persecution may be discovered in his reign.52 Yet he allowed himself freely to compare the tencts of the various sects; and the theological disputes in which he frequently presided, diminished the authority of the priest, and enligtened the minds of the people. At his coramand, the most celebrated writers of Greece and India were translated into the Persian language; a smooth and elegant idiom, recommended by Mahomet to the use of paradise: though it is branded with the epithets of savage and unmusical, by the ignorance and presumption of Agathias.53 Yet the Greek historian might reasonably wonder, that it should be found possible to execute an entire version of Plato and Aristotle in a foreign dialect, which had not been framed to express the spirit of freedom and the subtleties of philosophic disquisition. And, if the reason of the Stagyrite might be equally dark, or equally intelligible in every tongue, the dramatic art and verbal argumentation of the disciple of Socrates,54 appear to be indissolubly mingled with the grace and perfection of his Attic style. In the search of universal knowledge, Nushirvan was informed, that the moral and political fables of Pilpay, an ancient Brachman, were preserved with jealous reverence among the treasures of the kings of India. The physician Perozes was secretly dispatched to the banks of the Ganges, with instructions to procure, at any price, the communication of this valuable work. His dexterity obtained a transcript, his learned diligence accomplished the translation; and the fables of Pilpay 55 were read and admired 52 See Pagi, tom. ii. p. 626. In one of the treaties an honourable article was inserted for the toleration and burial of the Catholics (Menander, in Lxcerpt. Legat p. 142). Nushizad, a son of Nushirvan, was a Chr stian, a rebel, and martyr! (D'Herbelot, p. 681.) 53 On the Pers an language, and its three dialects, consul: d'Anque il (p. 339...343.) and Jones (p.153...185): aypię Tivi yawTiN XAI Aμ8TOTATŲ), is the character which Agathia, (1. ii. p. ob.) ascribes to an idiom renowed in the East for foedical softness. 54 Aga has specifies the Gorgias, Phadon, Parmenides, and Timæus. Renaudot (Fabricius, Biblior. Græc. m. xii. p. 216...201.) does not mention this Ba baric version of Aris.ode. 55 Or Le fables, I have seen three copies in three different languages: 1. I. Grick, ruchatel by Sin con Sẽ h (A. D. 11.0) from the Arabic, and patichecy Stret af Per a in 1897, ir 12mo. 2. In Latin, a veron from the Greek Supie „an Indorun., in er ed by Peré Poussin at the end of his edition of Pachymer (p. 5-7.640. edit. Roman). 3. In French, from the CHAP. XLII. CHAP. Peace and war with the Romans, A. D. 533...539. in the assembly of Nushirvan and his nobles. The Indian original, and the Persian copy, have long since disappeared: but this venerable monument has been saved by the curiosity of the Arabian caliphs, revived in the modern Persic, the Turkish, the Syriac, the Hebrew, and the Greek idioms, and transfused through successive versions into the modern languages of Europe. In their present form, the peculiar character, the manners and religion of the Hindoos, are completely obliterated; and the intrinsic merit of the fables of Pilpay is far inferior to the concise elegance of Phædrus, and the native graces of La Fontaine. Fifteen moral and political sentences' are illustrated in a series of apologues: but the composition is intricate, the narrative prolix, and the precept obvious and barren. Yet the Brachman may assume the merit of inventing a pleasing fiction, which adorns the nakedness of truth, and alleviates, perhaps, to a royal ear, the harshness of instruction. With a similar design, to admonish kings that they are strong only in the strength of their subjects, the same Indians invented the game of chess, which was likewise introduced into Persia under the reign of Nushirvan.56 The son of Kobad found his kingdom involved in a war with the successor of Constantine; and the anxiety of his domestic situation inclined him to grant the suspension of arms, which Justinian was impatient to purchase. Chosroes saw the Roman ambassadors at his feet. He accepted eleven thousand pounds of gold, as the price of an endless or indefinite peace; 57 some mutual exchanges were regulated; the Persian assumed the guard of the gates of Caucasus, and the demolition of Dara was suspended, on condition that it should never be made the residence of the general of the East. This interval of repose had been Turkish, dedicated, in 1540, to Sul an Soliman. Contes et Fables Indiennes de Bidpai et de Lokman, par M. M. Gailand er Cardonne, Paris, 1778. 3 vels. in 12me. Mr. Wharton (History of English Poetry, vol. i. p. 129...131.) takes a larger scope. 56 See the Historia Shahiludii of Dr. Hyde (Syntagm. Dissertat. tom. ii. p. 61...09). 57 The en less peace (Procopius, Persic. 1. i. c. 21.) was concluded or ratified in the sach year, and third consulship, of Justinian (A. D. 533, between January 1, and April 1. Pagi, tom. ii. p. 550). Marcellinus, in his Chronicle, uses the style of Medes and Persians. XLII. solicited, and was diligently improved by the ambition of CHAP. the emperor: his African conquests were the first fruits of the Persian treaty; and the avarice of Chosroes was soothed by a large portion of the spoils of Carthage, which his ambassadors required in a tone of pleasantry, and under the colour of friendship.58 But the trophies of Belisarius disturbed the slumbers of the great king; and he heard with astonishment, envy, and fear, that Sicily, Italy, and Rome itself, had been reduced, in three rapid campaigns, to the obedience of Justinian. Unpractised in the art of violating treaties, he secretly excited his bold and subtle vassal Almondar. That prince of the Saracens, who resided at Hira,59 had not been included in the general peace, and still waged an obscure war against his rival Arethas, the chief of the tribe of Gassan, and confederate of the empire. The subject of their dispute was an extensive sheep-walk in the desart to the south of Palmyra. An immemorial tribute for the licence of pasture, appeared to attest the rights of Almondar, while the Gassanite appealed to the Latin name of strata, a paved road, as an unquestionable evidence of the sovereignty and labours of the Romans.60 The two monarchs supported the cause of their respective vassals; and the Persian Arab, without expecting the event of a slow and doubtful arbitration, enriched his flying camp with the spoil and captives of Syria. Instead of repelling the arms, Justinian attempted to seduce the fidelity, of Almondar, while he called from the extremities of the earth, the nations of Æthiopia and Scythia to invade the dominions of his rival. But the aid of such allies was distant and precarious, and the discovery of this hostile correspondence justified the complaints of the Goths and Armenians, who implored, almost at the same 58 Procopius, Persic. l. i. c. 26. 59 Almondar, king of Hira, was deposed by Kobad, and restored by Nushirvan. His mother, from her beauty, was surnamed Calestial Water, an appellation which became hereditary, and was extended for a more noble cause (liberality in famine) to the Arab princes of Syria (Pocock, Specimen Hist. Arab. p. 69, 70). 60 Procopius, Persic. l. ii. c. 1. We are ignorant of the origin and object of this strata, a paved road of ten days journey from Auranitis to Babylonia. (See a Latin note in Delisle's Map Imp. Orient.) Wesseling and d'Anville are silent. XLII. CHAP. time, the protection of Chosroes. The descendants of Arsaces, who were still numerous in Armenia, had been provoked to assert the last relics of national freedom and hereditary rank; and the ambassadors of Vitiges had secretly traversed the empire to expose the instant, and almost inevitable, danger of the kingdom of Italy. Their representations were uniform, weighty, and effectual...... "We stand before your throne, the advocates of your in"terest as well as of our own. The ambitious and faithless "Justinian aspires to be the sole master of the world.... "Since the endless peace, which betrayed the common "freedom of mankind, that prince, your ally in words, your "enemy in actions, has alike insulted his friends and foes, "and has filled the earth with blood and confusion. Has "he not violated the privileges of Armenia, the indepen“dence of Colchos, and the wild liberty of the Tzanian “mountains? Has he not usurped, with equal avidity, the "city of Bosphorus on the frozen Mæotus, and the vale "of palm-trees on the shores of the Red Sea? The Moors, "the Vandals, the Goths, have been successively oppres"sed, and each nation has calmly remained the spectator "of their neighbour's ruin. Embrace, O king! the fa"vourable moment; the East is left without defence, while "the armies of Justinian and his renowned general are "detained in the distant regions of the West. If you hes"itate and delay, Belisarius and his victorious troops will soon return from the Tiber to the Tigris, and Persia He invades A. D. 540. 66 may enjoy the wretched consolation of being the last "devoured."61 By such arguments, Chosroes was easily persuaded to imitate the example which he condemned: but the Persian, ambitious of military fame, disdained the inactive warfare of a rival,who issued his sanguinary commands from the secure station of the Byzantine palace. Whatever might be the provocations of Chosroes, he abused the confidence of treaties; and the just reproaches of dissimulation and falsehood could only be concealed 61 I have blended, in a shor. speech, the two orations of the Arsacides of Armenia a id the Go.h.c ambassad rs. Procopius, in his je blic history, feels, and makes us feel, that Justinian was the true author of the war (Persic. 1. ii. c. 2, 3). by the lustre of his victories.62 The Persian army, which had been assembled in the plains of Babylon, prudently declined the strong cities of Mesopotamia, and followed the western bank of the Euphrates, till the small though populous town of Dura presumed to arrest the progress of the great king. The gates of Dura, by treachery and surprise, were burst open; and as soon as Chosroes had stained his scymiter with the blood of the inhabitants, he dismissed the ambassador of Justinian to inform his master in what place he had left the enemy of the Romans..... The conqueror still affected the praise of humanity and justice; and as he beheld a noble matron with her infant rudely dragged along the ground, he sighed, he wept, and implored the divine justice to punish the author of these calamities. Yet the herd of twelve thousand captives was ransomed for two hundred pounds of gold; the neighbouring bishop of Sergiopolis pledged his faith for the payment; and in the subsequent year the unfeeling avarice of Chosroes exacted the penalty of an obligation which it was generous to contract and impossible to discharge..... He advanced into the heart of Syria; but a feeble enemy, who vanished at his approach, disappointed him of the honour of victory; and as he could not hope to establish his dominion, the Persian king displayed in this inroad the mean and rapacious vices of a robber. Hierapolis, Berrhæa or Aleppo, Apamea and Chalcis, were successively besieged: they redeemed their safety by a ransom of gold or silver, proportioned to their respective strength and opulence; and their new master enforced, without observing, the terms of capitulation. Educated in the religion of the Magi, he exercised, without remorse, the lucrative trade of sacrilege; and, after stripping of its gold and gems, a piece of the true cross, he generously restored the naked relic to the devotion of the Christians of Apamea. No more than fourteen years had elapsed 62 The invasion of Syria, the ruin of Antioch, &c. are related in a full and regular series by Procopius (Persic. 1. ii. c. 5....14). Smali collateral aid Can be drawn from the Orientals: yet not they, but D'Herbelot himself (p. 680), should blush, when he blames them for making Justin'an and Nushirvan con emporaries. On the geography of the seat of war, D'Anville (Euphrate et le Tigre) is sufficient and satisfactory. CHAP. XLII. |