram had privately retained the most precious fruits of his Turkish victory. But the approach of a Roman army on the side of the Araxes compelled the implacable tyrant to smile and to applaud; and the toils of Bahram were rewarded with the permission of encountering a new enemy, by their skill and discipline more formidable than a Scythian mul. titude. Elated by his recent success, he despatched a herald with a bold defiance to the camp of the Romans, requesting them to fix a day of battle, and to choose whether they would pass the river themselves, or allow a free passage to the arms of the great king. The lieutenant of the emperor Maurice preferred the safer alternative, and this local circumstance, which would have enhanced the victory of the Persians, rendered their defeat more bloody and their escape more difficult. But the loss of his subjects, and the danger of his kingdom were overbalanced in the mind of Hormouz by the disgrace of bis personal enemy; and no sooner had Bahram collected and reviewed his forces, than he received from a royal messenger the insulting gift of a distaff, a spinning-wheel, and a complete suit of female apparel. Obedient to the will of his sovereign, he showed himself to the soldiers in this unworthy disguise ; they resented his ignominy and their own; a shout of rebellion ran through the ranks, and the general accepted their oath of fidelity and vows of revenge. A second messenger, who had been commanded to bring the rebel in chains, was trampled under the feet of an elephant, and manifestoes were diligently circulated, exhorting the Persians to assert their freedom against an odious and contemptible tyrant. The Christ, under the Assyrian empire. Under the foreign names of Europus and Arsacia, this city, 500 stadia to the south of the Caspian gates, was successively embellished by the Macedonians and Parthians (Surabo, l. xi. p. 796). Its grandeur and populnusness in the ninih century, is exaggerated beyond the bounds of credibility; but Rei has heen since ruined by wars and the unwholesomeness of the air. Chardin, Voyage en Perse, lom. I. p. 279, 230. D'Herbelol, Biblioth. Oriental. p. 714.

(11) Theophylacı, 1. iii. c. 18. The story of the seven Persians is told in the third book of Herodotus ; and their noble descendants are often mentioned, especially in the fragments of Ctesias. Yet the independence of Otanes (Herodot. I. iij. c. 83, 84,) is hostile to the spirit of despotism, and it may not seem probable that the seven families could survive the revolutions of eleven hundred years. They might however be represented by the seven ministers (Brison, de Regno Persico, I. I. p. 190,) and some Persian nobles, like the kings of Pontus (Polyb. I. v. p. 540,) and Cappadocia (Diodor. Sicul. 1. xxxi, tom. ii. p. 517), might claim their descent from the bold companions of Darius.

(12) See an accurate description of this mountain by Olearius (Voyage en Perse, p. 907, 998), who ucendod i with noch dificulty and danger in his return froin Ispahan to ihe Caspion sea.

defection was rapid and universal; his loyal slaves were sacrificed to the puble fury; the troops deserted to the standard of Babram ; and the provinces again saluted the deliverer of his country.

As the passes were faithfully guarded, Hormouz could only compute the number of his enemies by the testimony of a guilty conscience, and the daily defection of those who, in the hour of his distress, avenged their wrongs, or forgot their obligations. He proudly displayed the ensigns of royalty; but the city and palace of Modain had already escaped from the band of the tyrant. Among the victims of bis cruelty, Bindoes, a Sassanian prince, had been cast into a dungeon : his fetters were broken by the zeal and courage of a brother, and he stood before the king at the head of those trusty guards, who had been chosen as the ministers of his confinement, and perhaps of bis death. Alarmed by the basty intrusion and bold reproaches of the captive, Hormouz looked round, but in vain, for advice or assistance; discovered that his strength consisted in the obedience of others, and patiently yielded to the single arm of Bindoes, who dragged him from the throne to the same dungeon in which he himself bad been so lately confined. At the first tumult, Chosroes, the eldest of the sons of Hormouz, escaped from the city ; he was persuaded to return by the pressing and friendly invitation of Bindoes, who promised to seat him on his father's throne, and who expected to reign under the name of an inexperienced youth, In the just assurance, that his accomplices could neither forgive nor hope to be forgiven, and that every Persian might be trusted as the judge and enemy of the tyrant, he instituted a public trial without a precedent and without a copy in the annals of the East. The son of Nushirvan, who had requested to plead in his own defence, was introduced as a criminal into the full assembly of the nobles and satraps.(13) He was heard with decent attention as long as he expatiated on the advantages of order and obedience, the danger of innovation, and the inevitable discord of those who bad encouraged each other to trample on tbeir lawtul and hereditary sovereign. By a pathetic appeal to their humanity, he extorted that pity which is seldom refused to the fallen fortunes of a king; and wbile they beheld the abject posture and squalid appearance of the prisoner, his tears, his chains, and the marks of ignominious stripes, it was impossible to forget how recently they had adored the divine splendour of his diadem and purple. But an angry murmur arose in the assembly as soon as he presumed to vindicate his conduct, and to applaud the victories of his reign. He defined the duties of a king, and the Persian nobles listened with a smile of contempt ; they were fired with indignation when he dared to vilify the character of Chosroes ; and by the indiscreet offer of resigning the sceptre to the second of his sons, be subscribed his own condemnation, and sacrificed the life of his innocent favourite. The mangled bodies of the boy and his mother were exposed to the people ; the eyes of Hormouz were pierced with a hot needle ; and the punishment of the father was succeeded by the coronation of his eldest

Chosroes had ascended the throne without guilt, and his piety strove to alleviate the misery of the abdicated monarch ; from the dungeon he removed Hormouz to an apartment of the palace, supplied with liberality the consolations of sensual enjoyment, and patiently endured the furious sallies of his resentment and despair. He might despise the resentment of a blind and unpopular tyrant, but the tiara was trembling on his head, till he could subvert the power, or acquire the friendship, of the great Bahram, who sternly denied the justice of a revolution, in which himself and his soldiers, the true representatives of Persia, had never been consulted. The offer of a general amnesty, and of the second rank in bis kingdom, was answered by an epistle from Babram, friend of the gods, conqueror of men, and enemy of tyrants, the satrap, of satraps, general of the Persian armies, and a prince adorned with the title of eleven virtues. (14) He commands Chosroes, the son of Hormouz, to shun the example

(13) The Orientals suppose that Bahram convened this assembly and proclaimed Chosroes; but Theo phylact is, in this instance, more distinct and credible.

(14) See the words of Theophylact, 1. iv. c. 7. Βαραμ φιλος τους θεοις, νικητης επιφανης, τυραννων. εχθρος, σατραπης μεγισανων, της Περσικης αρχων δυναμεως, &c. In his answer, Choeroes styles himself τηνυκτι χαριζομενος ομματα........ο τυς Ασωνας (the genii) μισθωμενος. This is genuine Oriental bombas

son.

and fate of his father, to confine the traitors who had been released from their chains, 10 deposite in some holy place the diadem which he had usurped, and to accept from his gracious benefactor the pardon of his faults and the goverment of a province. The rebel might not be proud, and the king most assuredly was not bumble ; but the one was conscious of his strength, the other was sensible of his weakness; and even the modest language of his reply still left room for treaty and reconciliation. Chosroes led into the field the slaves of the palace and the populace of the capital : they bebeld with terror the banners of a veteran army; they were encompassed and surprised by the evolutions of the general; and the satraps who had deposed Hormouz, received the punishment of their revolt, or expiated their first treason by a second and more criminal act of disloyalty. The life and liberty of Chosroes were saved, but he was reduced to the necessity of imploring aid or refuge in some foreign land; and the implacable Bindoes, anxious to secure an unquestionable title, hastily returned to the palace, and ended, with a bow-string, the wretched existence of the son of Nushirvan.(15) [A. D. 590.)

While Chosrues despatched the preparations of his retreat, he deliberated with his remaining friends,(16) whether he should lurk in the valleys of mount Caucasus, or fly to the tents of the Turks, or solicit the protection of the emperor. The long emulation of the successors of Artaxerxes and Constantine increased his reluctance to appear as a suppliant in a rival court; but he weighed the forces of the Romans, and prudently considered, that the neighbourhood of Syria would render bis escape more easy and their succours more effectual. Attended only by his concubines, and a troop of thirty guards, he secretly departed from the capital, followed the banks of the Euphrates, traversed the desert, and halted at the distance of ten miles from Circesiuni. About the third watch of the night, the Roman præfect was informed of his approach, and he introduced the royal stranger to the fortress at the dawn of day. From thence the king of Persia was conducted to the more honourable residence of Hierapolis; and Maurice dissembled his pride, and displayed his benevolence, at the reception of the letters and ambassadors of the grandson of Nushirvan. They humbly represented the vicissitudes of fortune and the common interest of princes, exaggerated the ingratitude of Bahram the agent. of the evil principle, and urged with specious argument, that it was for the advantage of the Romans themselves to support the two monarchies which balance the world, the two great luminaries by whose salutary influence it is vivified and adorned. The anxiety of Chosroes was soon relieved by the assurance, that the emperor had espoused the cause of justice and royalty; but Maurice prudently declined the expense and delay of his useless visit to 'Constantinople. In the name of his generous benefactor, a rich diadem was pre. sented io the fugitive prince with an inestimable gift of jewels and gold; a powerful army was assembled on the frontiers of Syria and Armenia, under ihe command of the valiant and faithful Narses,(17) and this general, of his own nation, and his own choice, was directed to pass the Tigris, and never to sheath his sword till he had restored Chosroes io the throne of his ances. tors. The enterprise, however splendid, was less arduous than it might appear. Persia had already repented of her fatal rashness, which betrayed the heir of the house of Sassan to the ambition of a rebellious subject; and the bold refusal of the Magi to consecrate his usurpation, compelled 'Bah

(15) Theophylact (I. iv. c. 7,) imputes the death of Hormouz to his son, by whose command he was beaten to death with clubs. l'have followed the milder account of Khondemir and Eutychius, and shull always be content with the slightest evidence to extenuate the crime of parricide.

(16) After the battle of Pharsalia, the Pompey of Lucan (1, viii. 256—455,) holds a similar debate. He was hiinself desirous of seeking the Parthians; but his companions abhorred the unnatural alliance; and the adverse prejudices might operate as forcibly on Chosroes and his companions, who could describe, with the same vehemence, the contrast of laws, religion, and inanners, between the East and West. -(17) In this age there were three warriors of the name of Narses, who have been often confounded (Pagi, Critica. tom. ii. p. 640): 1, A Persarmenian, the brother of Isaac and Arinarius, who, after a successful action against Belisarius, deserted from his Persian sovereign, and afterward served in the Italian wu. 2. The eunuch who conquered Italy. 3. The restorer of Chosroes, who is celebrated in the poem of Corippus (I. iii. 220-927) as excelsus super omnia vertice agmina-habitu--modestus parum probi-, tate placens, vinule verendus; fulmineus, cautus, vigilans, &c.