'XLII. CHAP. liberty by prostituting the honour of his wife, and regained his kingdom with the dangerous and mercenary aid of the Barbarians, who had slain his father. His nobles were suspicious that Kobad never forgave the authors of his expulsion, or even those of his restoration. The people was deluded and inflamed by the fanaticism of Mazdak,38 who asserted the community of women,39 and the equality of mankind, whilst he appropriated the richest lands and most beautiful females to the use of his sectaries. The view of these disorders, which had been fomented by his laws and example,40 embittered the declining age of the Persian monarch; and his fears were increased by the consciousness of his design to reverse the natural and customary order of succession, in favour of his third and most favoured son, so famous under the names of Chosroes and Nushirvan. To render the youth more illustrious in the eyes of the nations, Kobad was desirous that he should be adopted by the emperor Justin: the hope of peace inclined the Byzantine court to accept this singular proposal; and Chosroes might have acquired a specious claim to the inheritance of his Roman parent. But the future mischief was diverted by the advice of the quæstor Proclus: a difficulty was started, whether the adoption should be performed as a civil or military rite ;41 the treaty was abruptly dissolved; and the sense of this indignity sunk deep into the mind of Chosroes, who had already advanced to the Tigris on his road to Constantinople. His father did not long survive the disappoint 38 See d'Herbelot (Bibliot. Orient. p. 568.929); Hyde (de Religione Vet. Persarum, c. 21. p. 290, 291); Pocock (Specimen Hist. Arab. p. 70, 71); Eutychius (Annal. tom. ii. p. 176); Texeira (in Stevens, Hist. of Persia, I. i. c. 34). 39 The fame of the new law for the community of women, was soon propagated in Syria (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. tom. iii. p. 402.) and Greece (Procop. Persic. 1. i. c. 5). 40 He offered his own wife and sister 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 deosculatus (said he to Mazdak), cujus fætor adhuc nares occupat (Pocock, Specimen Hist. Arab. p. 71) 41 Procopius, Persic. 1. i. c. 11. Was not Proclus over-wise? Was not the danger imaginary ?...The excuse, at least, was injurious to a nation not ignorant of letters; 8 γραμμασι οι βάρβαροι τες παίδας ποιενται αλλ' όπλων σκευη. Whether any mode of adoption was practised in Persia, I much doubt. ment of his wishes; the testament of their deceased sovereign was read in the assembly of the nobles; and a powerful faction, prepared for the event, and regardless of the priority of age, exalted Chosroes to the throne of Persia. He filled that throne during a prosperous period of forty-eight years ;42 and the JUSTICE of Nushirvan is celebrated as the theme of immortal praise by the nations of the East. CHAP. XLII. Nushir van, or A. D. 531...579. But the justice of kings is understood by themselves, Reign of and even by their subjects, with an ample indulgence for the gratification of passion and interest. The virtue of Chosroes, Chosroes was that of a conqueror, who, in the measures of peace and war, is excited by ambition and restrained by prudence; who confounds the greatness with the happiness of a nation, and calmly devotes the lives of thousands to the fame, or even the amusement, of a single man. In his domestic administration, the just Nushirvan 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 supreme rank and the condition of subjects, was anxious to themselves and formidable to their master; fear as well as revenge might tempt them to rebel; the slightest evidence of a conspiracy satisfied the author of their wrongs; and the repose of Chosroes was secured by the death of these unhappy princes, with their families and adherents. One guiltless youth was saved and dismissed by the compassion of a veteran general; and this act of humanity, which was revealed by his son, overbalanced the merit of reducing twelve nations to the obedience of Persia. The zeal and prudence of Mebodes had fixed the diadem on the head of Chosroes himself; but he delayed to attend the royal summons, till he had 42 From Procopius and Agathias, Pagi (tom. ii. p. 543. 626.) has proved that Chosroes Nushirvan ascended the throne in the fifth year of Justinian (A. D. 531, April 1.. A. D. 532, April 1). But the true chronology, which harmonizes with the Greeks and Orientals, is ascertained by John Malala (tom. ir 211). Cabades, or Kobad, after a reign of fortythree years and two months, sickened the 8th, and died the 13th of September, A. D. 531, aged eighty-two years. According to the annals of Eutychius, Nushirvan reigned forty-se y-seven years and six months; and his death must consequently be placed in March, A. D. 579. XLII performed the duties of a military review; he was instantly commanded to repair to the iron tripod, which stood before the gate of the palace,43 where it was death to relieve or approach the victim; and Mebodes languished several days before his sentence was pronounced, by the inflexible pride and calm ingratitude of the son of Kobad. But the people, more especially in the East, is disposed to forgive, and even to applaud, the cruelty which strikes at the loftiest heads; at the slaves of ambition, whose voluntary choice has exposed them to live in the smiles, 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; Nushirvan, or Chosroes, deserved 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 possessions; the lands and women which the sectaries of Mazdak had usurped, were restored to their lawful owners; and the temperate chastisement of the fanatics or impostors confirmed the domestic rights of society. Instead of listening with blind confidence to a favourite minister, he established four viziers over the four great provinces of his empire, Assyria, Media, Persia, and Bactriana. In the choice of judges, præfects, and counsellors, he strove to remove the mask which is always worn in the presence of kings he wished to substitute the natural order of talents for the accidental distinctions of birth and fortune; he professed, in specious language, his intention to prefer those men who carried the poor in their bosoms, and to banish corruption from the seat of justice, as dogs were excluded from the temples of the Magi. The code of laws of the first Artaxerxes was revived and published as the rule of the magistrates; but the assurance of speedy punishment was the best security of their virtue...... Their behaviour was inspected by a thousand eyes, their 43 Procopius, Persic. 1. i. c 23. Brisson de Regn. Pers. p. 494. The gate of the palace of Ispahan is, or was, the fatal scene of disgrace or death (Chardin, Voyage en Perse, tom. iv. p. 312, 313). words were overheard by a thousand ears, the secret or public agents of the throné; and the provinces, from the Indian to the Arabian confines, were enlightened by the frequent visits of a sovereign, who affected to emulate his celestial brother in his rapid and salutary career. Education and agriculture he viewed as the two objects most deserving of his care. In every city of Persia, orphans, and the children of the poor, were maintained and instructed at the public expense; the daughters were given in marriage to the richest citizens of their own rank; and the sons, according to their different talents, were employed in mechanic trades, or promoted to more honourable service. The deserted villages were relieved by his bounty; to the peasants and farmers who were found incapable of cultivating their lands, he distributed cattle, seed, and the instruments of husbandry; and the rare and inestimable treasure of fresh water was parsimoniously managed, and skilfully dispersed over the arid territory of Persia. The prosperity of that kingdom was the effect and the evidence of his virtues: his vices are those of Oriental despotism; but in the long competition between Chosroes and Justinian, the advantage both of merit and fortune is almost always on the side of the Barbarian.45 CHAP. XLII. To the praise of justice Nushirvan united the reputa- His love of tion of knowledge; and the seven Greek philosophers, who learning. visited his court, were invited and deceived by the strange assurance, that a disciple of Plato was scated on the Persian throne. Did they expect that a prince, strenuously exercised in the toils of war and government, should agitate, with dexterity like their own, the abstruse and pro 44 In Persia, the prince of the waters is an officer of state. The number of wells and subterraneous channels is much diminished, and with it the fertility of the soil: 400 wells have been recently lost near Tauris, and 42,000 were once reckoned in the province of Khorasan (Chardin, tom. iii. p. 99, 100. Tavernier, tom. i. p. 416). 45 The character and government of Nushirvan is represented sometimes in the words of d'Herbelot (Bibliot Orient. p. 680, &c. from Khon-demir), Eutychius (Annal. tom. ii. p. 179, 180.-very rich), Abutpharagius (Dynast. vii. p. 94, 95.-very poor), Tarikh Schikard (p. 144...150), Texeira (in Stevens, 1. i. c. 35), Asseman (Bibliot. Orient, tom. iii. p. 404 ...410), and the Abbé Fourmount (Hist de l'Acad. des Inscriptions, tom. vii. p. 325...334), who has translated a spurious or genuine testament of Nushirvan. CHAP. found questions which amused the leisure of the schools of Athens? Could they hope that the precepts of philosophy should direct the life, and control the passions, of a despot, whose infancy had been taught to consider his absolute and fluctuating will as the only rule of moral obligation? 46 The studies of Chosroes were ostentatious and superficial: but his example awakened the curiosity of an ingenious people, and the light of science was diffused over the dominions of Persia.47 At Gondi Sapor, in the neighbourhood of the royal city of Susa, an academy of physic was founded, which insensibly became a liberal school of poetry, philosophy, and rhetoric.48 The annals of the monarchy 49 were composed; and while recent and authentic history might afford some useful lessons both to the prince and people, the darkness of the first ages was embellished by the giants, the dragons, and the fabulous heroes of Oriental romance.50 Every learned or confident stranger was enriched by the bounty, and flattered by the conversation of the monarch: he nobly rewarded a Greek physician,51 by the deliverance of three thousand captives; and the sophists who contended for his favour, were exasperated by the wealth and insolence of Uranius, their more successful rival. Nushirvan believed, or at least respected, the religion of the Magi; and some traces of 46 A thou and years before his birth, the judges of Persia had given a sclemn opinion τῷ βασιλεύοντι Πέρσεον εξείναι ποιείν το αν βουλεται (Herodo .. iii. c. 31. p. 210. edic. Wesseling). Nor had this constitutional maxim been neglec cd as an useless and barren theory. 47 On the literary state of Persia, the Greek versions, philosophers, sophists, the learning or ignorance of Chosrces, Agathius (1. ii. c. 65...71.) displays much information and s rong prejudices. 48 Asseman. B'bliot. Orient. tom. iv. p. DCCXLV. vi. vii. 49 The Shah Nameh, or book of Kings, is perhaps the orignal record of history which was translated into Greek by the interpreter Sergius (Agathias, I. v. p. 141), pre erved after the Mahometan conquest, and versified in the year 994, by the national poet Ferdoussi. See d'Anque:il (Mem. de l'Academie, tom. xxxi. p. 379), and Sir William Jones (Hist. of Nader Shah, p. 161). 50 In the fifth century, the name of Rest om, or Rostam, an hero who equalled the strength of twelve clephants, was familiar to the Armenians (Moses Chorenensis, Hist. Armen. I. ii. c. 7. p. 96. edit. Whiston). In the beginning of the seventh, a Persian Romance of Rostam and Isfendiar was applauded at Mecca (Sale's Koran, c. xxxi. p. 335). Yet this exposition of ludicrum novæ historiæ, is not given by Maracci (Refutat. Alcoran. p. 544... 548). 51 Procop. Goth. 1. iv. c. 10. Kobad had a favourite Greek physician, Stephen of Edessa (Persic. 1. ii. c. 26). The practice was ancient; and Herodotus relates the adventures of Democedes of Crotona (1. iii. c. 125...137). |