XLII. CHAP. houfe of Saffan, which ascended the throne three hundred years before the acceffion of Juftinian. His contemporary, Cabades, or Kobad, had been fuccessful in war against the emperor Anaftafius: but the reign of that prince was distracted by civil and religious troubles. A prifoner in the hands of his fubjects; an exile among the enemies of Perfia; he recovered his liberty by prostituting the honour of his wife, and regained his kingdom with the dangerous and mercenary aid of the Barbarians, who had flain his father. His nobles were fufpicious that Kobad never forgave the authors of his expulfion, or even thofe of his restoration. The people was deluded and inflamed by the fanaticism of Mazdak 3, who afferted the community of women", and the equality of mankind, whilst he appropriated the richeft lands and most beautiful females to the ufe of his fectaries. The view of these disorders, which had been fomented by his laws and example, embittered the declining age: of the Perfian monarch; and his fears were increas ed by the consciousness of his design to reverse the natural and customary order of fucceffion, in fa 38 See d'Herbelot (Bibliot. Orient. p. 568. 929.); Hyde (de Religione Vet. Perfarum, c. 21. p. 290, 291.); Pocock (Specimen Hift. Arab. p. 70, 71.); Eutychius (Annal. tom. ii. p. 176.); Texeira (in Stevens, Hift. of Perfia, 1 i. c. 34.). 39 The fame of the new law for the community of women, was foon propagated in Syria (Affeman. Bibliot. Orient. tom. iii. p. 402.) and Greece (Procop. Perfic. li. c. 5.). 40 He offered his own wife and fifter to the prophet; but the' prayers of Nushirvan saved his mother, and the indignant monarch never forgave the humiliation to which his filial piety had stooped pedes tuos deofculatus (said he to Mazdak), cujus fætor adhuc nares occupat (Pocock, Specimen Hift. Arab. p. 71.). XLII. vour of his third and most favoured fon, fo fa- CHAP. mous under the names of Chofroes and Nufhirvan. To render the youth more illuftrious in the eyes of the nations, Kobad was defirous that he should be adopted by the emperor Justin: the hope of peace inclined the Byzantine court to accept this fingular propofal; and Chofroes might have acquired a fpecious claim to the inheritance of his Roman parent. But the future mifchief was diverted by the advice of the quæftor Proclus: a difficulty was started, whether the adoption fhould be performed as a civil or military rite"; the treaty was abruptly diffolved; and the sense of this indignity funk deep into the mind of Chofroes, who had already advanced to the Tigris on his road to Conftantinople. His father did not long furvive the disappointment of his wishes: the teftament of their deceafed fovereign was read in the affembly of the nobles; and a powerful faction, prepared for the event, and regardless of the priority of age, exalted Chofroes to the throne of Perfia. He filled that throne during a profperous period of forty-eight years"; and the JUSTICE of Nufhir 41 Procopius, Perfic. 1. i. c. 11. Was not Proclus over-wife? Was not the danger imaginary?—The excuse, at least, was injurious to a nation not ignorant of letters: Η γραμμασι οἱ βάρβαροι τις παιδας ποιείται αλλ' όπλων σκεύη. Whether any mode of adoption was practifed in Perfia, I much doubt. 42 From Procopius and Agathias, Pagi (tom. ii. p. 543. 626.) has proved that Chofroes Nufhirvan afcended the throne in the vth year of Juftinian (A. D. 531, April 1-A D. 332, April 1.). But the true chronology, which harmonizes with the Greeks and Orientals, is afcertained by John Malala (tom ii. 211.). Cabades, or Kobad, after a reign of forty three years and two months, Lickened the 8th, and died the 13th of September, A. D. 531, aged eighty XLII. CHAP. Nufhirvan is celebrated as the theme of immortal praise by the nations of the East. Reign of van, or A. D.. But the justice of kings is understood by themfelves, and even by their subjects, with an ample Chofroes, indulgence for the gratification of paffion and inte531-579. reft. The virtue of Chofroes was that of a conqueror, who, in the measures of peace and war, is excited by ambition and restrained by prudence; who confounds the greatnefs with the happiness of a nation, and calmly devotes the lives of thoufands to the fame, or even the amufement, of a fingle man. In his domestic administration, the just Nufhirvan would merit, in our feelings, the appellation of a tyrant. His two elder brothers had been deprived of their fair expectations of the diadem their future life, between the fupreme rank and the condition of fubjects, was anxious to themfelves and formidable to their mafter; fear as well as revenge might tempt them to rebel; the flightest evidence of a confpiracy fatisfied the author of their wrongs; and the repose of Chofroes was fecured by the death of these unhappy princes, with their families and adherents. One guiltlefs youth was faved and difmiffed by the compaffion of a veteran general; and this act of humanity, which was revealed by his fon, overbalanced the merit of reducing twelve nations to the obedience of Perfia. The zeal and prudence of Mebodes had fixed the diadem on the head of Chofroes himfelf; but he delayed to attend the royal fum eighty-two years. According to the annals of Eutychius, Nufhirvan reigned forty-feven years and fix months; and his death muft confequently be placed in March A. D. 579. mons, 43 XLII. mons, till he had performed the duties of a mili- CHAP. tary review: he was inftantly commanded to repair to the iron tripod, which ftood before the gate of the palace +3, where it was death to relieve or approach the victim; and Mebodes languished feveral days before his fentence was pronounced, by the inflexible pride and calm ingrati`tude of the fon of Kobad. But the people, more especially in the East, is difpofed to forgive, and even to applaud, the cruelty which ftrikes at the loftiest heads; at the flaves of ambition, whose voluntary choice has expofed them to live in the fmiles, and to perish by the frown, of a capricious monarch, in the execution of the laws which he had no temptation to violate; in the punishment of crimes which attacked his own dignity, as well as the happiness of individuals; Nufhirvan, or Chofroes, deferved the appellation of just. His government was firm, rigorous, and impartial. It was the first labour of his reign to abolish the dangerous theory of common or equal poffeffions; the lands and women which the fectaries of Mazdak had ufurped, were restored to their lawful owners; and the temperate chaftifement of the fanatics or impoftors confirmed the domestic rights of fociety. Instead of listening with blind confidence to a favourite minister, he established four viziers over the four great provinces of his empire, Affyria, Media, Perfia, and Bactriana. In the choice of 43 Procopius, Perfic. 1. i. c. 23. Briffon de Regn. Perf. p. 494. The gate of the palace of Ifpahan is, or was, the fatal fcene of difgrace or death (Chardin, Voyage en Perfe, tom. iv. p. 312, 313). judges, XLII. CHAP. judges, præfects, and counsellors, he ftrove to remove the mafk which is always worn in the prefence of kings: he wifhed to fnbftitute the natural order of talents for the accidental diftinctions of birth and fortune; he profeffed, in fpecious language, his intention to prefer those men who carried the poor in their bofoms, and to banish corruption from the feat of Juftice, as dogs were excluded from the temples of the Magi. The code of laws of the firft Artaxerxes was revived and published as the rule of the magiftrates; but the affurance of speedy punishment was the best security of their virtue. Their behaviour was infpected by a thousand eyes, their words were overheard by a thousand ears, the fecret or public agents of the throne; and the provinces, from the Indian to the Arabian confines, were enlightened by the frequent vifits of a fovereign, who affected to emu-late his cæleftial brother in his rapid and falutary career. Education and agriculture he viewed as the two objects most deserving of his care. In every city of Perfia, orphans and the children of the poor, were maintained and inftructed at the public expence; the daughters were given in marriage to the richest citizens of their own rank; and the fons, according to their different talents, were employed in mechanic trades, or promoted to more honourable fervice. The deferted villages were relieved by his bounty; to the peasants and farmers who were found incapable of cultivating their lands, he distributed cattle, feed, and the inftruments of husbandry; and the rare and ineftimable treasure of fresh water was parfimoniously ma naged, |