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Chapter VIII: State Of Persion And Restoration Of The Monarchy.—Part I.
Of The State Of Persia After The Restoration Of The Monarchy
By Artaxerxes.
Chapter VIII: State Of Persion And Restoration Of The Monarchy.—Part II. |
Of The State Of Persia After The Restoration Of The Monarchy
By Artaxerxes.
Whenever Tacitus indulges himself in those beautiful episodes, in which he relates some domestic transaction of the Germans or of the Parthians, his principal object is to relieve the attention of the reader from a uniform scene of vice and misery. From the reign of Augustus to the time of Alexander Severus, the enemies of Rome were in her bosom—the tyrants and the soldiers; and her prosperity had a very distant and feeble interest in the revolutions that might happen beyond the Rhine and the Euphrates. But when the military order had levelled, in wild anarchy, the power of the prince, the laws of the senate, and even the discipline of the camp, the barbarians of the North and of the East, who had long hovered on the frontier, boldly attacked the provinces of a declining monarchy. Their vexatious inroads were changed into formidable irruptions, and, after a long vicissitude of mutual calamities, many tribes of the victorious invaders established themselves in the provinces of the Roman Empire. To obtain a clearer knowledge of these great events, we shall endeavor to form a previous idea of the character, forces, and designs of those nations who avenged the cause of Hannibal and Mithridates.
In the more early ages of the world, whilst the forest that covered Europe afforded a retreat to a few wandering savages, the inhabitants of Asia were already collected into populous cities, and reduced under extensive empires, the seat of the arts, of luxury, and of despotism. The Assyrians reigned over the East, 1 till the sceptre of Ninus and Semiramis dropped from the hands of their enervated successors. The Medes and the Babylonians divided their power, and were themselves swallowed up in the monarchy of the Persians, whose arms could not be confined within the narrow limits of Asia. Followed, as it is said, by two millions of men, Xerxes, the descendant of Cyrus, invaded Greece.
Thirty thousand soldiers, under the command of Alexander, the son of Philip, who was intrusted by the Greeks with their glory and revenge, were sufficient to subdue Persia. The princes of the house of Seleucus usurped and lost the Macedonian command over the East. About the same time, that, by an ignominious treaty, they resigned to the Romans the country on this side Mount Tarus, they were driven by the Parthians, 1001 an obscure horde of Scythian origin, from all the provinces of Upper Asia. The formidable power of the Parthians, which spread from India to the frontiers of Syria, was in its turn subverted by Ardshir, or Artaxerxes; the founder of a new dynasty, which, under the name of Sassanides, governed Persia till the invasion of the Arabs. This great revolution, whose fatal influence was soon experienced by the Romans, happened in the fourth year of Alexander Severus, two hundred and twenty-six years after the Christian era. 2 201
1 (return)
[ An ancient chronologist, quoted by Valleius Paterculus, (l.
i. c. 6,) observes, that the Assyrians, the Medes, the Persians, and the
Macedonians, reigned over Asia one thousand nine hundred and ninety-five
years, from the accession of Ninus to the defeat of Antiochus by the
Romans. As the latter of these great events happened 289 years before
Christ, the former may be placed 2184 years before the same aera. The
Astronomical Observations, found at Babylon, by Alexander, went fifty
years higher.]
1001 (return)
[ The Parthians were a tribe of the Indo-Germanic branch
which dwelt on the south-east of the Caspian, and belonged to the same
race as the Getae, the Massagetae, and other nations, confounded by the
ancients under the vague denomination of Scythians. Klaproth, Tableaux
Hist. d l'Asie, p. 40. Strabo (p. 747) calls the Parthians Carduchi,
i.e., the inhabitants of Curdistan.—M.]
2 (return)
[ In the five hundred and thirty-eighth year of the aera
of Seleucus. See Agathias, l. ii. p. 63. This great event (such is the
carelessness of the Orientals) is placed by Eutychius as high as the
tenth year of Commodus, and by Moses of Chorene as low as the reign
of Philip. Ammianus Marcellinus has so servilely copied (xxiii. 6) his
ancient materials, which are indeed very good, that he describes the
family of the Arsacides as still seated on the Persian throne in the
middle of the fourth century.]
201 (return)
[ The Persian History, if the poetry of the Shah Nameh, the
Book of Kings, may deserve that name mentions four dynasties from the
earliest ages to the invasion of the Saracens. The Shah Nameh was
composed with the view of perpetuating the remains of the original
Persian records or traditions which had survived the Saracenic invasion.
The task was undertaken by the poet Dukiki, and afterwards, under the
patronage of Mahmood of Ghazni, completed by Ferdusi. The first of these
dynasties is that of Kaiomors, as Sir W. Jones observes, the dark and
fabulous period; the second, that of the Kaianian, the heroic and
poetical, in which the earned have discovered some curious, and imagined
some fanciful, analogies with the Jewish, the Greek, and the Roman
accounts of the eastern world. See, on the Shah Nameh, Translation by
Goerres, with Von Hammer's Review, Vienna Jahrbuch von Lit. 17, 75, 77.
Malcolm's Persia, 8vo. ed. i. 503. Macan's Preface to his Critical
Edition of the Shah Nameh. On the early Persian History, a very sensible
abstract of various opinions in Malcolm's Hist. of Persian.—M.]
Artaxerxes had served with great reputation in the armies of Artaban, the last king of the Parthians, and it appears that he was driven into exile and rebellion by royal ingratitude, the customary reward for superior merit. His birth was obscure, and the obscurity equally gave room to the aspersions of his enemies, and the flattery of his adherents. If we credit the scandal of the former, Artaxerxes sprang from the illegitimate commerce of a tanner's wife with a common soldier. 3 The latter represent him as descended from a branch of the ancient kings of Persian, though time and misfortune had gradually reduced his ancestors to the humble station of private citizens. 4 As the lineal heir of the monarchy, he asserted his right to the throne, and challenged the noble task of delivering the Persians from the oppression under which they groaned above five centuries since the death of Darius. The Parthians were defeated in three great battles. 401 In the last of these their king Artaban was slain, and the spirit of the nation was forever broken. 5 The authority of Artaxerxes was solemnly acknowledged in a great assembly held at Balch in Khorasan. 501 Two younger branches of the royal house of Arsaces were confounded among the prostrate satraps. A third, more mindful of ancient grandeur than of present necessity, attempted to retire, with a numerous train of vessels, towards their kinsman, the king of Armenia; but this little army of deserters was intercepted, and cut off, by the vigilance of the conqueror, 6 who boldly assumed the double diadem, and the title of King of Kings, which had been enjoyed by his predecessor. But these pompous titles, instead of gratifying the vanity of the Persian, served only to admonish him of his duty, and to inflame in his soul and should the ambition of restoring in their full splendor, the religion and empire of Cyrus.
3 (return)
[ The tanner's name was Babec; the soldier's, Sassan: from
the former Artaxerxes obtained the surname of Babegan, from the latter
all his descendants have been styled Sassanides.]
4 (return)
[ D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, Ardshir.]
401 (return)
[ In the plain of Hoormuz, the son of Babek was hailed in
the field with the proud title of Shahan Shah, king of kings—a name
ever since assumed by the sovereigns of Persia. Malcolm, i. 71.—M.]
5 (return)
[ Dion Cassius, l. lxxx. Herodian, l. vi. p. 207.
Abulpharagins Dynast. p. 80.]
501 (return)
[ See the Persian account of the rise of Ardeschir Babegan
in Malcolm l 69.—M.]
6 (return)
[ See Moses Chorenensis, l. ii. c. 65—71.]
I. During the long servitude of Persia under the Macedonian and the Parthian yoke, the nations of Europe and Asia had mutually adopted and corrupted each other's superstitions. The Arsacides, indeed, practised the worship of the Magi; but they disgraced and polluted it with a various mixture of foreign idolatry. 601 The memory of Zoroaster, the ancient prophet and philosopher of the Persians, 7 was still revered in the East; but the obsolete and mysterious language, in which the Zendavesta was composed, 8 opened a field of dispute to seventy sects, who variously explained the fundamental doctrines of their religion, and were all indifferently devided by a crowd of infidels, who rejected the divine mission and miracles of the prophet. To suppress the idolaters, reunite the schismatics, and confute the unbelievers, by the infallible decision of a general council, the pious Artaxerxes summoned the Magi from all parts of his dominions. These priests, who had so long sighed in contempt and obscurity obeyed the welcome summons; and, on the appointed day, appeared, to the number of about eighty thousand. But as the debates of so tumultuous an assembly could not have been directed by the authority of reason, or influenced by the art of policy, the Persian synod was reduced, by successive operations, to forty thousand, to four thousand, to four hundred, to forty, and at last to seven Magi, the most respected for their learning and piety. One of these, Erdaviraph, a young but holy prelate, received from the hands of his brethren three cups of soporiferous wine. He drank them off, and instantly fell into a long and profound sleep. As soon as he waked, he related to the king and to the believing multitude, his journey to heaven, and his intimate conferences with the Deity. Every doubt was silenced by this supernatural evidence; and the articles of the faith of Zoroaster were fixed with equal authority and precision. 9 A short delineation of that celebrated system will be found useful, not only to display the character of the Persian nation, but to illustrate many of their most important transactions, both in peace and war, with the Roman empire. 10
601 (return)
[ Silvestre de Sacy (Antiquites de la Perse) had proved
the neglect of the Zoroastrian religion under the Parthian kings.—M.]
7 (return)
[ Hyde and Prideaux, working up the Persian legends and their
own conjectures into a very agreeable story, represent Zoroaster as a
contemporary of Darius Hystaspes. But it is sufficient to observe, that
the Greek writers, who lived almost in the age of Darius, agree in
placing the aera of Zoroaster many hundred, or even thousand, years
before their own time. The judicious criticisms of Mr. Moyle perceived,
and maintained against his uncle, Dr. Prideaux, the antiquity of the
Persian prophet. See his work, vol. ii. * Note: There are three leading
theories concerning the age of Zoroaster: 1. That which assigns him to
an age of great and almost indefinite antiquity—it is that of Moyle,
adopted by Gibbon, Volney, Recherches sur l'Histoire, ii. 2. Rhode,
also, (die Heilige Sage, &c.,) in a very ingenious and ably-developed
theory, throws the Bactrian prophet far back into antiquity 2. Foucher,
(Mem. de l'Acad. xxvii. 253,) Tychsen, (in Com. Soc. Gott. ii. 112),
Heeren, (ldeen. i. 459,) and recently Holty, identify the Gushtasp of
the Persian mythological history with Cyaxares the First, the king of
the Medes, and consider the religion to be Median in its origin. M.
Guizot considers this opinion most probable, note in loc. 3. Hyde,
Prideaux, Anquetil du Perron, Kleuker, Herder, Goerres,
(Mythen-Geschichte,) Von Hammer. (Wien. Jahrbuch, vol. ix.,) Malcolm,
(i. 528,) De Guigniaut, (Relig. de l'Antiq. 2d part, vol. iii.,)
Klaproth, (Tableaux de l'Asie, p. 21,) make Gushtasp Darius Hystaspes,
and Zoroaster his contemporary. The silence of Herodotus appears the
great objection to this theory. Some writers, as M. Foucher (resting, as
M. Guizot observes, on the doubtful authority of Pliny,) make more than
one Zoroaster, and so attempt to reconcile the conflicting theories.—
M.]
8 (return)
[ That ancient idiom was called the Zend. The language of the
commentary, the Pehlvi, though much more modern, has ceased many ages
ago to be a living tongue. This fact alone (if it is allowed as
authentic) sufficiently warrants the antiquity of those writings which M
d'Anquetil has brought into Europe, and translated into French. * Note:
Zend signifies life, living. The word means, either the collection of
the canonical books of the followers of Zoroaster, or the language
itself in which they are written. They are the books that contain the
word of life whether the language was originally called Zend, or whether
it was so called from the contents of the books. Avesta means word,
oracle, revelation: this term is not the title of a particular work, but
of the collection of the books of Zoroaster, as the revelation of
Ormuzd. This collection is sometimes called Zendavesta, sometimes
briefly Zend. The Zend was the ancient language of Media, as is proved
by its affinity with the dialects of Armenia and Georgia; it was already
a dead language under the Arsacides in the country which was the scene
of the events recorded in the Zendavesta. Some critics, among others
Richardson and Sir W. Jones, have called in question the antiquity of
these books. The former pretended that Zend had never been a written or
spoken language, but had been invented in the later times by the Magi,
for the purposes of their art; but Kleuker, in the dissertations which
he added to those of Anquetil and the Abbe Foucher, has proved that the
Zend was a living and spoken language.—G. Sir W. Jones appears to have
abandoned his doubts, on discovering the affinity between the Zend and
the Sanskrit. Since the time of Kleuker, this question has been
investigated by many learned scholars. Sir W. Jones, Leyden, (Asiat.
Research. x. 283,) and Mr. Erskine, (Bombay Trans. ii. 299,) consider it
a derivative from the Sanskrit. The antiquity of the Zendavesta has
likewise been asserted by Rask, the great Danish linguist, who,
according to Malcolm, brought back from the East fresh transcripts and
additions to those published by Anquetil. According to Rask, the Zend
and Sanskrit are sister dialects; the one the parent of the Persian, the
other of the Indian family of languages.—G. and M.——But the subject
is more satisfactorily illustrated in Bopp's comparative Grammar of the
Sanscrit, Zend, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Gothic, and German languages.
Berlin. 1833-5. According to Bopp, the Zend is, in some respects, of a
more remarkable structure than the Sanskrit. Parts of the Zendavesta
have been published in the original, by M. Bournouf, at Paris, and M.
Ol. shausen, in Hamburg.—M.——The Pehlvi was the language of the
countries bordering on Assyria, and probably of Assyria itself. Pehlvi
signifies valor, heroism; the Pehlvi, therefore, was the language of the
ancient heroes and kings of Persia, the valiant. (Mr. Erskine prefers
the derivation from Pehla, a border.—M.) It contains a number of
Aramaic roots. Anquetil considered it formed from the Zend. Kleuker does
not adopt this opinion. The Pehlvi, he says, is much more flowing, and
less overcharged with vowels, than the Zend. The books of Zoroaster,
first written in Zend, were afterwards translated into Pehlvi and Parsi.
The Pehlvi had fallen into disuse under the dynasty of the Sassanides,
but the learned still wrote it. The Parsi, the dialect of Pars or
Farristan, was then prevailing dialect. Kleuker, Anhang zum Zend Avesta,
2, ii. part i. p. 158, part ii. 31.—G.——Mr. Erskine (Bombay
Transactions) considers the existing Zendavesta to have been compiled in
the time of Ardeschir Babegan.—M.]
9 (return)
[ Hyde de Religione veterum Pers. c. 21.]
10 (return)
[ I have principally drawn this account from the Zendavesta
of M. d'Anquetil, and the Sadder, subjoined to Dr. Hyde's treatise. It
must, however, be confessed, that the studied obscurity of a prophet,
the figurative style of the East, and the deceitful medium of a French
or Latin version may have betrayed us into error and heresy, in this
abridgment of Persian theology. * Note: It is to be regretted that
Gibbon followed the post-Mahometan Sadder of Hyde.—M.]
The great and fundamental article of the system, was the celebrated doctrine of the two principles; a bold and injudicious attempt of Eastern philosophy to reconcile the existence of moral and physical evil with the attributes of a beneficent Creator and Governor of the world. The first and original Being, in whom, or by whom, the universe exists, is denominated in the writings of Zoroaster, Time without bounds; 1001a but it must be confessed, that this infinite substance seems rather a metaphysical, abstraction of the mind, than a real object endowed with self-consciousness, or possessed of moral perfections. From either the blind or the intelligent operation of this infinite Time, which bears but too near an affinity with the chaos of the Greeks, the two secondary but active principles of the universe, were from all eternity produced, Ormusd and Ahriman, each of them possessed of the powers of creation, but each disposed, by his invariable nature, to exercise them with different designs. 1002 The principle of good is eternally aborbed in light; the principle of evil eternally buried in darkness. The wise benevolence of Ormusd formed man capable of virtue, and abundantly provided his fair habitation with the materials of happiness. By his vigilant providence, the motion of the planets, the order of the seasons, and the temperate mixture of the elements, are preserved. But the malice of Ahriman has long since pierced Ormusd's egg; or, in other words, has violated the harmony of his works. Since that fatal eruption, the most minute articles of good and evil are intimately intermingled and agitated together; the rankest poisons spring up amidst the most salutary plants; deluges, earthquakes, and conflagrations attest the conflict of Nature, and the little world of man is perpetually shaken by vice and misfortune. Whilst the rest of human kind are led away captives in the chains of their infernal enemy, the faithful Persian alone reserves his religious adoration for his friend and protector Ormusd, and fights under his banner of light, in the full confidence that he shall, in the last day, share the glory of his triumph. At that decisive period, the enlightened wisdom of goodness will render the power of Ormusd superior to the furious malice of his rival. Ahriman and his followers, disarmed and subdued, will sink into their native darkness; and virtue will maintain the eternal peace and harmony of the universe. 11 1101
1001a (return)
[ Zeruane Akerene, so translated by Anquetil and Kleuker.
There is a dissertation of Foucher on this subject, Mem. de l'Acad. des
Inscr. t. xxix. According to Bohlen (das alte Indien) it is the Sanskrit
Sarvan Akaranam, the Uncreated Whole; or, according to Fred. Schlegel,
Sarvan Akharyam the Uncreate Indivisible.—M.]
1002 (return)
[ This is an error. Ahriman was not forced by his invariable
nature to do evil; the Zendavesta expressly recognizes (see the
Izeschne) that he was born good, that in his origin he was light; envy
rendered him evil; he became jealous of the power and attributes
of Ormuzd; then light was changed into darkness, and Ahriman was
precipitated into the abyss. See the Abridgment of the Doctrine of the
Ancient Persians, by Anquetil, c. ii Section 2.—G.]
11 (return)
[ The modern Parsees (and in some degree the Sadder) exalt
Ormusd into the first and omnipotent cause, whilst they degrade Ahriman
into an inferior but rebellious spirit. Their desire of pleasing the
Mahometans may have contributed to refine their theological systems.]
1101 (return)
[ According to the Zendavesta, Ahriman will not be
annihilated or precipitated forever into darkness: at the resurrection
of the dead he will be entirely defeated by Ormuzd, his power will be
destroyed, his kingdom overthrown to its foundations, he will himself be
purified in torrents of melting metal; he will change his heart and his
will, become holy, heavenly establish in his dominions the law and word
of Ormuzd, unite himself with him in everlasting friendship, and
both will sing hymns in honor of the Great Eternal. See Anquetil's
Abridgment. Kleuker, Anhang part iii. p 85, 36; and the Izeschne, one of
the books of the Zendavesta. According to the Sadder Bun-Dehesch, a more
modern work, Ahriman is to be annihilated: but this is contrary to the
text itself of the Zendavesta, and to the idea its author gives of the
kingdom of Eternity, after the twelve thousand years assigned to the
contest between Good and Evil.—G.]
The theology of Zoroaster was darkly comprehended by foreigners, and even by the far greater number of his disciples; but the most careless observers were struck with the philosophic simplicity of the Persian worship. "That people," said Herodotus, 12 "rejects the use of temples, of altars, and of statues, and smiles at the folly of those nations who imagine that the gods are sprung from, or bear any affinity with, the human nature. The tops of the highest mountains are the places chosen for sacrifices. Hymns and prayers are the principal worship; the Supreme God, who fills the wide circle of heaven, is the object to whom they are addressed." Yet, at the same time, in the true spirit of a polytheist, he accuseth them of adoring Earth, Water, Fire, the Winds, and the Sun and Moon. But the Persians of every age have denied the charge, and explained the equivocal conduct, which might appear to give a color to it. The elements, and more particularly Fire, Light, and the Sun, whom they called Mithra, 1201 were the objects of their religious reverence, because they considered them as the purest symbols, the noblest productions, and the most powerful agents of the Divine Power and Nature. 13
12 (return)
[ Herodotus, l. i. c. 131. But Dr. Prideaux
thinks, with reason, that the use of temples was afterwards permitted
in the Magian religion. Note: The Pyraea, or fire temples of the
Zoroastrians, (observes Kleuker, Persica, p. 16,) were only to be
found in Media or Aderbidjan, provinces into which Herodotus did not
penetrate.—M.]
1201 (return)
[ Among the Persians Mithra is not the Sun: Anquetil has
contested and triumphantly refuted the opinion of those who confound
them, and it is evidently contrary to the text of the Zendavesta. Mithra
is the first of the genii, or jzeds, created by Ormuzd; it is he who
watches over all nature. Hence arose the misapprehension of some of the
Greeks, who have said that Mithra was the summus deus of the Persians:
he has a thousand ears and ten thousand eyes. The Chaldeans appear to
have assigned him a higher rank than the Persians. It is he who bestows
upon the earth the light of the sun. The sun. named Khor, (brightness,)
is thus an inferior genius, who, with many other genii, bears a part
in the functions of Mithra. These assistant genii to another genius are
called his kamkars; but in the Zendavesta they are never confounded. On
the days sacred to a particular genius, the Persian ought to recite, not
only the prayers addressed to him, but those also which are addressed to
his kamkars; thus the hymn or iescht of Mithra is recited on the day of
the sun, (Khor,) and vice versa. It is probably this which has sometimes
caused them to be confounded; but Anquetil had himself exposed this
error, which Kleuker, and all who have studied the Zendavesta, have
noticed. See viii. Diss. of Anquetil. Kleuker's Anhang, part iii. p.
132.—G. M. Guizot is unquestionably right, according to the pure
and original doctrine of the Zend. The Mithriac worship, which was so
extensively propagated in the West, and in which Mithra and the sun
were perpetually confounded, seems to have been formed from a fusion
of Zoroastrianism and Chaldaism, or the Syrian worship of the sun. An
excellent abstract of the question, with references to the works of
the chief modern writers on his curious subject, De Sacy, Kleuker, Von
Hammer, &c., may be found in De Guigniaut's translation of Kreuzer.
Relig. d'Antiquite, notes viii. ix. to book ii. vol. i. 2d part, page
728.—M.]
13 (return)
[ Hyde de Relig. Pers. c. 8. Notwithstanding all their
distinctions and protestations, which seem sincere enough, their
tyrants, the Mahometans, have constantly stigmatized them as idolatrous
worshippers of the fire.]
Every mode of religion, to make a deep and lasting impression on the human mind, must exercise our obedience, by enjoining practices of devotion, for which we can assign no reason; and must acquire our esteem, by inculcating moral duties analogous to the dictates of our own hearts. The religion of Zoroaster was abundantly provided with the former and possessed a sufficient portion of the latter. At the age of puberty, the faithful Persian was invested with a mysterious girdle, the badge of the divine protection; and from that moment all the actions of his life, even the most indifferent, or the most necessary, were sanctified by their peculiar prayers, ejaculations, or genuflections; the omission of which, under any circumstances, was a grievous sin, not inferior in guilt to the violation of the moral duties. The moral duties, however, of justice, mercy, liberality, &c., were in their turn required of the disciple of Zoroaster, who wished to escape the persecution of Ahriman, and to live with Ormusd in a blissful eternity, where the degree of felicity will be exactly proportioned to the degree of virtue and piety. 14
14 (return)
[ See the Sadder, the smallest part of which consists of
moral precepts. The ceremonies enjoined are infinite and trifling.
Fifteen genuflections, prayers, &c., were required whenever the devout
Persian cut his nails or made water; or as often as he put on the sacred
girdle Sadder, Art. 14, 50, 60. * Note: Zoroaster exacted much less
ceremonial observance, than at a later period, the priests of his
doctrines. This is the progress of all religions the worship, simple in
its origin, is gradually overloaded with minute superstitions. The maxim
of the Zendavesta, on the relative merit of sowing the earth and of
prayers, quoted below by Gibbon, proves that Zoroaster did not attach
too much importance to these observances. Thus it is not from the
Zendavesta that Gibbon derives the proof of his allegation, but from the
Sadder, a much later work.—G]
But there are some remarkable instances in which Zoroaster lays aside the prophet, assumes the legislator, and discovers a liberal concern for private and public happiness, seldom to be found among the grovelling or visionary schemes of superstition. Fasting and celibacy, the common means of purchasing the divine favor, he condemns with abhorrence, as a criminal rejection of the best gifts of Providence. The saint, in the Magian religion, is obliged to beget children, to plant useful trees, to destroy noxious animals, to convey water to the dry lands of Persia, and to work out his salvation by pursuing all the labors of agriculture. 1401 We may quote from the Zendavesta a wise and benevolent maxim, which compensates for many an absurdity. "He who sows the ground with care and diligence acquires a greater stock of religious merit than he could gain by the repetition of ten thousand prayers." 15 In the spring of every year a festival was celebrated, destined to represent the primitive equality, and the present connection, of mankind. The stately kings of Persia, exchanging their vain pomp for more genuine greatness, freely mingled with the humblest but most useful of their subjects. On that day the husbandmen were admitted, without distinction, to the table of the king and his satraps. The monarch accepted their petitions, inquired into their grievances, and conversed with them on the most equal terms. "From your labors," was he accustomed to say, (and to say with truth, if not with sincerity,) "from your labors we receive our subsistence; you derive your tranquillity from our vigilance: since, therefore, we are mutually necessary to each other, let us live together like brothers in concord and love." 16 Such a festival must indeed have degenerated, in a wealthy and despotic empire, into a theatrical representation; but it was at least a comedy well worthy of a royal audience, and which might sometimes imprint a salutary lesson on the mind of a young prince.
1401 (return)
[ See, on Zoroaster's encouragement of agriculture, the
ingenious remarks of Heeren, Ideen, vol. i. p. 449, &c., and Rhode,
Heilige Sage, p. 517—M.]
15 (return)
[ Zendavesta, tom. i. p. 224, and Precis du Systeme de
Zoroastre, tom. iii.]
16 (return)
[ Hyde de Religione Persarum, c. 19.]
Had Zoroaster, in all his institutions, invariably supported this exalted character, his name would deserve a place with those of Numa and Confucius, and his system would be justly entitled to all the applause, which it has pleased some of our divines, and even some of our philosophers, to bestow on it. But in that motley composition, dictated by reason and passion, by enthusiasm and by selfish motives, some useful and sublime truths were disgraced by a mixture of the most abject and dangerous superstition. The Magi, or sacerdotal order, were extremely numerous, since, as we have already seen, fourscore thousand of them were convened in a general council. Their forces were multiplied by discipline. A regular hierarchy was diffused through all the provinces of Persia; and the Archimagus, who resided at Balch, was respected as the visible head of the church, and the lawful successor of Zoroaster. 17 The property of the Magi was very considerable. Besides the less invidious possession of a large tract of the most fertile lands of Media, 18 they levied a general tax on the fortunes and the industry of the Persians. 19 "Though your good works," says the interested prophet, "exceed in number the leaves of the trees, the drops of rain, the stars in the heaven, or the sands on the sea-shore, they will all be unprofitable to you, unless they are accepted by the destour, or priest. To obtain the acceptation of this guide to salvation, you must faithfully pay him tithes of all you possess, of your goods, of your lands, and of your money. If the destour be satisfied, your soul will escape hell tortures; you will secure praise in this world and happiness in the next. For the destours are the teachers of religion; they know all things, and they deliver all men." 20 201a
17 (return)
[ Hyde de Religione Persarum, c. 28. Both Hyde and Prideaux
affect to apply to the Magian the terms consecrated to the Christian
hierarchy.]
18 (return)
[ Ammian. Marcellin. xxiii. 6. He informs us (as far as we
may credit him) of two curious particulars: 1. That the Magi derived
some of their most secret doctrines from the Indian Brachmans; and 2.
That they were a tribe, or family, as well as order.]
19 (return)
[ The divine institution of tithes exhibits a singular
instance of conformity between the law of Zoroaster and that of Moses.
Those who cannot otherwise account for it, may suppose, if they please
that the Magi of the latter times inserted so useful an interpolation
into the writings of their prophet.]
20 (return)
[ Sadder, Art. viii.]
201a (return)
[ The passage quoted by Gibbon is not taken from the writings
of Zoroaster, but from the Sadder, a work, as has been before said, much
later than the books which form the Zendavesta. and written by a Magus
for popular use; what it contains, therefore, cannot be attributed to
Zoroaster. It is remarkable that Gibbon should fall into this error, for
Hyde himself does not ascribe the Sadder to Zoroaster; he remarks that
it is written inverse, while Zoroaster always wrote in prose. Hyde, i.
p. 27. Whatever may be the case as to the latter assertion, for which
there appears little foundation, it is unquestionable that the Sadder is
of much later date. The Abbe Foucher does not even believe it to be an
extract from the works of Zoroaster. See his Diss. before quoted. Mem.
de l'Acad. des Ins. t. xxvii.—G. Perhaps it is rash to speak of any
part of the Zendavesta as the writing of Zoroaster, though it may be
a genuine representation of his. As to the Sadder, Hyde (in Praef.)
considered it not above 200 years old. It is manifestly post-Mahometan.
See Art. xxv. on fasting.—M.]
These convenient maxims of reverence and implicit were doubtless imprinted with care on the tender minds of youth; since the Magi were the masters of education in Persia, and to their hands the children even of the royal family were intrusted. 21 The Persian priests, who were of a speculative genius, preserved and investigated the secrets of Oriental philosophy; and acquired, either by superior knowledge, or superior art, the reputation of being well versed in some occult sciences, which have derived their appellation from the Magi. 22 Those of more active dispositions mixed with the world in courts and cities; and it is observed, that the administration of Artaxerxes was in a great measure directed by the counsels of the sacerdotal order, whose dignity, either from policy or devotion, that prince restored to its ancient splendor. 23
21 (return)
[ Plato in Alcibiad.]
22 (return)
[ Pliny (Hist. Natur. l. xxx. c. 1) observes, that magic
held mankind by the triple chain of religion, of physic, and of
astronomy.]
23 (return)
[ Agathias, l. iv. p. 134.]
The first counsel of the Magi was agreeable to the unsociable genius of their faith, 24 to the practice of ancient kings, 25 and even to the example of their legislator, who had a victim to a religious war, excited by his own intolerant zeal. 26 By an edict of Artaxerxes, the exercise of every worship, except that of Zoroaster, was severely prohibited. The temples of the Parthians, and the statues of their deified monarchs, were thrown down with ignominy. 27 The sword of Aristotle (such was the name given by the Orientals to the polytheism and philosophy of the Greeks) was easily broken; 28 the flames of persecution soon reached the more stubborn Jews and Christians; 29 nor did they spare the heretics of their own nation and religion. The majesty of Ormusd, who was jealous of a rival, was seconded by the despotism of Artaxerxes, who could not suffer a rebel; and the schismatics within his vast empire were soon reduced to the inconsiderable number of eighty thousand. 30 301 This spirit of persecution reflects dishonor on the religion of Zoroaster; but as it was not productive of any civil commotion, it served to strengthen the new monarchy, by uniting all the various inhabitants of Persia in the bands of religious zeal. 302
24 (return)
[ Mr. Hume, in the Natural History of Religion, sagaciously
remarks, that the most refined and philosophic sects are constantly the
most intolerant. * Note: Hume's comparison is rather between theism and polytheism. In
India, in Greece, and in modern Europe, philosophic religion has
looked down with contemptuous toleration on the superstitions of the
vulgar.—M.]
25 (return)
[ Cicero de Legibus, ii. 10. Xerxes, by the advice of the
Magi, destroyed the temples of Greece.]
26 (return)
[ Hyde de Relig. Persar. c. 23, 24. D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque
Orientale, Zurdusht. Life of Zoroaster in tom. ii. of the Zendavesta.]
27 (return)
[ Compare Moses of Chorene, l. ii. c. 74, with Ammian.
Marcel lin. xxiii. 6. Hereafter I shall make use of these passages.]
28 (return)
[ Rabbi Abraham, in the Tarikh Schickard, p. 108, 109.]
29 (return)
[ Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, l. viii. c. 3. Sozomen, l.
ii. c. 1 Manes, who suffered an ignominious death, may be deemed a
Magian as well as a Christian heretic.]
30 (return)
[ Hyde de Religione Persar. c. 21.]
301 (return)
[ It is incorrect to attribute these persecutions to
Artaxerxes. The Jews were held in honor by him, and their schools
flourished during his reign. Compare Jost, Geschichte der Israeliter, b.
xv. 5, with Basnage. Sapor was forced by the people to temporary
severities; but their real persecution did not begin till the reigns of
Yezdigerd and Kobad. Hist. of Jews, iii. 236. According to Sozomen, i.
viii., Sapor first persecuted the Christians. Manes was put to death by
Varanes the First, A. D. 277. Beausobre, Hist. de Man. i. 209.—M.]
302 (return)
[ In the testament of Ardischer in Ferdusi, the poet assigns
these sentiments to the dying king, as he addresses his son: Never
forget that as a king, you are at once the protector of religion and
of your country. Consider the altar and the throne as inseparable; they
must always sustain each other. Malcolm's Persia. i. 74—M]
II. Artaxerxes, by his valor and conduct, had wrested the sceptre of the East from the ancient royal family of Parthia. There still remained the more difficult task of establishing, throughout the vast extent of Persia, a uniform and vigorous administration. The weak indulgence of the Arsacides had resigned to their sons and brothers the principal provinces, and the greatest offices of the kingdom in the nature of hereditary possessions. The vitaxoe, or eighteen most powerful satraps, were permitted to assume the regal title; and the vain pride of the monarch was delighted with a nominal dominion over so many vassal kings. Even tribes of barbarians in their mountains, and the Greek cities of Upper Asia, 31 within their walls, scarcely acknowledged, or seldom obeyed. any superior; and the Parthian empire exhibited, under other names, a lively image of the feudal system 32 which has since prevailed in Europe. But the active victor, at the head of a numerous and disciplined army, visited in person every province of Persia. The defeat of the boldest rebels, and the reduction of the strongest fortifications, 33 diffused the terror of his arms, and prepared the way for the peaceful reception of his authority. An obstinate resistance was fatal to the chiefs; but their followers were treated with lenity. 34 A cheerful submission was rewarded with honors and riches, but the prudent Artaxerxes suffering no person except himself to assume the title of king, abolished every intermediate power between the throne and the people. His kingdom, nearly equal in extent to modern Persia, was, on every side, bounded by the sea, or by great rivers; by the Euphrates, the Tigris, the Araxes, the Oxus, and the Indus, by the Caspian Sea, and the Gulf of Persia. 35 That country was computed to contain, in the last century, five hundred and fifty-four cities, sixty thousand villages, and about forty millions of souls. 36 If we compare the administration of the house of Sassan with that of the house of Sefi, the political influence of the Magian with that of the Mahometan religion, we shall probably infer, that the kingdom of Artaxerxes contained at least as great a number of cities, villages, and inhabitants. But it must likewise be confessed, that in every age the want of harbors on the sea-coast, and the scarcity of fresh water in the inland provinces, have been very unfavorable to the commerce and agriculture of the Persians; who, in the calculation of their numbers, seem to have indulged one of the nearest, though most common, artifices of national vanity.
31 (return)
[ These colonies were extremely numerous. Seleucus Nicator
founded thirty-nine cities, all named from himself, or some of his
relations, (see Appian in Syriac. p. 124.) The aera of Seleucus (still
in use among the eastern Christians) appears as late as the year 508,
of Christ 196, on the medals of the Greek cities within the Parthian
empire. See Moyle's works, vol. i. p. 273, &c., and M. Freret, Mem. de
l'Academie, tom. xix.]
32 (return)
[ The modern Persians distinguish that period as the dynasty
of the kings of the nations. See Plin. Hist. Nat. vi. 25.]
33 (return)
[ Eutychius (tom. i. p. 367, 371, 375) relates the siege of
the island of Mesene in the Tigris, with some circumstances not unlike
the story of Nysus and Scylla.]
34 (return)
[ Agathias, ii. 64, [and iv. p. 260.] The princes of
Segestan de fended their independence during many years. As romances
generally transport to an ancient period the events of their own time,
it is not impossible that the fabulous exploits of Rustan, Prince of
Segestan, many have been grafted on this real history.]
35 (return)
[ We can scarcely attribute to the Persian monarchy the
sea-coast of Gedrosia or Macran, which extends along the Indian Ocean
from Cape Jask (the promontory Capella) to Cape Goadel. In the time of
Alexander, and probably many ages afterwards, it was thinly inhabited
by a savage people of Icthyophagi, or Fishermen, who knew no arts, who
acknowledged no master, and who were divided by in-hospitable deserts
from the rest of the world. (See Arrian de Reb. Indicis.) In the twelfth
century, the little town of Taiz (supposed by M. d'Anville to be the
Teza of Ptolemy) was peopled and enriched by the resort of the Arabian
merchants. (See Geographia Nubiens, p. 58, and d'Anville, Geographie
Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 283.) In the last age, the whole country was
divided between three princes, one Mahometan and two Idolaters, who
maintained their independence against the successors of Shah Abbas.
(Voyages de Tavernier, part i. l. v. p. 635.)]
36 (return)
[ Chardin, tom. iii c 1 2, 3.]
As soon as the ambitious mind of Artaxerxes had triumphed ever the resistance of his vassals, he began to threaten the neighboring states, who, during the long slumber of his predecessors, had insulted Persia with impunity. He obtained some easy victories over the wild Scythians and the effeminate Indians; but the Romans were an enemy, who, by their past injuries and present power, deserved the utmost efforts of his arms. A forty years' tranquillity, the fruit of valor and moderation, had succeeded the victories of Trajan. During the period that elapsed from the accession of Marcus to the reign of Alexander, the Roman and the Parthian empires were twice engaged in war; and although the whole strength of the Arsacides contended with a part only of the forces of Rome, the event was most commonly in favor of the latter. Macrinus, indeed, prompted by his precarious situation and pusillanimous temper, purchased a peace at the expense of near two millions of our money; 37 but the generals of Marcus, the emperor Severus, and his son, erected many trophies in Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Assyria. Among their exploits, the imperfect relation of which would have unseasonably interrupted the more important series of domestic revolutions, we shall only mention the repeated calamities of the two great cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon.
37 (return)
[ Dion, l. xxviii. p. 1335.]
Seleucia, on the western bank of the Tigris, about forty-five miles to the north of ancient Babylon, was the capital of the Macedonian conquests in Upper Asia. 38 Many ages after the fall of their empire, Seleucia retained the genuine characters of a Grecian colony, arts, military virtue, and the love of freedom. The independent republic was governed by a senate of three hundred nobles; the people consisted of six hundred thousand citizens; the walls were strong, and as long as concord prevailed among the several orders of the state, they viewed with contempt the power of the Parthian: but the madness of faction was sometimes provoked to implore the dangerous aid of the common enemy, who was posted almost at the gates of the colony. 39 The Parthian monarchs, like the Mogul sovereigns of Hindostan, delighted in the pastoral life of their Scythian ancestors; and the Imperial camp was frequently pitched in the plain of Ctesiphon, on the eastern bank of the Tigris, at the distance of only three miles from Seleucia. 40 The innumerable attendants on luxury and despotism resorted to the court, and the little village of Ctesiphon insensibly swelled into a great city. 41 Under the reign of Marcus, the Roman generals penetrated as far as Ctesiphon and Seleucia. They were received as friends by the Greek colony; they attacked as enemies the seat of the Parthian kings; yet both cities experienced the same treatment. The sack and conflagration of Seleucia, with the massacre of three hundred thousand of the inhabitants, tarnished the glory of the Roman triumph. 42 Seleucia, already exhausted by the neighborhood of a too powerful rival, sunk under the fatal blow; but Ctesiphon, in about thirty-three years, had sufficiently recovered its strength to maintain an obstinate siege against the emperor Severus. The city was, however, taken by assault; the king, who defended it in person, escaped with precipitation; a hundred thousand captives, and a rich booty, rewarded the fatigues of the Roman soldiers. 43 Notwithstanding these misfortunes, Ctesiphon succeeded to Babylon and to Seleucia, as one of the great capitals of the East. In summer, the monarch of Persia enjoyed at Ecbatana the cool breezes of the mountains of Media; but the mildness of the climate engaged him to prefer Ctesiphon for his winter residence.
38 (return)
[ For the precise situation of Babylon, Seleucia, Ctesiphon,
Moiain, and Bagdad, cities often confounded with each other, see an
excellent Geographical Tract of M. d'Anville, in Mem. de l'Academie,
tom. xxx.]
39 (return)
[ Tacit. Annal. xi. 42. Plin. Hist. Nat. vi.
26.]
40 (return)
[ This may be inferred from Strabo, l. xvi. p. 743.]
41 (return)
[ That most curious traveller, Bernier, who followed the
camp of Aurengzebe from Delhi to Cashmir, describes with great accuracy
the immense moving city. The guard of cavalry consisted of 35,000 men,
that of infantry of 10,000. It was computed that the camp contained
150,000 horses, mules, and elephants; 50,000 camels, 50,000 oxen, and
between 300,000 and 400,000 persons. Almost all Delhi followed the
court, whose magnificence supported its industry.]
42 (return)
[ Dion, l. lxxi. p. 1178. Hist. August. p. 38. Eutrop.
viii. 10 Euseb. in Chronic. Quadratus (quoted in the Augustan History)
attempted to vindicate the Romans by alleging that the citizens of
Seleucia had first violated their faith.]
43 (return)
[ Dion, l. lxxv. p. 1263. Herodian, l. iii. p. 120. Hist.
August. p. 70.]
From these successful inroads the Romans derived no real or lasting benefit; nor did they attempt to preserve such distant conquests, separated from the provinces of the empire by a large tract of intermediate desert. The reduction of the kingdom of Osrhoene was an acquisition of less splendor indeed, but of a far more solid advantage. That little state occupied the northern and most fertile part of Mesopotamia, between the Euphrates and the Tigris. Edessa, its capital, was situated about twenty miles beyond the former of those rivers; and the inhabitants, since the time of Alexander, were a mixed race of Greeks, Arabs, Syrians, and Armenians. 44 The feeble sovereigns of Osrhoene, placed on the dangerous verge of two contending empires, were attached from inclination to the Parthian cause; but the superior power of Rome exacted from them a reluctant homage, which is still attested by their medals. After the conclusion of the Parthian war under Marcus, it was judged prudent to secure some substantia, pledges of their doubtful fidelity. Forts were constructed in several parts of the country, and a Roman garrison was fixed in the strong town of Nisibis. During the troubles that followed the death of Commodus, the princes of Osrhoene attempted to shake off the yoke; but the stern policy of Severus confirmed their dependence, 45 and the perfidy of Caracalla completed the easy conquest. Abgarus, the last king of Edessa, was sent in chains to Rome, his dominions reduced into a province, and his capital dignified with the rank of colony; and thus the Romans, about ten years before the fall of the Parthian monarchy, obtained a firm and permanent establishment beyond the Euphrates. 46
44 (return)
[ The polished citizens of Antioch called those of Edessa
mixed barbarians. It was, however, some praise, that of the three
dialects of the Syriac, the purest and most elegant (the Aramaean) was
spoken at Edessa. This remark M. Bayer (Hist. Edess. p 5) has borrowed
from George of Malatia, a Syrian writer.]
45 (return)
[ Dion, l. lxxv. p. 1248, 1249, 1250. M. Bayer has neglected
to use this most important passage.]
46 (return)
[ This kingdom, from Osrhoes, who gave a new name to the
country, to the last Abgarus, had lasted 353 years. See the learned work
of M. Bayer, Historia Osrhoena et Edessena.]
Prudence as well as glory might have justified a war on the side of Artaxerxes, had his views been confined to the defence or acquisition of a useful frontier. but the ambitious Persian openly avowed a far more extensive design of conquest; and he thought himself able to support his lofty pretensions by the arms of reason as well as by those of power. Cyrus, he alleged, had first subdued, and his successors had for a long time possessed, the whole extent of Asia, as far as the Propontis and the Aegean Sea; the provinces of Caria and Ionia, under their empire, had been governed by Persian satraps, and all Egypt, to the confines of Aethiopia, had acknowledged their sovereignty. 47 Their rights had been suspended, but not destroyed, by a long usurpation; and as soon as he received the Persian diadem, which birth and successful valor had placed upon his head, the first great duty of his station called upon him to restore the ancient limits and splendor of the monarchy. The Great King, therefore, (such was the haughty style of his embassies to the emperor Alexander,) commanded the Romans instantly to depart from all the provinces of his ancestors, and, yielding to the Persians the empire of Asia, to content themselves with the undisturbed possession of Europe. This haughty mandate was delivered by four hundred of the tallest and most beautiful of the Persians; who, by their fine horses, splendid arms, and rich apparel, displayed the pride and greatness of their master. 48 Such an embassy was much less an offer of negotiation than a declaration of war. Both Alexander Severus and Artaxerxes, collecting the military force of the Roman and Persian monarchies, resolved in this important contest to lead their armies in person.
47 (return)
[ Xenophon, in the preface to the Cyropaedia, gives a clear
and magnificent idea of the extent of the empire of Cyrus. Herodotus (l.
iii. c. 79, &c.) enters into a curious and particular description of
the twenty great Satrapies into which the Persian empire was divided by
Darius Hystaspes.]
48 (return)
[ Herodian, vi. 209, 212.]
If we credit what should seem the most authentic of all records, an oration, still extant, and delivered by the emperor himself to the senate, we must allow that the victory of Alexander Severus was not inferior to any of those formerly obtained over the Persians by the son of Philip. The army of the Great King consisted of one hundred and twenty thousand horse, clothed in complete armor of steel; of seven hundred elephants, with towers filled with archers on their backs, and of eighteen hundred chariots armed with scythes. This formidable host, the like of which is not to be found in eastern history, and has scarcely been imagined in eastern romance, 49 was discomfited in a great battle, in which the Roman Alexander proved himself an intrepid soldier and a skilful general. The Great King fled before his valor; an immense booty, and the conquest of Mesopotamia, were the immediate fruits of this signal victory. Such are the circumstances of this ostentatious and improbable relation, dictated, as it too plainly appears, by the vanity of the monarch, adorned by the unblushing servility of his flatterers, and received without contradiction by a distant and obsequious senate. 50 Far from being inclined to believe that the arms of Alexander obtained any memorable advantage over the Persians, we are induced to suspect that all this blaze of imaginary glory was designed to conceal some real disgrace.
49 (return)
[ There were two hundred scythed chariots at the battle of
Arbela, in the host of Darius. In the vast army of Tigranes, which was
vanquished by Lucullus, seventeen thousand horse only were completely
armed. Antiochus brought fifty-four elephants into the field against the
Romans: by his frequent wars and negotiations with the princes of India,
he had once collected a hundred and fifty of those great animals; but
it may be questioned whether the most powerful monarch of Hindostan evci
formed a line of battle of seven hundred elephants. Instead of three or
four thousand elephants, which the Great Mogul was supposed to possess,
Tavernier (Voyages, part ii. l. i. p. 198) discovered, by a more
accurate inquiry, that he had only five hundred for his baggage, and
eighty or ninety for the service of war. The Greeks have varied with
regard to the number which Porus brought into the field; but Quintus
Curtius, (viii. 13,) in this instance judicious and moderate, is
contented with eighty-five elephants, distinguished by their size and
strength. In Siam, where these animals are the most numerous and the
most esteemed, eighteen elephants are allowed as a sufficient proportion
for each of the nine brigades into which a just army is divided. The
whole number, of one hundred and sixty-two elephants of war, may
sometimes be doubled. Hist. des Voyages, tom. ix. p. 260. * Note:
Compare Gibbon's note 10 to ch. lvii—M.]
50 (return)
[ Hist. August. p. 133. * Note: See M. Guizot's note, p.
267. According to the Persian authorities Ardeschir extended his
conquests to the Euphrates. Malcolm i. 71.—M.]
Our suspicious are confirmed by the authority of a contemporary historian, who mentions the virtues of Alexander with respect, and his faults with candor. He describes the judicious plan which had been formed for the conduct of the war. Three Roman armies were destined to invade Persia at the same time, and by different roads. But the operations of the campaign, though wisely concerted, were not executed either with ability or success. The first of these armies, as soon as it had entered the marshy plains of Babylon, towards the artificial conflux of the Euphrates and the Tigris, 51 was encompassed by the superior numbers, and destroyed by the arrows of the enemy. The alliance of Chosroes, king of Armenia, 52 and the long tract of mountainous country, in which the Persian cavalry was of little service, opened a secure entrance into the heart of Media, to the second of the Roman armies. These brave troops laid waste the adjacent provinces, and by several successful actions against Artaxerxes, gave a faint color to the emperor's vanity. But the retreat of this victorious army was imprudent, or at least unfortunate. In repassing the mountains, great numbers of soldiers perished by the badness of the roads, and the severity of the winter season. It had been resolved, that whilst these two great detachments penetrated into the opposite extremes of the Persian dominions, the main body, under the command of Alexander himself, should support their attack, by invading the centre of the kingdom. But the unexperienced youth, influenced by his mother's counsels, and perhaps by his own fears, deserted the bravest troops, and the fairest prospect of victory; and after consuming in Mesopotamia an inactive and inglorious summer, he led back to Antioch an army diminished by sickness, and provoked by disappointment. The behavior of Artaxerxes had been very different. Flying with rapidity from the hills of Media to the marshes of the Euphrates, he had everywhere opposed the invaders in person; and in either fortune had united with the ablest conduct the most undaunted resolution. But in several obstinate engagements against the veteran legions of Rome, the Persian monarch had lost the flower of his troops. Even his victories had weakened his power. The favorable opportunities of the absence of Alexander, and of the confusions that followed that emperor's death, presented themselves in vain to his ambition. Instead of expelling the Romans, as he pretended, from the continent of Asia, he found himself unable to wrest from their hands the little province of Mesopotamia. 53
51 (return)
[ M. de Tillemont has already observed, that Herodian's
geography is somewhat confused.]
52 (return)
[ Moses of Chorene (Hist. Armen. l. ii. c. 71) illustrates
this invasion of Media, by asserting that Chosroes, king of Armenia,
defeated Artaxerxes, and pursued him to the confines of India. The
exploits of Chosroes have been magnified; and he acted as a dependent
ally to the Romans.]
53 (return)
[ For the account of this war, see Herodian, l. vi. p. 209,
212. The old abbreviators and modern compilers have blindly followed the
Augustan History.]
The reign of Artaxerxes, which, from the last defeat of the Parthians, lasted only fourteen years, forms a memorable aera in the history of the East, and even in that of Rome. His character seems to have been marked by those bold and commanding features, that generally distinguish the princes who conquer, from those who inherit an empire. Till the last period of the Persian monarchy, his code of laws was respected as the groundwork of their civil and religious policy. 54 Several of his sayings are preserved. One of them in particular discovers a deep insight into the constitution of government. "The authority of the prince," said Artaxerxes, "must be defended by a military force; that force can only be maintained by taxes; all taxes must, at last, fall upon agriculture; and agriculture can never flourish except under the protection of justice and moderation." 55 Artaxerxes bequeathed his new empire, and his ambitious designs against the Romans, to Sapor, a son not unworthy of his great father; but those designs were too extensive for the power of Persia, and served only to involve both nations in a long series of destructive wars and reciprocal calamities.
54 (return)
[Eutychius, tom. ii. p. 180, vers. Pocock. The great Chosroes Noushirwan
sent the code of Artaxerxes to all his satraps, as the invariable rule
of their conduct.]
55 (return)
[ D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, au mot Ardshir.
We may observe, that after an ancient period of fables, and a long
interval of darkness, the modern histories of Persia begin to assume
an air of truth with the dynasty of Sassanides. Compare Malcolm, i.
79.—M.]
The Persians, long since civilized and corrupted, were very far from possessing the martial independence, and the intrepid hardiness, both of mind and body, which have rendered the northern barbarians masters of the world. The science of war, that constituted the more rational force of Greece and Rome, as it now does of Europe, never made any considerable progress in the East. Those disciplined evolutions which harmonize and animate a confused multitude, were unknown to the Persians. They were equally unskilled in the arts of constructing, besieging, or defending regular fortifications. They trusted more to their numbers than to their courage; more to their courage than to their discipline. The infantry was a half-armed, spiritless crowd of peasants, levied in haste by the allurements of plunder, and as easily dispersed by a victory as by a defeat. The monarch and his nobles transported into the camp the pride and luxury of the seraglio. Their military operations were impeded by a useless train of women, eunuchs, horses, and camels; and in the midst of a successful campaign, the Persian host was often separated or destroyed by an unexpected famine. 56
56 (return)
[ Herodian, l. vi. p. 214. Ammianus Marcellinus, l. xxiii.
c. 6. Some differences may be observed between the two historians, the
natural effects of the changes produced by a century and a half.]
But the nobles of Persia, in the bosom of luxury and despotism, preserved a strong sense of personal gallantry and national honor. From the age of seven years they were taught to speak truth, to shoot with the bow, and to ride; and it was universally confessed, that in the two last of these arts, they had made a more than common proficiency. 57 The most distinguished youth were educated under the monarch's eye, practised their exercises in the gate of his palace, and were severely trained up to the habits of temperance and obedience, in their long and laborious parties of hunting. In every province, the satrap maintained a like school of military virtue. The Persian nobles (so natural is the idea of feudal tenures) received from the king's bounty lands and houses, on the condition of their service in war. They were ready on the first summons to mount on horseback, with a martial and splendid train of followers, and to join the numerous bodies of guards, who were carefully selected from among the most robust slaves, and the bravest adventures of Asia. These armies, both of light and of heavy cavalry, equally formidable by the impetuosity of their charge and the rapidity of their motions, threatened, as an impending cloud, the eastern provinces of the declining empire of Rome. 58
57 (return)
[ The Persians are still the most skilful horsemen, and
their horses the finest in the East.]
58 (return)
[ From Herodotus, Xenophon, Herodian, Ammianus, Chardin,
&c., I have extracted such probable accounts of the Persian nobility,
as seem either common to every age, or particular to that of the
Sassanides.]