$Unique_ID{how01692}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
Part I.}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Gibbon, Edward}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{chosroes
footnote
persian
hormouz
persia
bahram
nushirvan
son
vol
death}
$Date{1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised)}
$Log{}
Title:       History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
Book:        Chapter XLVI: Troubles In Persia.
Author:      Gibbon, Edward
Date:        1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised)

Part I.

     Revolutions On Persia After The Death Of Chosroes On Nushirvan. - His Son
Hormouz, A Tyrant, Is Deposed. - Usurpation Of Baharam. - Flight And
Restoration Of Chosroes II. - His Gratitude To The Romans. - The Chagan Of The
Avars. - Revolt Of The Army Against Maurice. - His Death. - Tyranny Of Phocas.
- Elevation Of Heraclius. - The Persian War. - Chosroes Subdues Syria, Egypt,
And Asia Minor. - Siege Of Constantinople By The Persians And Avars. - Persian
Expeditions. - Victories And Triumph Of Heraclius.

     The conflict of Rome and Persia was prolonged from the death of Craesus
to the reign of Heraclius.  An experience of seven hundred years might
convince the rival nations of the impossibility of maintaining their conquests
beyond the fatal limits of the Tigris and Euphrates.  Yet the emulation of
Trajan and Julian was awakened by the trophies of Alexander, and the
sovereigns of Persia indulged the ambitious hope of restoring the empire of
Cyrus. ^1 Such extraordinary efforts of power and courage will always command
the attention of posterity; but the events by which the fate of nations is not
materially changed, leave a faint impression on the page of history, and the
patience of the reader would be exhausted by the repetition of the same
hostilities, undertaken without cause, prosecuted without glory, and
terminated without effect.  The arts of negotiation, unknown to the simple
greatness of the senate and the Caesars, were assiduously cultivated by the
Byzantine princes; and the memorials of their perpetual embassies ^2 repeat,
with the same uniform prolixity, the language of falsehood and declamation,
the insolence of the Barbarians, and the servile temper of the tributary
Greeks.  Lamenting the barren superfluity of materials, I have studied to
compress the narrative of these uninteresting transactions: but the just
Nushirvan is still applauded as the model of Oriental kings, and the ambition
of his grandson Chosroes prepared the revolution of the East, which was
speedily accomplished by the arms and the religion of the successors of
Mahomet.

[Footnote 1: Missis qui ... reposcerent ... veteres Persarum ac Macedonum
terminos, seque invasurum possessa Cyro et post Alexandro, per vaniloquentiam
ac minas jaciebat.  Tacit. Annal. vi. 31.  Such was the language of the
Arsacides.  I have repeatedly marked the lofty claims of the Sassanians.]

[Footnote 2: See the embassies of Menander, extracted and preserved in the
tenth century by the order of Constantine Porphyrogenitus.]

     In the useless altercations, that precede and justify the quarrels of
princes, the Greeks and the Barbarians accused each other of violating the
peace which had been concluded between the two empires about four years before
the death of Justinian.  The sovereign of Persia and India aspired to reduce
under his obedience the province of Yemen or Arabia ^3 Felix; the distant land
of myrrh and frankincense, which had escaped, rather than opposed, the
conquerors of the East.  After the defeat of Abrahah under the walls of Mecca,
the discord of his sons and brothers gave an easy entrance to the Persians:
they chased the strangers of Abyssinia beyond the Red Sea; and a native prince
of the ancient Homerites was restored to the throne as the vassal or viceroy
of the great Nushirvan. ^4 But the nephew of Justinian declared his resolution
to avenge the injuries of his Christian ally the prince of Abyssinia, as they
suggested a decent pretence to discontinue the annual tribute, which was
poorly disguised by the name of pension.  The churches of Persarmenia were
oppressed by the intolerant spirit of the Magi; ^* they secretly invoked the
protector of the Christians, and, after the pious murder of their satraps, the
rebels were avowed and supported as the brethren and subjects of the Roman
emperor.  The complaints of Nushirvan were disregarded by the Byzantine court;
Justin yielded to the importunities of the Turks, who offered an alliance
against the common enemy; and the Persian monarchy was threatened at the same
instant by the united forces of Europe, of Aethiopia, and of Scythia.  At the
age of fourscore the sovereign of the East would perhaps have chosen the
peaceful enjoyment of his glory and greatness; but as soon as war became
inevitable, he took the field with the alacrity of youth, whilst the aggressor
trembled in the palace of Constantinople.  Nushirvan, or Chosroes, conducted
in person the siege of Dara; and although that important fortress had been
left destitute of troops and magazines, the valor of the inhabitants resisted
above five months the archers, the elephants, and the military engines of the
Great King.  In the mean while his general Adarman advanced from Babylon,
traversed the desert, passed the Euphrates, insulted the suburbs of Antioch,
reduced to ashes the city of Apamea, and laid the spoils of Syria at the feet
of his master, whose perseverance in the midst of winter at length subverted
the bulwark of the East.  But these losses, which astonished the provinces and
the court, produced a salutary effect in the repentance and 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 rumor
proclaimed to the world, that from the distant countries of the Alps and the
Rhine, from Scythia, Maesia, Pannonia, Illyricum, and Isauria, the strength of
the Imperial cavalry was reenforced 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
Caesarea, 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 line, 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
flank 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 his 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 impetuous assault.  But the review of his loss, and the
consciousness of his 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 flames of war approached the
residence of Nushirvan; the indignant monarch sunk into the grave; and his
last edict restrained his successors from exposing their person in 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

[Footnote 3: The general independence of the Arabs, which cannot be admitted
without many limitations, is blindly asserted in a separate dissertation of
the authors of the Universal History, vol. xx. p. 196 - 250.  A perpetual
miracle is supposed to have guarded the prophecy in favor of the posterity of
Ishmael; and these learned bigots are not afraid to risk the truth of
Christianity on this frail and slippery foundation.

     Note: It certainly appears difficult to extract a prediction of the
perpetual independence of the Arabs from the text in Genesis, which would have
received an ample fulfilment during centuries of uninvaded freedom.  But the
disputants appear to forget the inseparable connection in the prediction
between the wild, the Bedoween habits of the Ismaelites, with their national
independence.  The stationary and civilized descendant of Ismael forfeited, as
it were, his birthright, and ceased to be a genuine son of the "wild man" The
phrase, "dwelling in the presence of his brethren," is interpreted by
Rosenmuller (in loc.) and others, according to the Hebrew geography, "to the
East" of his brethren, the legitimate race of Abraham - M.]

[Footnote 4: D'Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient. p. 477.  Pocock, Specimen Hist.
Arabum, p. 64, 65.  Father Pagi (Critica, tom. ii. p. 646) has proved that,
after ten years' peace, the Persian war, which continued twenty years, was
renewed A.D. 571.  Mahomet was born A.D. 569, in the year of the elephant, or
the defeat of Abrahah, (Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. i. p. 89, 90, 98;) and
this account allows two years for the conquest of Yemen.

     Note: Abrahah, according to some accounts, was succeeded by his son
Taksoum, who reigned seventeen years; his brother Mascouh, who was slain in
battle against the Persians, twelve.  But this chronology is irreconcilable
with the Arabian conquests of Nushirvan the Great.  Either Seif, or his son
Maadi Karb, was the native prince placed on the throne by the Persians.  St.
Martin, vol. x. p. 78.  See likewise Johannsen, Hist. Yemanae. - M.]

[Footnote *: Persarmenia was long maintained in peace by the tolerant
administration of Mejej, prince of the Gnounians.  On his death he was
succeeded by a persecutor, a Persian, named Ten-Schahpour, who attempted to
propagate Zoroastrianism by violence.  Nushirvan, on an appeal to the throne
by the Armenian clergy, replaced Ten-Schahpour, in 552, by Veschnas-Vahram.
The new marzban, or governor, was instructed to repress the bigoted Magi in
their persecutions of the Armenians, but the Persian converts to Christianity
were still exposed to cruel sufferings.  The most distinguished of them,
Izdbouzid, was crucified at Dovin in the presence of a vast multitude.  The
fame of this martyr spread to the West.  Menander, the historian, not only, as
appears by a fragment published by Mai, related this event in his history,
but, according to M. St. Martin, wrote a tragedy on the subject.  This,
however, is an unwarrantable inference from the phrase which merely means that
he related the tragic event in his history.  An epigram on the same subject,
preserved in the Anthology, Jacob's Anth. Palat. i. 27, belongs to the
historian.  Yet Armenia remained in peace under the government of
Veschnas-Vahram and his successor Varazdat.  The tyranny of his successor
Surena led to the insurrection under Vartan, the Mamigonian, who revenged the
death of his brother on the marzban Surena, surprised Dovin, and put to the
sword the governor, the soldiers, and the Magians.  From St. Martin, vol x. p.
79 - 89. - M.]

[Footnote *: Malathiah.  It was in the lesser Armenia. - M.]

[Footnote 5: He had vanquished the Albanians, who brought into the field
12,000 horse and 60,000 foot; but he dreaded the multitude of venomous
reptiles, whose existence may admit of some doubt, as well as that of the
neighboring Amazons.  Plutarch, in Pompeio, tom. ii. p. 1165, 1166.]

[Footnote 6: In the history of the world I can only perceive two 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 neighborhood 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.]

[Footnote *: This circumstance rests on the statements of Evagrius and
Theophylaci Simocatta.  They are not of sufficient authority to establish a
fact so improbable.  St. Martin, vol. x. p. 140. - M.]

[Footnote 7: For these Persian wars and treaties, see Menander, in Excerpt.
Legat. p. 113 - 125.  Theophanes Byzant. apud Photium, cod. lxiv p. 77, 80,
81.  Evagrius, l. v. c. 7 - 15.  Theophylact, l. iii. c. 9 - 16 Agathias, l.
iv. p. 140.]

     The throne of Chosroes Nushirvan was filled by Hormouz, or Hormisdas, the
eldest or the most favored of his sons.  With the kingdoms 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
administration, 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 honor to the interest of his pupil,
his interest to his inclination.  In a dispute with the Greek and Indian
philosophers, Buzurg ^8 had once maintained, that the most grievous misfortune
of life is old age without the remembrance of virtue; and our candor 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 himself more indebted to his
preceptor than to his parent: but when age and labor had impaired the
strength, and perhaps the faculties, of this prudent counsellor, he retired
from court, and abandoned the youthful monarch to his own passions and those
of his favorites.  By the fatal vicissitude of human affairs, the same scenes
were renewed at Ctesiphon, which had been exhibited at Rome after the death of
Marcus Antoninus.  The ministers of flattery and corruption, who had been
banished by his 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 progress 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 the 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; his 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 himself 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 thousand Turks.
The imprudent Hormouz accepted their perfidious and formidable aid; the cities
of Khorassan 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 arms; and their union must have subverted the throne of
the house of Sassan.

[Footnote 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 the Mahometans
revere Buzurg as a premature Mussulman.  D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale,
p. 218.]

[Footnote 9: See the imitation of Scipio in Theophylact, l. i. c. 14; the
image of Christ, l. ii. c. 3.  Hereafter I shall speak more amply of the
Christian images - I had almost said idols.  This, if I am not mistaken, is
the oldest of divine manufacture; but in the next thousand years, many others
issued from the same workshop.]

     Persia had been lost by a king; it was saved by a hero.  After his
revolt, Varanes or Bahram is stigmatized 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 families
whose splendid, as well as substantial, prerogatives exalted them above the
heads of the Persian nobility. ^11 At the siege of Dara, the valor 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 Hormouz disguised his terror by the name of suspicion, and his
servants concealed their disloyalty under the mask of fear, Bahram alone
displayed his undaunted courage and apparent fidelity: and as soon as he found
that no more than twelve thousand soldiers would follow him against the enemy;
he prudently declared, that to this fatal number Heaven had reserved the
honors 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.  From the commanding heights, a
band of resolute men might overwhelm with stones and darts the myriads of the
Turkish host: 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 patriotism of the Persian general was stimulated by his
affection for the city of his forefathers: in the hour of victory, every
peasant became a soldier, and every soldier a hero; and their ardor 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 Hormouz was envenomed by a malicious 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 multitude.  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 his 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 manifestos were diligently circulated, exhorting the
Persians to assert their freedom against an odious and contemptible tyrant.
The defection was rapid and universal; his loyal slaves were sacrificed to the
public fury; the troops deserted to the standard of Bahram; and the provinces
again saluted the deliverer of his country.

[Footnote 10: Ragae, or Rei, is mentioned in the Apocryphal book of Tobit as
already flourishing, 700 years before 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, (Strabo, l. xi. p. 796.) Its grandeur and populousness in the ixth
century are exaggerated beyond the bounds of credibility; but Rei has been
since ruined by wars and the unwholesomeness of the air.  Chardin, Voyage en
Perse, tom. i. p. 279, 280.  D'Herbelot, Biblioth.  Oriental. p. 714.]

[Footnote 11: Theophylact. l. 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. l. iii. 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, (Brisson, de Regno Persico, l. i. p. 190;) and some Persian nobles,
like the kings of Pontus (Polyb l. v. p. 540) and Cappadocia, (Diodor. Sicul.
l. xxxi. tom. ii. p. 517,) might claim their descent from the bold companions
of Darius.]

[Footnote *: He is generally called Baharam Choubeen, Baharam, the stick-
like, probably from his appearance.  Malcolm, vol. i. p. 120. - M.]

[Footnote !: The Persian historians say, that Hormouz entreated his general to
increase his numbers; but Baharam replied, that experience had taught him that
it was the quality, not the number of soldiers, which gave success.  * * * No
man in his army was under forty years, and none above fifty.  Malcolm, vol. i.
p. 121 - M.]

[Footnote 12: See an accurate description of this mountain by Olearius,
(Voyage en Perse, p. 997, 998,) who ascended it with much difficulty and
danger in his return from Ispahan to the Caspian Sea.]

     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 hand of the tyrant.
Among the victims of his 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 his death.  Alarmed
by the hasty 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 had 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
had encouraged each other to trample on their lawful 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 while 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 splendor 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, he
subscribed his own condemnation, and sacrificed the life of his own innocent
favorite.  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 son.  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 his kingdom, was answered by an epistle from Bahram, 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 and
fate of his father, to confine the traitors who had been released from their
chains, to deposit in some holy place the diadem which he had usurped, and to
accept from his gracious benefactor the pardon of his faults and the
government of a province.  The rebel might not be proud, and the king most
assuredly was not humble; 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 beheld 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 bowstring, the
wretched existence of the son of Nushirvan. ^15

[Footnote 13: The Orientals suppose that Bahram convened this assembly and
proclaimed Chosroes; but Theophylact is, in this instance, more distinct and
credible.

     Note: Yet Theophylact seems to have seized the opportunity to indulge his
propensity for writing orations; and the orations read rather like those of a
Grecian sophist than of an Eastern assembly. - M.]

[Footnote 14: See the words of Theophylact, l. iv. c. 7., &c.  In answer,
Chosroes styles himself in genuine Oriental bombast.]

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

     Note: Malcolm concurs in ascribing his death to Bundawee, (Bindoes,) vol.
i. p. 123.  The Eastern writers generally impute the crime to the uncle St.
Martin, vol. x. p. 300. - M.]

     While Chosroes 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
neighborhood of Syria would render his escape more easy and their succors 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 Circesium.
About the third watch of the night, the Roman praefect 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 honorable
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
presented to the fugitive prince, with an inestimable gift of jewels and gold;
a powerful army was assembled on the frontiers of Syria and Armenia, under the
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
sheathe his sword till he had restored Chosroes to the throne of his
ancestors. ^* 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 Bahram to
assume the sceptre, regardless of the laws and prejudices of the nation.  The
palace was soon distracted with conspiracy, the city with tumult, the
provinces with insurrection; and the cruel execution of the guilty and the
suspected served to irritate rather than subdue the public discontent.  No
sooner did the grandson of Nushirvan display his own and the Roman banners
beyond the Tigris, than he was joined, each day, by the increasing multitudes
of the nobility and people; and as he advanced, he received from every side
the grateful offerings of the keys of his cities and the heads of his enemies.
As soon as Modain was freed from the presence of the usurper, the loyal
inhabitants obeyed the first summons of Mebodes at the head of only two
thousand horse, and Chosroes accepted the sacred and precious ornaments of the
palace as the pledge of their truth and the presage of his approaching
success.  After the junction of the Imperial troops, which Bahram vainly
struggled to prevent, the contest was decided by two battles on the banks of
the Zab, and the confines of Media.  The Romans, with the faithful subjects of
Persia, amounted to sixty thousand, while the whole force of the usurper did
not exceed forty thousand men: the two generals signalized their valor and
ability; but the victory was finally determined by the prevalence of numbers
and discipline.  With the remnant of a broken army, Bahram fled towards the
eastern provinces of the Oxus: the enmity of Persia reconciled him to the
Turks; but his days were shortened by poison, perhaps the most incurable of
poisons; the stings of remorse and despair, and the bitter remembrance of lost
glory.  Yet the modern Persians still commemorate the exploits of Bahram; and
some excellent laws have prolonged the duration of his troubled and transitory
reign. ^*

[Footnote 16: After the battle of Pharsalia, the Pompey of Lucan (l. viii. 256
- 455) holds a similar debate.  He was himself 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
manners, between the East and West.]

[Footnote 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 Armatius, who, after a successful
action against Belisarius, deserted from his Persian sovereign, and afterwards
served in the Italian war. - 2. The eunuch who conquered Italy. - 3. The
restorer of Chosroes, who is celebrated in the poem of Corippus (l. iii. 220 -
327) as excelsus super omnia vertico agmina .... habitu modestus ....
morum probitate placens, virtute verendus; fulmineus, cautus, vigilans, &c.]

[Footnote *: The Armenians adhered to Chosroes.  St. Martin, vol. x. p. 312. -
M.]

[Footnote *: According to Mivkhond and the Oriental writers, Bahram received
the daughter of the Khakan in marriage, and commanded a body of Turks in an
invasion of Persia.  Some say that he was assassinated; Malcolm adopts the
opinion that he was poisoned.  His sister Gourdieh, the companion of his
flight, is celebrated in the Shah Nameh.  She was afterwards one of the wives
of Chosroes.  St. Martin. vol. x. p. 331. - M.]

     The restoration of Chosroes was celebrated with feasts and executions;
and the music of the royal banquet was often disturbed by the groans of dying
or mutilated criminals.  A general pardon might have diffused comfort and
tranquillity through a country which had been shaken by the late revolutions;
yet, before the sanguinary temper of Chosroes is blamed, we should learn
whether the Persians had not been accustomed either to dread the rigor, or to
despise the weakness, of their sovereign.  The revolt of Bahram, and the
conspiracy of the satraps, were impartially punished by the revenge or justice
of the conqueror; the merits of Bindoes himself could not purify his hand from
the guilt of royal blood: and the son of Hormouz was desirous to assert his
own innocence, and to vindicate the sanctity of kings.  During the vigor of
the Roman power, several princes were seated on the throne of Persia by the
arms and the authority of the first Caesars.  But their new subjects were soon
disgusted with the vices or virtues which they had imbibed in a foreign land;
the instability of their dominion gave birth to a vulgar observation, that the
choice of Rome was solicited and rejected with equal ardor by the capricious
levity of Oriental slaves.  But the glory of Maurice was conspicuous in the
long and fortunate reign of his son and his ally.  A band of a thousand
Romans, who continued to guard the person of Chosroes, proclaimed his
confidence in the fidelity of the strangers; his growing strength enabled him
to dismiss this unpopular aid, but he steadily professed the same gratitude
and reverence to his adopted father; and till the death of Maurice, the peace
and alliance of the two empires were faithfully maintained.  Yet the mercenary
friendship of the Roman prince had been purchased with costly and important
gifts; the strong cities of Martyropolis and Dara ^* were restored, and the
Persarmenians became the willing subjects of an empire, whose eastern limit
was extended, beyond the example of former times, as far as the banks of the
Araxes, and the neighborhood of the Caspian.  A pious hope was indulged, that
the church as well as the state might triumph in this revolution: but if
Chosroes had sincerely listened to the Christian bishops, the impression was
erased by the zeal and eloquence of the Magi: if he was armed with philosophic
indifference, he accommodated his belief, or rather his professions, to the
various circumstances of an exile and a sovereign.  The imaginary conversion
of the king of Persia was reduced to a local and superstitious veneration for
Sergius, ^19 one of the saints of Antioch, who heard his prayers and appeared
to him in dreams; he enriched the shrine with offerings of gold and silver,
and ascribed to this invisible patron the success of his arms, and the
pregnancy of Sira, a devout Christian and the best beloved of his wives. ^20
The beauty of Sira, or Schirin, ^21 her wit, her musical talents, are still
famous in the history, or rather in the romances, of the East: her own name is
expressive, in the Persian tongue, of sweetness and grace; and the epithet of
Parviz alludes to the charms of her royal lover.  Yet Sira never shared the
passions which she inspired, and the bliss of Chosroes was tortured by a
jealous doubt, that while he possessed her person, she had bestowed her
affections on a meaner favorite. ^22

[Footnote 18: Experimentis cognitum est Barbaros malle Roma petere reges quam
habere.  These experiments are admirably represented in the invitation and
expulsion of Vonones, (Annal. ii. 1 - 3,) Tiridates, (Annal. vi. 32-44,) and
Meherdates, (Annal. xi. 10, xii. 10-14.) The eye of Tacitus seems to have
transpierced the camp of the Parthians and the walls of the harem.]

[Footnote *: Concerning Nisibis, see St. Martin and his Armenian authorities,
vol. x p. 332, and Memoires sur l'Armenie, tom. i. p. 25. - M.]

[Footnote 19: Sergius and his companion Bacchus, who are said to have suffered
in the persecution of Maximian, obtained divine honor in France, Italy,
Constantinople, and the East.  Their tomb at Rasaphe was famous for miracles,
and that Syrian town acquired the more honorable name of Sergiopolis.
Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. v. p. 481 - 496.  Butler's Saints, vol. x. p.
155.]

[Footnote 20: Evagrius (l. vi. c. 21) and Theophylact (l. v. c. 13, 14) have
preserved the original letters of Chosroes, written in Greek, signed with his
own hand, and afterwards inscribed on crosses and tables of gold, which were
deposited in the church of Sergiopolis.  They had been sent to the bishop of
Antioch, as primate of Syria.

     Note: St. Martin thinks that they were first written in Syriac, and then
translated into the bad Greek in which they appear, vol. x. p. 334. - M.]

[Footnote 21: The Greeks only describe her as a Roman by birth, a Christian by
religion: but she is represented as the daughter of the emperor Maurice in the
Persian and Turkish romances which celebrate the love of Khosrou for Schirin,
of Schirin for Ferhad, the most beautiful youth of the East, D'Herbelot,
Biblioth. Orient. p. 789, 997, 998.

     Note: Compare M. von Hammer's preface to, and poem of, Schirin in which
he gives an account of the various Persian poems, of which he has endeavored
to extract the essence in his own work. - M.]

[Footnote 22: The whole series of the tyranny of Hormouz, the revolt of
Bahram, and the flight and restoration of Chosroes, is related by two
contemporary Greeks - more concisely by Evagrius, (l. vi. c. 16, 17, 18, 19,)
and most diffusely by Theophylact Simocatta, (l. iii. c. 6 - 18, l. iv. c. 1 -
16, l. v. c. 1 - 15:) succeeding compilers, Zonaras and Cedrenus, can only
transcribe and abridge.  The Christian Arabs, Eutychius (Annal. tom. ii. p.
200 - 208) and Abulpharagius (Dynast. p. 96 - 98) appear to have consulted
some particular memoirs.  The great Persian historians of the xvth century,
Mirkhond and Khondemir, are only known to me by the imperfect extracts of
Schikard, (Tarikh, p. 150 - 155,) Texeira, or rather Stevens, (Hist. of
Persia, p. 182 - 186,) a Turkish Ms. translated by the Abbe Fourmount, (Hist.
de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. vii. p. 325 - 334,) and D'Herbelot, (aux
mots Hormouz, p. 457 - 459.  Bahram, p. 174.  Khosrou Parviz, p. 996.) Were I
perfectly satisfied of their authority, I could wish these Oriental materials
had been more copious.]